f all, read from the document this terrible
history.

And from that moment Judge Jarriquez, who possessed this indubitable
proof, arranged with the chief of the police, and declined to allow Joam
Dacosta, while waiting new instructions from Rio Janeiro, to stay in any
prison but his own house.

There could be no difficulty about this, and in the center of the crowd
of the entire population of Manaos, Joam Dacosta, accompanied by all his
family, beheld himself conducted like a conquerer to the magistrate's
residence.

And in that minute the honest fazender of Iquitos was well repaid for
all that he had suffered during the long years of exile, and if he was
happy for his family's sake more than for his own, he was none the less
proud for his country's sake that this supreme injustice had not been
consummated!

And in all this what had become of Fragoso?

Well, the good-hearted fellow was covered with caresses! Benito, Manoel,
and Minha had overwhelmed him, and Lina had by no means spared him. He
did not know what to do, he defended himself as best he could. He did
not deserve anything like it. Chance alone had done it. Were any thanks
due to him for having recognized Torres as a captain of the woods? No,
certainly not. As to his idea of hurrying off in search of the band to
which Torres had belonged, he did not think it had been worth much, and
as to the name of Ortega, he did not even know its value.

Gallant Fragoso! Whether he wished it or no, he had none the less saved
Joam Dacosta!

And herein what a strange succession of different events all tending to
the same end. The deliverance of Fragoso at the time when he was dying
of exhaustion in the forest of Iquitos; the hospitable reception he
had met with at the fazenda, the meeting with Torres on the Brazilian
frontier, his embarkation on the jangada; and lastly, the fact that
Fragoso had seen him somewhere before.

"Well, yes!" Fragoso ended by exclaiming; "but it is not to me that all
this happiness is due, it is due to Lina!"

"To me?" replied the young mulatto.

"No doubt of it. Without the liana, without the idea of the liana, could
I ever have been the cause of so much happiness?"

So that Fragoso and Lina were praised and petted by all the family, and
by all the new friends whom so many trials had procured them at Manaos,
need hardly be insisted on.

But had not Judge Jarriquez also had his share in this rehabilitation
of an innocent man? If, in