Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/242

 "The flying enemy was pursued with fresh diligence: they were found, by various tokens, to have crossed the river, and to have ascended the mountain. We trod closely on their heels. When we arrived at the promontory described by you, the fatigues of the night and day rendered me unqualified to proceed: I determined that this should be the bound of my excursions. I was anxious to obtain an interview with you; and, unless I paused here, should not be able to gain Inglefield's as early in the morning as I wished. Two others concurred with me in this resolution, and we prepared to retunrreturn [sic] to this house, which had been deserted by its tenants till the danger was past, and which had been selected as the place of rendezvous.

"At this moment, dejected and weary, I approached the ledge which severed the headland from the mountain. I marked the appearance of some one stretched upon the ground where you lay. No domestic animal would wander hither, and place himself upon this spot; there was something likewise in the appearance of the object that bespoke it to be man; but, if it were man, it was incontrovertibly a savage and a foe: I determined, therefore, to rouse you by a bullet.

"My decision was perhaps absurd; I ought to have gained more certainty before I hazarded your destruction: be that as it will, a moment's lingering on your part would have probably been fatal. You started on your feet, and fired. See the hole which your random shot made through my sleeve! This surely was a day destined to be signalised by hair—breadth escapes.

"Your action seemed incontestably to confirm my prognostics. Every one hurried to the spot, and was eager to destroy an enemy: no one hesitated to believe that some of the shots aimed at you had reached their mark, and that you had sunk to rise no more.

"The gun which was fired and thrown down was taken and examined; it had been my companion in many a toilsome expedition—it had rescued me and my friends from a thousand deaths; in order to recognise it, I needed only to touch and handle it: I instantly discovered that I held in my hand the fusee which I had left with you on