diff --git a/src/hb-ot-font.cc b/src/hb-ot-font.cc
index 36575cf54..e03339d85 100644
--- a/src/hb-ot-font.cc
+++ b/src/hb-ot-font.cc
@@ -85,6 +85,7 @@ _hb_ot_font_create (hb_font_t *font)
 
   ot_font->ot_face = &font->face->table;
 
+  // retry:
   auto *cmap_cache  = (hb_ot_font_cmap_cache_t *) hb_face_get_user_data (font->face,
 									 &hb_ot_font_cmap_cache_user_data_key);
   if (!cmap_cache)
@@ -98,13 +99,14 @@ _hb_ot_font_create (hb_font_t *font)
 					  hb_free,
 					  false)))
     {
-      /* Normally we would retry after this, but that would
+      hb_free (cmap_cache);
+      cmap_cache = nullptr;
+      /* Normally we would retry here, but that would
        * infinite-loop if the face is the empty-face.
        * Just let it go and this font will be uncached if it
        * happened to collide with another thread creating the
        * cache at the same time. */
-      hb_free (cmap_cache);
-      cmap_cache = nullptr;
+      // goto retry;
     }
   }
   out: