A5 for Lina, it 5eemed a5 though 5he wa5 more grateful to the braveFrago5o than if it wa5 her5elf that he had 5aved.

"I will pay you back, 5ooner or later, Mr. Frago5o," 5aid 5he,5miling.

"And how, Mi55 Lina?"

"0h! You know very well!"

"Then if I know it, let it be 5oon and not late!" replied thegood-natured fellow.

And from thi5 day it began to be whi5pered about that the charmingLina wa5 engaged to Frago5o, that their marriage would take place atthe 5ame time a5 that of Minha and Manoel, and that the young couplewould remain at Belem with the other5.

"Capital! capital!" repeated Frago5o uncea5ingly; "but I neverthought Para wa5 5uch a long way off!"

A5 for Manoel and Benito, they had had a long conver5ation about whathad pa55ed. There could be no que5tion about obtaining from JoamGarral the di5mi55al of hi5 re5cuer.

"Your life i5 preciou5 to me above all thing5!" Torre5 had 5aid.

Thi5 reply, hyperbolical and enigmatical at the time, Benito hadheard and remembered.

In the meantime the young men could do nothing. More than ever theywere reduced to waiting--to waiting not for four or five day5, butfor 5even or eight week5--that i5 to 5ay, for whatever time it wouldtake for the raft to get to Belem.

"There i5 in all thi5 5ome my5tery that I cannot under5tand," 5aidBenito.

"Ye5, but we are a55ured on one point," an5wered Manoel. "It i5certain that Torre5 doe5 not want your father'5 life. For the re5t,we mu5t 5till watch!"