The Castaways

by Mayne Reid

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

  AN ENEMY IN THE AIR.

  Though the old hen hornbill, after her long and seemingly forced periodof incubation, might not prove such a tender morsel, they werenevertheless rejoiced at this accession to their now exhausted larder,and the pilot at once set about plucking her, while Murtagh kindled afresh fire.

  While they were thus engaged, Henry, who had greatly admired theingenuity displayed by Saloo in the construction of his singular ladder,bethought him of ascending it. He was led to this exploit partly out ofcuriosity to try what such a climb would be like; but more from a desireto examine the odd nest so discovered--for to him, as to most boys ofhis age, a bird's nest was a peculiarly attractive object. He thoughtthat Saloo had not sufficiently examined the one first plundered, andthat there might be another bird or an egg behind. He was notnaturalist enough to know--what the ex-pilot's old Sumatran experiencehad long ago taught him--that the hornbill only lays one egg, and bringsforth but a single chick. Whether or no, he was determined to ascendand satisfy himself.

  He had no fear of being able to climb the tree-ladder. It did not seemany more difficult than swarming up the shrouds of a ship, and not halfso 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 laidhold of the bamboo pegs and started up the tree.

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

  After a moment or two spent in examining the curious cavity, andreflecting on the odd habit of a bird being thus plastered up and keptfor weeks in close confinement--all, too, done by its own mate, whosurely could not so act from any intention of cruelty--after in vainpuzzling himself as to what could be the object of such a singularimprisonment, he determined upon returning to the ground, and seekingthe explanation from Saloo.

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

  Although somewhat surprised by the onslaught, so sudden and unexpected--and at the same time no little alarmed--there was no mystery about thematter. For he could see at a glance that the bird so assailing him wasa hornbill; and a moment's reflection told him it was the cock.

  Afar off in the forest--no doubt in search of food--catering for hishousekeeper and their new chick, of whose birth he was most probablyaware, he could not have heard her cries of distress; else would he haverushed to the rescue, and appeared much sooner upon the scene. But atlength he had arrived; and with one glance gathered in the ruin that hadoccurred during his absence. There was his carefully plastered wallpulled down, the interior of his domicile laid open, his darlings gone,no doubt dragged out, throttled and slaughtered, by the young robberstill standing but a step from the door.

  The enraged parent did not pause to look downward, else he might haveseen a still more heart-rending spectacle at the bottom of the tree. Hedid not stay for this; on the instant he went swoop at the head of thedestroyer, with a scream that rang far over the forest, and echoed in athousand reverberations through the branches of the trees.

  Fortunately for Henry, he had on his head a thick cloth cap, with itscrown cotton-padded. But for this, which served as a helmet, the beakof the bird would have been into his skull, for at the first dab itstruck right at his crown.

  At the second onslaught, which followed quick after, Henry, beingwarned, was enabled to ward off the blow, parrying with one hand, whilewith the other supporting himself on his perch. For all this the dangerwas not at an end; as the bird, instead of being scared away, or showingany signs of an intention to retreat, only seemed to become moreinfuriated by the resistance, and continued its swooping and screamingmore vigorously and determinedly than ever. The boy was well aware ofthe peril that impended; and so, too, were those below; who, of course,at the first screech of the hornbill, had looked up and seen what waspassing above them.

  They would have called upon him to come down, and he would have done sowithout being summoned, if there had been a chance. But there was none:for he could not descend a single step without using both hands on theladder; and to do this would leave his face and head without protection.Either left unguarded for a single instant, and the beak of the bird,playing about like a pickaxe, would be struck into his skull, or burieddeep in the sockets of his eyes. He knew this, and so also they wholooked from below. He could do nothing but keep his place, and continueto fight off the furious assailant with his free arm--the hand gettingtorn at each contact, till the blood could be seen trickling from thetips of his fingers.

  It is difficult to say how long this curious contest might havecontinued, or how it would have terminated, had the combatants been leftto themselves. In all probability it would have ended by the boy'shaving his skull cleft open or his eyes torn out; or, growing feeble, hewould have lost his hold upon the ladder and fallen to the foot of thetree--of itself certain death.

  It in reality looked as if this would be the lamentable result, and veryquickly. Saloo had sprung to the tree, and was already ascending to therescue. But for all that he might be too late; or even if successful inreaching the elevated point where Henry struggled against danger, hemight still be unable to effect his deliverance. The alarmed fatherseemed to fear this, as he stood gazing, with agony depicted on hisface--agony at the thought of seeing his dear boy exposed to such afearful peril, and feeling himself so helpless to rescue him.

  All at once a thought flashed into his mind, that at least gave him somerelief through the necessity of action. His rifle, which fortunatelyafter cleaning he had reloaded, stood resting against the trunk of thetree. He sprang toward and seized hold of it. In another second it wasraised to his shoulder; its muzzle pointed almost vertically upward, andcircling around to get bearing upon the body of the bird.

  It was a dangerous shot to take, like that of Tell with the arrow andthe apple. But it seemed yet more dangerous not to venture it; and withthis reflection passing through his mind he watched the hornbill throughseveral of its swoopings, and when at length in one of these it recededto some distance from Henry's face, he took quick sight upon it, andpulled trigger.

  A splendid shot--a broken wing--a huge bird seen fluttering through theair to the earth--then flopping and screaming over the ground, till itscries were stilled and its strugglings terminated by a few blows from aboat-hook held in the hands of the ship-carpenter;--all this was thespectacle of only a few seconds!