The hirelings mounted rapidly and began to beat the numerous nests. The bees, as if determined to drown the noise of the raging storm, came out buzzing loudly to attack the intruders, but blinded by the light of the torches and suffocated by the smoke they were driven rapidly away by the violent storm and fell by hundreds of thousands on the other side of the lake. As soon as the swarms had disappeared the men, armed with bamboo knives, eagerly commenced to free the nests from the branches and to drop them into the sacks beneath. All this took but little time to accomplish and the men had already descended ere the Europeans recovered from their astonishment. The sight of those naked brown figures with flowing locks rapidly mounting the trees under the faint glimmer of their torches, their bodies bending over the branches high up in the air, the torches moving to and fro and enveloping everything in a dark smoke; the noise of the storm and the hum of the millions of bees—all these seemed so surprising, so weird, that they could fancy themselves to be dreaming but for the numerous nests dripping with honey which lay at their feet. “They are brave fellows!” La Cueille burst forth. “With quickness and dexterity, combined with cool calculation,” remarked Schlickeisen, “not a single accident has happened to mar the undertaking.” The bees’ nests were speedily stored away in the boat and the whole expedition returned long before midnight. After all the nests had been placed upon a stage to drip, the night-watch was re-established as on the previous evening and half of the crew retired to rest. Rest, however, seems a strange fiction in the Dayak countries. Certainly the first hours passed undisturbed, but the woodcock, which the natives call takakak from its note, had hardly sounded its morning cry about three o’clock when young Andong fancied he heard a slight noise from the side of the wood. He remained at his post as immovable as a monument, listened and signalled to his mates without making any audible sound. They all pricked up their ears and listened likewise. A movement was heard like creeping bodies trying to force a passage through the protecting wood-work and shrubs. Fortunately the storm had abated, or the suspicious sounds would not have been heard. The sleeping party was awakened with the least possible noise and preparations were made for a fight. The Europeans kept close together, having their fire-arms near at hand. But as these seemed almost useless in the intense darkness they, like the Dayaks whom they were impersonating, took each a strong mandauw, intending to make good use of it.