Here was a fix.
How could I pass the guard on the portal? Yet I must go.
[CHAPTER X.]
FAVORING FORTUNE.
In the course of my professional career I have been in many tight places, and among the tightest I count that night, when in the old sugar-house, converted into a "fence" for receiving the "swag" brought in by the river pirates.
Immediately on reading the note written by Shadow I commenced retreating, even while Cap was coming forward to see who wanted him, and what for.
I had pretended to have been sent with a message by Dick Stanton, who, as Shadow had informed me, was already there, a fact unknown to the guard, else I must have been roughly used before this.
To have told this to Cap would have at once betrayed me, and my heart swelled with gratitude to Shadow—for I considered that he had saved my life.
Did misfortune attend my efforts to pass the guard, it would not be Shadow's fault, but my own in venturing into this place.