“Maybe they won’t catch him at all,” suggested her nephew.

“Oh, they’ll be sure to catch or shoot him by morning,” answered the lady of the house.

Supper in the dining-room below was rather a haphazard affair.  It was eaten behind closed blinds and in semi-darkness, the lady of the house being afraid to make a light, for fear of allowing the roaming lion to see the eating, and her guests.  Just as the hired girl was bringing in the dessert a distant shot rang out, and uttering a scream the girl, whose nerves were on edge, let the dessert saucers fall to the floor with a crash.

“Somebody must have shot the lion!” cried Giant.

“Or shot at him,” corrected Whopper.

“Just look what you have done, Mary!” cried Mrs. Carson in dismay.

“I couldn’t help it, mum,” answered the servant girl.  “That lion gettin’ loose has scared me stiff!”

“Well, I am scared myself.  Clear up the muss, and be careful next time.  Boys, you’ll have to do without the preserves.  But you can have cake.”

“Cake is good enough for me,” answered Snap, and the others said about the same.

Not long after that came another shot, this time from the corner at the end of the block.

“They are coming this way!” exclaimed the doctor’s son.  “Let us go upstairs again and see what is doing.”

“Be careful!” screamed his aunt.  “That lion may jump right up to the second story window!”

The boys went to an upper window, and then, growing bolder, stepped out on the top of the front piazza.  They saw several men running along a cross street.  Then another shot rang out.

“The lion must be in this vicinity,” said Snap.

“I saw something then—–­over yonder!” cried Giant, and pointed to the back of a yard down by the corner of the street.

“A dog—–­and he is legging it for dear life,” returned Whopper.  “He looks as if he wouldn’t stop this side of the North Pole!”

“Perhaps the lion scared him,” said Shep.   “I think-----Look!”

The doctor’s son broke off short and pointed with his hand.  Gazing in the direction indicated, the lads saw something dark slinking on the opposite side of a high picket fence.

“It’s the lion!” said Snap in a whisper.  “See his tail swaying from side to side?”

“Oh, for a rifle!” murmured Whopper.  “Aunty, have you a gun?” called Shep.  “We see the lion!”

“No, I haven’t any gun,” answered the lady of the house quickly.  “And you had better get inside as quickly as you can.  The lion may leap up at you.”

“I don’t think he can jump so high.”

“There are some of the men with their guns,” went on Giant.  “See, they are running around to the front of that house.”

“I wonder if they see the lion?” asked Snap.  “Let us yell to them,” suggested Whopper.  One after another the boys set up a shout.  But the hunters were now out of sight and paid no attention to them.