name is not Garral. Your name is Dacosta!"

At the guilty name which Torres thus gave him, Joam Garral could not
repress a slight shudder.

"You are Joam Dacosta," continued Torres, "who, twenty-five years ago,
were a clerk in the governor-general's office at Tijuco, and you are
the man who was sentenced to death in this affair of the robbery and
murder!"

No response from Joam Garral, whose strange tranquillity surprised the
adventurer. Had he made a mistake in accusing his host? No! For Joam
Garral made no start at the terrible accusations. Doubtless he wanted to
know to what Torres was coming.

"Joam Dacosta, I repeat! It was you whom they sought for this diamond
affair, whom they convicted of crime and sentenced to death, and it was
you who escaped from the prison at Villa Rica a few hours before you
should have been executed! Do you not answer?"

Rather a long silence followed this direct question which Torres asked.
Joam Garral, still calm, took a seat. His elbow rested on a small table,
and he looked fixedly at his accuser without bending his head.

"Will you reply?" repeated Torres.

"What reply do you want from me?" said Joam quietly.

"A reply," slowly answered Torres, "that will keep me from finding out
the chief of the police at Manaos, and saying to him, 'A man is there
whose identity can easily be established, who can be recognized even
after twenty-five years' absence, and this man was the instigator of the
diamond robbery at Tijuco. He was the accomplice of the murderers of the
soldiers of the escort; he is the man who escaped from execution; he is
Joam Garral, whose true name is Joam Dacosta.'"

"And so, Torres," said Joam Garral, "I shall have nothing to fear from
you if I give the answer you require?"

"Nothing, for neither you nor I will have any interest in talking about
the matter."

"Neither you nor I?" asked Joam Garral. "It is not with money, then,
that your silence is to be bought?"

"No! No matter how much you offered me!"

"What do you want, then?"

"Joam Garral," replied Torres, "here is my proposal. Do not be in a
hurry to reply by a formal refusal. Remember that you are in my power."

"What is this proposal?" asked Joam.

Torres hesitated for a moment.

The attitude of this guilty man, whose life he held in his hands, was
enough to astonish him. He had expected a stormy discussion and prayers
and tears. He had before him a man convicted of the most heinous of
crimes,