do you think that it was for the few pieces of gold contained in the
case that Torres was in such a fury to recover it? and do you not
remember the extraordinary satisfaction which he displayed when we
gave him back the case which we had taken out of the monkey’s paw?”
“Yes!” yes!” answered Benito. “This case which I held–which I gave
back to him! Perhaps it contained—-”
“It is more than probable! It is certain!” replied Manoel.
“And I beg to add,” said Fragoso, “for now the fact recurs to my
memory, that during the time you were at Ega I remained on board, at
Lina’s advice, to keep an eye on Torres, and I saw him–yes, I saw
him–reading, and again reading, an old faded paper, and muttering
words which I could not understand.”
“That was the document!” exclaimed Benito, who snatched at the
hope–the only one that was left. “But this document; had he not put
it in some place of security?”
“No,” answered Manoel–“no; it was too precious for Torres to dream
of parting with it. He was bound to carry it always about with him,
and doubtless in that very case.”
“Wait! wait, Manoel!” exclaimed Benito; “I remember–yes, I remember.
During the struggle, at the first blow I struck Torres in his chest,
my manchetta was stopped by some hard substance under his poncho,
like a plate of metal—-”
“That was the case!” said Fragoso.
“Yes,” replied Manoel; “doubt is impossible! That was the case; it
was in his breast-pocket.”
“But the corpse of Torres?”
“We will recover it!”
“But the paper! The water will have stained it, perhaps destroyed it,
or rendered it undecipherable!”
“Why,” answered Manoel, “if the metal case which held it was
water-tight?”
“Manoel,” replied Benito, who seized on the last hope, “you are
right! The corpse of Torres must be recovered! We will ransack the
whole of this part of the river, if necessary, but we will recover
it!”
The pilot Araujo was then summoned and informed of what they were
going to do.
“Good!” replied he; “I know all the eddies and currents where the Rio
Negro and the Amazon join, and we shall succeed in recovering the
body. Let us take two pirogues, two ubas, a dozen of our Indians, and
make a start.”
Padre Passanha was then coming out of Yaquita’s room.
Benito went to him, and in a few words told him what they were going
to do to get possession of the document. “Say nothing to my mother or
my sister,” he added; “if this last hope fails it will kill them!”
“Go, my lad, go,” replied Passanha, “and may God help you in your
search.”
Five minutes afterward the four boats started from the raft. After
descending the Rio Negro they arrived near the bank of the Amazon, at
the very place where Torres, mortally wounded, had disappeared
beneath the waters of the stream.
CHAPTER VIII
THE FIRST SEARCH
THE SEARCH had to commence at once, and that for two weighty reasons.
The first of these was–and this was a question of life or
death–that this proof of Joam Dacosta’s innocence must be produced
before the arrival of the order from Rio Janeiro. Once the identity
of the prisoner was established, it was impossible that such an order
could be other than the order for his execution.
The second was that the body of Torres should be got out of the water
as quickly as possible so as to regain undamaged the metal case and
the paper it ought to contain.
At this juncture Araujo displayed not only zeal and intelligence, but
also a perfect knowledge of the state of the river at its confluence
with the Rio Negro.
“If Torres,” he said to the young men, “had been from the first
carried away by the current, we should have to drag the river
throughout a large area, for we shall have a good many days to wait
for his body to reappear on the surface through the effects of
decomposition.”
“We cannot do that,” replied Manoel. “This very day we ought to
succeed.”
“If, on the contrary,” continued the pilot, “the corpse has got stuck