The Giant Raft
BOOK TWO
The Cryptogram
CHAPTER I
THE FIRST MOMENTS
SCARCELY had the pirogue which bore off Joam Garral, or rather Joam Dacosta-for it is more convenient that he should resume his real name-disappeared, than Benito stepped up to Manoel.
"What is it you know?" he asked.
"I know that your father is innocent! Yes, innocent! replied Manoel, "and that he was sentenced to death three- and-twenty years ago for a crime which he never com- mitted!"
"He has told you all about it, Manoel?"
"All about it," replied the young man. The noble fazender did not wish that any part of his past life should be hidden from him who, when he marries his daughter, is to be his second son."
"And the proof of his innocence my father can one day produce?"
"That proof, Benito, lies wholly in the three-and-twenty years of an honorable and honored life, lies entirely in the bearing of Joam Dacosta, who comes forward to say to justice, 'Here am I! I do not care for this false existence any more. I do not care to hide under a name which is not my true one! You have condemned an innocent man! Con- fess your error and set matters right.'"
"And when my father spoke like that, you did not hesitate for a moment to believe him?"
"Not for an instant," replied Manoel.3
