showed that criminal would recoil from nothing if they could gain a
fortune by one bold stroke. But perhaps you are not interested?”
“On the contrary, Torres; go on,” replied Joam Garral, in a
singularly calm voice.
“So be it,” answered Torres. “Well, the story is about stealing
diamonds, and a handful of those pretty stones is worth a million,
sometimes two!”
And Torres, whose face expressed the vilest sentiments of cupidity,
almost unconsciously made a gesture of opening and shutting his hand.
“This is what happened,” he continued. “At Tijuco it is customary to
send off in one delivery the diamonds collected during the year. They
are divided into two lots, according to their size, after being
sorted in a dozen sieves with holes of different dimensions. These
lots are put into sacks and forwarded to Rio de Janeiro; but as they
are worth many millions you may imagine they are heavily escorted. A
workman chosen by the superintendent, four cavalrymen from the
district regiment, and ten men on foot, complete the convoy. They
first make for Villa Rica, where the commandant puts his seal on the
sacks, and then the convoy continues its journey to Rio de Janeiro. I
should add that, for the sake of precaution, the start is always kept
secret. Well, in 1826, a young fellow named Dacosta, who was about
twenty-two or twenty-three years of age, and who for some years had
been employed at Tijuco in the offices of the governor-general,
devised the following scheme. He leagued himself with a band of
smugglers, and informed them of the date of the departure of the
convoy. The scoundrels took their measures accordingly. They were
numerous and well armed. Close to Villa Rica, during the night of the
22d of January, the gang suddenly attacked the diamond escort, who
defended themselves bravely, but were all massacred, with the
exception of one man, who, seriously wounded, managed to escape and
bring the news of the horrible deed. The workman was not spared any
more than the soldiers. He fell beneath he blows of the thieves, and
was doubtless dragged away and thrown over some precipice, for his
body was never found.”
“And this Dacosta?” asked Joam Garral.
“Well, his crime did not do him much good, for suspicion soon pointed
toward him. He was accused of having got up the affair. In vain he
protested that he was innocent. Thanks to the situation he held, he
was in a position to know the date on which the convoy’s departure
was to take place. He alone could have informed the smugglers. He was
charged, arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. Such a sentence
required his execution in twenty-four hourse.”
“Was the fellow executed?” asked Fragoso.
“No,” replied Torres; “they shut him up in the prison at Villa Rica,
and during the night, a few hours only before his execution, whether
alone or helped by others, he managed to escape.”
“Has this young man been heard of since?” asked Joam Garral.
“Never,” replied Torres. “He probably left Brazil, and now, in some
distant land, lives a cheerful life with the proceeds of the robbery
which he is sure to have realized.”
“Perhaps, on the other hand, he died miserably!” answered Joam
Garral.
“And, perhaps,” added Padre Passanha, “Heaven caused him to feel
remorse for his crime.”
Here they all rose from the table, and, having finished their dinner,
went out to breathe the evening air. The sun was low on the horizon,
but an hour had still to elapse before nightfall.
“These stories are not very lively,” said Fragoso, “and our betrothal
dinner was best at the beginning.”
“But it was your fault, Fragoso,” answered Lina.
“How my fault?”
“It was you who went on talking about the district and the diamonds,
when you should not have done so.”
“Well, that’s true,” replied Fragoso; “but I had no idea we were
going to wind up in that fashion.”
“You are the first to blame!”
“And the first to be punished, Miss Lina; for I did not hear you
laugh all through the dessert.”
The whole family strolled toward the bow of the jangada. Manoel and
Benito walked one behind the other without speaking. Yaquita and her