"
And they all cleared the bridge, which swayed above the ravine like a
swing, and plunged again beneath the mighty trees.
But they had not proceeded for ten minutes along the interminable
cipo, in the direction of the river, when they stopped, and this time
not without cause.
"Have we got to the end of the liana?" asked Minha.
"No," replied Benito; "but we had better advance with care. Look!"
and Benito pointed to the cipo which, lost in the branches of a high
ficus, was agitated by violent shakings.
"What causes that?" asked Manoel.
"Perhaps some animal that we had better approach with a little
circumspection!"
And Benito, cocking his gun, motioned them to let him go on a bit,
and stepped about ten paces to the front.
Manoel, the two girls, and the black remained motionless where they
were.
Suddenly Benito raised a shout, and they saw him rush toward a tree;
they all ran as well.
Sight the most unforeseen, and little adapted to gratify the eyes!
A man, hanging by the neck, struggled at the end of the liana, which,
supple as a cord, had formed into a slipknot, and the shakings came
from the jerks into which he still agitated it in the last
convulsions of his agony!
Benito threw himself on the unfortunate fellow, and with a cut of his
hunting-knife severed the cipo.
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