"From Iquitos to Tabatinga?"
"Yes."
"On board a raft, on which I was given a pa.s.sage by a worthy fazender who is going down the Amazon with his family."
"A friend indeed!" replied Torres. "That is a chance, and if your fazender would take me----"
"Do you intend, then, to go down the river?"
"Precisely."
"Into Para?"
"No, only to Manaos, where I have business."
"Well, my host is very kind, and I think he would cheerfully oblige you."
"Do you think so?"
"I might almost say I am sure."
"And what is the name of this fazender?" asked Torres carelessly.
"Joam Garral," answered Fragoso.
And at the same time he muttered to himself:
"I certainly have seen this fellow somewhere!"
Torres was not the man to allow a conversation to drop which was likely to interest him, and for very good reasons.
"And so you think Joam Garral would give me a pa.s.sage?"
"I do not doubt it," replied Fragoso. "What he would do for a poor chap like me he would not refuse to do for a compatriot like you."
"Is he alone on board the jangada?"
"No," replied Fragoso. "I was going to tell you that he is traveling with all his family--and jolly people they are, I a.s.sure you. He is accompanied by a crew of Indians and negroes, who form part of the staff at the fazenda."
"Is he rich?"
"Oh, certainly!" answered Fragoso--"very rich. Even the timber which forms the jangada, and the cargo it carries, const.i.tute a fortune!"
"The Joam Garral and his whole family have just pa.s.sed the Brazilian frontier?"
"Yes," said Fragoso; "his wife, his son, his daughter, and Miss Minha"s betrothed."
"Ah! he has a daughter?" said Torres.
"A charming girl!"
"Going to get married?"
"Yes, to a brave young fellow," replied Fragoso--"an army surgeon in garrison at Belem, and the wedding is to take place as soon as we get to the end of the voyage."
"Good!" said the smiling Torres; "it is what you might call a betrothal journey."
"A voyage of betrothal, of pleasure, and of business!" said Fragoso.
"Madame Yaquita and her daughter have never set foot on Brazilian ground; and as for Joam Garral, it is the first time he has crossed the frontier since he went to the farm of old Magalhaes."
"I suppose," asked Torres, "that there are some servants with the family?"
"Of course," replied Fragoso--"old Cybele, on the farm for the last fifty years, and a pretty mulatto, Miss Lina, who is more of a companion than a servant to her mistress. Ah, what an amiable disposition! What a heart, and what eyes! And the ideas she has about everything, particularly about lianas--" Fragoso, started on this subject, would not have been able to stop himself, and Lina would have been the object of a good many enthusiastic declarations, had Torres not quitted the chair for another customer.
"What do I owe you?" asked he of the barber.
"Nothing," answered Fragoso. "Between compatriots, when they meet on the frontier, there can be no question of that sort."
"But," replied Torres, "I want to----"
"Very well, we will settle that later on, on board the jangada."
"But I do not know that, and I do not like to ask Joam Garral to allow me----"
"Do not hesitate!" exclaimed Fragoso; "I will speak to him if you would like it better, and he will be very happy to be of use to you under the circ.u.mstances."
And at that instant Manoel and Benito, coming into the town after dinner, appeared at the door of the loja, wishing to see Fragoso at work.
Torres turned toward them and suddenly said: "There are two gentlemen I know--or rather I remember."
"You remember them!" asked Fragoso, surprised.
"Yes, undoubtedly! A month ago, in the forest of Iquitos, they got me out of a considerable difficulty."
"But they are Benito Garral and Manoel Valdez."
"I know. They told me their names, but I never expected to see them here."
Torres advanced toward the two young men, who looked at him without recognizing him.
"You do not remember me, gentlemen?" he asked.
"Wait a little," answered Benito; "Mr. Torres, if I remember aright; it was you who, in the forest of Iquitos, got into difficulties with a guariba?"
"Quite true, gentlemen," replied Torres. "For six weeks I have been traveling down the Amazon, and I have just crossed the frontier at the same time as you have."
"Very pleased to see you again," said Benito; "but you have not forgotten that you promised to come to the fazenda to my father?"