He will be frightened.'

Mowgli sprang to his feet. 'Free People,' he cried, does Shere Khan
lead the Pack? What has a tiger to do with our leadership?'

'Seeing that the leadership is yet open, and being asked to
speak--' Shere Khan began.

'By whom?' said Mowgli. 'Are we _all_ jackals, to fawn on this
cattle-butcher? The leadership of the Pack is with the Pack alone.'

There were yells of 'Silence, thou man's cub!' 'Let him speak. He has
kept our Law'; and at last the seniors of the Pack thundered: 'Let
the Dead Wolf speak.' When a leader of the Pack has missed his kill,
he is called the Dead Wolf as long as he lives, which is not long.

Akela raised his old head wearily:--

'Free People, and ye too, jackals of Shere Khan, for twelve seasons
I have led ye to and from the kill, and in all that time not one has
been trapped or maimed. Now I have missed my kill. Ye know how that
plot was made. Ye know how ye brought me up to an untried buck to
make my weakness known. It was cleverly done. Your right is to kill
me here on the Council Rock, now. Therefore, I ask, who comes to make
an end of the Lone Wolf? For it is my right, by the Law of the
Jungle, that ye come one by one.'

There was a long hush, for no single wolf cared to fight Akela to the
death. Then Shere Khan roared: 'Bah! what have we to do with this
toothless fool? He is doomed to die! It is the man-cub who has lived