Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/235

 one but Edgar himself was the man whom we heard walking: but the lad was asleep, and knew not what he was about.'

'Surely,' said I, 'this inference is just; his manuscripts could not be removed by any hands but his own, since the rest of mankind were unacquainted, not only with the place of their concealment, but with their existence. None but a man insane or asleep would wander forth so slightly dressed; and none but a sleeper would have disregarded my calls.'—This conclusion was generally adopted; but it gave birth in my mind to infinite inquietudes. You had roved into Norwalk—a scene of inequalities, of prominences and pits, among which, thus destitute of the guidance of your senses, you could scarcely fail to be destroyed, or, at least, irretrievably bewildered. I painted to myself the dangers to which you were subjected: your careless feet would bear you into some whirlpool, or to the edge of some precipice; some internal revolution or outward shock would recall you to consciousness at some perilous moment: surprise and fear would disable you from taking seasonable or suitable precautions, and your destruction be made sure.

"The lapse of every new hour, without bringing tidings of your state, enhanced these fears. At length the propriety of searching for you occurred. Mr. Huntly and I determined to set out upon this pursuit, as well as to commission others. A plan was laid by which every accessible part of Norwalk, the wilderness beyond the flats of Solebury, and the valley of Chetasco, should be traversed and explored.

"Scarcely had we equipped ourselves for this expedition, when a messenger arrived, who brought the disastrous news of Indians being seen within these precincts; and on the last night a farmer was shot in his fields, a dwelling in Chetasco was burned to the ground, and its inhabitants murdered or made captives. Rumour and enquiry had been busy, and a plausible conjecture had been formed as to the course and number of the enemies: they were said to be divided into bands, and to amount in the whole to thirty or forty warriors. This messenger had come to warn us of danger which might impend, and