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.
[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 soon he began to limp and fall behind.
"What's the matter?" asked Switchie, as he saw that his chum was not
keeping up with the rest. "Can't you run along faster?"
"No, I can't," answered Nero. "And I guess you couldn't either, on only
three legs."
"Well, maybe I couldn't," replied Switchie. "I'm sorry you were shot,
Nero. I'll stay behind and walk with you. Then you won't be lonesome."
"Thank you," answered Nero, using lion talk, of course.
So Switchie stayed behind with Nero, going slowly, as the wounded lion
had to go. But soon the others--the big and little lions who were not
hurt began to get far ahead.
"Come on, Nero! Come on!" they roared. "And you too, Switchie! Come
along here! Hurry up!"
"I'll just run on ahead and see what they want," said Switchie to Nero.
"I'll tell them you can't go fast, and that they must wait for us. I'll
run up ahead and tell them this, and then come back here to you."
"All right, thank you, I wish you would," growled Nero, and he did not
feel very happy, for his paw hurt him very much. "I'll wait here for
you," he said, as he sat down on a pile of leaves.
So Switchie ran on ahead to tell the others. But while he was gone
something happened that changed Nero's whole life, and really was the
cause of his going to a circus.
I'll tell you about it.
As Nero sat on the pile of leaves, waiting for his friend Switchie to
come back, he suddenly heard a noise in the jungle behind him. He saw
some lights flashing and he heard the sound of talk. It was the voices
of men--the same sort of voice that had shouted:
"I have shot a lion!"
Nero pricked up his ears and listened as hard as he could.
"Those are hunters!" said the boy lion to himself. "They are coming
after me! I must run away and hide! I can't wait for Switchie to come
back! I must hide!"
As I have said, the moon now and then shone in the jungle, making it
light enough for men to see to shoot. But the lights Nero saw flashing
were not moonbeams. They came from lanterns carried by the hunters.
"Here is a mark where a lion has been!" cried one hunter, flashing his
light. "This must be the one I shot! Come on, we'll get him yet!"
And these were the voices Nero heard. The wounded lion boy did not wait
any longer. Up he sprang, and, running on three legs, and making no
noise, off through the dark jungle he hurried. His only idea was to get
away and hide.
Suddenly Nero saw a blacker patch in the half darkness. He knew at once
what it was. It was the opening, or front door, of a cave.
"It isn't the cave where I live," thought the lion boy, "but it will do
very well for me to hide in."
So Nero crawled into the cave with his sore paw, and lay down on some
dried grass, as far back as he could get. And the hunters, with their
guns and lanterns, came on through the jungle, looking for a lion to
kill.