Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/166

 where lay a musket: their right hands seemed placed upon the stocks of their guns, as if to seize them on the first moment of alarm.

The aperture through which these objects were seen, was at the back of the cave, and some feet from the ground. It was merely large enough to suffer a human body to pass: it was involved in profound darkness, and there was no danger of being suspected or discovered as long as 1 maintained silence, and kept out of view.

It was easily imagined that these guests would make but a short sojourn in this spot. There was reason to suppose that it was now night, and that after a short repose, they would start up and resume their journey. It was my first design to remain shrouded in this covert till their departure; and I prepared to endure imprisonment and thirst somewhat longer.

Meanwhile, my thoughts were busy in accounting for this spectacle. I need not tell thee that Norwalk is the termination of a sterile and narrow tract, which begins in the Indian country: it forms a sort of rugged and rocky vein, and continues upwards of fifty miles. It is crossed in a few places by narrow and intricate paths, by which a communication is maintained between the farms and settlements on the Opposite sides of the ridge.

During former Indian wars, this rude surface was sometimes traversed by the Red-men; and they made, by means of it, frequent and destructive inroads into the heart of the English settlements. During the last war, notwithstanding the progress of population, and the multiplied perils of such an expedition, a band of them had once penetrated into Norwalk, and lingered long enough to pillage and murder some of the neighbouring inhabitants.

I have reason to remember that event. My father's house was placed on the verge of this solitude; eight of these assassins assailed it at the dead of night: my parents and an infant child were murdered in their beds; the house was pillaged, and then burnt to the ground: happily, myself and my two sisters were abroad upon a visit. The preceding day had been fixed for our return to our father's house; but a storm occurred, which made it dangerous to