in
the shallows, the Pack behind me; and so stabbing and thrusting, we a
little might turn them down-stream, or cool their throats."

"The dhole do not turn and their throats are hot," said Kaa. "There will
be neither Manling nor Wolf-cub when that hunting is done, but only dry
bones."

"Alala! If we die, we die. It will be most good hunting. But my stomach
is young, and I have not seen many Rains. I am not wise nor strong. Hast
thou a better plan, Kaa?"

"I have seen a hundred and a hundred Rains. Ere Hathi cast his
milk-tushes my trail was big in the dust. By the First Egg, I am older
than many trees, and I have seen all that the Jungle has done."

"But THIS is new hunting," said Mowgli. "Never before have the dhole
crossed our trail."

"What is has been. What will be is no more than a forgotten year
striking backward. Be still while I count those my years."

For a long hour Mowgli lay back among the coils, while Kaa, his head
motionless on the ground, thought of all that he had seen and known
since the day he came from the egg. The light seemed to go out of his
eyes and leave them like stale opals, and now and again he made little
stiff passes with his head, right and left, as though he were hunting in
his sleep. Mowgli dozed quietly, for he knew that there is nothing like
sleep before hunting, and he was trained to take it at any hour of the
day or night.

Then he felt Kaa's back grow bigger and broader below him as the huge
python puffed himself out, hissing with the noise of a sword drawn from
a steel scabbard.

"I have seen all the dead seasons," Kaa said at last, "and the
great trees and the old elephants, and the rocks that were bare and
sharp-pointed ere the moss grew. Art THOU still alive, Manling?"

"It is only a little after moonset," said Mowgli. "I do not
understand----"

"Hssh! I am again Kaa. I knew it was but a little time. Now we will
go to the river, and I will show thee what is to be done against the
dhole."

He turned, straight as an arrow, for the main stream of the Waingunga,
plunging in a little above the pool that hid the Peace Rock, Mowgli at
his side.

"Nay, do not swim. I go swiftly. My back, Little Brother."

Mowgli tucked his left arm round Kaa's neck, dropped his right close to
his body, and straightened his feet. Then Kaa breasted the current as
he alone could, and the ripple of the checked water stood up in a frill
round Mowgli's neck, and his feet were waved to and fr