hair, he came upon a little bald spot.

'There is no one in the jungle that knows that I, Bagheera, carry
that mark--the mark of the collar; and yet, Little Brother, I was
born among men, and it was among men that my mother died--in the
cages of the King's Palace at Oodeypore. It was because of this that
I paid the price for thee at the Council when thou wast a little
naked cub. Yes, I too was born among men. I had never seen the
jungle. They fed me behind bars from an iron pan till one night I
felt that I was Bagheera--the Panther--and no man's plaything, and I
broke the silly lock with one blow of my paw and came away; and
because I had learned the ways of men, I became more terrible in the
jungle than Shere Khan. Is it not so?'

'Yes,' said Mowgli;' all the jungle fear Bagheera--all except
Mowgli.'

'Oh, _thou_ art a man's cub,' said the Black Panther, very
tenderly; 'and even as I returned to my jungle, so thou must go back
to men at last,--to the men who are thy brothers,--if thou art not
killed in the Council.'

'But why--but why should any wish to kill me?' said Mowgli.

'Look at me,' said Bagheera; and Mowgli looked at him steadily
between the eyes. The big panther turned his head away in half a
minute.

'_That_ is why,' he said, shifting his paw on the leaves. 'Not even I
can look thee between the eyes, and I was born among men, and I love