The old bear said nothing , but he thought many things . Mowgli cut across noiselessly through the Jungle , at right angles to Buldeo 's path , till , parting the undergrowth , he saw the old man , his musket on his shoulder , running up the trail of overnight at a dog-trot . You will remember that Mowgli had left the village with the heavy weight of Shere Khan 's raw hide on his shoulders , while Akela and Gray Brother trotted behind , so that the triple trail was very clearly marked . Presently Buldeo came to where Akela , as you know , had gone back and mixed it all up . Then he sat down , and coughed and grunted , and made little casts round and about into the Jungle to pick it up again , and , all the time he could have thrown a stone over those who were watching him . No one can be so silent as a wolf when he does not care to be heard ; and Mowgli , though the wolves thought he moved very clumsily , could come and go like a shadow . They ringed the old man as a school of porpoises ring a steamer at full speed , and as they ringed him they talked unconcernedly , for their speech began below the lowest end of the scale that untrained human beings can hear . -LSB- The other end is bounded by the high squeak of Mang , the Bat , which very many people can not catch at all . From that note all the bird and bat and insect talk takes on . -RSB- `` This is better than any kill , '' said Gray Brother , as Buldeo stooped and peered and puffed . `` He looks like a lost pig in the Jungles by the river . What does he say ? '' Buldeo was muttering savagely . Mowgli translated . `` He says that packs of wolves must have danced round me . He says that he never saw such a trail in his life . He says he is tired . '' `` He will be rested before he picks it up again , '' said Bagheera coolly , as he slipped round a tree-trunk , in the game of blindman 's - buff that they were playing . `` NOW , what does the lean thing do ? '' `` Eat or blow smoke out of his mouth .
Men always play with their mouths , '' said XXXXX ; and the silent trailers saw the old man fill and light and puff at a water-pipe , and they took good note of the smell of the tobacco , so as to be sure of Buldeo in the darkest night , if necessary .
Akela Brother Buldeo Jungle Khan Mowgli blindman dog-trot overnight tree-trunk