Nero, the Circus Lion | Page 9

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.
[Illustration: 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!"
And how those lions roared! You could have heard them a mile away,
for they all roared at once, and the ground fairly trembled. Even Nero,
hurt as he was, helped in the roaring.
"Come on now, Nero! Follow us!" called Mr. Lion to the boy cub who
was shot. "You will have to run on three legs, but you have done that

before. You did it once when you got a big thorn in your paw. Come
along, follow us and we will hunt in another part of the jungle."
So the lion band turned away from the place where the goat was tied
and where the hunters were hidden, and Nero followed. But it was not
easy for the cub lion, and