CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
A FOUR-FOOTED BURGLAR.
After the departure of the bird, that had taught our young adventurers so interesting a chapter of natural history, the elephant once more engrossed their attention.

Not that there was anything new in the movements of the latter--for it was acting just as before--but simply because they knew that, so long as it remained upon the ground, they would have to stay in the tree; and they naturally bent their eyes upon it, to see if it was showing any signs of moving off.

They could perceive none.

Not the slightest appearance to indicate its intention of departing from the spot.
While engaged in regarding the besieger, their eyes were of course removed from the sycamore; nor might they have been again turned towards that tree--at least, not for a good while--but for a sound that reached their ears, and which appeared to proceed from the direction of the hornbill's nest.

It was a soft and rather plaintive sound--unlike any that had been made by the rhinoceros bird; nor was it at all like the voice of a bird, of any kind.