“Stay there,” shouted the monkeys, “till we have killed thy friends, and later we will play with thee — if the Poison-People leave thee alive.”

“We be of one blood, ye and I,” said Mowgli, quickly giving the Snake’s Call.

He could hear rustling and hissing in the rubbish all round him and gave the Call a second time, to make sure.

“Even ssso! Down hoods all!” said half a dozen low voices (every ruin in India becomes sooner or later a dwelling place of snakes, and the old summerhouse was alive with cobras). “Stand still, Little Brother, for thy feet may do us harm.”

Mowgli stood as quietly as he could, peering through the open work and listening to the furious din of the fight round the Black Panther —