They walked along a short distance farther, and then Mark spoke.

"That ought to be the place over there," he said, pointing to a
depression between two tall pinnacles of black rock.

Jack sprang forward, and a moment later uttered a cry of astonishment.

"Here it is!" he called. "A dead man!"

"A dead man?" echoed Professor Henderson.

"A petrified man," added Jack, in awe-struck tones. "He's turned to
stone."

A few seconds later they were all grouped around the strange object--it
was a man no longer, but had once been one. It was a petrified human
being, a full-grown man, to judge by the size, and it was a solid image
in stone, even the garments with which he had been clothed being turned
to rock.

For a moment no one spoke, and they gazed in silence at what was an
evidence of former life on the moon. The man was huddled up, with the
knees drawn toward the stomach and the arms bent around the body, as if
the man had died in agony. The features were scarcely distinguishable.

"That man was never an inhabitant of Mars," spoke Professor Henderson,
in a low voice. "He is much too large, and he has none of the
characteristics of the Martians."