It seemed to enfold and crush him in spite of the clamor of the creek which indeed he scarcely heard.

No man, he fancied, had crept through those solitudes before; but several times he felt almost sure that he saw shadowy figures flitting among the trees, and Grenfell declared that he heard the clank of cowbells.
Weston was not astonished, though he knew that no cattle had ever crossed that range.
At last in the gray dawn they came to a little opening where the ground was soft.

It seemed familiar, and both of them stopped.

They certainly had seen before something very much like the slope of rock that rose in front of them.

Weston, blinking about him, discovered in the quaggy mould two foot-prints half filled with water.