`` H'sh ! Nag is everywhere , Rikki-tikki . You should have talked to Chua in the garden . '' `` I did n't -- so you must tell me . Quick , Chuchundra , or I 'll bite you ! '' Chuchundra sat down and cried till the tears rolled off his whiskers . `` I am a very poor man , '' he sobbed . `` I never had spirit enough to run out into the middle of the room . H'sh ! I must n't tell you anything . Ca n't you hear , Rikki-tikki ? '' Rikki-tikki listened . The house was as still as still , but he thought he could just catch the faintest scratch-scratch in the world -- a noise as faint as that of a wasp walking on a window-pane -- the dry scratch of a snake 's scales on brick-work . `` That 's Nag or Nagaina , '' he said to himself , `` and he is crawling into the bath-room sluice . You 're right , Chuchundra ; I should have talked to Chua . '' He stole off to Teddy 's bath-room , but there was nothing there , and then to Teddy 's mother 's bathroom . At the bottom of the smooth plaster wall there was a brick pulled out to make a sluice for the bath water , and as Rikki-tikki stole in by the masonry curb where the bath is put , he heard Nag and Nagaina whispering together outside in the moonlight . `` When the house is emptied of people , '' said Nagaina to her husband , `` he will have to go away , and then the garden will be our own again . Go in quietly , and remember that the big man who killed Karait is the first one to bite . Then come out and tell me , and we will hunt for Rikki-tikki together . ''
`` But are you sure that there is anything to be gained by killing the XXXXX ? ''
bathroom husband man mother noise people snake spirit whiskers world