Then Mowgli touched a bare patch. " What's this? " he asked.

然后莫格里触摸了一块裸露的地方。 “这是什么？”他问。

There, he knows now, is a deep, bare patch on his ground; it is full of ore; there is always a metallic film over every puddle of water there—and now he will dig it out.

他现在知道，他的地面上有一块很深的光秃秃的地块；它充满了矿石；那里的每个水坑上总是覆盖着一层金属膜——现在他要把它挖出来。