Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/119

 to the house. The door by which the kitchen was entered was not to be seen from the road; it opened on a field, the farther limit of which was a ledge of rocks, which formed on this side the boundary of Inglefield's estate, and the westernmost barrier of Norwalk.

As I turned the angle of the house, and came in view of this door, methought I saw a figure issue from it: I was startled at this incident, and stopping, crouched close to the wall, that I might not be discovered. As soon as the figure passed beyond the verge of the shade, it was easily distinguished to be that of Clithero: be crossed the field with a rapid pace, and quickly passed beyond the reach of my eye.

This appearance was mysterious; for what end he should visit this habitation could not be guessed. Was the contingency to be lamented, in consequence of which an interview had been avoided? Would it have compelled me to explain the broken condition of his trunk? I knew not whether to rejoice at having avoided this interview, or to deplore it.

These thoughts did not divert me from examining the nature of the prize which I had gained: I relighted my candle, and hied once more to the chamber. The first object which, on entering it, attracted my attention, was the cabinet broken into twenty fragments on the hearth. I had left it on a low table at a distant corner of the room.

No conclusion could be formed but that Clithero had been here, had discovered the violence which had been committed on his property, and, in the first transport of his indignation, had shattered it to pieces: I shuddered on reflecting how near I had been to being detected by him in the very act, and by how small an interval I had escaped that resentment, which, in that case, would have probably been wreaked upon me.

My attention was withdrawn at length from this object, and fixed upon the contents of the box which I had dug up. This was equally inaccessible with the other: I had not the same motives for caution and forbearance; I was somewhat desperate, as the consequences of my indiscretion could not be aggravated, and my curiosity was more impetuous with regard to the smaller than to the larger cabinet: