A terrible summer flood rushed through the mongoose burrow, washing little Rikki-Tikki-Tavi away from his family. The water carried him tumbling and spinning until he landed, half-drowned and muddy, on a garden path. A young boy named Teddy found him lying in the sun. "Look, Mother!" Teddy cried. "A baby mongoose! He's still alive!" They wrapped him in warm cotton and fed him a tiny piece of meat. When Rikki opened his bright pink eyes, he looked around and thought: these kind people have saved my life.
By evening, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi had dried his fur and was exploring the big bungalow with great curiosity. He ran up and down the dinner table, poked his nose into inkwells, and sat on Teddy's shoulder. At bedtime, Teddy carried him to his pillow. "He'll keep me safe," Teddy told his parents. Rikki spent the night patrolling the house, sniffing every corner. A mongoose's motto is "Run and find out," and Rikki-Tikki was the most curious mongoose of all.
The next morning, Rikki explored the lush garden. Butterflies danced among the hibiscus flowers, and mango trees cast cool shade. He met Darzee the tailorbird, who sat weeping on his nest. "What's wrong?" asked Rikki. "One of our babies fell from the nest yesterday," Darzee cried, "and Nag the cobra ate him!" Rikki's fur bristled with anger. "Who is Nag?" he asked. Before Darzee could answer, a deep hiss came from the thick grass: "I am Nag. Look, and be afraid!"
From behind the bushes rose the enormous hood of Nag, the great black cobra. He was five feet long, and his spread hood was marked with a terrible spectacle pattern. "I am Nag," he hissed again. "The great god placed his mark upon our people. Be afraid!" But Rikki-Tikki remembered that his mother and father used to fight cobras. Though his heart beat fast with fear, he puffed up his fur and said bravely: "You are big, but that does not mean you are right. Why do you hurt Darzee's babies?"
While Nag spoke, his mate Nagaina crept up silently behind Rikki, ready to strike. "Look out behind you!" screamed Darzee from his nest. Rikki jumped high in the air just as Nagaina's fangs snapped shut beneath him. He landed on her back and bit hard, then leaped away before she could coil around him. The two cobras slithered off into the tall grass. Rikki's heart was pounding, but he felt proud. He had fought cobras — and survived! Now he knew what he must do: protect Teddy's family from these deadly snakes.
That night, Rikki crept through the dark house on silent paws. From the bathroom came a soft, scraping sound. He peeked in and saw Nag coiled around the bottom of a water jar, waiting in the shadows. "When the family is gone," Nag whispered to himself, "the mongoose will have to leave, and the garden will be ours again." Rikki trembled with anger. He knew he must fight the big cobra alone, in the dark, to save his family. He took a deep breath and prepared for the most dangerous battle of his life.
Rikki-Tikki leaped at Nag's head and bit down with all his strength, right behind the cobra's hood. Nag thrashed wildly, swinging Rikki like a rag doll — smashing against the tin jar, the stone floor, back and forth in the darkness. Rikki held on with every bit of his courage, his eyes squeezed shut. He thought of Teddy sleeping just down the hall. He would not let go. A great bang echoed through the house as Teddy's father rushed in. When it was over, Nag lay still. Little Rikki-Tikki had won.
The next morning, Teddy's mother hugged Rikki gently. "He saved us all last night," she said with tears in her eyes. But Rikki knew the danger was not over. Nagaina was still out there in the garden, and she had a nest of cobra eggs hidden in the melon patch. If those eggs hatched, the garden would be filled with young cobras. Rikki-Tikki hurried outside, his fur still sore from the battle. He found Darzee singing happily in the sunshine. "This is no time for singing," Rikki told him. "Where are Nagaina's eggs?"
Darzee's wife, who was much more sensible than her husband, flew to the melon patch and showed Rikki where twenty-five cobra eggs lay hidden under the warm leaves. They were soft and white, and inside each one, a tiny cobra was beginning to form. Rikki knew that baby cobras could be just as dangerous as grown ones. Working quickly, he began breaking the eggs one by one. But he saved the last egg, because suddenly Darzee's wife shrieked from across the garden: "Rikki-Tikki! Nagaina has gone to the veranda! She is near Teddy!"
Rikki raced across the garden as fast as his legs could carry him. On the veranda, the family sat frozen with terror. Nagaina was coiled at Teddy's chair, her hood spread wide, her eyes blazing with fury. "Stay still, Teddy," his father whispered. "Don't move." Rikki-Tikki burst onto the veranda, holding the last egg in his mouth. "Turn around, Nagaina!" he called. "Look at your last egg. I have destroyed all the others." The great cobra turned her head, her eyes fixed on the egg, hissing with grief and rage.
Nagaina snatched the egg in her mouth and fled toward her hole at the garden wall. Rikki chased her, running faster than he had ever run before. Just as she slid into the dark hole, Rikki caught her tail and followed her underground. Darzee sang a sad song, believing Rikki was lost forever. The garden held its breath. Minutes passed. Then, covered in dirt and very tired, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi crawled out of the hole. "It is all finished," he said, and then he fainted right there on the grass.
Teddy carried Rikki inside and laid him on his pillow. The little mongoose slept for a whole day, recovering from his great adventure. When he finally woke up, the entire garden celebrated. Darzee sang his finest song, the frogs croaked with joy, and even shy Chuchundra the muskrat came out to say thank you. From that day on, no cobra ever dared enter the garden again. Rikki-Tikki-Tavi had earned his place as the bravest guardian the garden had ever known, and Teddy's family loved him as one of their own.
