torn off or broken. At
the same time the herbs, roughly scattered, exhibited on the soil, a
little marshy, prints of steps which could not be those of jaguars, or
cougars.

Were these, then, the "ais," or some other tardi-graves, whose feet had
thus marked the soil? But how, then, explain the break in the branches
at such a height?

Elephants might have, without doubt, left such imprints, stamped these
large traces, made a similar hole in the impenetrable underwood. But
elephants are not found in America. These enormous thick-skinned
quadrupeds are not natives of the New World. As yet, they have never
been acclimated there.

The hypothesis that elephants had passed there was absolutely
inadmissible.

However that might be, Dick Sand hardly knew how much this inexplicable
fact gave him to think about. He did not even question the American on
this point. What could he expect from a man who had tried to make him
take giraffes for ostriches? Harris would have given him some
explanation, more or less imaginative, which would not have changed the
situation.

At all events, Dick had formed his opinion of Harris. He felt in him a
traitor! He only awaited an occasion to unmask his disloyalty, to have
the right to do it, and everything told him that this opportunity was
near.

But what could be Harris's secret end? What future, then, awaited the
survivors of the "Pilgrim?" Dick Sand repeated to himself that his
responsibility had not ceased with the shipwreck. It was more than ever
necessary for him to provide for the safety of those whom the waves had
thrown on this coast! This woman, this young child, these blacks--all
his companions in misfortune--it was he alone who must save them! But,
if he could attempt anything on board ship, if he could act on the sea,
here, in the midst of the terrible trials which he foresaw, what part
could he take?

Dick Sand would not shut his eyes before the frightful reality that
each instant made more indisputable. In this juncture he again became
the captain of fifteen years, as he had been on the "Pilgrim." But he
would not say anything which could alarm the poor mother before the
moment for action had arrived.

And he said nothing, not even when, arrived on the bank of a rather
large stream, preceding the little troop about one hundred feet, he
perceived enormous animals, which threw themselves under the large
plants on the brink.

"Hippopotami! hippopotami!" he was going to exc