Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/170

 The girl's cheek rested on the hard rock, and her eyes were dim with tears; as they were turned towards me, however, I hoped that my movements would be noticed by her gradually, and hence lessen her surprise. This expectation was fulfilled: I had not advanced many steps before she discovered me. This moment was critical beyond all others in the course of my existence—my life was suspended, as it were, by a spider's thread; all rested on the effect which this discovery should make upon this feeble victim.

I was watchful of the first movement of her eye which should indicate a consciousness of my presence: I laboured, by gestures and looks, to deter her from betraying her emotion: my attention was at the same time fixed upon the sleepers, and an anxious glance was cast towards the quarter whence the watchful savage might appear.

I stooped and seized the musket and hatchet. The space beyond the fire was, I expected, open to the air: I issued forth with trembling steps: the sensations inspired by the dangers which environed me, added to my recent horrors, and the influence of the moon, which had now gained the zenith, and whose lustre dazzled my long benighted senses, cannot be adequately described.

For a minute I was unable to distinguish objects: this confusion was speedily corrected, and I found myself on the verge of a steep. Craggy eminences arose on all sides: on the left hand was a space that offered some footing; and hither I turned: a torrent was below me, and this path appeared to lead to it: it quickly appeared in sight, and all foreign cares were for a time suspended.

This water fell from the upper regions of the hill, upon a flat projecture which was continued on either side, and on part of which I was now standing. The path was bounded on the left by an inaccessible wall, and on the right terminated at the distance of two or three feet from the wall, in a precipice: the water was eight or ten paces distant, and no impediment seemed likely to rise between us. I rushed forward with speed.

My progress was quickly checked. Close to the falling water, seated on the edge, his back supported by the rock,