登陆注册
14466200000016

第16章 LETTING IN THE JUNGLE(2)

"I knew men would follow," said Akela triumphantly. "Not for nothing have I led the Pack."The four cubs said nothing, but ran down hill on their bellies, melting into the thorn and under-brush as a mole melts into a lawn.

"Where go ye, and without word?" Mowgli called.

"H'sh! We roll his skull here before mid-day!" Gray Brother answered.

"Back! Back and wait! Man does not eat Man!" Mowgli shrieked.

"Who was a wolf but now? Who drove the knife at me for thinking he might be Man?" said Akela, as the four wolves turned back sullenly and dropped to heel.

"Am I to give reason for all I choose to, do?" said Mowgli furiously.

"That is Man! There speaks Man!" Bagheera muttered under his whiskers. "Even so did men talk round the King's cages at Oodeypore. We of the Jungle know that Man is wisest of all.

If we trusted our ears we should know that of all things he is most foolish." Raising his voice, he added, "The Man-cub is right in this. Men hunt in packs. To kill one, unless we know what the others will do, is bad hunting. Come, let us see what this Man means toward us.""We will not come," Gray Brother growled. "Hunt alone, Little Brother. WE know our own minds. The skull would have been ready to bring by now."Mowgli had been looking from one to the other of his friends, his chest heaving and his eyes full of tears. He strode forward to the wolves, and, dropping on one knee, said: "Do I not know my mind? Look at me!"They looked uneasily, and when their eyes wandered, he called them back again and again, till their hair stood up all over their bodies, and they trembled in every limb, while Mowgli stared and stared.

"Now," said he, "of us five, which is leader?""Thou art leader, Little Brother," said Gray Brother, and he licked Mowgli's foot.

"Follow, then," said Mowgli, and the four followed at his heels with their tails between their legs.

"This comes of living with the Man-Pack," said Bagheera, slipping down after them. "There is more in the Jungle now than Jungle Law, Baloo."The old bear said nothing, but he thought many things.

Mowgli cut across noiselessly through the Jungle, at right angles to Buldeo's path, till, parting the undergrowth, he saw the old man, his musket on his shoulder, running up the trail of overnight at a dog-trot.

You will remember that Mowgli had left the village with the heavy weight of Shere Khan's raw hide on his shoulders, while Akela and Gray Brother trotted behind, so that the triple trail was very clearly marked. Presently Buldeo came to where Akela, as you know, had gone back and mixed it all up. Then he sat down, and coughed and grunted, and made little casts round and about into the Jungle to pick it up again, and, all the time he could have thrown a stone over those who were watching him.

No one can be so silent as a wolf when he does not care to be heard; and Mowgli, though the wolves thought he moved very clumsily, could come and go like a shadow. They ringed the old man as a school of porpoises ring a steamer at full speed, and as they ringed him they talked unconcernedly, for their speech began below the lowest end of the scale that untrained human beings can hear. [The other end is bounded by the high squeak of Mang, the Bat, which very many people cannot catch at all. From that note all the bird and bat and insect talk takes on.]

"This is better than any kill," said Gray Brother, as Buldeo stooped and peered and puffed. "He looks like a lost pig in the Jungles by the river. What does he say?" Buldeo was muttering savagely.

Mowgli translated. "He says that packs of wolves must have danced round me. He says that he never saw such a trail in his life. He says he is tired.""He will be rested before he picks it up again," said Bagheera coolly, as he slipped round a tree-trunk, in the game of blindman's-buff that they were playing. "NOW, what does the lean thing do?""Eat or blow smoke out of his mouth. Men always play with their mouths," said Mowgli; and the silent trailers saw the old man fill and light and puff at a water-pipe, and they took good note of the smell of the tobacco, so as to be sure of Buldeo in the darkest night, if necessary.

Then a little knot of charcoal-burners came down the path, and naturally halted to speak to Buldeo, whose fame as a hunter reached for at least twenty miles round. They all sat down and smoked, and Bagheera and the others came up and watched while Buldeo began to tell the story of Mowgli, the Devil-child, from one end to another, with additions and inventions. How he himself had really killed Shere Khan; and how Mowgli had turned himself into a wolf, and fought with him all the afternoon, and changed into a boy again and bewitched Buldeo's rifle, so that the bullet turned the corner, when he pointed it at Mowgli, and killed one of Buldeo's own buffaloes; and how the village, knowing him to be the bravest hunter in Seeonee, had sent him out to kill this Devil-child. But meantime the village had got hold of Messua and her husband, who were undoubtedly the father and mother of this Devil-child, and had barricaded them in their own hut, and presently would torture them to make them confess they were witch and wizard, and then they would be burned to death.

"When?" said the charcoal-burners, because they would very much like to be present at the ceremony.

