tain
of the woods. Ah! I know now where I had seen him, the scoundrel!"

"That does not matter to us now!" cried Benito. "The case! the case! Has
he still got that?" and Benito was about to tear away the last coverings
of the corpse to get at it.

Manoel stopped him.

"One moment, Benito," he said; and then, turning to the men on the
raft who did not belong to the jangada, and whose evidence could not be
suspected at any future time:

"Just take note, my friends," he said, "of what we are doing here, so
that you can relate before the magistrate what has passed."

The men came up to the pirogue.

Fragoso undid the belt which encircled the body of Torres underneath the
torn poncho, and feeling his breast-pocket, exclaimed:

"The case!"

A cry of joy escaped from Benito. He stretched forward to seize the
case, to make sure than it contained----

"No!" again interrupted Manoel, whose coolness did not forsake him. "It
is necessary that not the slightest possible doubt should exist in the
mind of the magistrate! It is better that disinterested witnesses should
affirm that this case was really found on the corpse of Torres!"

"You are right," replied Benito.

"My friend," said Manoel to the foreman of the raft, "just feel in the
pocket of the waistcoat."

The foreman obeyed. He drew forth a metal case, with the cover screwed
on, and which seemed to have suffered in no way from its sojourn in the
water.

"The paper! Is the paper still inside?" exclaimed Benito, who could not
contain himself.

"It is for the magistrate to open this case!" answered Manoel. "To him
alone belongs the duty of verifying that the document was found within
it."

"Yes, yes. Again you are right, Manoel," said Benito. "To Manaos, my
friends--to Manaos!"

Benito, Manoel, Fragoso, and the foreman who held the case, immediately
jumped into one of the pirogues, and were starting off, when Fragoso
said:

"And the corpse?"

The pirogue stopped.

In fact, the Indians had already thrown back the body into the water,
and it was drifting away down the river.

"Torres was only a scoundrel," said Benito. "If I had to fight him, it
was God that struck him, and his body ought not to go unburied!"

And so orders were given to the second pirogue to recover the corpse,
and take it to the bank to await its burial.

But at the same moment a flock of birds of prey, which skimmed along the
surface of the stream, pounced on the floating body. The