‘Yes, to be sure. Remember you are under my orders, and you may as well remember why, too.’
‘Why?’
‘Yes, why. Was it not because I knew more than you did, and could so take the command with more advantage to you as well as to myself? Come on; I will yet see you all safe out of this affair, you may depend upon it.’
They accordingly proceeded up stairs, where as Blodget anticipated, they found a scuttle affording an exit to the roof—through this they escaped, and scampering over the flat roofs of the adjacent houses, got safely off with their blood-bought booty.
CHAPTER XIV
We must now retrace our steps in order to introduce a different phase of life in the Golden City.
Among the many hundreds of passengers who landed one drizzly day from one of the Panama steamers, was a young and very handsome female.
Her personal attractions had excited the attention and admiration of many of the male passengers, who would fain have improved the chance of becoming more intimate with her, had they not been kept aloof by the distant manners of a gentleman, under whose protection she appeared to be, and, perhaps, even more by the young girl’s reserved ways and apparently sad expression of countenance.
Who this lady was will appear in the course of our tale. Her companion called her Fanny—but whether she was his wife or not, was unknown to the rest of the passengers.