In the place where this ran between the rocks, in the deep shadow, these singular marks were surprisingly legible, and bore not a little the appearance of a border design.

The big stones formed a sort of shadow box, causing the markings to appear in bold relief.
Hervey knew nothing of the freakish influence of light on tracks and trails, but he saw here something which he knew had been made by a moving object.

The continuous design was so nearly perfect that it seemed like the work of human beings, but Hervey knew that it could hardly be this.
What, then, was it?
Where the lines emerged from between the rocks the marking was less regular and less clear, but plain enough in the damp, crusted earth which covered the mud in the old stream bed.
With heart bounding with joy and elation, Hervey followed the bed of the stream.

The tracks, or whatever they were, were so clear that he could keep to the side of the muddy area and still see them.
It was characteristic of him that having made this great discovery, he did not trouble himself about the direction he was taking.

In point of fact he was going in a southwesterly direction toward the camp.
For perhaps a quarter of a mile the strange markings were clearly legible in the dusk, running as they did in the yielding caked surface of the stream bed.