第 十三 章 · TORRES

. TORRES

At five o’clock in the evening Fragoso was still there, and was asking

himself if he would have to pass the night on the spot to satisfy the

expectant crowd, when a stranger arrived in the square, and seeing all

this native gathering, advanced toward the inn.

For some minutes the stranger eyed Fragoso attentively with some

circumspection. The examination was obviously satisfactory, for he

entered the loja.

He was a man about thirty-five years of age. He was dressed in a

somewhat elegant traveling costume, which added much to his personal

appearance. But his strong black beard, which the scissors had not

touched for some time, and his hair, a trifle long, imperiously required

the good offices of a barber.

“Good-day, friend, good-day!” said he, lightly striking Fragoso on the

shoulder.

Fragoso turned round when he heard the words pronounced in pure

Brazilian, and not in the mixed idiom of the natives.

“A compatriot?” he asked, without stopping the twisting of the

refractory mouth of a Mayouma head.

“Yes,” answered the stranger. “A compatriot who has need of your

services.”

“To be sure! In a minute,” said Fragoso. “Wait till I have finished with

this lady!”

And this was done in a couple of strokes with the curling-tongs.

Although he was the last comer, and had no right to the vacant place, he

sat down on the stool without causing any expostulation on the part of

the natives who lost a turn.

Fragoso put down the irons for the scissors, and, after the manner of

his brethren, said:

“What can I do for you, sir?”

“Cut my beard and my hair,” answered the stranger.

“All right!” said Fragoso, inserting his comb into the mass of hair.

And then the scissors to do their work.

“And you come from far?” asked Fragoso, who could not work without a

good deal to say.

“I have come from the neighborhood of Iquitos.”

“So have I!” exclaimed Fragoso. “I have come down the Amazon from

Iquitos to Tabatinga. May I ask your name?”

“No objection at all,” replied the stranger. “My name is Torres.”

When the hair was cut in the latest style Fragoso began to thin his

beard, but at this moment, as he was looking straight into his face, he

stopped, then began again, and then:

“Eh! Mr. Torres,” said he; “I seem to know you. We must have seen each

other somewhere?”

“I do not think so,” quickly answered Torres.

“I am always wrong!” replied Fragoso, and he hurried on to finish his

task.

A moment after Torres continued the conversation which this question of

Fragoso had interrupted, with:

“How did you come from Iquitos?”

“From Iquitos to Tabatinga?”

“Yes.”

“On board a raft, on which I was given a passage by a worthy fazender

who is going down the Amazon with his family.”

“A friend indeed!” replied Torres. “That is a chance, and if your

fazender would take me----”

“Do you intend, then, to go down the river?”

“Precisely.”

“Into Para?”

“No, only to Manaos, where I have business.”

“Well, my host is very kind, and I think he would cheerfully oblige

you.”

“Do you think so?”

“I might almost say I am sure.”

“And what is the name of this fazender?” asked Torres carelessly.

“Joam Garral,” answered Fragoso.

And at the same time he muttered to himself:

“I certainly have seen this fellow somewhere!”

Torres was not the man to allow a conversation to drop which was likely

to interest him, and for very good reasons.

“And so you think Joam Garral would give me a passage?”

“I do not doubt it,” replied Fragoso. “What he would do for a poor chap

like me he would not refuse to do for a compatriot like you.”

“Is he alone on board the jangada?”

“No,” replied Fragoso. “I was going to tell you that he is traveling

with all his family--and jolly people they are, I assure you. He is

accompanied by a crew of Indians and negroes, who form part of the staff

at the fazenda.”

“Is he rich?”

“Oh, certainly!” answered Fragoso--“very rich. Even the timber which

forms the jangada, and the cargo it carries, constitute a fortune!”

“The Joam Garral and his whole family have just passed the Brazilian

frontier?”

“Yes,” said Fragoso; “his wife, his son, his daughter, and Miss Minha’s

betrothed.”

“Ah! he has a daughter?” said Torres.

“A charming girl!”

“Going to get married?”

“Yes, to a brave young fellow,” replied Fragoso--“an army surgeon in

garrison at Belem, and the wedding is to take place as soon as we get to

the end of the voyage.”

“Good!” said the smiling Torres; “it is what you might call a betrothal

journey.”

