Joam started up; the souvenire of the past vanished like a shadow.
Benito leaped into the room; he was in the presence of his father,
and the next moment Manoel, tearing down the remaining bars, appeared
before him.
Joam Dacosta would have uttered a cry of surprise. Benito left him no
time to do so.
"Father," he said, "the window grating is down. A rope leads to the
ground. A pirogue is waiting for you on the canal not a hundred yards
off. Araujo is there ready to take you far away from Manaos, on the
other bank of the Amazon where your track will never be discovered.
Father, you must escape this very moment! It was the judge's own
suggestion!"
"It must be done!" added Manoel.
"Fly! I!--Fly a second time! Escape again?"
And with crossed arms, and head erect, Joam Dacosta stepped forward.
"Never!" he said, in a voice so firm that Benito and Manoel stood
bewildered.
The young men had never thought of a difficulty like this. They had
never reckoned on the hindrances to escape coming from the prisoner
himself.
Benito advanced to his father, and looking him straight in the face,
and taking both his hands in his, not to force him, but to try and
convince him, said:
"Never, did you say, father?"
"Never!"
"Father," said Manoel--"for I also have the right to call you
father--listen to us! If we tell you that you ought to fly without
losing an instant, it is because if you remain you will be guilty
toward others, toward yourself!"
"To remain," continued Benito, "is to remain to die! The order for
execution may come at any moment! If you imagine that the justice of
men will nullify a wrong decision, if you think it will rehabilitate
you whom it condemned twenty years since, you are mistaken! There is
hope no longer! You must escape! Come!"
By an irresistible impulse Benito seized his father and drew him
toward the window.
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