iscovered--for to him, as to most boys of
his age, a bird's nest was a peculiarly attractive object. He thought
that Saloo had not sufficiently examined the one first plundered, and
that there might be another bird or an egg behind. He was not
naturalist enough to know--what the ex-pilot's old Sumatran experience
had long ago taught him--that the hornbill only lays one egg, and brings
forth but a single chick. Whether or no, he was determined to ascend
and satisfy himself.

He had no fear of being able to climb the tree-ladder. It did not seem
any more difficult than swarming up the shrouds of a ship, and not half
so hard as going round the main-top without crawling through the
"lubber's hole"--a feat he had often performed on his father's vessel.
Therefore, without asking leave, or saying a word to any one, he laid
hold of the bamboo pegs and started up the tree.

None of the others had taken any notice of him. Captain Redwood was
engaged in wiping out his gun, with little Helen attending upon him,
while Saloo was playing poulterer, and Murtagh, a little way off in the
woods, gathering faggots for the fire. Henry kept on, hand over hand,
and foot after foot, till he at length stood upon the topmost round of
the unfinished ladder. Being almost as tall as Saloo himself, he easily
got his arm into the cavity that contained the nest, and commenced
groping all over it. He could find no other bird, nor yet an egg. Only
the dried-up ordure of the denizens that had lately occupied the prison
cell, along with some bits of the shell out of which the young hornbill
had been but recently hatched.

After a moment or two spent in examining the curious cavity, and
reflecting on the odd habit of a bird being thus plastered up and kept
for weeks in close confinement--all, too, done by its own mate, who
surely could not so act from any intention of cruelty--after in vain
puzzling himself as to what could be the object of such a singular
imprisonment, he determined upon returning to the ground, and seeking
the explanation from Saloo.

He had returned upon the topmost step, and was about letting himself
down to that next below, when not only were his ears assailed by sharp
cries, but he suddenly saw his eyes in danger of being dug out of their
sockets by the sharp beak of a bird, whose huge shadowy wings were
flapping before his face!

Although somewhat surprised by the onslaught, so sudden and unexpected--
and at the same