Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/109

 returned to the habitable grounds, it was impossible for him to escape perishing by famine. He might intend to destroy himself by this means; and my first efforts were to be employed to overcome this fatal resolution. To persuade him to leave his desolate haunts might be a laborious and tedious task; meanwhile all my benevolent intentions would be frustrated by his want of sustenance; it was proper, therefore, to carry bread with me, and to place it before him: the sight of food, the urgencies of hunger, and my vehement entreaties, might prevail on him to eat, though no expostulation might suffice to make him seek food at a distance.

morning I stored a small bag with meat and bread, and throwing an axe on my shoulder, set out, without informing any one of my intentions, for the hill. My passage was rendered more difficult by these incumbrances, but my perseverance surmounted every impediment, and I gained, in a few hours, the foot of the tree whose trunk was to serve me for a bridge. In this journey I saw no traces of the fugitive.

A new survey of the tree confirmed my former conclusions, and I began my work with diligence. My strokes were repeated by a thousand echoes; and I paused at first, somewhat startled by reverberations, which made it appear as if not one, but a score of axes were employed at the same time on both sides of the gulf.

Quickly the tree fell, and exactly in the manner which I expected and desired. The wide—spread limbs occupied and choked up the channel of the torrent, and compelled it to seek a new outlet, and multiplied its murmurs. I dared not trust myself to cross it in an upright position, but clung with hands and feet to its rugged bark. Having reached the opposite cliff, I proceeded to examine the spot where Clithero had disappeared. My fondest hopes were realised;