He paused with a gasp.
It was a footprint.
Moreover it was that of a man who wore a hobnailed boot. It could only prove one thing.
Others were in the region and they were also from civilization. Words cannot express the captain’s amazement.
“By Neptune,” he muttered, “how did they ever find their way to this out of the way place?”
Then other queries came to him. Who were they? What brought them here, and how many were in their party?
The captain’s curiosity was aroused.
Prudence bade him return to the air-ship and secure the co-operation of his companions. But powerful curiosity overruled discretion.
He bent down over the trail and followed it. A little further on as he had expected, the footprints met with others. For two miles he followed them along the shore.
Then he turned an angle in the shore and came upon a startling scene.