"Yes; I was hungry," moaned Chita; "chee-wough! so hungry. The Bullock I had killed was but a collection of bones tied up in a thick skin; I broke a good tooth trying to get a supper off him. And were not the Men-kind trying to do evil for me also, little nut-eater, Magh? They would take my skin to the Sahib and get much profit in bounty. I heard them say that as I lay in the thick grass. I crept close, close——"
"Behind them," volunteered Wolf, "I know. You didn't look in their eyes, Brother, did you?"
"They were busy talking," declared Chita, "and did not look my way. Suddenly I sprang out just to frighten them, for they were close to the stockade, and one ran away."
"Only one?" demanded Mooswa, simply.
But Chita had gone over to the corner of his cage, and sitting down, was swinging his big head back and forth, back and forth, with his face turned to the wall, like a Dog that has been whipped.
"He has caught Sa'-zada's eye," whispered Magh in Hathi's ear.
"It's a nasty tale," said the Keeper, "but I think it is true."
"Yes; it is true," declared Wild Boar; "that is the way of his kind."
"Then," said Sa'-zada, "they got this Sahib who has written in The Book, and set the snare for Chita and caught him."
"At any rate, you were caught," muttered Hathi; "and from what you say, it seems to me a change for the better."