Planet of the apes
Levain and me. The heat was now intense. We took off our clothes and got ready to dive into the lake. But Professor Antelle gave us to understand that one ought to behave with a little more caution when one has only just come up against the system of Betelgeuse.
Perhaps this liquid was not water at all and might be extremely pernicious. He went up to the edge of it, bent down, examined it, then cautiously touched it with his finger. Finally, he scooped a little up in the palm of his hand, inhaled it and wetted the end of his tongue with it. 'It can't be anything but water,' he muttered. He bent down again to plunge his hand into the lake, when we saw him suddenly stiffen.
He gave an exclamation of surprise and pointed towards something he had just discerned in the sand. I experienced, I believe, the most violent emotion of my life. There, beneath the scorching rays of Betelgeuse which filled the sky above our heads like an enormous red balloon, visible to all of us and admirably outlined on a little patch of damp sand, was the print of a human foot.
Translated from French byXan Fielding
