he scales.

Baloo and Bagheera stood still as stone, growling in their throats,
their neck hair bristling, and Mowgli watched and wondered.

"Bandar-log," said the voice of Kaa at last, "can ye stir foot or hand
without my order? Speak!"

"Without thy order we cannot stir foot or hand, O Kaa!"

"Good! Come all one pace nearer to me."

The lines of the monkeys swayed forward helplessly, and Baloo and
Bagheera took one stiff step forward with them.

"Nearer!" hissed Kaa, and they all moved again.

Mowgli laid his hands on Baloo and Bagheera to get them away, and the
two great beasts started as though they had been waked from a dream.

"Keep thy hand on my shoulder," Bagheera whispered. "Keep it there, or I
must go back--must go back to Kaa. Aah!"

"It is only old Kaa making circles on the dust," said Mowgli. "Let us
go." And the three slipped off through a gap in the walls to the jungle.

"Whoof!" said Baloo, when he stood under the still trees again. "Never
more will I make an ally of Kaa," and he shook himself all over.

"He knows more than we," said Bagheera, trembling. "In a little time,
had I stayed, I should have walked down his throat."

"Many will walk by that road before the moon rises again," said Baloo.
"He will have good hunting--after his own fashion."

"But what was the meaning of it all?" said Mowgli, who did not know
anything of a python's powers of fascination. "I saw no more than a big
snake making foolish circles till the dark came. And his nose was all
sore. Ho! Ho!"

"Mowgli," said Bagheera angrily, "his nose was sore on thy account, as
my ears and sides and paws, and Baloo's neck and shoulders are bitten
on thy account. Neither Baloo nor Bagheera will be able to hunt with
pleasure for many days."

"It is nothing," said Baloo; "we have the man-cub again."

"True, but he has cost us heavily in time which might have been spent in
good hunting, in wounds, in hair--I am half plucked along my back--and
last of all, in honor. For, remember, Mowgli, I, who am the Black
Panther, was forced to call upon Kaa for protection, and Baloo and I
were both made stupid as little birds by the Hunger Dance. All this,
man-cub, came of thy playing with the Bandar-log."

"True, it is true," said Mowgli sorrowfully. "I am an evil man-cub, and
my stomach is sad in me."

"Mf! What says the Law of the Jungle, Baloo?"

Baloo did not wish to bring Mowgli into any more trouble, but he could
not tamper with t