He stepped slowly, and paused frequently to listen.

At last he went down on his hands and knees and crept forward for a considerable distance in that position, until he reached a ledge of rocks that overhung the shore of the bay.

Here he observed an object like a round lump of rock, lying a few yards before him, on a spot where he was well aware no such rock had previously existed.

It moved after a moment or two.

Gascoyne knew that there were no wild animals of any kind on the island, and, therefore, at once jumped to the conclusion that this must needs be a human being of some sort.