too long. Free People, he was my meat from the first. Give him to me.
I am weary of this man-wolf folly. He has troubled the jungle for ten
seasons. Give me the man-cub, or I will hunt here always, and not
give you one bone. He is a man, a man's child, and from the marrow of
my bones I hate him!'

Then more than half the Pack yelled: A man! a man!

What has a man to do with us? Let him go to his own place.

'And turn all the people of the villages against us?' clamoured Shere
Khan. 'No; give him to me. He is a man, and none of us can look him
between the eyes.'

Akela lifted his head again, and said: 'He has eaten our food. He has
slept with us. He has driven game for us. He has broken no word of
the Law of the Jungle.'

'Also, I paid for him with a Bull when he was accepted. The worth of
a bull is little, but Bagheera's honour is something that he will
perhaps fight for,' said Bagheera, in his gentlest voice.

'A bull paid ten years ago!' the Pack snarled. 'What do we care for
bones ten years old?'

'Or for a pledge?' said Bagheera, his white teeth bared under his
lip. 'Well are ye called the Free People!'

'No man's cub can run with the people of the jungle,' howled Shere
Khan. 'Give him to me!'