This desert coast appeared never to have been visited by a human creature.

The shells, those which the sea had not reached, and which might be met with by millions above high-water mark, were untouched.

Not a shell was broken.
Neb then resolved to walk along the beach for some miles.

It was possible that the waves had carried the body to quite a distant point.
When a corpse floats a little distance from a low shore, it rarely happens that the tide does not throw it up, sooner or later.

This Neb knew, and he wished to see his master again for the last time.
"I went along the coast for another two miles, carefully examining the beach, both at high and low water, and I had despaired of finding anything, when yesterday, above five in the evening, I saw footprints on the sand." "Footprints ?" exclaimed Pencroft.
"Yes!" replied Neb.
"Did these footprints begin at the water's edge ?" asked the reporter.
"No," replied Neb, "only above high-water mark, for the others must have been washed out by the tide." "Go on, Neb," said Spilett.
"I went half crazy when I saw these footprints.