In a minute she dropped noiselessly, and all she said was: "I gave thee thy first milk; but Bagheera speaks truth: Man goes to Man at the last."
"Maybe," said Mowgli, with a very unpleasant look on his face; "but to-night I am very far from that trail. Wait here, but do not let her see."
"_Thou_ wast never afraid of _me_, Little Frog," said Mother Wolf, backing into the high grass, and blotting herself out, as she knew how.
"And now," said Mowgli, cheerfully, as he swung into the hut again, "they are all sitting round Buldeo, who is saying that which did not happen. When his talk is finished, they say they will assuredly come here with the Red--with fire and burn you both. And then?"
"I have spoken to my man," said Messua. "Kanhiwara is thirty miles from here, but at Kanhiwara we may find the English--"
"I do not know. They be white, and it is said that they govern all the land, and do not suffer people to burn or beat each other without witnesses. If we can get thither to-night, we live. Otherwise we die."
"Live, then. No man passes the gates to-night. But what does _he_ do?" Messua's husband was on his hands and knees digging up the earth in one corner of the hut.
"It is his little money," said Messua. "We can take nothing else."
"Ah, yes. The stuff that passes from hand to hand and never grows warmer. Do 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 the 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 Kanhiwara?" Mowgli whispered.
"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.