Part 2 (1/2)
”Should've knocked'm on the mucking head. Said so all along. Save all this deleted trouble.”
Echpo flinched again. ”The, ah, the Rowra is an old military felino-centauroid,” he explained hastily.
”Believes in curing shock with counter-shock. Isn't that right, Heragli?”
”What? What're you babbling about now? Oh . . . oh, yes. Your servant, ma'am,” thundered the other.
”Which bleeding way out, eh?”
”A rough exterior, dear lady,” whispered Echpo in Tanni's ear, ”but a heart of gold.”
”That may be,” answered the woman sharply, ”but I'm going to have to ask him to moderate his voice
and expurgate his language. What if the Hokas should hear him?”
”Blunderbore and killecrantz!” swore Heragli. ”Let'm hear. I've had enough of this deifically anathematized tree climbing. Let'm show up once more and I'll gut 'em, I'll skin 'em, I'll-”
A chorus of falsetto wolfish howls interrupted him, and a second later the s.p.a.ce around the tree was
filled with leaping, yelling Hokas and the Rowra was up in the branches again.
”Come down, Striped Killer!” bawled Akela, bounding a good two meters up the trunk. ”Come down ere I forget wolves cannot climb! I myself will tear thy heart out!”
”Sput! Meowr!” snarled Heragli, swiping a taloned paw at him. ”Meeourl spss rowul rhnrrrr!”
”What's he saying?” demanded Tanni.
”Dear lady,” replied Echpo with a shudder, ”don't ask. General! General!-His old rank may snap him
out of it-General, remember your duty!”
”LAME THIEF OF THE WAINGUNGA!” shouted Alex, bombarding him with fallen fruits.
Heragli closed his eyes and panted. ”Oh, m'nerves!” he gasped above the roar of the Hokas. ”All your
fault, Echpo, you insisting on no sidearms. Of all the la-di-da conspir-””General!” cried the Chakban.Tanni struggled around the Hokas and collared her son. ”Alex,” she said ominously, ”I told you to keep them away.”
”But they outvoted me, Mom,” he answered. ”They're the Free People, you know, and it's the full Pack-” ”FOR THE PACK, FOR THE FULL PACK, IT IS MET!” chorused the Hokas, leaping up and snapping at Heragli's tail.
Tanni put her hands over her ears and tried to think. It hurt her pride, but she sought desperately to
imagine what Alex, Sr., would have done. Play along with them . . . use their own fantasy . . . yes and she had read the Jungle Books herself-Ah! She s.n.a.t.c.hed a nut from her boy just before he launched it and said sweetly: ”Alex, dear, shouldn't the Pack be in bed now?”
”Huh, Mom?”
”Doesn't the Law of the Jungle say so? Ask Baloo.”
”Indeed, Man-Cub,” replied Baloo pontifically when Alex had repeated it, ”the Law of the Jungle
specifically states: 'And remember the night is for hunting, and forget not the day is for sleep.' Now that you remind me-thou remindest me, it is broad daylight and all the wolves ought to be in their lairs.” It took a little while to calm down the Hokas, but then they trotted obediently off into the forest. Tanni was a bit disconcerted to note that Baloo and Bagheera were still present. She racked her brains for something in the Jungle Books specifically dealing with the obligation of bears and black panthers also to go off and sleep in the daytime. Nothing, however, came to mind. And Heragli refused to climb down while- Inspiration came. She turned to the last Hokas. ”Aren't you thirsty?” she asked.
”What says thy mother, Little Frog?” demanded Bagheera, was.h.i.+ng his nose with his hand and trying to purr.
”She asked if thou and Baloo were not thirsty,” said Alex.
”Thirsty?” The two Hokas looked at each other. The extreme suggestibility of their race came into play.
Two tongues reached out and licked two muzzles.”Indeed, the Rains have been scant this year,” agreed Bagheera.”Perhaps I had better go shake the mohwa tree and check the petals that fall down,” said Baloo.”I hear,” said the girl slyly, ”that Hathi proclaimed the Water Truce last night.””Oh . . . ah?” said Bagheera.”And you know that according to the Law of the Jungle, that means all the animals must drink peaceably together,” went on Tanni. ”Tell them, Alex.””Quite true,” nodded Baloo sagely when the boy had translated. ”Macmillan edition, 1933, page 68.””So,” said Tanni, springing her trap, ”you'll have to take Shere Khan off and let him drink with you.””Wuh!” said Baloo, sitting down on his haunches to consider the situation. ”It is the Law,” he decided at length.
”You can come down now,” called Tanni to Heragli. ”They won't hurt you.”
”Blood and bones!” grumbled the Rowra, but descended and looked at the Hokas with a noticeable lack
of enthusiasm. ”Har d'ja do.”
”h.e.l.lo, Lame Thief,” said Bagheera amiably.
”Lame Thief? Why-” Heragli began to roar, and Bagheera tried manfully to arch his back, which is not easy for a barrel-shaped Hoka.”General! General!” interrupted Echpo. ”It's the only way. Go off and have a drink with them, and as soon as you can, meet us here again.”
”Oh, very well. Blank dash flaming etcetera.” Heragli trotted off into the brush, accompanied by his foes. Their voices trailed back: ”Hast hunted recently, Striped Killer?”
”Eh? What? Hunted? Well, as a matter of fact, in England on Earth last month-the Quorn-Master of
the Hunt told me-went to earth at-” The jungle swallowed them up. * * *
”And now, dear lady,” said Echpo nervously, ”I must presume still further upon your patience. Poor Seesis has been left unguarded all this time-” ”Oh, yes!” The woman's long slim legs broke into a trot, back toward the place where she had first met the herpetoid. Echpo lumbered beside her and Alex followed.