CHAPTER XIII.
IN A BAD BOX.
Shadow was in a fix.
And it was a fix as bad as it was strange.
The pile of old junk through which the passage ran had settled down,closing it up.
Retreat was now an impossibility. He must either find a way out of thenarrow prison he now found himself in by forging ahead, or else musteither reveal himself or starve to death like a rat in a trap.
He was in a bad box and no mistake.
For the present he was compelled to lie perfectly quiet where he was,for the noise of the pile in settling had drawn to the spot several ofthe den's inmates.
Cap was seized with a fit of ill-humor over the occurrence, which heaccepted as evidence that the miscellaneous stuff had been carelesslystowed.
"Come--come, Cap?" Shadow heard one of the men rather impatiently say."You've said enough now, so haul in your horns, for I, for one, won'tstand any more."
They were all in one boat, to adopt a much-used simile. And a certainnumber of them belonged to a co-operative sort of an association, andconsequently were on an even footing.
Over these men Cap had no authority, save that which he had acquiredfrom the fact of his being a very important man in the association.
So now, when spoken to in this plain manner, Cap swallowed his wrath,and discontinued his cursing the men with him.
He said that he was afraid that the noise would attract attention thatmight prove unwelcome.
But that was not the only reason for his anger at the settling down ofthe big pile.
Another and stronger reason was that he had not a few articles ofconsiderable value stowed away in crannies at the base of the big pileof junk.
These things were breakable, and for all he knew then, had beencompletely destroyed.
Hiding his mingled anxiety and wrath, he now directed his effortstoward drawing the men away from the spot, and succeeded soon in doingso.
The moment Shadow heard them take their departure he commenced movingabout, examining into the facts of his singular imprisonment.
He found himself in a place high enough to permit his crawling about onhis hands and knees, and about two feet in width and ten in length.
Had it not been that he received a certain quantity of air through theinterstices of the pile, he must have suffocated.
As it was, it took only a very few minutes after the settling downoccurred before the air contained in the narrow place became foul, andreally unfit to breathe.
But it contained enough oxygen to support life, and once satisfied ofthis, Shadow calmly pursued the task he was at.
Before long, however, Cap returned to inquire into the condition of hishidden articles of value, and Shadow was compelled to again become asquiet as a mouse.
He was more than satisfied with the result, since Cap's examinationinvolved the moving of a number of articles, and the disposition ofothers in a manner which promised to make it much easier for themysterious detective to extricate himself from his predicament.
Cap grunted.
And it was a grunt that indicated relief and satisfaction.
Although endangered, the articles concerning which he was solicitoushad not been injured.
Once more he took his departure, and again Shadow made good use of histime.
The change which Cap had made permitted the better ingress of air intoShadow's prison-pen, and he could now breathe more easily.
Not a few times was he compelled to pause by the coming of some of thegang, and it required hours of careful labor before he had assuredhimself of having found a safe means of exit from his narrow cell.
But he did not take immediate advantage of this means of escape.
It would not have been in accordance with his plans.
Once having emerged he would have been compelled to walk some distancein open sight, by a much used path, to reach the stairs descending tothe vaults beneath.
It was all he could hope for, could he once traverse the distancewithout being observed.
He was hungry and thirsty, to be sure, and stood sadly in need of rest.
But to have reached the vaults and gone through them to procure food,then return and make the passage again to his hiding-place, and thenhope to reach the stairs by a third passage of the open space, wouldhave been to hug a foolish hope to his breast.
No, he could not hope to more than once successfully make the passageof the open space without being observed.
So it was practically a question to go hungry and thirsty, or give upall idea of carrying his quest to completion.
The latter he would not do, until absolutely driven to it.
He decided on going hungry.
Only a light packing-case now stood between him and liberty--that is,liberty as far as emerging from his prison was concerned.
Having moved the box in and out to be sure that it did not bindanywhere, and that he would not be delayed when the time had come, inhis judgment, to beat a retreat, he then turned his attention towardextending the passage in the direction of the office, in pursuance ofhis original intention.
It was already so close to the office that he could overhear what wassaid, although not as clearly at all times as he wished.
Conquering his rebellious stomach, which clamored for food, Shadowstuck to the task he had set for himself.
His pluck was properly rewarded, for he at last gained a position inwhich the lowest-toned and most confidential conversation, if above alow whisper, could be overheard.
And in the office there was a gathering not long after he had gainedthis point of vantage.
Than that company of men in the so-called office, it would have beena next to impossible task to have found an equal number of deep-dyedscoundrels or red-handed villains.
There was a full moon, and the night was a clear one, and theriver-pirates do not choose such nights in which to ply their vocation.
As men in honest callings in life will boast sometimes of what theyhave done or can do, so villains when in secret quarters, and believingthemselves beyond prying ears, will boast of their rascally feats.
An exceptional good humor and communicativeness seemed to havedescended on this occasion on the party in the office, for theyrevealed many secret chapters of their lives to each other inillustrating their various exploits.
One fellow told, with a hearty laugh, how, when engaged in making awaywith a coil of rope, he had shot down the captain of the sloop, themate and the cook.
"It was just--pop--pop--pop--in reg'lar one, two, three style, and downthey went. They all 'kicked,' every one of 'em. Mebbe there wasn't ahowl? Well, I just guess! But the police never yet have found out whowas responsible for them there 'stiffs.'"
Another had even a more horrible story to tell of robbery and bloodshed.
Another owned up to have "laid out" six men since the day he first"gripped the graft."
And every word was drank eagerly in by a pair of acute and hungeringears.
Shadow was highly excited, and his face was filled with an expectantlight.
He fully believed that one among the men gathered there was thewill-o'-the-wisp which he had so long been following, and he waswaiting until this one should utter a word that would commit him, oneword by which he would fasten on himself a crime by which Shadow hadsworn solemnly to avenge in as terrible a manner as was within hispower.