ht as it had been.
A few minutes passed and the men did not seem to be doing anything.

"Do you know what I think?" declared Whopper. "I think that lion
is hiding on them."

"Just what I was going to say," came from Giant. "Maybe he has
crawled to some dark corner of the barn and nobody has the courage
to stir him up."

"Do you want to stir him up?" asked Snap dryly.

"Not on your necktie!" answered the small youth.

"Let him sleep in peace," added Whopper.

"He won't sleep," said the doctor's son.

"Something doing, now!" cried Whopper a few minutes later. He had
seen one of the men run across the yard. "Why, I declare, there is
the lion in the yard next door!"

"How did he get there?" asked Snap.

"I don't know."

"That man is going to take another shot!" cried Shep as he saw a gun
raised.

"And there goes the lion!" cried Snap as the form of the animal arose
swiftly in the air. With grace and precision the lord of the animal
world cleared the back fence of the yard and crouched down in the
street, close to a tree.

"He's heading this way!" burst out the doctor's son. "Maybe we had
better get indoors."

"Oh, he can't leap up here," insisted Giant, who was brave, even
though small.

"We'll take no chances," was Shep's answer. "Come."

He turned to the window, and so did Snap and Whopper. At that
minute one of the men came around the corner of the street. The
lion leaped from behind the tree into the roadway. Pulling up his
gun, the man banged away wildly, for he was nervous and frightened.

"Oh!" came in a groan from Giant, and his chums saw him stagger.

"What is it?" asked Snap quickly. But instead of answering the
small youth staggered around the piazza top.

"Giant is shot!" gasped Whopper. "Catch him! He is falling off
the roof!"

Snap made a quick leap forward and caught Giant around the waist.
Both were now on the slanting portion of the piazza roof. Snap
did what he could to stay their progress, but it was in vain, and
the next instant both boys slipped down over the edge. Snap
clutched at a honeysuckle vine growing there, but it gave way, and
a moment later the two boys rolled to the ground.

CHAPTER VI

SOMETHING ABOUT A CHIMPANZEE

It was well that that honeysuckle vine was growing there and that it
gave way slowly after Snap grasped it, for otherwise the two boys
might have suffered some broken bones. As it was, Snap bumped his
shoulder severely and sc