`` How many ? '' said Mowgli quickly ; the Pack growled deep in their throats . `` I do not know . Three of them will kill no more , but at the last they drove me like the buck ; on my three legs they drove me . Look , Free People ! '' He thrust out his mangled fore-foot , all dark with dried blood . There were cruel bites low down on his side , and his throat was torn and worried . `` Eat , '' said Akela , rising up from the meat Mowgli had brought him , and the Outlier flung himself on it . `` This shall be no loss , '' he said humbly , when he had taken off the first edge of his hunger . `` Give me a little strength , Free People , and I also will kill . My lair is empty that was full when this moon was new , and the Blood Debt is not all paid . '' Phao heard his teeth crack on a haunch-bone and grunted approvingly . `` We shall need those jaws , '' said he . `` Were there cubs with the dhole ? '' `` Nay , nay . Red Hunters all : grown dogs of their Pack , heavy and strong for all that they eat lizards in the Dekkan . '' What Won-tolla had said meant that the dhole , the red hunting-dog of the Dekkan , was moving to kill , and the Pack knew well that even the tiger will surrender a new kill to the dhole . They drive straight through the Jungle , and what they meet they pull down and tear to pieces . Though they are not as big nor half as cunning as the wolf , they are very strong and very numerous . The dhole , for instance , do not begin to call themselves a pack till they are a hundred strong ; whereas forty wolves make a very fair pack indeed .
Mowgli 's wanderings had taken him to the edge of the high grassy downs of the XXXXX , and he had seen the fearless dholes sleeping and playing and scratching themselves in the little hollows and tussocks that they use for lairs .
Akela Dekkan Mowgli Outlier Phao Won-tolla fore-foot haunch-bone hunting-dog lair