So we brought our raft to anchor at about the place from which he had
started out and pitched camp on a stretch of clean yellow sand.
I shall never forget that night. It was uncanny. None of us slept well.
All through the hours of darkness we heard things moving around us.
Enormous things. Yet never did we see them or find out what they were.
The four of us were nevertheless certain we were being watched. Even
Polynesia was disturbed. There seemed no doubt that there was plenty of
animal life in the Moon, but it did not as yet want to show itself to
us. The newness of our surroundings alone was disturbing enough, without
this very uncomfortable feeling that something had made the moon folks
distrustful of us.
THE SEVENTH CHAPTER
Tracks of a Giant
Another thing which added to our sleeplessness that night was the
continuance of the mysterious music. But then so many strange things
contributed to our general mystification and vague feeling of anxiety
that it is hard to remember and distinguish them all.
The next morning after breakfasting on what remained of our fruits we
packed up and started off for further exploration. While the last of the
packing had been in progress Chee-Chee and Polynesia had gone ahead to
do a little advanced scouting for us. They formed an admirable team for
such work. Polynesia would fly above the forest and get long-distance
impressions from the air of what lay ahead while Chee-Chee would examine
the more lowly levels of the route to be followed, from the trees and
the ground.
The Doctor and I were just helping one another on with our packs when
Chee-Chee came rushing back to us in great excitement. His teeth were
chattering so he could hardly speak.
“What do you think, Doctor!” he stammered. “We’ve found tracks back
there. Tracks of a man! But so enormous! You’ve no idea. Come quick and
I’ll show you.”
The Doctor looked up sharply at the scared and excited monkey, pausing a
moment as though about to question him. Then he seemed to change his
mind and turned once more to the business of taking up the baggage. With
loads hoisted we gave a last glance around the camping ground to see if
anything had been forgotten or left.
[Illustration: “_‘What do you think, Doctor?’ he stammered_”]
Our route did not lie directly across the lake, which mostly sprawled
away to the right of our line of march. But we had to make our way
partly around the lower end of it. Wondering what new chapter lay ahead
of us, we fell in behind Chee-Chee and in silence started off along the
shore.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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