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Updated: September 24, 2025
On this occasion Manoel had declined to accompany him. Fragoso had left the jangada, but instead of mounting to the fort he had made for the village, crossing the ravine which led off from the right on the level of the bank. He reckoned more on the native custom of Tabatinga than on that of the garrison.
"Yes, a forest!" cried the young mulatto; "a forest with its birds and its monkeys " "Its snakes, its jaguars!" continued Benito. "Its Indians, its nomadic tribes," added Manoel, "and even its cannibals!" "But where are you going to, Fragoso?" said Minha, seeing the active barber making a rush at the bank. "To look after the forest!" replied Fragoso.
If, on his part, Fragoso, in his capacity of wandering barber, had already run through the different provinces of South America, Lina, like her young mistress, had never been on Brazilian soil. But before leaving the jangada Fragoso had sought Joam Garral, and had the following conversation with him. "Mr.
"What is the matter?" asked Manoel, looking at his friend, whose expression was that of a man who had come to some unalterable resolution. "You never doubt my father's innocence? Is that so?" said Benito. "Ah!" exclaimed Fragoso. "Rather I think it was I who committed the crime." "Well, we must now commence on the project I thought of yesterday." "To find out Torres?" asked Manoel.
"Besides," said Benito, "every day islets of verdure, torn from the banks, go drifting down the river. Do they not pass along with their trees, bushes, thickets, rocks, and fields, to lose themselves in the Atlantic eight hundred leagues away? Why, then, should we not transform our raft into a floating garden?" "Would you like a forest, miss?" said Fragoso, who stopped at nothing.
Minha fainted, and the mouth of the alligator opened to crush her! And then Fragoso jumped in to the animal, and thrust in a knife to the very bottom of his throat, at the risk of having his arm snapped off by the two jaws, had they quickly closed.
The two young men, and Fragoso and Joam Garral, thinking no more of danger, rushed out of the house, guns in hand. Scarcely were they outside when two of the alligators made a half turn and ran toward them. A dose of buckshot to the head, close to the eye, from Benito, stopped one of the monsters, who, mortally wounded, writhed in frightful convulsions and fell on his side.
Who could tell if, owing to some unforeseen circumstance, the attempt at escape would not prove a miserable failure? The presence of Fragoso on such an occasion would have been most valuable. Discreet and devoted, his services would have been most welcome to the two young fellows; but Fragoso had not reappeared.
Far better for him to have assisted in the escape of the doomed man than to have hurried off in search of the former comrades of Torres! But Fragoso was away, and his assistance had to be dispensed with. At daybreak Benito and Manoel left the raft and proceeded to Manaos. They soon reached the town, and passed through its narrow streets, which at that early hour were quite deserted.
Benito, Manoel, and Minha tried all they could together to extract the secret from the document on which depended their father's life and honor. On his part, Fragoso, aided by Lina, could not remain quiet, but all their ingenuity had failed, and the number still escaped them. "Why don't you find it, Fragoso?" asked the young mulatto. "I will find it," answered Fragoso. And he did not find it!
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