Jules Verne (29 page)

This affirmation from the pilot was worth a good deal, and was of a
hope-inspiring nature.

However, Benito, who did not care so much for words as he did for
things, thought proper to reply, "Yes, Araujo; the body of Torres is in
the river, and we shall find it if—"

"If?" said the pilot.

"If it has not become the prey of the alligators!"

Manoel and Fragoso waited anxiously for Araujo's reply.

The pilot was silent for a few moments; they felt that he was reflecting
before he spoke. "Mr. Benito," he said at length, "I am not in the habit
of speaking lightly. I had the same idea as you; but listen. During
the ten hours we have been at work have you seen a single cayman in the
river?"

"Not one," said Fragoso.

"If you have not seen one," continued the pilot, "it was because there
were none to see, for these animals have nothing to keep them in the
white waters when, a quarter of a mile off, there are large stretches
of the black waters, which they so greatly prefer. When the raft was
attacked by some of these creatures it was in a part where there was
no place for them to flee to. Here it is quite different. Go to the Rio
Negro, and there you will see caymans by the score. Had Torres' body
fallen into that tributary there might be no chance of recovering it.
But it was in the Amazon that it was lost, and in the Amazon it will be
found."

Benito, relieved from his fears, took the pilot's hand and shook it, and
contented himself with the reply, "To-morrow, my friends!"

Ten minutes later they were all on board the jangada. During the day
Yaquit had passed some hours with her husband. But before she started,
and when she saw neither the pilot, nor Manoel, nor Benito, nor the
boats, she had guessed the search on which they had gone, but she said
nothing to Joam Dacosta, as she hoped that in the morning she would be
able to inform him of their success.

But when Benito set foot on the raft she perceived that their search had
been fruitless. However, she advanced toward him. "Nothing?" she asked.

"Nothing," replied Benito. "But the morrow is left to us."

The members of the family retired to their rooms, and nothing more was
said as to what had passed.

Manoel tried to make Benito lie down, so as to take a few hours' rest.

"What is the good of that?" asked Benito. "Do you think I could sleep?"

ON THE MORROW, the 27th of August, Benito took Manoel apart, before the
sun had risen, and said to him: "Our yesterday's search was vain. If we
begin again under the same conditions we may be just as unlucky."

"We must do so, however," replied Manoel.

"Yes," continued Benito; "but suppose we do not find the body, can you
tell me how long it will be before it rises to the surface?"

"If Torres," answered Manoel, "had fallen into the water living, and
not mortally wounded, it would take five or six days; but as he only
disappeared after being so wounded, perhaps two or three days would be
enough to bring him up again."

This answer of Manoel, which was quite correct, requires some
explanation. Every human body which falls into the water will float if
equilibrium is established between its density and that of its liquid
bed. This is well known to be the fact, even when a person does not know
how to swim. Under such circumstances, if you are entirely submerged,
and only keep your mouth and nose away from the water, you are sure to
float. But this is not generally done. The first movement of a drowning
man is to try and hold as much as he can of himself above the water; he
holds up his head and lifts up his arms, and these parts of his body,
being no longer supported by the liquid, do not lose that amount of
weight which they would do if completely immersed. Hence an excess of
weight, and eventually entire submersion, for the water makes its way
to the lungs through the mouth, takes the place of the air which fills
them, and the body sinks to the bottom.

On the other hand, when the man who falls into the water is already dead
the conditions are different, and more favorable for his floating, for
then the movements of which we have spoken are checked, and the liquid
does not make its way to the lungs so copiously, as there is no attempt
to respire, and he is consequently more likely to promptly reappear.
Manoel then was right in drawing the distinction between the man who
falls into the water living and the man who falls into it dead. In the
one case the return to the surface takes much longer than in the other.

The reappearance of the body after an immersion more or less prolonged
is always determined by the decomposition, which causes the gases to
form. These bring about the expansion of the cellular tissues, the
volume augments and the weight decreases, and then, weighing less than
the water it displaces, the body attains the proper conditions for
floating.

"And thus," continued Manoel, "supposing the conditions continue
favorable, and Torres did not live after he fell into the water, if the
decomposition is not modified by circumstances which we cannot foresee,
he will not reappear before three days."

"We have not got three days," answered Benito. "We cannot wait, you
know; we must try again, and in some new way."

"What can you do?" answered Manoel.

"Plunge down myself beneath the waters," replied Benito, "and search
with my eyes—with my hands."

"Plunge in a hundred times—a thousand times!" exclaimed Manoel. "So be
it. I think, like you, that we ought to go straight at what we want, and
not struggle on with poles and drags like a blind man who only works by
touch. I also think that we cannot wait three days. But to jump in,
come up again, and go down again will give only a short period for
the exploration. No; it will never do, and we shall only risk a second
failure."

"Have you no other plan to propose, Manoel?" asked Benito, looking
earnestly at his friend.

"Well, listen. There is what would seem to be a Providential
circumstance that may be of use to us."

"What is that?"

"Yesterday, as we hurried through Manaos, I noticed that they were
repairing one of the quays on the bank of the Rio Negro. The submarine
works were being carried on with the aid of a diving-dress. Let us
borrow, or hire, or buy, at any price, this apparatus, and then we may
resume our researches under more favorable conditions."

"Tell Araujo, Fragoso, and our men, and let us be off," was the instant
reply of Benito.

The pilot and the barber were informed of the decision with regard to
Manoel's project. Both were ordered to go with the four boats and the
Indians to the basin of Frias, and there to wait for the two young men.

Manoel and Benito started off without losing a moment, and reached the
quay at Manaos. There they offered the contractor such a price that he
put the apparatus at their service for the whole day.

