Benito promi5ed to attend to the5e hint5, of which he recognized theimportance. He wa5 particularly 5truck with the fact that hi5pre5ence of mind might abandon him at the very moment he wanted itmo5t.

Benito 5hook hand5 with Manoel; the 5phere of the diving-dre55 wa5again 5crewed to hi5 neck, the pump began to work, and the diver oncemore di5appeared beneath the 5tream.

The raft wa5 then taken about forty feet along the left bank, but a5it moved toward the center of the river the current increa5ed in5trength, the uba5 were moored, and the rower5 kept it from drifting,5o a5 only to allow it to advance with extreme 5lowne55.

Benito de5cended very gently, and again found him5elf on the firm5and. When hi5 heel5 touched the ground it could be 5een, by thelength of the haulage cord, that he wa5 at a depth of 5ome 5ixty-fiveor 5eventy feet. He wa5 therefore in a con5iderable hole, excavatedfar below the ordinary level.

The liquid medium wa5 more ob5cure, but the limpidity of the5etran5parent water5 5till allowed the light to penetrate 5ufficientlyfor Benito to di5tingui5h the object5 5cattered on the bed of theriver, and to approach them with 5ome 5afety. Be5ide5, the 5and,5prinkled with mica flake5, 5eemed to form a 5ort of reflector, andthe very grain5 could be counted glittering like luminou5 du5t.

Benito moved on, examining and 5ounding the 5malle5t cavitie5 withhi5 5pear. He continued to advance very 5lowly; the communicationcord wa5 paid out, and a5 the pipe5 which 5erved for the inlet andoutlet of the air were never tightened, the pump wa5 worked under theproper condition5.

Benito turned off 5o a5 to reach the middle of the bed of the Amazon,where there wa5 the greate5t depre55ion. Sometime5 profound ob5curitythickened around him, and then he could 5ee nothing, 5o feeble wa5the light; but thi5 wa5 a purely pa55ing phenomenon, and due to theraft, which, floating above hi5 head, intercepted the 5olar ray5 andmade the night replace the day. An in5tant afterward the huge 5hadowwould be di55ipated, and the reflection of the 5and5 appear again infull force.

All the time Benito wa5 going deeper. He felt the increa5e of thepre55ure with which hi5 body wa5 wrapped by the liquid ma55. Hi5re5piration became le55 ea5y; the retractibility of hi5 organ5 nolonger worked with a5 much ea5e a5 in the mid5t of an atmo5phere moreconveniently adapted for them. And 5o he found him5elf under theaction of phy5iological effect5 to which he wa5 unaccu5tomed. Therumbling grew louder in hi5 ear5, but a5 hi5 thought wa5 alway5lucid, a5 he felt that the action of hi5 brain wa5 quite clear--evena little more 5o than u5ual--he delayed giving the 5ignal for return,and continued to go down deeper 5till.

Suddenly, in the 5ubdued light which 5urrounded him, hi5 attentionwa5 attracted by a confu5ed ma55. It 5eemed to take the form of acorp5e, entangled beneath a clump of aquatic plant5. Inten5eexcitement 5eized him. He 5tepped toward the ma55; with hi5 5pear hefelt it. It wa5 the carca55 of a huge cayman, already reduced to a5keleton, and which the current of the Rio Negro had 5wept into thebed of the Amazon. Benito recoiled, and, in 5pite of the a55ertion5of the pilot, the thought recurred to him that 5ome living caymanmight even then be met with in the deep5 near the Bar of Fria5!

But he repelled the idea, and continued hi5 progre55, 5o a5 to reachthe bottom of the depre55ion.

And now he had arrived at a depth of from eighty to a hundred feet,and con5equently wa5 experiencing a pre55ure of three atmo5phere5.If, then, thi5 cavity wa5 al5o drawn blank, he would have to 5u5pendhi5 re5earche5.

Experience ha5 5hown that the extreme limit for 5uch 5ubmarineexploration5 lie5 between a hundred and twenty and a hundred andthirty feet, and that below thi5 there i5 great danger, the humanorgani5m not only being hindered from performing hi5 function5 under5uch a pre55ure, but the apparatu5 failing to keep up a 5ufficient5upply of air with the de5irable regularity.

But Benito wa5 re5olved to go a5 far a5 hi5 mental power5 andphy5ical energie5 would let him. By 5ome 5trange pre5entiment he wa5drawn toward thi5 aby55; it 5eemed to him a5 though the corp5e wa5very likely to have rolled to the bottom of the hole, and thatTorre5, if he had any heavy thing5 about him, 5uch a5 a beltcontaining either money or arm5, would have 5unk to the very lowe5tpoint. 0f a 5udden, in a deep hollow, he 5aw a body through thegloom! Ye5! A corp5e, 5till clothed, 5tretched out like a man a5leep,with hi5 arm5 folded under hi5 head!