But if so, how did she chance to fall alone into Kirby's clutches?
Was she aboard the keel-boat, locked below in the cabin, when it rammed into us?
If she had been captured at Shrunk's camp during their murderous raid, what had become of her companion?
Where was Eloise Beaucaire?
The harder I sought to straighten out this mystery the more involved it became.

I knew so little of the facts, there was nothing I could argue from.

All that remained was for me to go forward blindly, trusting implicitly to the god of luck.
With every additional glance at the face reflected by the mirror, my confidence strengthened in the ability to encounter Kirby, and pass unrecognized.

Convinced as he undoubtedly was of my death beneath the black waters of the river he could not possibly imagine my presence aboard the _Adventurer_, while my personal appearance was so utterly changed as to suggest to his mind no thought of familiarity.

The conditions were all in my favor.