“The lion!  Don’t let him eat me!” he muttered.

“You’re safe, Giant,” answered the doctor’s son.

“I—–­I got shot!”

“We know it.  Let us see if you are badly hurt.”  On several occasions, in cases of accident, Shep had aided his father in caring for patients, and the knowledge thus gained now stood him in good stead.  He made a close examination and found that several buckshot had grazed the small youth’s temple, while one had gone through the tip of the ear.  Giant’s face was covered with blood, and this was washed off, and then his wounds were bathed with witch hazel and bound up.

“You had a narrow escape,” was the comment of the doctor’s son.  “A little closer and you might have been killed, or might have lost your eyesight.”

“That fellow with the gun was mighty careless,” said Whopper.

“He was excited,” added Snap.  “He didn’t want to hit Giant.”

Snap said nothing about his hurt shoulder, although the bump he had received made him stiff and sore.  He was thankful that the honeysuckle vine had broken the fall from the piazza roof, and that he and Giant had escaped from the clutches of the lion.

The hunters of the animal had gone past the house, and now those inside heard firing in the distance.  The shots gradually grew fainter and fainter, at last dying out altogether.

“I guess his lionship has left town,” said Shep.

“Or else he is dead,” added Snap.

Mrs. Carson was much worried over the wounds Giant had received and insisted upon putting on them some salve.  The boy declared he felt all right again and that the wounds would soon heal.

“I’m used to little things like that,” he said.  “When we went hunting we had all sorts of things happen to us.”

“Mercy on us!  Then you ought never to go hunting again!” declared the lady of the house.

“It was a narrow escape,” said Snap gravely.  “You can be thankful that man didn’t blow your head off.

“I am thankful, Snap; and I am also thankful for what you did for me,” murmured Giant, and looked at his chum in a manner that spoke volumes.

It was now too late to think of going to Fairview, for the last train had already departed.  And as it was, Mrs. Carson insisted upon it that the boys remain all night.

“If you leave the house I’ll be worried to death, thinking the lion caught you,” she said.

So the boys stayed over another night.  Late in the evening they stopped two men who were passing the house and from them learned that the lion had been chased to the edge of a big woods north of Railings.  He had been wounded, of that the men were certain, and a regular hunting party was going out in the morning to either kill or capture the beast.

“The circus owner has offered a hundred dollars reward for his capture,” said one of the men “So they’ll get him alive if they can.”