But this man of iron nerve soon recovered.

He frowned deeply after the first involuntary heart-throb.
With the stick he cleared away the undergrowth, and revealed the skeleton of a man.

The bones were big and strong, but oxidized by the action of the air.

Jenks had injured the left tibia by his tread, but three fractured ribs and a smashed shoulder-blade told some terrible unwritten story.
Beneath the mournful relics were fragments of decayed cloth.

It was blue serge.