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"One moment, Benito," he said; and then, turning to the men on the raft who did not belong to the jangada, and whose evidence could not be suspected at any future time: "Just take note, my friends," he said, "of what we are doing here, so that you can relate before the magistrate what has passed." The men came up to the pirogue.
The marriage will take place here, not later than to-morrow, on the jangada, with the aid of Padre Passanha, if, after a conversation I am about to have with Manoel, he agrees with me to defer it no longer." "Ah, father, father!" exclaimed the young man. "Wait a little before you call me so, Manoel," replied Joam, in a tone of unspeakable suffering.
So Lina, who was to remain in the service of Minha, and Fragoso, who was about to enter into that of Manoel Valdez, sat at the common table, and even had the places of honor reserved for them. Torres, naturally, was present at the dinner, which was worthy of the larder and kitchen of the jangada.
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.
The young doctor had left his friends on board the jangada at work on the indecipherable document, and had come to see Judge Jarriquez. He was anxious to know if he had been fortunate in his researches. He had come to ask if he had at length discovered the system on which the cryptogram had been written. The magistrate was not sorry to see Manoel come in.
And rising, he went to the side of the jangada, and looked long and earnestly at the Ronde Island, with the waves breaking up against it. Then his hand sought his forehead, as if to rid himself of some remembrance. "The frontier!" murmured he, bowing his head by an involuntary movement.
Happily, it was under these latter conditions that the jangada was to proceed; but, cumbrous in its movements, it could not keep up to the speed of the current which ran past it.
"Benito," he began, after taking him to the bow of the jangada, "I have something to say to you." Benito, generally so good-humored, stopped as he looked at Manoel, and a cloud came over his countenance. "I know why," he said; "it is about Torres." "Yes, Benito." "And I also wish to speak to you." "You have then noticed his attention to Minha?" said Manoel, turning pale. "Ah!
The life was, in fact, the same. Not quite, perhaps, to Benito, who had not yet found occasion to participate in the pleasures of the chase. If, however, the forests of Iquitos failed him with their wild beasts, agoutis, peccaries, and cabiais, the birds flew in flocks from the banks of the river and fearlessly perched on the jangada.
But we ought to say that, like their predecessors, they do nor form separate tribes; they are simply the wives who accompany their husbands to the fight, and who, among the Juruas, have a great reputation for bravery." The jangada continued to descend; but what a labyrinth the Amazon now appeared!
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