"So quick as you could cut it down," insisted the Bornean stoutly.
"Dry up, now, and let us see the Malays work with the thing," interposed the captain.
"Lane, you shall have a trial with a Dyak or a Malay, and I will give a prize of three dollars to the one that fells the tree first," said Louis.
"I should like to try that with any Dyak or Malay," replied Lane good-naturedly; and he was a stout Down-Easter, who had been a logger in the woods before he was a carpenter or a seaman.
"There are two animals in that tree where they are at work," cried Morris, as he pointed to the scene of operations. "One of them is a big one, and the other is a little one," he added, when he obtained a better view of the game the Malays were trying to obtain. "What are they, Achang?"
"Mias! Mias!" exclaimed the native, as a movement of the boat ahead gave him a full view of the creatures. "One is a big one, and the other is her baby."
"But what are the Malays doing now?" asked Louis.
"Make a stage to stand on," replied Achang.
"What do they want of a stage?" demanded Lane contemptuously.
"You will see if you wait," added the captain.