“Oh my!” exclaimed Mappo, and he was so frightened that he could not move.

CHAPTER III

MAPPO IN A NET

Mappo crouched down on the ground, trying to hide under a green bush of the jungle.  In his paw he held the empty cocoanut shell with which he was going to play a trick on Bumpo or Jacko.  The tiger was creeping, slowly, slowly along, on his soft, padded feet, just as your cat creeps after a bird.  Mappo was too frightened to move.

“Ah ha!” growled the tiger, away down deep in his throat.  “At last I have caught a monkey!”

Of course he had not yet really caught Mappo, but he soon would; there was very little doubt of that.  Mappo shivered.  He wished he had not tried to play the trick.  If he had stayed safe up in the tree, the tiger could not have gotten at him.

Mappo, with his queer little eyes, almost like yours, looked up toward where he knew his tree-house was.  He was looking to see if his papa or mamma were in sight.

“Ha!  There is no use looking up there!” said the cunning tiger, lashing his striped sides with his long tail.  “There’s no one up there to help you!”

Poor Mappo saw that this was so.  There was none of his brothers or sisters up in the tree-house.  Nor was his papa or mamma there.  The whole monkey family had gone off to look for more cocoanuts, since those they had had were all eaten up.

Just before starting out Mrs. Monkey had said: 

“Where is Mappo?”

“Oh, he just went on ahead,” said Bumpo, who had seen his brother scrambling down the tree toward the ground.  Bumpo did not know what his brother was going to do, or that Mappo intended to play a trick with the empty cocoanut shell.

“Oh, if he’s gone on ahead, then we’ll catch up to him,” said Mrs. Monkey.  So away they all went, leaving the tree-house empty, and expecting to meet Mappo somewhere on the road through the jungle.

But they did not, and there was poor Mappo on the ground right in front of the bad tiger.  The tiger knew none of the monkey family was near the tree-house except Mappo.  That was what made the tiger so bold.

For, had Mr. Monkey, or Mrs. Monkey, been at home they would have seen, or smelled the tiger.  Monkeys, and other creatures of the jungle, can often smell danger much better and more quickly than they can see it.  And, had Mr. or Mrs. Monkey smelled the tiger, they would have kept their little ones safe in the tree, and would have shouted loudly, to warn all the other monkeys of the danger of the bad tiger.

“Well, you can’t get away from me this time!” growled the tiger, speaking in his own language, which Mappo understood very well, just as the tiger understood the monkey talk.

For, though monkeys, tigers and elephants, as well as cats and dogs, cannot speak our language, they have a way of their own for talking one to another.  To us it may sound only like chatter, growls, meows and barks, but it is really talk.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we could understand animals as well as they understand us?