Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/40

 Go with me down this path—we shall be in less danger of interruption.

He was irresolute and silent; but seeing me remove the bars, and pass through them, he followed me. Nothing more was said till we entered the wood. I trusted to the suggestions of the moment; I had now gone too far to recede, and the necessity that pressed upon me supplied me with words. I continued,

"This is a remarkable spot. You may wonder why I have led you to it; I ought not to keep you in suspense; there is a tale connected with it, which I am desirous of telling you; for this purpose I have brought you hither. Listen to me."

I then recapitulated the adventures of the two preceding nights: I added nothing, nor retrenched any thing. He listened in the deepest silence; from every incident he gathered new cause of alarm; repeatedly he wiped his face with his handkerchief, and sighed deeply. I took no verbal notice of these symptoms. I deemed it incumbent on me to repress nothing. When I came to the concluding circumstance, by which his person was identified, he heard me without any new surprise.

To this narrative I subjoined the inquiries that I had made at Inglefield's, and the result of those inquiries. I then continued in these words:—

"You may ask why I subjected myself to all this trouble? The mysteriousness of these transactions would have naturally suggested curiosity in any one; a transient passenger would probably have acted as I have done: but I had motives peculiar to myself. Need I remind you of a late disaster?—that it happened beneath the shade of this tree? Am I not justified in drawing certain inferences from your behaviour? What they are, I leave you to judge; be it your task to confute or confirm them: for this end I have conducted you hither. My suspicions are vehement; how can they be otherwise? I call upon you to say whether they be just."

The spot where we stood was illuminated by the moon, that had now risen, though all around was dark. Hence his features and person were easily distinguished. His