the waste land, remain concealed
throughout the night under the tall vegetation on the banks.

But once on board, where was Joam Dacosta to seek refuge? To return to
Iquitos was to follow a road full of difficulties and peril, and a long
one in any case, should the fugitive either travel across the country or
by the river. Neither by horse not pirogue could he be got out of danger
quickly enough, and the fazenda was no longer a safe retreat. He would
not return to it as the fazender, Joam Garral, but as the convict, Joam
Dacosta, continually in fear of his extradition. He could never dream of
resuming his former life.

To get away by the Rio Negro into the north of the province, or even
beyond the Brazilian territory, would require more time than he could
spare, and his first care must be to escape from immediate pursuit.

To start again down the Amazon? But stations, village, and towns
abounded on both sides of the river. The description of the fugitive
would be sent to all the police, and he would run the risk of being
arrested long before he reached the Atlantic. And supposing he reached
the coast, where and how was he to hide and wait for a passage to put
the sea between himself and his pursuers?

On consideration of these various plans, Benito and Manoel agreed that
neither of them was practicable. One, however, did offer some chance of
safety, and that was to embark in the pirogue, follow the canal into the
Rio Negro, descend this tributary under the guidance of the pilot, reach
the confluence of the rivers, and run down the Amazon along its
right bank for some sixty miles during the nights, resting during the
daylight, and so gaining the _embouchure_ of the Madeira.

This tributary, which, fed by a hundred affluents, descends from the
watershed of the Cordilleras, is a regular waterway opening into the
very heart of Bolivia. A pirogue could pass up it and leave no trace of
its passage, and a refuge could be found in some town or village beyond
the Brazilian frontier. There Joam Dacosta would be comparatively
safe, and there for several months he could wait for an opportunity of
reaching the Pacific coast and taking passage in some vessel leaving one
of its ports; and if the ship were bound for one of the States of North
America he would be free. Once there, he could sell the fazenda, leave
his country forever, and seek beyond the sea, in the Old World, a final
retreat in which to end an existence so cruelly a