aint Judge
Jarriquez with what he had ascertained during his short excursion.

And this is what had happened.

Fragoso had made no mistake when he recognized Torres as one of the
captains of the party which was employed in the river provinces of the
Madeira.

He set out, and on reaching the mouth of that tributary he learned that
the chief of these _capitaes da mato_ was then in the neighborhood.

Without losing a minute, Fragoso started on the search, and, not without
difficulty, succeeded in meeting him.

To Fragoso's questions the chief of the party had no hesitation in
replying; he had no interest in keeping silence with regard to the few
simple matters on which he was interrogated. In fact, three questions
only of importance were asked him by Fragoso, and these were:

"Did not a captain of the woods named Torres belong to your party a few
months ago?"

"Yes."

"At that time had he not one intimate friend among his companions who
has recently died?"

"Just so!"

"And the name of that friend was?"

"Ortega."

This was all that Fragoso had learned. Was this information of a kind to
modify Dacosta's position? It was hardly likely.

Fragoso saw this, and pressed the chief of the band to tell him what
he knew of this Ortega, of the place where he came from, and of his
antecedents generally. Such information would have been of great
importance if Ortega, as Torres had declared, was the true author of
the crime of Tijuco. But unfortunately the chief could give him no
information whatever in the matter.

What was certain was that Ortega had been a member of the band for many
years, that an intimate friendship existed between him and Torres,
that they were always seen together, and that Torres had watched at his
bedside when he died.

This was all the chief of the band knew, and he could tell no more.
Fragoso, then, had to be contented with these insignificant details, and
departed immediately.

But if the devoted fellow had not brought back the proof that Ortega was
the author of the crime of Tijuco, he had gained one thing, and that was
the knowledge that Torres had told the truth when he affirmed that
one of his comrades in the band had died, and that he had been present
during his last moments.

The hypothesis that Ortega had given him the document in question had
now become admissible. Nothing was more probable than that this document
had reference to the crime of which Ortega was really the auth