composition is not modified by circumstances which we cannot foresee,
he will not reappear before three days."

"We have not got three days," answered Benito. "We cannot wait, you
know; we must try again, and in some new way."

"What can you do?" answered Manoel.

"Plunge down myself beneath the waters," replied Benito, "and search
with my eyes--with my hands."

"Plunge in a hundred times--a thousand times!" exclaimed Manoel. "So be
it. I think, like you, that we ought to go straight at what we want, and
not struggle on with poles and drags like a blind man who only works by
touch. I also think that we cannot wait three days. But to jump in,
come up again, and go down again will give only a short period for
the exploration. No; it will never do, and we shall only risk a second
failure."

"Have you no other plan to propose, Manoel?" asked Benito, looking
earnestly at his friend.

"Well, listen. There is what would seem to be a Providential
circumstance that may be of use to us."

"What is that?"

"Yesterday, as we hurried through Manaos, I noticed that they were
repairing one of the quays on the bank of the Rio Negro. The submarine
works were being carried on with the aid of a diving-dress. Let us
borrow, or hire, or buy, at any price, this apparatus, and then we may
resume our researches under more favorable conditions."

"Tell Araujo, Fragoso, and our men, and let us be off," was the instant
reply of Benito.

The pilot and the barber were informed of the decision with regard to
Manoel's project. Both were ordered to go with the four boats and the
Indians to the basin of Frias, and there to wait for the two young men.

Manoel and Benito started off without losing a moment, and reached the
quay at Manaos. There they offered the contractor such a price that he
put the apparatus at their service for the whole day.

"Will you not have one of my men," he asked, "to help you?"

"Give us your foreman and one of his mates to work the air-pump,"
replied Manoel.

"But who is going to wear the diving-dress?"

"I am," answered Benito.

"You!" exclaimed Manoel.

"I intend to do so."

It was useless to resist.

An hour afterward the raft and all the instruments necessary for the
enterprise had drifted down to the bank where the boats were waiting.

The diving-dress is well known. By its means men can descend beneath the
waters and remain there a certain time without the action of the lungs
being in any way