Then something made him sit quickly up and stare intently, his bared head craning forward.

To the south, lying low, was a mass of light clouds, volatile, changing with opalescent lights as he looked.

A little to the left of these clouds, while his head was on the sand, he thought his eyes had detected certain squared lines.
Now he scanned the spot with a feverish eagerness.

At first there was only the endless empty blue.

Then, when his wonder was quite dead and he was about to lie down, there came a miracle of miracles,--a vision in the clear blue of the sky.