"No, to capture him alive, and turn him over to the circus folks for that reward."
"What is the idea?"
"Let us dig a big pit here among the rocks and bait it with the two dead wildcats. We can drag the wildcats on the ground around here and to the pit, and maybe the lion will follow the trail up and fall into the pit."
"He'll be very obliging if he does that," said Whopper with a laugh.
"I guess lions are as cautious as any wild beasts."
"He'll follow the trail if he gets hungry enough," said the doctor's son. "I think the idea is a good one, and I vote we follow it out at once.
"But to dig a pit will be lots of work," said Whopper. "Can't we find some ready-made hole that will do?"
Retreating still farther, and keeping their eyes and ears wide open for the possible reappearance of the monarch of the forest, the three young hunters at length found a hole that suited them. The bottom was filled with loose stones and decayed leaves, but these they soon cleaned out. Then, while Whopper went off for the dead wildcats, Snap and Shep made the hole still deeper. They removed the stones until they came to something of a small cave, and had to take care, for fear of tumbling in.
"I think that will hold the lion, if he deigns to come this way," said the doctor's son.
Over the top of the opening they placed some light brushwood, that would easily sink with the weight of any big beast, and in the center placed one of the dead wildcats. The other they dragged in a circle around the hole, and then let it fall to the bottom.
"That will give the beast something to eat, in case he is captured," said the doctor's son. "We don't want him to starve on our hands."