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The man was Jarriquez, and he now really set to work more in the interest of Joam Dacosta than for the satisfaction of his analytical faculties. A complete change had also taken place in his opinion.
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 to-morrow," he said; "night is approaching, and there is no necessity for us to leave the raft." "So be it! To-morrow!" answered Benito.
Joam Garral, assisted by Benito and Manoel, superintended the unmooring. At the command of the pilot the ropes were eased off, and the poles applied to the bank so as to give the jangada a start. The current was not long in seizing it, and coasting the left bank, the islands of Iquitos and Parianta were passed on the right. The voyage had commenced where would it finish?
It was here that Joam Garral, in 1826, twenty-six years before the date when our story opens, was received by the proprietor of the fazenda. This Portuguese, whose name was Magalhaes, followed the trade of timber-felling, and his settlement, then recently formed, extended for about half a mile along the bank of the river.
He took the cause 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 diamonds in a word, that Joam Dacosta was innocent.
In the bow regular warehouses had arisen, containing the goods which Joam Garral was carrying to Belem at the same time as the products of his forests. There, in vast storerooms, under the direction of Benito, the rich cargo had been placed with as much order as if it had been carefully stowed away in a ship's hold.
He knew that, counting on the protection of Judge Ribeiro, by means of a correspondence which he had had with him for a year past without speaking of it to his people, Joam Garral had at last succeeded in clearing himself and convincing him of his innocence.
In a few minutes they arrived in front of the prison. The waste ground, amid which the old convent which served for a house of detention was built, was traversed by them in all directions, for they had come to study it with the utmost care. Fifty-five feet from the ground, in an angle of the building, they recognized the window of the cell in which Joam Dacosta was confined.
It would be difficult to depict what every one felt when Joam Garral and Torres disappeared. What could there be in common between the adventurer and the honest fazender of Iquitos? The menace of some frightful misfortune seemed to hang over the whole family, and they scarcely dared speak to each other.
I will never forget it, but the price you would pay for my endeavors is out of all proportion to what they are worth." The old man insisted. Death would not allow him to wait; he demanded the promise, and it was made to him. Yaquita was then twenty-two years old, Joam was twenty-six.
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