chie. "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