Even his reckless bravado would never drive him into an utterly unnecessary peril.

All that he planned to accomplish later, could wait; but now his only purpose was to protect her from observation; to encourage his fellow-travelers to even forget that he had any slaves on board.

There was a game of cards going on in the salon, in which he was participating, but Tim, not concerned in it, was wandering back and forth, up and down the ladder, watchful of every movement about the two decks, and making it extremely difficult for anyone to pass his guard.
Satisfied as to this, and being intensely weary from my night without rest, and the hard work of the day, before I even realized the possibility, I fell sound asleep.
It was about the middle of the following afternoon when the _Adventurer_ poked her blunt nose around a point of land, and came into full view of the squalid hamlet of Yellow Banks.

A half-hour later we lay snuggled up against the shore, holding position amid several other boats made fast to stout trees, busily unloading, and their broad gangplanks stretching from forward deck to bank.

All about was a scene of confusion and bustle, mud, and frontier desolation.