"Will you not have one of my men," he asked, "to help you?"

"Give us your foreman and one of his mates to work the air-pump,"
replied Manoel.

"But who is going to wear the diving-dress?"

"I am," answered Benito.

"You!" exclaimed Manoel.

"I intend to do so."

It was useless to resist.

An hour afterward the raft and all the instruments necessary for the
enterprise had drifted down to the bank where the boats were waiting.

The diving-dress is well known. By its means men can descend beneath the
waters and remain there a certain time without the action of the lungs
being in any way injured. The diver is clothed in a waterproof suit of
India rubber, and his feet are attached to leaden shoes, which allow him
to retain his upright position beneath the surface. At the collar of
the dress, and about the height of the neck, there is fitted a collar
of copper, on which is screwed a metal globe with a glass front. In this
globe the diver places his head, which he can move about at his ease.
To the globe are attached two pipes; one used for carrying off the air
ejected from the lungs, and which is unfit for respiration, and the
other in communication with a pump worked on the raft, and bringing
in the fresh air. When the diver is at work the raft remains immovable
above him; when the diver moves about on the bottom of the river the
raft follows his movements, or he follows those of the raft, according
to his convenience.

These diving-dresses are now much improved, and are less dangerous than
formerly. The man beneath the liquid mass can easily bear the additional
pressure, and if anything was to be feared below the waters it was
rather some cayman who might there be met with. But, as had been
observed by Araujo, not one of these amphibians had been seen, and they
are well known to prefer the black waters of the tributaries of
the Amazon. Besides, in case of danger, the diver has always his
check-string fastened to the raft, and at the least warning can be
quickly hauled to the surface.

Benito, invariably very cool once his resolution was taken, commenced
to put his idea into execution, and got into the diving dress. His head
disappeared in the metal globe, his hand grasped a sort of iron spear
with which to stir up the vegetation and detritus accumulated in the
river bed, and on his giving the signal he was lowered into the stream.

The men on the raft immediately commenced to work the air-pump, while
four Indians from the jangada, under the orders of Araujo, gently
propelled it with their long poles in the desired direction.

The two pirogues, commanded one by Fragoso, the other by Manoel,
escorted the raft, and held themselves ready to start in any direction,
should Benito find the corpse of Torres and again bring it to the
surface of the Amazon.

BENITO THEN HAD disappeared beneath the vast sheet which still covered
the corpse of the adventurer. Ah! If he had had the power to divert the
waters of the river, to turn them into vapor, or to drain them off—if
he could have made the Frias basin dry down stream, from the bar up to
the influx of the Rio Negro, the case hidden in Torres' clothes would
already have been in his hand! His father's innocence would have been
recognized! Joam Dacosta, restored to liberty, would have again started
on the descent of the river, and what terrible trials would have been
avoided!

Benito had reached the bottom. His heavy shoes made the gravel on the
bed crunch beneath him. He was in some ten or fifteen feet of water, at
the base of the cliff, which was here very steep, and at the very spot
where Torres had disappeared.

Near him was a tangled mass of reeds and twigs and aquatic plants, all
laced together, which assuredly during the researches of the previous
day no pole could have penetrated. It was consequently possible that the
body was entangled among the submarine shrubs, and still in the place
where it had originally fallen.

Hereabouts, thanks to the eddy produced by the prolongation of one of
the spurs running out into the stream, the current was absolutely
nil
.
Benito guided his movements by those of the raft, which the long poles
of the Indians kept just over his head.

The light penetrated deep through the clear waters, and the magnificent
sun, shining in a cloudless sky, shot its rays down into them unchecked.
Under ordinary conditions, at a depth of some twenty feet in water,
the view becomes exceedingly blurred, but here the waters seemed to be
impregnated with a luminous fluid, and Benito was able to descend still
lower without the darkness concealing the river bed.

The young man slowly made his way along the bank. With his iron-shod
spear he probed the plants and rubbish accumulated along its foot.
Flocks of fish, if we can use such an expression, escaped on all sides
from the dense thickets like flocks of birds. It seemed as though the
thousand pieces of a broken mirror glimmered through the waters. At the
same time scores of crustaceans scampered over the sand, like huge ants
hurrying from their hills.

Notwithstanding that Benito did not leave a single point of the river
unexplored, he never caught sight of the object of his search. He
noticed, however, that the slope of the river bed was very abrupt, and
he concluded that Torres had rolled beyond the eddy toward the center
of the stream. If so, he would probably still recover the body, for the
current could hardly touch it at the depth, which was already great,
and seemed sensibly to increase. Benito then resolved to pursue his
investigations on the side where he had begun to probe the vegetation.
This was why he continued to advance in that direction, and the raft
had to follow him during a quarter of an hour, as had been previously
arranged.

The quarter of an hour had elapsed, and Benito had found nothing. He
felt the need of ascending to the surface, so as to once more experience
those physiological conditions in which he could recoup his strength. In
certain spots, where the depth of the river necessitated it, he had had
to descend about thirty feet. He had thus to support a pressure almost
equal to an atmosphere, with the result of the physical fatigue and
mental agitation which attack those who are not used to this kind of
work. Benito then pulled the communication cord, and the men on the raft
commenced to haul him in, but they worked slowly, taking a minute to
draw him up two or three feet so as not to produce in his internal
organs the dreadful effects of decompression.

As soon as the young man had set foot on the raft the metallic sphere of
the diving-dress was raised, and he took a long breath and sat down to
rest.

The pirogues immediately rowed alongside. Manoel, Fragoso, and Araujo
came close to him, waiting for him to speak.

"Well?" asked Manoel.

"Still nothing! Nothing!"