Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/100

 customary paths than that which had taken place when in pursuit of Clithero: I had faint remembrance of the valley into which I had descended after him; but till then I had viewed it at a distance, and supposed it impossible to reach the bottom but by leaping from a precipice some hundred feet in height. The opposite steep seemed no less inaccessible; and the cavern at the bottom was impervious to any views which my former positions had enabled me to take of it.

My intention to re-examine this cave, and ascertain whither it led, had for a time been suspended by different considerations: it was now revived with more energy than ever. I reflected that this had formerly been haunted by Clithero, and might possibly have been the scene of the desperate act which he had meditated: it might at least conceal some token of his past existence; it might lead into spaces hitherto unvisited, and to summits from which wider landscapes might be seen.

One morning I set out to explore this scene. The road which Clithero had taken was laboriously circuitous. On my return from the first pursuit of him, I ascended the cliff in my former footsteps, but soon lighted on the beaten track which I have already described. This enabled me to shun a thousand obstacles which had lately risen before me, and opened an easy passage to the cavern.

I once more traversed this way. The brow of the hill was gained: the ledges of which it consisted afforded sufficient footing when the attempt was made, though viewed at a distance they seemed to be too narrow for that purpose. As I descended the rugged stairs, I could not but wonder at the temerity and precipitation with which this descent had formerly been made: it seemed as if the noon-day light and the tardiest circumspection would scarcely enable me to accomplish it; yet then it had been done with headlong speed, and with no guidance but the moon's uncertain rays.

I reached the mouth of the cave. Till now I had forgotten that a lamp or a torch might be necessary to direct my subterranean footsteps. I was unwilling to defer the attempt. Light might possibly be requisite, if the cave