She was the first to propose that they move to another spot.  “We ought to try a place where it’s not yet dawn,” said she, shielding her eyes from the glare. (It will be remembered that the suits protected them from the heat itself.) “Can’t see anything.”

“Hush!” hissed the doctor.  They turned and followed his gaze to a spot not thirty feet from where they stood.

At the same instant they felt a faint jar in the material under their feet.  And next second they saw that a large section of the supposedly solid surface was in motion.

A portion about ten feet square was being lifted bodily in front of their eyes, and before another word was said this block of the unknown substance was raised until they could see that it was all of a yard thick.  Up it went at the same deliberate rate; and the four involuntarily moved closer together as they saw that there was something underneath.

It was a cage, for all the world like that of an elevator except that it was made of clear glass.  Another second and it had stopped, with its floor level with the surface; and the people from the earth saw that it contained a man.

He was quite tall, slenderly built, and dressed in a queer satiny material which fitted him like an acrobat’s suit.  He was extremely thin as to legs, narrow as to shoulders, deep in the chest and short in the waist.  All this, however, they saw after their inspection of his head.

It was human!  Marvelously refined in every detail, yet it was set upon a graceful neck, and modeled upon much the same lines as that of any man.  It was not that of a brute, nor yet that of a bird; it was—­human!

He stood at ease, resting slightly on one foot, and dispelled any notion that he might be unreal by shifting his weight occasionally.  Meanwhile he watched the four with a grave, interested smile; and they, in turn, came closer.

His chin was small, even retreating; but his mouth was wide and curved into an exaggerated Cupid’s bow.  Even as he continued to smile the curves did not leave his lips; they, however, were thin rather than thick.  His nose was quite small, with a decidedly Irish cast; but his eyes, set far apart above quite shallow cheekbones, were exceedingly large and of a brilliant blue.  In fact, it was mainly his eyes that gave character to his face; although none could overlook his breadth of forehead, running back to a cranium that fairly bulged over the ears, and seemed ready to rise like a tightly inflated balloon.  His skin was pure white.

And so they stood for uncounted minutes.  At last the doctor noted that the stranger was eying them with far less interest than they showed in him; he stood as though he felt on display; and the doctor gave an exclamation of perplexity that broke the spell.  The four impulsively drew up to the glass; Van Emmon touched it with his mitten; and that is how the four explorers came to receive the vibrations that came next.