That made Barty very angry. He felt as if his friends were being insulted, and he strode forward and stood before them.
"They are not toys!" he shouted out. "They are as real as you are! They are my intimate friends. Go away!"
The robbers burst out laughing.
"They are not toys!" they said. "Real lions and tigers and elephants half as big as kittens!"
"If they are real, make the lion roar," said the robber captain, grinning.
"Oh do roar! Please roar!" said Barty to the lions. "Perhaps it will frighten them."
The biggest little lion winked at him again quite as if he were having a joke, and he turned round and roared. But it was such a little roar that Barty could not help knowing that it sounded like a toy roar. And the robbers laughed louder than ever.