“She is not there!” replied Lina, who had just run to her mistress’
room.
“Good heavens! where is she?” exclaimed her mother, and they all
shouted at once:
“Himha! Minha!”
No reply.
“There she is, on the bow of the jangada!” said Benito.
“Minha!” shouted Manoel.
The two young men, and Fragoso and Joam Garral, thinking no more of
danger, rushed out of the house, guns in hand.
Scarcely were they outside when two of the alligators made a half
turn and ran toward them.
A doze of buckshot to the head, close to the eye, from Benito,
stopped one of the monsters, who, mortally wounded, writhed in
frightful convulsions and fell on his side.
But the second still lived, and came on, and there was no way of
avoiding him.
The huge alligator tore up to Joam Garral, and after knocking him
over with a sweep of his tail, ran at him with open jaws.
At this moment Torres rushed from the cabin, hatchet in hand, and
struck such a terrific blow that its edge sunk into the jaw of the
cayman and left him defenseless.
Blinded by the blood, the animal flew to the side, and, designedly or
not, fell over and was lost in the stream.
“Minha! Minha!” shouted Manoel in distraction, when he got to the bow
of the jangada.
Suddenly she came into view. She had taken refuge in the cabin of
Araujo, and the cabin had just been upset by a powerful blow from the
third alligator. Minha was flying aft, pursued by the monster, who
was not six feet away from her.
Minha fell.
A second shot from Benito failed to stop the cayman. He only struck
the animals carapace, and the scales flew to splinters but the ball
did not penetrate.
Manoel threw himself at the girl to raise her, or to snatch her from
death! A side blow from the animal’s tail knocked him down too.
Minha fainted, and the mouth of the alligator opened to crush her!
And then Fragoso jumped in to the animal, and thrust in a knife to
the very bottom of his throat, at the risk of having his arm snapped
off by the two jaws, had they quickly closed.
Fragoso pulled out his arm in time, but he could not avoid the chock
of the cayman, and was hurled back into the river, whose waters
reddened all around.
“Fragoso! Fragoso!” shrieked Lina, kneeling on the edge of the raft.
A second afterward Fragoso reappeared on the surface of the
Amazon–safe and sound.
But, at the peril of his life he had saved the young girl, who soon
came to. And as all hands were held out to him–Manoel’s, Yaquita’s,
Minha’s, and Lina’s, and he did not know what to say, he ended by
squeezing the hands of the young mulatto.
However, though Fragoso had saved Minha, it was assuredly to the
intervention of Torres that Joam Garral owed his safety.
It was not, therefore, the fazender’s life that the adventurer
wanted. In the face of this fact, so much had to be admitted.
Manoel said this to Benito in an undertone.
“That is true!” replied Benito, embarrassed. “You are right, and in a
sense it is one cruel care the less! Nevertheless, Manoel, my
suspicions still exist! It is not always a man’s worst enemy who
wishes him dead!”
Joam Garral walked up to Torres.
“Thank you, Torres!” he said, holding out his hand. The adventurer
took a step or two backward without replying.
“Torres,” continued Joam, “I am sorry that we are arriving at the end
of our voyage, and that in a few days we must part! I owe you—-”
“Joam Garral!” answered Torres, “you owe me nothing! Your life is
precious to me above all things! But if you will allow me–I have
been thinking–in place of stopping at Manaos, I will go on to Belem.
Will you take me there?”
Joam Garral replied by an affirmative nod.
In hearing this demand Benito in an unguarded moment was about to
intervene, but Manoel stopped him, and the young man checked himself,
though not without a violent effort.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE ARRIVAL DINNER
IN THE MORNING, after a night which was scarcely sufficient to calm