crossroads, up hills and down hills, all laid out from fifty to seventy
or a hundred feet above ground, and by these they can travel even at
night if necessary. Two of the strongest monkeys caught Mowgli under
the arms and swung off with him through the treetops, twenty feet at a
bound. Had they been alone they could have gone twice as fast, but the
boy’s weight held them back. Sick and giddy as Mowgli was he could not
help enjoying the wild rush, though the glimpses of earth far down below
frightened him, and the terrible check and jerk at the end of the swing
over nothing but empty air brought his heart between his teeth. His
escort would rush him up a tree till he felt the thinnest topmost
branches crackle and bend under them, and then with a cough and a whoop
would fling themselves into the air outward and downward, and bring
up, hanging by their hands or their feet to the lower limbs of the next
tree. Sometimes he could see for miles and miles across the still green
jungle, as a man on the top of a mast can see for miles across the sea,
and then the branches and leaves would lash him across the face, and he
and his two guards would be almost down to earth again. So, bounding and
crashing and whooping and yelling, the whole tribe of Bandar-log swept
along the tree-roads with Mowgli their prisoner.

For a time he was afraid of being dropped. Then he grew angry but knew
better than to struggle, and then he began to think. The first thing was
to send back word to Baloo and Bagheera, for, at the pace the monkeys
were going, he knew his friends would be left far behind. It was useless
to look down, for he could only see the topsides of the branches, so he
stared upward and saw, far away in the blue, Rann the Kite balancing
and wheeling as he kept watch over the jungle waiting for things to die.
Rann saw that the monkeys were carrying something, and dropped a
few hundred yards to find out whether their load was good to eat. He
whistled with surprise when he saw Mowgli being dragged up to a treetop
and heard him give the Kite call for--“We be of one blood, thou and I.”
The waves of the branches closed over the boy, but Rann balanced away to
the next tree in time to see the little brown face come up again. “Mark
my trail!” Mowgli shouted. “Tell Baloo of the Seeonee Pack and Bagheera
of the Council Rock.”

“In whose name, Brother?” Rann had never seen Mowgli before, though of
course he had heard of him.

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