The ape might go up without seeing them; and as the tree was a very tall one, with a thick head of foliage and matted creepers, once among these, it might no longer think of looking down.

Then they could steal away unobserved, and, keeping at a safe distance, await the return of the hunters.
At this moment, however, an incident arose that interfered with this desirable programme, in an instant changing the position of everything that promised so well into a sad and terrible catastrophe.
It was Murtagh who caused, though innocently, the lamentable diversion.
The ship-carpenter, returning from his excursion, had just stumbled upon the crocodile where it lay upon the shore of the lake, which, though helpless to return to its proper element, was not yet dead.

With jaw torn and dislocated, it was still twisting its body about in the last throes of the death-struggle.
Not able to account for the spectacle of ruin thus presented, it caused the Irishman much surprise, not unmingled with alarm--the latter increasing as he looked towards the tree where Henry and Helen had been left, and saw they were no longer there.
Had he prudently held his peace, perhaps all might have been well; but, catching sight of the huge hairy monster ascending the trunk, the thought flashed across his mind that the young people had been already destroyed, perhaps devoured, by it; and, giving way to this terrible fancy, he uttered a dread cry of despair.
It was the worst thing he could have done; for, despite the discouraging tone of his voice, it seemed joyful to those crouching in concealment; and, yielding to an instinct that they were now saved by the presence of a stanch protector, they rushed from their ambuscade, and in so doing discovered themselves to the ourang-outang.
Its eyes were upon them--dark, demon-like orbs, that seemed to scintillate sparks of fire.

The gorilla had only gone up the trunk to a height of about twenty feet, when the cry of the alarmed ship-carpenter brought its ascent to a sudden stop; then, bringing its body half round, and looking below, it saw the children.
As if connecting them with the enemy it had just conquered, its angry passions seemed to rekindle; and once more giving utterance to that strange barking cough, it glided down the tree, and made direct for the one who was nearest.
As ill luck would have it, this chanced to be the little Helen, altogether defenceless and unarmed.

Murtagh, still shouting, rushed to the rescue; while Henry, with his musket raised to his shoulder, endeavoured to get between the ape and its intended victim, so that he could fire right into the face of the assailant, without endangering the life of his sister.
He would have been in time had the gun proved true, which it did not.
It was an old flint musket, and the priming had got damp during their journey through the moist tropical forest.