have forgotten,--I promise that if ye let the man-cub go to his
own place, I will not, when my time comes to die, bare one tooth
against ye. I will die without fighting. That will at least save the
Pack three lives. More I cannot do; but if ye will, I can save ye the
shame that comes of killing a brother against whom there is no
fault,--a brother spoken for and bought into the Pack according to
the Law of the Jungle.'

'He is a man--a man--a man--!' snarled the Pack; and most of the
wolves began to gather round Shere Khan, whose tail was beginning to
switch.

'Now the business is in thy hands,' said Bagheera to Mowgli. '_We_
can do no more except fight.'

Mowgli stood upright--the fire-pot in his hands. Then he stretched
out his arms, and yawned in the face of the Council; but he was
furious with rage and sorrow, for, wolf-like, the wolves had never
told him how they hated him. 'Listen you!' he cried. 'There is no
need for this dog's jabber. Ye have told me so often to night that I
am a man (and indeed I would have been a wolf with you to my life's
end), that I feel your words are true. So I do not call ye my
brothers any more, but _sag_ [dogs], as a man should. What ye will
do, and what ye will not do, is not yours to say. That matter is with
_me_; and that we may see the matter more plainly, I, the man, have
brought here a little of the Red Flower which ye, dogs, fear.'

He flung the fire-pot on the ground, and some of the red coals lit a
tuft of dried moss that flared up, as all the Council drew back in
terror before the leaping flames.

Mowgli thrust his dead branch into the fire till the twigs lit and
crackled, and whirled it above his head among the cowering wolves.

'Thou art the master,' said Bagheera, in an undertone. 'Save Akela
from, the death. He was ever thy friend.'

Akela, the grim old wolf who had never asked for mercy in his life,
gave one piteous look at Mowgli as the boy stood all naked, his long
black hair tossing over his shoulders in the light of the blazing
branch that made the shadows jump and quiver.

'Good!' said Mowgli, staring round slowly. 'I see that ye are dogs. I
go from you to my own people--if they be ray own people. The jungle
is shut to me, and I must forget your talk and your companionship;
but I will be more merciful than ye are. Because I was all but your
brother in blood, I promise that when I am a man among men I will not
betray ye to men as ye have betrayed me.' He ki