surpassed the human height, the branches were 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.