bounding the view a few hundred paces in advance.
Benito, hurrying on, soon disappeared behind one of the sandy knolls.
“Quicker! quicker!” said Manoel to Fragoso. “We must not leave him
alone for an instant.”
And they were dashing along when a shout struck on their ears.
Had Benito caught sight of Torres? What had he seen? Had Benito and
Torres already met?
Manoel and Fragoso, fifty paces further on, after swiftly running
round one of the spurs of the bank, saw two men standing face to face
to each other.
They were Torres and Benito.
In an instant Manoel and Fragoso had hurried up to them. It might
have been supposed that in Benito’s state of excitement he would be
unable to restrain himself when he found himself once again in the
presence of the adventurer. It was not so.
As soon as the young man saw himself face to face with Torres, and
was certain that he could not escape, a complete change took place in
his manner, his coolness returned, and he became once more master of
himself.
The two men looked at one another for a few moments without a word.
Torres first broke silence, and, in the impudent tone habitual to
him, remarked:
“Ah! How goes it, Mr. Benito Garral?”
“No, Benito Dacosta!” answered the young man.
“Quite so,” continued Torres. “Mr. Benito Dacosta, accompanied by Mr.
Manoel Valdez and my friend Fragoso!”
At the irritating qualification thus accorded him by the adventurer,
Fragoso, who was by no means loath to do him some damage, was about
to rush to the attack, when Benito, quite unmoved, held him back.
“What is the matter with you, my lad?” exclaimed Torres, retreating
for a few steps. “I think I had better put myself on guard.”
And as he spoke he drew from beneath his poncho his manchetta, the
weapon, adapted at will for offense or defense, which a Brazilian is
never without. And then, slightly stooping, and planted firmly on his
feet, he waited for what was to follow.
“I have come to look for you, Torres,” said Benito, who had not
stirred in the least at this threatening attitude.
“To look for me?” answered the adventurer. “It is not very difficult
to find me. And why have you come to look for me?”
“To know from your own lips what you appear to know of the past life
of my father.”
“Really?”
“Yes. I want to know how you recognized him, why yu were prowling
about our fazenda in the forest of Iquitos, and why you were waiting
for us at Tabatinga.”
“Well! it seems to me nothing could be clearer!” answered Torres,
with a grin. “I was waiting to get a passage on the jangada, and I
went on board with the intention of making him a very simple
proposition–which possibly he was wrong in rejecting.”
At these words Manoel could stand it no longer. With pale face and
eye of fire he strode up to Torres.
Benito, wishing to exhaust every means of conciliation, thrust
himself between them.
“Calm yourself, Manoel!” he said. “I am calm–even I.”
And then continuing:
“Quite so, Torres; I know the reason of your coming on board the
raft. Possessed of a secret which was doubtless given to you, you
wanted to make it a means of extortion. But that is not what I want
to know at present.”
“What is it, then?”
“I want to know how you recognized Joam Dacosta in the fazenda of
Iquitos?”
“How I recognized him?” replied Torres. “That is my business, and I
see no reason why I should tell you. The important fact is, that I
was not mistaken when I denounced in him the real author of the crime
of Tijuco!”
“You say that to me?” exclaimed Benito, who began to lose his
self-possession.
“I will tell you nothing,” returned Torres; “Joam Dacosta declined my
propositions! He refused to admit me into his family! Well! now that
his secret is known, now that he is a prisoner, it is I who refuse to
enter his family, the family of a thief, of a murderer, of a
condemned felon, for whom the gallows now waits!”