they need it outside this place also?" said Mowgli.

The man stared angrily. "He is a fool, and no devil," he muttered. "With
the money I can buy a horse. We are too bruised to walk far, and the
village will follow us in an hour."

"I say they will NOT follow till I choose; but a horse is well thought
of, for Messua is tired." Her husband stood up and knotted the last
of the rupees into his waist-cloth. Mowgli helped Messua through the
window, and the cool night air revived her, but the Jungle in the
starlight looked very dark and terrible.

"Ye know the trail to Khanhiwara?" Mowgli whispered.

They nodded.

"Good. Remember, now, not to be afraid. And there is no need to go
quickly. Only--only there may be some small singing in the Jungle behind
you and before."

"Think you we would have risked a night in the Jungle through anything
less than the fear of burning? It is better to be killed by beasts than
by men," said Messua's husband; but Messua looked at Mowgli and smiled.

"I say," Mowgli went on, just as though he were Baloo repeating an old
Jungle Law for the hundredth time to a foolish cub--"I say that not a
tooth in the Jungle is bared against you; not a foot in the Jungle is
lifted against you. Neither man nor beast shall stay you till you come
within eye-shot of Khanhiwara. There will be a watch about you." He
turned quickly to Messua, saying, "HE does not believe, but thou wilt
believe?"

"Ay, surely, my son. Man, ghost, or wolf of the Jungle, I believe."

"HE will be afraid when he hears my people singing. Thou wilt know and
understand. Go now, and slowly, for there is no need of any haste. The
gates are shut."

Messua flung herself sobbing at Mowgli's feet, but he lifted her very
quickly with a shiver. Then she hung about his neck and called him every
name of blessing she could think of, but her husband looked enviously
across his fields, and said: "IF we reach Khanhiwara, and I get the ear
of the English, I will bring such a lawsuit against the Brahmin and old
Buldeo and the others as shall eat the village to the bone. They shall
pay me twice over for my crops untilled and my buffaloes unfed. I will
have a great justice."

Mowgli laughed. "I do not know what justice is, but--come next Rains.
and see what is left."

They went off toward the Jungle, and Mother Wolf leaped from her place
of hiding.

"Follow!" said Mowgli; "and look to it that all the Jungle knows these
two are safe. Give tongue