Buldeo said that nothing would be done till he returned, because the village wished him to kill the Jungle Boy first.

After that they would dispose of Messua and her husband, and divide their lands and buffaloes among the village. Messua's husband had some remarkably fine buffaloes, too. It was an excellent thing to destroy wizards, Buldeo thought; and people who entertained Wolf-children out of the Jungle were clearly the worst kind of witches.

But, said the charcoal-burners, what would happen if the English heard of it? The English, they had heard, were a perfectly mad people, who would not let honest farmers kill witches in peace.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • tfboys之恋爱风波

    tfboys之恋爱风波

    tfboys来到了古代,来到了古代他们什么规矩也不知道,连古代的钱都没有,他们的服装也变了,不知怎么弄,头发也变长了不知咋绑,受尽委屈,在一个转角间他们遇到了他们今生最爱的人。
  • 封神之灵图大陆

    封神之灵图大陆

    姜子牙转世带你们去异界大陆领略异族风情天书打神鞭战斗去吧
  • 至高游戏

    至高游戏

    人类进化,发明了飞机,发明了电力,开拓了太阳系登上了月球。一切一切都证明,脑域开发度所产生的可怕能力。2014年的地球,出现了一种被叫做‘卐伽’的人工合成物。人体内40-60万亿个细胞单位,能够利用到的不过只有15%不到,而一旦让细胞产生‘自我永生’的感念,那么人类便是不朽的存在。吞噬‘卐伽’这种合成物,人类的身体神经元一旦进行‘完美’链接和永生,那么人类便能进入到第一阶段---控制自我!随着脑域的开发达到50%,人体细胞自我衍生进化,便会达到第二阶段---控制生命!而一旦脑域开发度抵达100%,人体细胞进化到最极点,人类就会不入第三阶段,也是被誉为神的一个阶段----操控万物!
  • 启宋

    启宋

    八百多年前,在魔族与妖族联军进攻下,帝国数百万大军一败千里,随即处于内忧外患的大周帝国再也无力支撑对整个帝国的掌控,一代帝国就此轰然倒塌。首代逐日大帝应运而生,一手创建逐日帝国,八百多年过去,曾经强盛一时的帝国也开始千仓百孔。《启宋》故事就是从逐日帝国末期开始的,且看一个少年是如何在复杂的旅程上,谈笑间,强敌灰飞烟灭;且看一名统领是如何在危急时刻,力挽狂澜,于十面埋伏中救危解难;且看一代巨擘是如何在关键时刻,挺身而出,在游戏人间中获取无上荣耀!
  • 炉石之传说之路

    炉石之传说之路

    喜欢炉石传说这款游戏,从小白到大神的传说之路
  • 守护甜心之心扉灵舞

    守护甜心之心扉灵舞

    日奈森亚梦,曾经的她是个酷毙火辣的圣夜初一学生。一位转校生的驾到,使她的生活发生了改变!朋友的背叛!家人的离去!她将发生怎样的变化?
  • 洛克新宠传说

    洛克新宠传说

    初一渣吴隐冰穿越至洛克王国,遇到了前所未有的挑战!新宠物助阵主人公,一起打遍天下!黑暗军团无限增强,自己人也被“黑”!欲知详情,请点击观看!
  • 不良少女:恋心校草

    不良少女:恋心校草

    此是作者第一作品,她,他皆为不良,又会擦出怎样的花火。她,有着大家都倾心的一面;他,有着大家都喊怕的一面。
  • 蔷薇猎血

    蔷薇猎血

    “她杀死了暴君,人们拥护她作为新的王,她便选择在自己的诞辰登基。那是盛夏的尾声。”吸血鬼与狼人的战争千载不息。但血族的帝王战败,帝国瓦解,世界一时趋于平静。而九十五年后,沉睡的王被唤醒,绯色的血统再次爆发!她提着燃烧的长枪,大地在她脚下化作焦土,道出残酷的复仇宣言:“蔷薇不谢,帝国不灭。”======电影级画面感!硬派剧情!这个盛夏你不可错过的史诗级奇幻大作!跟着遗落的种族,见证王朝的觉醒!
  • 追魔灵缘

    追魔灵缘

    浩瀚无际的宇宙,芸芸众生的世界,上天毫不吝啬地给予恩惠,亦奢侈,亦珍贵。每一个拥有生命的事物都拥有自己独特的生活,在自己的世界中前行,渴望拥有,然而并不同……尽管面对自己的克星,只要有你在,都是温暖的,我也愿意独当一面。慢慢地探索着自己生活中的不解之谜,这个世界的主角我是当定了!我是魔导士,本以为自己是会发光发亮,但面对自己努力的成果,也无动于衷,不过还是感谢所有愿意陪伴着我的人,还有魔灵......我就是我,不一样的烟火!魔灵界的动荡,就让我来瞧瞧!