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Updated: September 24, 2025
At eight o'clock the priogue regained the mooring-place and hailed the jangada. As soon as Lina could get Fragoso aside "Have you seen anything suspicious?" she inquired. "Nothing, Miss Lina," he replied; "Torres has scarcely left his cabin, where he has been reading and writing." "He did not get into the house or the dining-room, as I feared?"
"What does it matter after all," replied the young girl, "that we know what Torres had been? He was not the author of the crime, and it does not help us in the least." "No, it does not," answered Fragoso; "for we shall end by reading the document, and then the innocence of Joam Dacosta will be palpable to the eyes of all."
Well! now that his secret is known, now that he is a prisoner, it is I who refuse to enter his family, the family of a thief, of a murderer, of a condemned felon, for whom the gallows now waits!" "Scoundrel!" exclaimed Benito, who drew his manchetta from his belt and put himself in position. Manoel and Fragoso, by a similar movement, quickly drew their weapons. "Three against one!" said Torres.
Would that show that he gave Torres a document in which he announced himself the author of this crime, and exonerated Joam Dacosta? Would that give us the key of the document? No! Two men only knew the cipher the culprit and Torres! And these two men are no more!" So reasoned Fragoso. It was evident that his enterprise would do no good. But the thought of it was too much for him.
A few days would thus have to be passed at Manaos, and then Joam Dacosta and his people, free from all constraint, and released from all apprehension, would take leave of their host to go on board once more and continue their descent of the Amazon to Para, where the voyage was intended to terminate with the double marriage of Minha and Manoel and Lina and Fragoso.
Fragoso pulled out his arm in time, but he could not avoid the chock of the cayman, and was hurled back into the river, whose waters reddened all around. "Fragoso! Fragoso!" shrieked Lina, kneeling on the edge of the raft. A second afterward Fragoso reappeared on the surface of the Amazon safe and sound. But, at the peril of his life he had saved the young girl, who soon came to.
Naturally, Lina was informed of this unexpected complication, and of the discovery made by Fragoso that Torres was an old captain of the woods belonging to the gang who were employed about the mouths of the Madeira. "But under what circumstances did you meet him?" asked the young mulatto.
"What would you have, my gallant sir?" replied Fragoso, with a smile; "a moment of despair, which I would have duly regretted had the regrets been in another world! But eight hundred leagues of country to traverse, and not a coin in my pouch, was not very comforting! I had lost courage obviously."
"Well, dear mistress, don't you think we did well to continue our walk?" asked Lina. "That I do," returned the girl. "Never mind," said Benito; "I never thought that we should finish by finding a man at the end of the cipo." "And, above all, a barber in difficulties, and on the road to hang himself!" replied Fragoso. The poor fellow, who was now wide awake, was told about what had passed.
To conclude, Fragoso had a good and pleasing figure, and as he recovered it was evident that he was of a lively disposition. He was one of those wandering barbers who travel on the banks of the Upper Amazon, going from village to village, and putting the resources of their art at the service of negroes, negresses, Indians and Indian women, who appreciate them very much.
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