The Spider Sapphire Mystery by Carolyn G. Keene Read Free Book Online Page B

game preserve.
    Professor Stanley announced, “All the animals roam loose. The park covers forty-four square miles and has twenty miles of roads.”
    The buses had barely entered the vast stretches of grassland when Bess exclaimed, “I see a giraffe! Wow, is he tall!” The animal stood higher than the tree from which it was eating the top leaves. “I’ve seen giraffes in zoos but never one that tall.”
    Burt laughed. “Maybe they come bigger in the open.”
    As they rode along, Nancy and her friends saw graceful eland, sturdy hartebeest, dignified mari bou storks and ostriches. All the animals seemed friendly and unafraid. Several of them came close to the buses. The drivers turned off the road and started through a bumpy field.
    “Oh, this is horrible!” Bess cried out. She was swaying from side to side and banged her elbow hard against the window. Dave put an arm around Bess to keep her steady.
    “Where are we going?” she asked.
    Professor Stanley turned around in his seat and called back, “Our driver has spotted some lions. It is against the rules to get out of the bus and should one of the beasts start toward us, close your windows immediately. Lions do not attack unless provoked, but one never knows what may provoke them.”
    George said in a low voice, “I wonder how Gwen likes all this.”
    The driver pulled around a small dump of high bushes near a tiny stream and stopped. He spoke to Professor Stanley, who in turn called out in a loud whisper, “It is advisable that we do not talk. It might disturb the lions. If you will look ahead in a grassy depression near the water you will see a lion family. Papa is stretched out asleep. By the way, Papa sleeps seventeen out of the twenty-four hours every day.”
    Ned grinned. “No time to be the aggressor.”
    Professor Stanley smiled. “Not normally. The lioness does the killing for food and drags the antelope or gazelle back to Papa. He is the first to eat. After he has gorged himself, Mama eats her share. The cubs take what is left.”
    By this time everyone was standing up and training their eyes hard on the area Professor Stanley had indicated. Presently the lion raised his head and looked sleepily at the bus.
    “What a regal creature he is!” Nancy whispered.
    The others agreed. Suddenly they saw something moving a little nearer the water.
    “The cubs!” Nancy said.
    The next moment she spotted their mother, who also seemed to be sleeping. Professor Stanley said that no doubt the whole family had just finished a big good meal.
    The other two buses pulled in nearby. Gwen Taylor poked her head and shoulders far out of a window and pointed her camera at the beasts. The lion raised its head again and this time gave a loud roar. The noise unnerved Gwen and she dropped her camera.
    “Oh!” she screamed. “Somebody get my camera!”
    Professor Stanley called across to her, “It’s against the rules for anyone to get out of the bus in lion country.”
    Gwen became petulant. “That camera is very special. It cost a great deal of money. I’m going to get it back.”
    “Stay where you are!” the professor said sternly.
    The driver of the bus Gwen was in refused to open the door. The girl protested so loudly that the commotion disturbed the animals. Both the lion and lioness stood up and looked balefully at the visitors.
    “We’d better leave,” Professor Stanley told their driver. He called across to the other two drivers to do the same.
    Mrs. Stanley, who was in the bus with Gwen, said she would try to rescue the camera. She had brought along an umbrella with a curved handle. With it she reached out the window and caught a leather strap attached to the camera. In moments she retrieved Gwen’s property. The buses backed up, turned around, and went on to other sections of the park.
    George was extremely annoyed by Gwen’s actions. “If I were running this tour, I’d make her go home.”
    “Oh, she’ll probably change,” Bess prophesied.
    When