Besides this there had been dug, inside the trap, and close to where
the heavy tree-stakes had been driven into the ground, a ditch, or
trench. There was no water in this ditch but on account of the trench
the elephants could not get near enough the inside of the fence to
strike it with their heads. If they had done so they would have gotten
their front feet into the dug-out place, and, perhaps, would have
fallen over and hurt themselves.

So when Tusker and the others hoped to knock the fence down by
hitting, or butting, it with their heads, they found they could not,
as the ditch stopped them. They could only just reach the fence by
stretching out their trunks; they could not bang it with their big
heads as they wanted to.

"Can't we ever get out of the trap?" asked Umboo of his mother when
Tusker and the others had found they could not knock down the stockade
fence. "Can't we ever get out?"

"And did you ever get out?" eagerly asked Snarlie, the tiger, who,
with the other circus animals, listened to Umboo's story. "Did you
ever get out of the trap, Umboo?"

"Tell us about that part!" begged Woo-Uff, the lion. "Once I was
caught in a trap, but it was made of a net, with ropes of bark. It was
then that Gur, the kind boy, gave me a drink of water."

"And I was in a trap also," spoke Snarlie, the striped tiger. "I fell
into a deep pit. It was almost like your trap, Umboo, except that the
sides were of dirt, and the pit was very deep. I could not jump out.
But after a while I did not mind being caught, for I was taken care of