It struck him that the stones would not naturally be in the soft mud, and, his curiosity aroused, he stepped lightly from one stone to another.

When he came to the last stone that he had seen from the hard ground he beheld several more that had been hidden from him by the bushes.

Sure now that he had happened upon something not created by nature alone, he followed these stones, leading like steps into the very depths of the swamp, which was now deep and dark with ooze all about him.

He no longer doubted that the stones, the artificial presence of which might have escaped the keenest eye and most logical mind, were placed there for a purpose, and he was resolved to know its nature.
The stepping stones led him about sixty yards into the swamp, and the last thirty yards were at an angle from the first thirty.

Then he came to a bit of hard ground, a tiny islet in the mire, upon which he could stand without sinking at all.