Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/201

 had brought me to the foot of the southern barrier: the outer basis of this was laved by the river,' but, as it tended eastward, the mountain and river receded from each other, and one of the cultivable districts lying between them was Solebury, my natal township: hither it was now my duty to return with the utmost expedition.

There were two ways before me; one lay along the interior base of the hill, over a sterile and trackless space, and exposed to the encounter of savages, some of whom might possibly be lurking here; the other was the well—frequented road on the outside and along the river, and which was to be gained by passing over this hill. The practicability of the passage was to be ascertained by enquiries made to my hostess: she pointed out a path that led to the rocky summit and down to the river's brink; the path was not easy to be kept in view, or to be trodden, but it was undoubtedly to be preferred to any other.

A route somewhat circuitous would terminate in the river road, thenceforward the way to Solebury was level and direct; but the whole space which I had to traverse was not less than thirty miles: in six hours it would be night, and to perform the journey in that time would demand the agile boundings of a leopard, and the indefatigable sinews of an elk.

My frame was in miserable plight; my strength had been assailed by anguish and fear and watchfulness, by toil and abstinence and wounds; still, however, some remnant was left: would it not enable me to reach my home by night-fall? I had delighted from my childhood in feats of agility and perseverance; in roving through the maize of thickets and precipices I had put my energies, both moral and physical, frequently to the test. Greater achievements than this had been performed; and I disdained to be outdone in perspicacity by the lynx, in his sure-footed instinct by the roe, or in patience under hardship and contention with fatigue by the Mohawk. I have ever aspired to transcend the rest of animals in all that is common to the rational and brute, as well as in all by which they are distinguished from each other.