“A voyage of betrothal, of pleasure, and of business!” said Fragoso.

“Madame Yaquita and her daughter have never set foot on Brazilian

ground; and as for Joam Garral, it is the first time he has crossed the

frontier since he went to the farm of old Magalhaës.”

“I suppose,” asked Torres, “that there are some servants with the

family?”

“Of course,” replied Fragoso--“old Cybele, on the farm for the last

fifty years, and a pretty mulatto, Miss Lina, who is more of a companion

than a servant to her mistress. Ah, what an amiable disposition! What

a heart, and what eyes! And the ideas she has about everything,

particularly about lianas--” Fragoso, started on this subject, would not

have been able to stop himself, and Lina would have been the object of

a good many enthusiastic declarations, had Torres not quitted the chair

for another customer.

“What do I owe you?” asked he of the barber.

“Nothing,” answered Fragoso. “Between compatriots, when they meet on the

frontier, there can be no question of that sort.”

“But,” replied Torres, “I want to----”

“Very well, we will settle that later on, on board the jangada.”

“But I do not know that, and I do not like to ask Joam Garral to allow

me----”

“Do not hesitate!” exclaimed Fragoso; “I will speak to him if you would

like it better, and he will be very happy to be of use to you under the

circumstances.”

And at that instant Manoel and Benito, coming into the town after

dinner, appeared at the door of the loja, wishing to see Fragoso at

work.

Torres turned toward them and suddenly said: “There are two gentlemen I

know--or rather I remember.”

“You remember them!” asked Fragoso, surprised.

“Yes, undoubtedly! A month ago, in the forest of Iquitos, they got me

out of a considerable difficulty.”

“But they are Benito Garral and Manoel Valdez.”

“I know. They told me their names, but I never expected to see them

here.”

Torres advanced toward the two young men, who looked at him without

recognizing him.

“You do not remember me, gentlemen?” he asked.

“Wait a little,” answered Benito; “Mr. Torres, if I remember aright;

it was you who, in the forest of Iquitos, got into difficulties with a

guariba?”

“Quite true, gentlemen,” replied Torres. “For six weeks I have been

traveling down the Amazon, and I have just crossed the frontier at the

same time as you have.”

“Very pleased to see you again,” said Benito; “but you have not

forgotten that you promised to come to the fazenda to my father?”

“I have not forgotten it,” answered Torres.

“And you would have done better to have accepted my offer; it would have

allowed you to have waited for our departure, rested from you fatigues,

and descended with us to the frontier; so many days of walking saved.”

“To be sure!” answered Torres.

“Our compatriot is not going to stop at the frontier,” said Fragoso, “he

is going on to Manaos.”

“Well, then,” replied Benito, “if you will come on board the jangada you

will be well received, and I am sure my father will give you a passage.”

“Willingly,” said Torres; “and you will allow me to thank you in

advance.”

Manoel took no part in the conversation; he let Benito make the offer

of his services, and attentively watched Torres, whose face he scarcely

remembered. There was an entire want of frankness in the eyes, whose

look changed unceasingly, as if he was afraid to fix them anywhere.

But Manoel kept this impression to himself, not wishing to injure a

compatriot whom they were about to oblige.

“Gentlemen,” said Torres, “if you like, I am ready to follow you to the

landing-place.”

“Come, then,” answered Benito.

A quarter of an hour afterward Torres was on board the jangada. Benito

introduced him to Joam Garral, acquainting him with the circumstances

under which they had previously met him, and asked him to give him a

passage down to Manaos.

“I am happy, sir, to be able to oblige you,” replied Joam.

“Thank you,” said Torres, who at the moment of putting forth his hand

kept it back in spite of himself.

“We shall be off at daybreak to-morrow,” added Joam Garral, “so you had

better get your things on board.”

“Oh, that will not take me long!” answered Torres; “there is only myself

and nothing else!”

“Make yourself at home,” said Joam Garral.

That evening Torres took possession of a cabin near to that of the

barber. It was not till eight o’clock that the latter returned to

the raft, and gave the young mulatto an account of his exploits, and

repeated, with no little vanity, that the renown of the illustrious

Fragoso was increasing in the basin of the Upper Amazon.