Part 12 (1/2)

”What makes you think so?” asked Nero, from his cage.

”Well, I sort of feel it,” answered Tum Tum. ”I think we are going to have a big thunderstorm, such as we used to have in the jungle!”

”I hope we do!” growled a striped tiger in a cage next to Nero. ”I like a good thunder storm, where the rain comes down and cools you off! I like to feel the squidgie mud of the jungle, too, and when it thunders I growl as loudly as I can. I like a storm. I want to get wet!”

[Ill.u.s.tration: Then the trainer put his head in the lion's mouth.

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”I like a thunder storm, too,” said Tum Tum. ”But you animals in your cages--you lions and tigers--aren't very likely to feel any rain. We elephants will get wet, and so will the camels and the horses, for we walk out in the open. But, Nero, I guess you in your cage won't feel the storm any.”

”No, I don't believe we shall,” agreed the lion. ”But I wish we could. I am so hot and dry, sitting in this cage, that I wish I could get out and splash around in the mud and water. So the sooner the thunder storm comes the better.”

”It isn't likely to do you much good,” went on Tum Tum, ”but it will be cooler, afterward, anyhow.”

And it certainly was very hot in the circus tent that day. It did not get much cooler after dark, and when the circus was over, and the big tents taken down, it was still hot.

”We are not going to travel on the train to go to the next town where the circus is to show,” said Tum Tum to Nero, as the men began hitching horses to the animal cages and the big tent wagons. ”We are to go along the road, in the open.”

”Then maybe I can see the lightning!” exclaimed Nero. ”And, if it rains, I can stick my paws out through the bars and get them wet.”

”Maybe,” said Tum Tum. Then he had to go off to help push some of the heavy wagons, and it was some time before Nero saw his big elephant friend again.

Soon the circus caravan was traveling along the road in the darkness.

And yet it was not dark all the time, for, every now and then, there came a flash of lightning. The thunder rumbled, too, like the distant roaring of a band of lions.

”The storm will soon be here,” said the striped tiger, as he crouched down in one corner of his cage, which, like that of Nero, was being hauled along the road by eight horses.

”Well, we'll feel better when it rains,” said the lion.

And then, all at once, the wind began to blow, there came a brighter flash of lightning, a loud clap of thunder, and the storm broke. Down came the rain, in ”buckets full,” as is sometimes said, and the horses, camels and elephants loved to feel the warm water splas.h.i.+ng down on their backs, cooling them off and was.h.i.+ng away the dust and dirt.

Some of the rain even dashed into the cages of Nero and the tiger, and the jungle cats liked the feel of it as much as did the other circus beasts.

But the rain did something else, too. It made the roads very soft and slippery with mud, and in the middle of the night, when Nero's cage was being pulled up a steep hill, something broke on the wagon. It got away from the horses and began to roll down the hill backward.

”Look out! Look out!” cried the driver, as he tried to put on the brake.

”The lion's cage is running away downhill! Look out, everybody! Look out behind there, Bill on the tiger's cage! Look out!”

But the lion's cage did not crash into the tiger's cage, which was the next wagon behind. Instead, Nero's house on wheels rolled to one side of the road and toppled over into a ditch. There was a loud crash as the wooden sides and top cracked and broke.

All at once Nero saw the door of his broken cage swing open. He could walk right out, and, as soon as he got steady on his feet, after being tossed about by the fall, the lion gave a leap and found himself standing clear of his cage in the soft mud, with the rain beating down all about him.

”Why--why, I'm loose!” roared Nero. ”I'm out of my cage for the first time since I was caught in the jungle! Oh, and this is like the jungle, a little. I can feel the soft mud on my paws, and the rain on my back!”

Nero opened his mouth to roar, and the rain dashed in, cooling his tongue. As the lightning flashed he could see his broken cage at one side of the ditch, but he was clear of it. When the thunder roared Nero roared back in answer.