n a dense wood I suddenly stumbled upon a thing which at
first filled me with hope and later with the most utter despair and
dejection. It was a little mound of new-turned earth sprinkled with
flowers long since withered, and at one end was a flat slab of
sandstone stuck in the ground. It was a grave, and it meant for me that
I had at last stumbled into a country inhabited by human beings. I
would find them; they would direct me to the cliffs; perhaps they would
accompany me and take us back with them to their abodes--to the abodes
of men and women like ourselves. My hopes and my imagination ran riot
in the few yards I had to cover to reach that lonely grave and stoop
that I might read the rude characters scratched upon the simple
headstone. This is what I read:

HERE LIES JOHN TIPPET ENGLISHMAN KILLED BY TYRANNOSAURUS
10 SEPT., A.D. 1916
R. I. P.

Tippet! It seemed incredible. Tippet lying here in this gloomy wood!
Tippet dead! He had been a good man, but the personal loss was not
what affected me. It was the fact that this silent grave gave evidence
that Bradley had come this far upon his expedition and that he too
probably was lost, for it was not our intention that he should be long
gone. If I had stumbled upon the grave of one of the party, was it not
within reason to believe that the bones of the others lay scattered
somewhere near?

Chapter 9

As I stood looking down upon that sad and lonely mound, wrapped in the
most dismal of reflections and premonitions, I was suddenly seized from
behind and thrown to earth. As I fell, a warm body fell on top of me,
and hands grasped my arms and legs. When I could look up, I saw a
number of giant fingers pinioning me down, while others stood about
surveying me. Here again was a new type of man--a higher type than the
primitive tribe I had just quitted. They were a taller people, too,
with better-shaped skulls and more intelligent faces. There were less
of the ape characteristics about their features, and less of the
negroid, too. They carried weapons, stone-shod spears, stone knives,
and hatchets--and they wore ornaments and breech-cloths--the former of
feathers worn in their hair and the latter made of a single snake-skin
cured with the head on, the head depending to their knees.

Of course I did not take in all these details upon the instant of my
capture, for I was busy with other matters. Three of the warriors were
sitting upon me, trying to