CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
SITTING BY THE SPIT.
Saloo had by this time climbed to the topmost rounds of the ladder; and was able to assist Henry in descending, which he did without further difficulty or danger.
No great harm had happened to him; he had received only a few scratches and skin-wounds, that would soon yield to careful treatment and the surgical skill which his father possessed, along with certain herbal remedies known to Saloo.
They were soon restored to their former state of equanimity, and thought nothing more of the little incident that had just flurried them, except to congratulate themselves on having so unexpectedly added to their stock of provisions the bodies of two great birds, each of respectable size; to say nothing of the fat featherless chick, which appeared as if it would make a very _bonne bouche_ for a gourmand.
As we have said, Saloo did not think any more of ascending the durion-tree, nor they of asking him to do so.

Its fruits might have served them for dessert, to come after the game upon which they were now going to dine.
But they were not in condition to care for following the usual fashion of dining, and least of all did they desire a dinner of different courses, so long as they had one sufficiently substantial to satisfy the simple demands of hunger.

The two hornbills promised, each of them, a fair _piece-de-resistance_, while the fat pult was plainly a titbit, to be taken either _hors d'oeuvres_, or as an _entree_.
They were not slow in deciding what should be done with the stock so unexpectedly added to their larder.

In a trice the cock bird was despoiled of his plumage; the hen having been well-nigh dismantled of hers already.

The former was trussed and made ready for the spit, the latter being intended for the pot, on the supposition that boiling might be better for her toughness.