friends had covered a distance
of some five yards when they came upon two more impressions, a little
more distinctly marked than the first. They were about six feet apart,
but in line athwart the path, and suggested the idea of having been made
by the landing of the creature upon the ground after a forward jump.
These, too, Earle carefully examined before proceeding, and then the two
friends went on to the spot where Dick had seen the thing squatting.
And here, the soil being considerably more moist and clayey, they found,
to Earle's intense delight, some half a dozen deep and perfectly clear
imprints, only two of which had been partially obliterated by the feet
of Dick and Moquit on their return after killing the beast. The
imprints somewhat resembled those of a thick-toed bird, but were
immensely larger than the spoor of any known bird, measuring exactly
three feet nine and a quarter inches from the back of the heel to the
front of the middle claw--which seemed to be some six inches longer than
the two others--and two feet two inches across from one outer claw to
the other; the indent showing that the middle claw was fourteen inches
long.

"Gosh!" exclaimed Earle excitedly, as he rose to his full height after
having made a careful figured drawing of the impression in his
pocket-book--"what would I not give for enough plaster of paris to make
a cast of that footprint! Guess it will make some of the professors at
home sit up and take notice when they see this drawing in the book,
which I mean to publish when I get back. Most of 'em won't believe it,
I expect. They'll denounce it as a traveller's tale. Hold on, though,
I'll take a photograph--two or three photographs--of the impressions;
perhaps that will convince them. You shall stand just there, Dick, and
I'll include you in one of the pictures, to act as a sort of scale."

The photographs were duly taken; and then Earle expressed the utmost
anxiety to secure the carcass of the creature itself. But, as Dick
reminded his companion, the creature had no sooner been killed than it
became a prey to several alligators of formidable size, therefore any
attempt to fish up the remains from the bottom of the canal would be
certain to result in failure. And when Dick, pressing home his point,
inquired whether Earle proposed to dive to the bottom in search of the
body, the American reluctantly admitted that even his scientific ardour
was scarcely equal to the adoption of