“We may have quartered through the earth’s crust and come out upon some tropical island of the West Indies,” I suggested.  Again Perry shook his head.

“Let us wait and see, David,” he replied, “and in the meantime suppose we do a bit of exploring up and down the coast—­we may find a native who can enlighten us.”

As we walked along the beach Perry gazed long and earnestly across the water.  Evidently he was wrestling with a mighty problem.

“David,” he said abruptly, “do you perceive anything unusual about the horizon?”

As I looked I began to appreciate the reason for the strangeness of the landscape that had haunted me from the first with an illusive suggestion of the bizarre and unnatural—­there was no horizon!  As far as the eye could reach out the sea continued and upon its bosom floated tiny islands, those in the distance reduced to mere specks; but ever beyond them was the sea, until the impression became quite real that one was looking up at the most distant point that the eyes could fathom—­the distance was lost in the distance.  That was all—­there was no clear-cut horizontal line marking the dip of the globe below the line of vision.

“A great light is commencing to break on me,” continued Perry, taking out his watch.  “I believe that I have partially solved the riddle.  It is now two o’clock.  When we emerged from the prospector the sun was directly above us.  Where is it now?”

I glanced up to find the great orb still motionless in the center of the heaven.  And such a sun!  I had scarcely noticed it before.  Fully thrice the size of the sun I had known throughout my life, and apparently so near that the sight of it carried the conviction that one might almost reach up and touch it.

“My God, Perry, where are we?” I exclaimed.  “This thing is beginning to get on my nerves.”

“I think that I may state quite positively, David,” he commenced, “that we are—­” but he got no further.  From behind us in the vicinity of the prospector there came the most thunderous, awe-inspiring roar that ever had fallen upon my ears.  With one accord we turned to discover the author of that fearsome noise.

Had I still retained the suspicion that we were on earth the sight that met my eyes would quite entirely have banished it.  Emerging from the forest was a colossal beast which closely resembled a bear.  It was fully as large as the largest elephant and with great forepaws armed with huge claws.  Its nose, or snout, depended nearly a foot below its lower jaw, much after the manner of a rudimentary trunk.  The giant body was covered by a coat of thick, shaggy hair.

Roaring horribly it came toward us at a ponderous, shuffling trot.  I turned to Perry to suggest that it might be wise to seek other surroundings—­the idea had evidently occurred to Perry previously, for he was already a hundred paces away, and with each second his prodigious bounds increased the distance.  I had never guessed what latent speed possibilities the old gentleman possessed.