"I have not yet seen. I came hot-foot to thee. Thou art older than Hathi. But oh, Kaa,"--here Mowgli wriggled with sheer joy,--"it will be good hunting. Few of us will see another moon."
"Dost _thou_ strike in this? Remember thou art a Man; and remember what Pack cast thee out. Let the Wolf look to the Dog. Thou art a Man."
"Last year's nuts are this year's black earth," said Mowgli. "It is true that I am a Man, but it is in my stomach that this night I have said that I am a Wolf. I called the River and the Trees to remember. I am of the Free People, Kaa, till the dhole has gone by."
"Free People," Kaa grunted. "Free thieves! And thou hast tied thyself into the death-knot for the sake of the memory of the dead wolves? This is no good hunting."
"It is my Word which I have spoken. The Trees know, the River knows. Till the dhole have gone by my Word comes not back to me."
"_Ngssh!_ This changes all trails. I had thought to take thee away with me to the northern marshes, but the Word--even the Word of a little, naked, hairless manling--is the Word. Now I, Kaa, say--"
"Think well, Flathead, lest thou tie thyself into the death-knot also. I need no Word from thee, for well I know--"
"Be it so, then," said Kaa. "I will give no Word; but what is in thy stomach to do when the dhole come?"
"They must swim the Waingunga. I thought to meet them with my knife 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."