Part 4 (1/2)

CHAPTER IV

NERO IN A CAVE

Now while the hunter, hidden on a platform in a tree in the jungle, was shouting about having shot a lion, Nero was doing some shouting of another sort. To tell the truth, he was howling and roaring, just as, sometimes, when you step on the puppy's tail, by mistake, of course, the puppy howls. Nero was howling and roaring with pain.

”Oh, what has happened? What is the matter?” cried Nero, in lion talk, of course, as he rolled over and over on the dried leaves of the jungle.

”What a terrible pain in my paw! Oh, I wonder if the goat did this! If he did--”

Nero stopped his howling long enough to try to stand up and look through the jungle trees to where he had first seen the goat.

There the bleating animal was. It had not moved.

”Surely that goat couldn't have given me the pain in my paw,” said Nero, between his howls. ”I wonder what the goat means by staying in one place so long, especially when it must know we lions are out on a night-hunt.

And what gave me the pain in my foot, and what made the loud noise?”

As Nero roared, so the other hunting lions roared. Switchie and the smaller lions, like Nero, could not roar very loudly, but Nero's father, and the other full-grown beasts made the very ground tremble with their rumblings.

At the same time there were other jungle cries from other animals. The monkeys, who had been sleeping in the tree-tops, began to chatter and scold, as they swung to and fro.

”What's the matter? What's the matter?” asked one gray-haired monkey, who must have been very old. ”What's all the noise about? It reminds me of the time a monkey named Mappo, who once visited here, had the toothache one night and howled until morning. Some of you monkeys howl just like Mappo did, though he was a merry chap most of the time.”

”Where is Mappo now?” asked a small baboon, which is another kind of monkey.

”Oh,” replied the gray-haired chap, ”Mappo went to a far country on a trip, and had many wonderful adventures. He joined a circus, and was put in a book.”

”The lions are on a night-hunt,” said a middle-sized monkey, who climbed down a tree to take a look. ”The lions are hunting, and one of them seems to be hurt, by the way he howls.”

”Very likely,” said the old monkey. ”I thought I heard a gun. That means hunters are about. I saw some of them in the jungle to-day, but I kept out of sight. Well, if hunters are hunting and lions are hunting, we monkeys had better stay up in the trees.”

And the monkeys did. But of course that did not make the pain in Nero's foot any better. The lion boy howled and roared by turns, and with his big, rough, red tongue, he licked the place where his paw hurt. That is the only way lions have of making well their sore places; by licking them with their tongues or letting cold water run on the hurt place. But just then there was no water where Nero could get it.

”What's the matter with you, Nero?” roared the voice of Mr. Lion through the black jungle. ”What are you howling about?”

”Oh, I'm hurt!” said the lion boy. ”I saw a goat and tried to jump on it. Then I heard some little thunder, and my paw hurt and the goat is still there.”

”Ha! That was a trap!” cried Mr. Lion. ”That goat was tied there to a tree by a rope, so he would bleat and make you come closer. Then a hunter, hidden in a tree, must have shot you.”

And this is exactly what had happened. The hunter knew that a lion would come close to try to catch the tied goat, when it bleated, and the man waited.

[Ill.u.s.tration: He licked the place where his paw hurt. _Page 38_]

Then, when the man, hiding on a platform built in a tree, saw Nero, as the moon shone now and then, he fired his big rifle. But he did not kill a lion, as he thought. He only made Nero lame in one paw, and as the lion boy rolled away as quickly as he could the man lost sight of him.

And though he and some other hunters who were with him tried later to find Nero, they could not. He had run away; and I will tell you how he did it.

”Come, lions!” called Nero's father to the hunting band, when Nero had told what had happened to him. ”Come, we must not hunt here any longer.

If one hunter shot Nero, other hunters may shoot at us. We had better hunt somewhere else. Come, we will run away. The jungle is big enough for us to hide from the hunters. But, before we go, we will give a loud roar so the hunters will know we are not afraid. All ready now, my brothers. Roar! Roar! Roar!”