Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/102

 Here it was needful to pause. I had reached the brink of a cavity whose depth it was impossible to ascertain: it might be a few inches beyond my reach, or hundreds of feet; by leaping down I might incur no injury, or might plunge into a lake, or dash myself to pieces on the points of rocks.

I now saw with new force the propriety of being furnished with a light. The first suggestion was to return upon my footsteps, and resume my undertaking on the morrow: yet, having advanced thus far, I felt reluctance to recede without accomplishing my purposes: I reflected likewise that Clithero had boldly entered this recess, and had certainly come forth at a different avenue from that at which he entered.

At length it occurred to me, that though I could not go forward, yet I might proceed along the edge of this cavity: this edge would be as safe a guidance, and would serve as well for a clue by which I might return, as the wall which it was now necessary to forsake.

Intense dark is always the parent of fears: impending injuries cannot in this state he descried, nor shunned, nor repelled. I began to feel some faltering of my courage, and seated myself for a few minutes on a stony mass which arose before me. My situation was new. The caverns I had hitherto met with in this desert were chiefly formed of low-browed rocks: they were chambers, more or less spacious, into which twilight was at least admitted; but here it seemed as if I was surrounded by barriers that would for ever cut off my return to air and to light.

Presently I resumed my courage, and proceeded. My road appeared now to ascend. On one side I seemed still upon the verge of a precipice, and on the other all was empty and waste. I had gone no inconsiderable distance, and persuaded myself that my career would speedily terminate. In a short time the space on the left hand was again occupied, and I cautiously proceeded between the edge of the gulf and a rugged wall: as the space between them widened, I adhered to the wall.

I was not insensible that my path became more intricate, and more difficult to retread in proportion as I advanced: