* slower than those implementations but faster than the pure-Java mask-and-shift.
   */
  static boolean usingFastPath() {
    return byteArray.usesFastPath();
  }

  /**
   * Common interface for retrieving a 64-bit long from a little-endian byte array.
   *
   * <p>This abstraction allows us to use single-instruction load and put when available, or fall