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real author of this crime. He shall speak out. And if he does not speak out, I
know what I shall have to do."
"What you will have to do is for me to do as well!" added Manoel, more coolly,
but not less reolutely.
"No! Manoel, no, to me alone!"
"We are brothers, Benito," replied Manoel. "The right of demanding an
explanation belongs to us both."
Benito made no reply. Evidently on that subject his decision was irrevocable.
At this moment the pilot Araujo, who had been observing the state of the
river, came up to them.
"Have you decided," he asked, "if the raft is to remain at her moorings at the
Isle of Muras, or to go on to the port of Manaos?"
The question had to be decided before nightfall, and the sooner it was settled
the better.
In fact, the news of the arrest of Joam Dacosta ought already to have spread
through the town. That it was of a nature to excite the interest of the
population of Manaos could scarcely be doubted. But would it provoke more than
curiosity against the condemned man, who was the principal author of the crime
of Tijuco, which had formerly created such a sensation? Ought they not to fear
that some popular movement might be directed against the prisoner? In the face
of this hypothesis was it not better to leave the jangada moored near the Isle
of Muras on the right bank of the river at a few miles from Manaos?"
The pros and cons of the question were well weighed.
"No!" at length exclaimed Benito; "to remain here would look as though we were
abandoning my father and doubting his innocenceas though we were afraid to
make common cause with him. We must go to Manaos, and without delay."
"You are right," replied Manoel. "Let us go."
Araujo, with an approving nod, began his preparations for leaving the island.
The maneuver necessitated a good deal of care. They had to work the raft
slantingly across the current of the Amazon, here doubled in force by that of
the Rio Negro, and to make for the embouchure of the tributary about a dozen
miles down on the left bank.
The ropes were cast off from the island. The jangada, again started on the
river, began to drift off diagonally.
Araujo, cleverly profiting by the bendings of the current, which were due to
the projections of the banks, and assisted by the long poles of his crew,
succeeded in working the immense raft in the desired direction.
In two hours the jangada was on the other side of the Amazon, a little above
the mouth of the Rio Negro, and fairly in the current which was to take it to
the lower bank of the vast bay which opened on the left side of the stream.
At five o'clock in the evening it was strongly moored alongside this bank, not
in the port of Manaos itself, which it could not enter without stemming a
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rather powerful current, but a short mile below it.
Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon
CHAPTER II. THE FIRST MOMENTS
101
The raft was then in the black waters of the Rio Negro, near rather a high
bluff covered with cecropias with buds of reddishbrown, and palisaded with
stiffstalked reeds called "froxas," of which the Indians make some of their
weapons.
A few citizens were strolling about the bank. A feeling of curiosity had
doubtless attracted them to the anchorage of the raft. The news of the arrest
of Joam Dacosta had soon spread about, but the curiosity of the
Manaens did not outrun their discretion, and they were very quiet.
Benito's intention had been to land that evening, but Manoel dissuaded him.
"Wait till tomorrow," he said; "night is approaching, and there is no
necessity for us to leave the raft."
"So be it! Tomorrow!" answered Benito.
And here Yaquita, followed by her daughter and Padre Passanha, came out of the
house. Minha was still weeping, but her mother's face was tearless, and she
had that look of calm resolution which showed that the wife was now ready for
all things, either to do her duty or to insist on her rights.
Yaquita slowly advanced toward Manoel.
"Manoel," she said, "listen to what I have to say, for my conscience commands
me to speak as I am about to do."
"I am listening," replied Manoel.
Yaquita, looking him straight in the face, continued: "Yesterday, after the
interview you had with Joam
Dacosta, my husband, you came to me and called memother! You took Minha's
hand, and called heryour wife! You then knew everything, and the past life of
Joam Dacosta had been disclosed to you."
"Yes," answered Manoel, "and heaven forbid I should have had any hesitation in
doing so!"
"Perhaps so," replied Yaquita; "but then Joam Dacosta had not been arrested.
The position is not now the same. However innocent he may be, my husband is in
the hands of justice; his past life has been publicly proclaimed. Minha is a
convict's daughter."
"Minha Dacosta or Minha Garral, what matters it to me?" exclaimed Manoel, who
could keep silent no longer.
"Manoel!" murmured Minha.
And she would certainly have fallen had not Lina's arm supported her.
"Mother, if you do not wish to kill her," said Manoel, "call me your son!"
"My son! my child!"
It was all Yaquita could say, and the tears, which she restrained with
difficulty, filled her eyes.
And then they all reentered the house. But during the long night not an hour's
sleep fell to the lot of the unfortunate family who were being so cruelly
tried.
Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon
CHAPTER II. THE FIRST MOMENTS
102
CHAPTER III. RETROSPECTIVE
JOAM DACOSTA had relied entirely on Judge Albeiro, and his death was most
unfortunate.
Before he was judge at Manaos, and chief magistrate in the province, Ribeiro
had known the young clerk at the time he was being prosecuted for the murder
in the diamond arrayal. He was then an advocate at Villa
Rica, and he it was who defended the prisoner at the trial. He took the cause
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to heart and made it his own, and from an examination of the papers and
detailed information, and not from the simple fact of his position in the
matter, he came to the conclusion that his client was wrongfully accused, and
that he had taken not the slightest part in the murder of the escort or the
theft of the diamondsin a word, that Joam Dacosta was innocent.
But, notwithstanding this conviction, notwithstanding his talent and zeal,
Ribeiro was unable to persuade the jury to take the same view of the matter.
How could he remove so strong a presumption? If it was not Joam
Dacosta, who had every facility for informing the scoundrels of the convoy's
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