in it, and, though the sore was healed, it still pained a bit
at times.

"I wonder what can have happened to me," thought Nero, as he tumbled and
twisted about on the bottom of the pit, which was partly filled with
dried leaves. "I wonder what this is, anyhow!"

More than once, when a very little lion boy and out walking along the
jungle paths with his father and mother, Nero had fallen into a mud
puddle or other hole, because he had not yet learned to walk steadily
and carefully. But at such times he had easily scrambled out of the
hole, or his mother had helped him.

Now Mrs. Lion was not here to do this, and, try as he did, Nero could
not get out of this hole. It was too deep, and the sides were too
straight. Nero tried hard enough, jumping up and clawing at the dirt,
some of which got into his eyes, but jump though he did, and roar though
he did, he could not get out.

Up on top, at the edge of the hole, the black African man was jumping
about, waving his hands, in one of which was a long, sharp spear, and
the African was shouting:

"I have caught a lion! I have a lion in my hole-trap! Whoop-la!"

Of course Nero did not know what all this meant. All he knew was that a
man had something to do with his trouble.

"Maybe that is the hunter man who shot me," thought Nero; "and now he
has caught me because I ran away from him and hid in the cave. Well, he
has caught me at last, unless I can get out of this hole."

But Nero was wrong. This was not the same man who had shot him. This was
another man, a trapper of wild animals, and he had dug a deep hole along
a jungle path where he knew lions and other animals would walk. Then he
covered the hole with little sticks and leaves, so they would easily
break if a big animal, like Nero, jumped on them.

And that is just what Nero had done. He saw the piece of meat on the
ground, and jumped straight for it. But he landed in the middle of the
sticks and leaves, and fell into the hole.

That is how Nero was caught, and he did not like it at all. He wanted to
be loose, to roam through the jungle as he liked. He wanted to try to
find his father and his mother and Chet and Boo. But they were far away.

And, while I think of it, I might tell you that for a long time after
Nero was lost, that night of the hunt, Mr. Lion looked everywhere for
the boy lion. But Nero could not be found, and his father and mother and
the other lions thought he had been killed by the hunters. The