"The paper! Is the paper still inside?" exclaimed Benito, who could
not contain himself.
"It is for the magistrate to open this case!" answered Manoel. "To
him alone belongs the duty of verifying that the document was found
within it."
"Yes, yes. Again you are right, Manoel," said Benito. "To Manaos, my
friends--to Manaos!"
Benito, Manoel, Fragoso, and the foreman who held the case,
immediately jumped into one of the pirogues, and were starting off,
when Fragoso said:
"And the corpse?"
The pirogue stopped.
In fact, the Indians had already thrown back the body into the water,
and it was drifting away down the river.
"Torres was only a scoundrel," said Benito. "If I had to fight him,
it was God that struck him, and his body ought not to go unburied!"
And so orders were given to the second pirogue to recover the corpse,
and take it to the bank to await its burial.
But at the same moment a flock of birds of prey, which skimmed along
the surface of the stream, pounced on the floating body. They were
urubus, a kind of small vulture, with naked necks and long claws, and
black as crows.
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