Your name is Dacosta!" At the guilty name which Torres thus gave him, Joam Garral could not repress a slight shudder.
"You are Joam Dacosta," continued Torres, "who, twenty-five years ago, were a clerk in the governor-general's office at Tijuco, and you are the man who was sentenced to death in this affair of the robbery and murder!" No response from Joam Garral, whose strange tranquillity surprised the adventurer.

Had he made a mistake in accusing his host?
No! For Joam Garral made no start at the terrible accusations.

Doubtless he wanted to know to what Torres was coming.
"Joam Dacosta, I repeat! It was you whom they sought for this diamond affair, whom they convicted of crime and sentenced to death, and it was you who escaped from the prison at Villa Rica a few hours before you should have been executed! Do you not answer ?" Rather a long silence followed this direct question which Torres asked.
Joam Garral, still calm, took a seat.

His elbow rested on a small table, and he looked fixedly at his accuser without bending his head.
"Will you reply ?" repeated Torres.
"What reply do you want from me ?" said Joam quietly.
"A reply," slowly answered Torres, "that will keep me from finding out the chief of the police at Manaos, and saying to him, 'A man is there whose identity can easily be established, who can be recognized even after twenty-five years' absence, and this man was the instigator of the diamond robbery at Tijuco.

He was the accomplice of the murderers of the soldiers of the escort; he is the man who escaped from execution; he is Joam Garral, whose true name is Joam Dacosta.'" "And so, Torres," said Joam Garral, "I shall have nothing to fear from you if I give the answer you require ?" "Nothing, for neither you nor I will have any interest in talking about the matter." "Neither you nor I ?" asked Joam Garral.