For stone and earth had been crushed, compressed, into a smooth, microscopically grained, adamantine complex, and in this matrix poppies still bearing traces of their coloring were imbedded like fossils.

A cyclone can and does grip straws and thrust them unbroken through an inch board--but what force was there which could take the delicate petals of a flower and set them like inlay within the surface of a stone?
Into my mind came recollection of the wailings, the crashings in the night, of the weird glow that had flashed about us when the mist arose to hide the chained aurora.
"It was what we heard," I said.

"The sounds--it was then that this was made." "The foot of Shin-je!" Chiu-Ming's voice was tremulous.

"The lord of Hell has trodden here!" I translated for Drake's benefit.
"Has the lord of Hell but one foot ?" asked Dick, politely.
"He bestrides the mountains," said Chiu-Ming.

"On the far side is his other footprint.