not care so much for words as he did for
things, thought proper to reply, "Yes, Araujo; the body of Torres is in
the river, and we shall find it if----"

"If?" said the pilot.

"If it has not become the prey of the alligators!"

Manoel and Fragoso waited anxiously for Araujo's reply.

The pilot was silent for a few moments; they felt that he was reflecting
before he spoke. "Mr. Benito," he said at length, "I am not in the habit
of speaking lightly. I had the same idea as you; but listen. During
the ten hours we have been at work have you seen a single cayman in the
river?"

"Not one," said Fragoso.

"If you have not seen one," continued the pilot, "it was because there
were none to see, for these animals have nothing to keep them in the
white waters when, a quarter of a mile off, there are large stretches
of the black waters, which they so greatly prefer. When the raft was
attacked by some of these creatures it was in a part where there was
no place for them to flee to. Here it is quite different. Go to the Rio
Negro, and there you will see caymans by the score. Had Torres' body
fallen into that tributary there might be no chance of recovering it.
But it was in the Amazon that it was lost, and in the Amazon it will be
found."

Benito, relieved from his fears, took the pilot's hand and shook it, and
contented himself with the reply, "To-morrow, my friends!"

Ten minutes later they were all on board the jangada. During the day
Yaquit had passed some hours with her husband. But before she started,
and when she saw neither the pilot, nor Manoel, nor Benito, nor the
boats, she had guessed the search on which they had gone, but she said
nothing to Joam Dacosta, as she hoped that in the morning she would be
able to inform him of their success.

But when Benito set foot on the raft she perceived that their search had
been fruitless. However, she advanced toward him. "Nothing?" she asked.

"Nothing," replied Benito. "But the morrow is left to us."

The members of the family retired to their rooms, and nothing more was
said as to what had passed.

Manoel tried to make Benito lie down, so as to take a few hours' rest.

"What is the good of that?" asked Benito. "Do you think I could sleep?"

CHAPTER IX. THE SECOND ATTEMPT

ON THE MORROW, the 27th of August, Benito took Manoel apart, before the
sun had risen, and said to him: "Our yesterday's search was vain. If we
begin again under the same conditions we may