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 time no little alarmed--there was no mystery about the matter.

For he could see at a glance that the bird so assailing him was a 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 his housekeeper and their new chick, of whose birth he was most probably aware, he could not have heard her cries of distress; else would he have rushed to the rescue, and appeared much sooner upon the scene.

But at length he had arrived; and with one glance gathered in the ruin that had occurred during his absence.

There was his carefully plastered wall pulled down, the interior of his domicile laid open, his darlings gone, no doubt dragged out, throttled and slaughtered, by the young robber still standing but a step from the door.
The enraged parent did not pause to look downward, else he might have seen a still more heart-rending spectacle at the bottom of the tree.

He did not stay for this; on the instant he went swoop at the head of the destroyer, with a scream that rang far over the forest, and echoed in a thousand reverberations through the branches of the trees.
Fortunately for Henry, he had on his head a thick cloth cap, with its crown cotton-padded.