I do not know! I am losing myself in things that defy explanation! Oh! why did I ever think of offering to take him on board this raft ?" "Be calm, Benito, I pray you!" "Manoel!" continued Benito, who seemed to be powerless to contain himself, "think you that if it only concerned me--this man who inspires us all with such aversion and disgust--I should not hesitate to throw him overboard! But when it concerns my father, I fear lest in giving way to my impressions I may be injuring my object! Something tells me that with this scheming fellow there may be danger in doing anything until he has given us the right--the right and the duty--to do it.

In short, on the jangada, he is in our power, and if we both keep good watch over my father, we can spoil his game, no matter how sure it may be, and force him to unmask and betray himself! Then wait a little longer!" The arrival of Torres in the bow of the raft broke off the conversation.
Torres looked slyly at the two young men, but said not a word.
Benito was not deceived when he said that the adventurer's eyes were never off Joam Garral as long as he fancied he was unobserved.
No! he was not deceived when he said that Torres' face grew evil when he looked at his father! By what mysterious bond could these two men--one nobleness itself, that was self-evident--be connected with each other?
Such being the state of affairs it was certainly difficult for Torres, constantly watched as he was by the two young men, by Fragoso and Lina, to make a single movement without having instantly to repress it.
Perhaps he understood the position.

If he did, he did not show it, for his manner changed not in the least.
Satisfied with their mutual explanation, Manoel and Benito promised to keep him in sight without doing anything to awaken his suspicions.
During the following days the jangada passed on the right the mouths of the rivers Camara, Aru, and Yuripari, whose waters instead of flowing into the Amazon run off to the south to feed the Rio des Purus, and return by it into the main river.

At five o'clock on the evening of the 10th of August they put into the island of Cocos.
They there passed a _"seringal."_ This name is applied to a caoutchouc plantation, the caoutchouc being extracted from the _"seringueira"_ tree, whose scientific name is _siphonia elastica._ It is said that, by negligence or bad management, the number of these trees is decreasing in the basin of the Amazon, but the forests of seringueira trees are still very considerable on the banks of the Madeira, Purus, and other tributaries.
There were here some twenty Indians collecting and working the caoutchouc, an operation which principally takes place during the months of May, June, and July.
After having ascertained that the trees, well prepared by the river floods which have bathed their stems to a height of about four feet, are in good condition for the harvest, the Indians are set to work.
Incisions are made into the alburnum of the seringueiras; below the wound small pots are attached, which twenty-four hours suffice to fill with a milky sap.

It can also be collected by means of a hollow bamboo, and a receptacle placed on the ground at the foot of the tree.
The sap being obtained, the Indians, to prevent the separation of its peculiar resins, fumigate it over a fire of the nuts of the assai palm.
By spreading out the sap on a wooden scoop, and shaking it in the smoke, its coagulation is almost immediately obtained; it assumes a grayish-yellow tinge and solidifies.