an a
serpent, capable of sending forth such a sibilant sound as that just
heard.

"What is it, Saloo?" hailed Captain Redwood; "are you in any danger?"

"No dangee, cappen; only little bit good luck, that all," was the
cheering response that restored their confidence.

"How good luck?" asked the captain, puzzled to think of what fortune
could have turned up in their favour so high above their heads.

"You see soon," rejoined the Malay, taking a fresh peg from his girdle,
and once more resuming his task at stair-making.

While he was engaged in hammering, and between the resounding strokes,
they at the bottom of the tree repeatedly heard the same hissing sound
they had taken for the sibilations of a snake, and which they might
still have believed to be this, but for a hoarse croaking voice,
mingling with the sibilation, which reached their ears at intervals,
evidently proceeding from the same throat.

Moreover, as they continued to gaze upward, watching Saloo at his work,
they caught sight of something in motion on the trunk, and about a foot
above his face. It was something of a whitish colour and slender shape,
pointed like one of the bamboo pegs he was busily driving at. Now they
saw it, and now they did not see it; for whatever it was, it was sunk
inside the trunk of the durion-tree, alternately protruding and drawing
back. It was also clear to them, that from this sharp-pointed thing,
whether beast, bird, or reptile, came the hissing and hoarse croaking
that puzzled them.

"What is it?" again asked the captain, now no longer anxious or alarmed,
but only curious to know what the strange creature could be.

"Buld, cappen--biggee buld."

"Oh, a bird, that's all; what sort of bird?"

"Honbill; ole hen hornbill. She on ha ness inside, hatchee egg; she
built up in dat; ole cock he shuttee up with mud."

"Oh, a hornbill!" said the captain, repeating the name of the bird for
the information of those around him; and now that they more narrowly
scrutinised the spot where the white-pointed beak was still bobbing out
and in, they could perceive that there was a patch or space of irregular
roundish shape, slightly elevated above the bark, having a plastered
appearance, and of the colour of dry mud. They had barely time to make
this last observation, when Saloo, having got another peg planted so as
to enable him to ascend high enough, turned the edge of his axe against
the trunk of the durion, and commenced chip