in the
warm litter about the melons, very cunningly hidden, he found
twenty-five eggs, about the size of a bantam's eggs, but with
whitish skin instead of shell.

'I was not a day too soon,' he said; for he could see the baby cobras
curled up inside the skin, and he knew that the minute they were
hatched they could each kill a man or a mongoose. He bit off the tops
of the eggs as fast as he could, taking care to crush the young
cobras, and turned over the litter from time to time to see whether
he had missed any. At last there were only three eggs left, and
Rikki-tikki began to chuckle to himself, when he heard Darzee's wife
screaming:

'Rikki-tikki, I led Nagaina toward the house, and she has gone into
the verandah, and--oh, come quickly--she means killing!'

Rikki-tikki smashed two eggs, and tumbled backward down the melon-bed
with the third egg in his mouth, and scuttled to the verandah as hard
as he could put foot to the ground. Teddy and his mother and father
were there at early breakfast; but Rikki-tikki saw that they were not
eating anything. They sat stone-still, and their faces were white.
Nagaina was coiled up on the matting by Teddy's chair, within easy
striking distance of Teddy's bare leg, and she was swaying to and fro
singing a song of triumph.

'Son of the big man that killed Nag,' she hissed, 'stay still. I am
not ready yet. Wait a little. Keep very still, all you three. If you
move I strike, and if you do not move I strike. Oh, foolish people,
who killed my Nag!'

Teddy's eyes were fixed on his father, and all his father could do
was to whisper, 'Sit still, Teddy. You mustn't move. Teddy, keep
still.'

Then Rikki-tikki came up and cried: 'Turn round, Nagaina; turn and
fight!'

'All in good time,' said she, without moving her eyes. 'I will settle
my account with _you_ presently. Look at your friends, Rikki-tikki.
They are still and white; they are afraid. They dare not move, and if
you come a step nearer I strike.'

'Look at your eggs,' said Rikki-tikki, 'in the melon-bed near the
wall. Go and look, Nagaina.'

The big snake turned half round, and saw the egg on the verandah.
'Ah-h! Give it to me,' she said.

Rikki-tikki put his paws one on each side of the egg, and his eyes
were blood-red. 'What price for a snake's egg? For a young cobra? For
a young king-cobra? For the last--the very last of the brood? The
ants are eating all the others down by the melon-bed.'

Nagaina spun clear round