ust keep our eyes on him!"

"You understand me, Manoel?" asked Benito.

"I understand you, my friend, my brother!" replied Manoel, "although I
do not share, and cannot share, your fears! What connection can possibly
exist between your father and this adventurer? Evidently your father has
never seen him!"

"I do not say that my father knows Torres," said Benito; "but assuredly
it seems to me that Torres knows my father. What was the fellow doing
in the neighborhood of the fazenda when we met him in the forest of
Iquitos? Why did he then refuse the hospitality which we offered, so as
to afterward manage to force himself on us as our traveling companion?
We arrive at Tabatinga, and there he is as if he was waiting for us! The
probability is that these meetings were in pursuance of a preconceived
plan. When I see the shifty, dogged look of Torres, all this crowds
on my mind. I do not know! I am losing myself in things that defy
explanation! Oh! why did I ever think of offering to take him on board
this raft?"

"Be calm, Benito, I pray you!"

"Manoel!" continued Benito, who seemed to be powerless to contain
himself, "think you that if it only concerned me--this man who inspires
us all with such aversion and disgust--I should not hesitate to throw
him overboard! But when it concerns my father, I fear lest in giving way
to my impressions I may be injuring my object! Something tells me that
with this scheming fellow there may be danger in doing anything until he
has given us the right--the right and the duty--to do it. In short, on
the jangada, he is in our power, and if we both keep good watch over my
father, we can spoil his game, no matter how sure it may be, and force
him to unmask and betray himself! Then wait a little longer!"

The arrival of Torres in the bow of the raft broke off the conversation.
Torres looked slyly at the two young men, but said not a word.

Benito was not deceived when he said that the adventurer's eyes were
never off Joam Garral as long as he fancied he was unobserved.

No! he was not deceived when he said that Torres' face grew evil when he
looked at his father!

By what mysterious bond could these two men--one nobleness itself, that
was self-evident--be connected with each other?

Such being the state of affairs it was certainly difficult for Torres,
constantly watched as he was by the two young men, by Fragoso and
Lina, to make a single movement without having instantly to repress it.