"Ha! There is something else I can catch for my supper!" thought Nero. "I am getting to be quite a hunter!"
By this time he was far off from his father and the other lions. But he did not mind that. He felt sure he could find his way back when he needed to.
"But first I'll catch that goat," said Nero.
Carefully he stalked through the jungle, coming nearer and nearer to where he could hear the goat bleating. At last, in an open place in the jungle, where the moon shone brightly, Nero saw the goat, a white one. It seemed caught fast in a vine, and could not move.
"Ah, I can easily get this fellow!" thought the boy lion.
He crouched for a spring, and was just going to leap through the air and on the back of the goat when, suddenly, there was a loud sound, like a small clap of thunder, and at once Nero felt a sharp pain in one paw. He rolled over and over, howling and roaring in pain and anger.
At the same time a man hidden on a platform built up in a tree, cried out:
"Oh, I have shot a lion! I have shot a lion!"