the raft remains immovable above him; when the diver moves about on
the bottom of the river the raft follows his movements, or he follows
those of the raft, according to his convenience.
These diving-dresses are now much improved, and are less dangerous
than formerly. The man beneath the liquid mass can easily bear the
additional pressure, and if anything was to be feared below the
waters it was rather some cayman who might there be met with. But, as
had been observed by Araujo, not one of these amphibians had been
seen, and they are well known to prefer the black waters of the
tributaries of the Amazon. Besides, in case of danger, the diver has
always his check-string fastened to the raft, and at the least
warning can be quickly hauled to the surface.
Benito, invariably very cool once his resolution was taken, commenced
to put his idea into execution, and got into the diving dress. His
head disappeared in the metal globe, his hand grasped a sort of iron
spear with which to stir up the vegetation and detritus accumulated
in the river bed, and on his giving the signal he was lowered into
the stream.
The men on the raft immediately commenced to work the air-pump, while
four Indians from the jangada, under the orders of Araujo, gently
propelled it with their long poles in the desired direction.
The two pirogues, commanded one by Fragoso, the other by Manoel,
escorted the raft, and held themselves ready to start in any
direction, should Benito find the corpse of Torres and again bring it
to the surface of the Amazon.
CHAPTER X
A CANNON SHOT
BENITO THEN HAD disappeared beneath the vast sheet which still
covered the corpse of the adventurer. Ah! If he had had the power to
divert the waters of the river, to turn them into vapor, or to drain
them off–if he could have made the Frias basin dry down stream, from
the bar up to the influx of the Rio Negro, the case hidden in Torres’
clothes would already have been in his hand! His father’s innocence
would have been recognized! Joam Dacosta, restored to liberty, would
have again started on the descent of the river, and what terrible
trials would have been avoided!
Benito had reached the bottom. His heavy shoes made the gravel on the
bed crunch beneath him. He was in some ten or fifteen feet of water,
at the base of the cliff, which was here very steep, and at the very
spot where Torres had disappeared.
Near him was a tangled mass of reeds and twigs and aquatic plants,
all laced together, which assuredly during the researches of the
previous day no pole could have penetrated. It was consequently
possible that the body was entangled among the submarine shrubs, and
still in the place where it had originally fallen.
Hereabouts, thanks to the eddy produced by the prolongation of one of
the spurs running out into the stream, the current was absolutely
_nil_. Benito guided his movements by those of the raft, which the
long poles of the Indians kept just over his head.
The light penetrated deep through the clear waters, and the
magnificent sun, shining in a cloudless sky, shot its rays down into
them unchecked. Under ordinary conditions, at a depth of some twenty
feet in water, the view becomes exceedingly blurred, but here the
waters seemed to be impregnated with a luminous fluid, and Benito was
able to descend still lower without the darkness concealing the river
bed.
The young man slowly made his way along the bank. With his iron-shod
spear he probed the plants and rubbish accumulated along its foot.
Flocks of fish, if we can use such an expression, escaped on all
sides from the dense thickets like flocks of birds. It seemed as
though the thousand pieces of a broken mirror glimmered through the
waters. At the same time scores of crustaceans scampered over the
sand, like huge ants hurrying from their hills.
Notwithstanding that Benito did not leave a single point of the river
unexplored, he never caught sight of the object of his search. He
noticed, however, that the slope of the river bed was very abrupt,