t your father
gave."

"Yes, Manoel, yes! The indignant reply of an honest man. He kicked
Torres off the raft. But it is not enough to have kicked him out. No!
That will not do for me. It was on Torres' information that they came
here and arrested my father; is not that so?"

"Yes, on his denunciation."

"Very well," continued Benito, shaking his fist toward the left bank of
the river, "I must find out Torres. I must know how he became master of
the secret. He must tell me if he knows the 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 resolutely.

"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 innocence--as 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