“i’ll give him a trail to follow,” muttered rainsford, and he struck off from the rude path he had been following into the trackless wilderness. the word rude has several different meanings. which one is being used in the previous passage?

The word rude has several meanings depending on its context, in this passage the writer is taking a hard, difficult and rough path to walk for many unpleasant situations. Therefore rude in this passage means hard or rough. Here it says that he stopped walking on that rough and dangerous path to take that one option that was being given to him.

we need to see the paragraphs in order to answer this.

"it's more of an essay than story, but perhaps it is best described as a mood-piece: it uses a lot of musical imagery, not to mention sea imagery, religious imagery, and any other imagery that suits his purpose."