Edgar Huntly begins his letter to his fiancée, Mary Waldegrave. Only somewhat recovered from recent events, Edgar is shaking as he writes. The narrator describes his “torment” over the murder of Mary’s brother, Waldegrave, which prompted his late-night arrival at his uncle’s house.

Rather than wait until morning, Edgar sets out for the elm tree where Waldegrave was murdered to find some overlooked clue or the killer revisiting the scene. There, Edgar encounters an “apparition” that turns out to be a “half naked” (35) man digging a hole with a spade and sobbing near the elm. Unbeknownst to Edgar, the man is Clithero.

Edgar calls out to him, but Clithero ignores Edgar, fills the hole with earth, and once again has a fit of sobbing. When Clithero leaves the scene, Edgar realizes that he is asleep and heads back toward his uncle’s house.   

Absorbed in thought, Edgar walks past his uncle’s house and to a hill. Here, he decides the sleepwalker murdered Waldegrave and must live near the elm. His neighbor Inglefield’s house is closest, and he employs a servant who emigrated from Ireland named Clithero. Clithero is the only “foreigner” among the Anglo-Saxon settlers, which inspires his resolve to unearth Clithero’s past.