Page:The Cave Girl - Edgar Rice Burroughs.pdf/105

 which he had come upon the stream he found a broad trail leading down into the water, and on the other side saw a similar track cutting up through the bank.

This, evidently, was the ford he sought, but as he started toward the river he noticed the imprints of the feet of many animals—human and brute.

Waldo stooped to examine them minutely. There were the broad pads of Nagoola, the smaller imprints of countless rodents, but back and forth among them all were old and new signs of man.

There were the great, flat-foot prints of huge adult males, the smaller but equally flat-footed impresses of the women and children; but one there was that caught his eye particularly.

It was the fine and dainty outline of a perfect foot, with the arch well defined. It was new, as were many of the others, and, like the other newer ones, it led down to the river and then back again, as though she who made it had come for water and then returned from whence she had come. Waldo knew that the tracks leading away from the river were the newer, because where the two trails overlapped those coming up from the ford were always over those which led downward.

The multiplicity of signs indicated a considerable community, and their newness the proximity of the makers.