k the pot
from his hand, and disappeared into the mist while the boy howled
with fear.

'They are very like me,' said Mowgli, blowing into the pot, as he had
seen the woman do. 'This thing will die if I do not give it things to
eat'; and he dropped twigs and dried bark on the red stuff. Half-way
up the hill he met Bagheera with the morning dew shining like
moonstones on his coat.

'Akela has missed,' said the Panther. 'They would have killed him
last night, but they needed thee also. They were looking for thee on
the hill.'

'I was among the ploughed lands. I am ready. See!' Mowgli held up the
fire-pot.

'Good! Now I have seen men thrust a dry branch into that stuff, and
presently the Red Flower blossomed at the end of it. Art thou not
afraid?'

'No. Why should I fear? I remember now--if it is not a dream--how,
before I was a Wolf, I lay beside the Red Flower, and it was warm and
pleasant.'

All that day Mowgli sat in the cave tending his fire-pot and dipping
dry branches into it to see how they looked. He found a branch that
satisfied him, and in the evening when Tabaqui came to the cave and
told him rudely enough that he was wanted at the Council Rock, he
laughed till Tabaqui ran away. Then Mowgli went to the Council, still
laughing.

Akela the lone wolf lay by the side of his rock as a sign that the
leadership of the Pack was open, and Shere Khan with his following of
scrap-fed wolves walked to and fro openly being flattered. Bagheera
lay close to Mowgli, and the fire-pot was between Mowgli's knees.
When they were all gathered together, Shere Khan began to speak--a
thing he would never have dared to do when Akela was in his prime.

'He has no right,' whispered Bagheera. 'Say so. He is a dog's son.
He will be frightened.'

Mowgli sprang to his feet. 'Free People,' he cried, does Shere Khan
lead the Pack? What has a tiger to do with our leadership?'

'Seeing that the leadership is yet open, and being asked to
speak--' Shere Khan began.

'By whom?' said Mowgli. 'Are we _all_ jackals, to fawn on this
cattle-butcher? The leadership of the Pack is with the Pack alone.'

There were yells of 'Silence, thou man's cub!' 'Let him speak. He has
kept our Law'; and at last the seniors of the Pack thundered: 'Let
the Dead Wolf speak.' When a leader of the Pack has missed his kill,
he is called the Dead Wolf as long as he lives, which is not long.

Akela raised his old head wearily:--

'Free People, and ye too,