“Then you will arrive before we shall. Will you deliver a letter for me?”
“With pleasure.”
“Take this letter, then, my friend, and deliver it at Manaos.”
The Indian took the letter which Joam gave him, and a handful of reis was the price of the commission he had undertaken.
No members of the family, then gone into the house, knew anything of this. Torres was the only witness. He heard a few words exchanged between Joam and the Indian, and from the cloud which passed over his face it was easy to see that the sending of this letter considerably surprised him.
CHAPTER XVII.
AN ATTACK
However, if Manoel, to avoid giving rise to a violent scene on board, said nothing on the subject of Torres, he resolved to have an explanation with Benito.
“Benito,” he began, after taking him to the bow of the jangada, “I have something to say to you.”
Benito, generally so good-humored, stopped as he looked at Manoel, and a cloud came over his countenance.
“I know why,” he said; “it is about Torres.”