Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/210

 river. I reached the surface, and sunk in a moment to the bottom.

Plunging headlong into the water, the impetus created by my fall from such a height, would be slowly resisted by this denser element. Had the depth been less, its resistance would not perhaps have hindered me from being mortally injured against the rocky bottom; had the depth been greater, time enough would not have been allowed me to regain the surface; had I fallen on my side, I should have been bereaved of life or sensibility by the shock which my frame would have received: as it was, my fate was suspended on a thread. To have lost my presence of mind, to have forborne to counteract my sinking for an instant, after I had reached the water, would have made all exertions to regain the air fruitless. To so fortunate a concurrence of events was thy friend indebted for his safety!

Yet I only emerged from the gulf to encounter new perils. Scarcely had I raised my head above the surface, and inhaled the vital breath, when twenty shots were aimed at me from the precipice above. A shower of bullets fell upon the water; some of them did not fall further than two inches from my head. I had not been aware of this new danger, and now that it assailed me, continued gasping for air, and floundering at random. The means of eluding it did not readily occur; my case seemed desperate, and all caution was dismissed.

This state of discomfiting surprise quickly disappeared. I made myself acquainted at a glance with the position of surrounding objects. I conceived that the opposite bank of the river would afford me most security, and thither I tended with all the expedition in my power.

Meanwhile my safety depended on eluding the bullets that continued incessantly to strike the water at an arm's length from my body: for this end, I plunged beneath the surface, and only rose to inhale fresh air. Presently the firing ceased, the flashes that lately illuminated the bank disappeared, and a certain hustle and murmur of confused voices gave place to solitude and silence.