"Thank you," said Torres, who at the moment of putting forth his hand
kept it back in spite of himself.

"We shall be off at daybreak to-morrow," added Joam Garral, "so you
had better get your things on board."

"Oh, that will not take me long!" answered Torres; "there is only
myself and nothing else!"

"Make yourself at home," said Joam Garral.

That evening Torres took possession of a cabin near to that of the
barber. It was not till eight o'clock that the latter returned to the
raft, and gave the young mulatto an account of his exploits, and
repeated, with no little vanity, that the renown of the illustrious
Fragoso was increasing in the basin of the Upper Amazon.


CHAPTER XIV

STILL DESCENDING

AT DAYBREAK on the morrow, the 27th of June, the cables were cast
off, and the raft continued its journey down the river.

An extra passenger was on board. Whence came this Torres? No one
exactly knew. Where was he going to? "To Manaos," he said. Torres was
careful to let no suspicion of his past life escape him, nor of the
profession that he had followed till within the last two months, and
no one would have thought that the jangada had given refuge to an old