Give me the last of my eggs , and I will go away and never come back , '' she said , lowering her hood . `` Yes , you will go away , and you will never come back . For you will go to the rubbish heap with Nag . Fight , widow ! The big man has gone for his gun ! Fight ! '' Rikki-tikki was bounding all round Nagaina , keeping just out of reach of her stroke , his little eyes like hot coals . Nagaina gathered herself together and flung out at him . Rikki-tikki jumped up and backward . Again and again and again she struck , and each time her head came with a whack on the matting of the veranda and she gathered herself together like a watch spring . Then Rikki-tikki danced in a circle to get behind her , and Nagaina spun round to keep her head to his head , so that the rustle of her tail on the matting sounded like dry leaves blown along by the wind . He had forgotten the egg . It still lay on the veranda , and Nagaina came nearer and nearer to it , till at last , while Rikki-tikki was drawing breath , she caught it in her mouth , turned to the veranda steps , and flew like an arrow down the path , with Rikki-tikki behind her . When the cobra runs for her life , she goes like a whip-lash flicked across a horse 's neck . Rikki-tikki knew that he must catch her , or all the trouble would begin again . She headed straight for the long grass by the thorn-bush , and as he was running Rikki-tikki heard Darzee still singing his foolish little song of triumph . But Darzee 's wife was wiser . She flew off her nest as Nagaina came along , and flapped her wings about Nagaina 's head . If Darzee had helped they might have turned her , but Nagaina only lowered her hood and went on . Still , the instant 's delay brought Rikki-tikki up to her , and as she plunged into the rat-hole where she and Nag used to live , his little white teeth were clenched on her tail , and he went down with her -- and very few mongooses , however wise and old they may be , care to follow a cobra into its hole .
It was dark in the hole ; and Rikki-tikki never knew when it might open out and give Nagaina room to turn and strike XXXXX him .
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