The wolves were quiet after that. No wolf wanted to fight Akela to the death by himself. Then Shere Khan roared: "Bah! Why do we listen to this toothless fool? He is going to die! It is the man-cub who has lived too long. Free People, he was my meat from the beginning. Give him to me. I am weary of this man-wolf stupidity. He has caused trouble in the jungle for ten years. Give me the man-cub, or I will hunt here always, and not give you one bone. He is a man, a man's child, and from the middle of my bones I hate him!"

Then more than half the Pack yelled: "A man! A man! Why should we have a man with us? Let him go to his own place."

"And make all the people of the villages turn against us?" shouted Shere Khan. "No, give him to me. He is a man, and none of us can look him between the eyes."

Akela lifted his head again and said, "He has eaten our food. He has slept with us. He has driven game for us. He has broken no word of the Law of the Jungle."

"Also, I paid for him with a bull when he was accepted. The value of a bull is little, but Bagheera's honour is something that he will perhaps fight for," said Bagheera in his gentlest voice.

"A bull paid ten years ago!" the Pack said. "What do we care about bones ten years old?