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At half past ten that night, three figures met near the gate of Tadeu de Albuquerque's garden. The place was rarely visited, and the men argued there for several minutes. One of them spoke with authority while the other two listened without answering. It was Baltasar Coutinho, giving his servants an order to kill. ‘Do not stay near this gate, because a body here would bring suspicion upon me or my uncle.’ He ordered them to move apart, listen for the horse's hoofbeats and follow Simão until they could fire far from the garden. One servant asked what they would do if Simão left his father's house and quickly entered the garden. Baltasar assured them that Simão was not at Domingos's house and promised to signal if they needed to follow him on foot. He then sent the two men to hide behind the church and remained alone by the wall. He pressed his ear to the gate, heard Teresa treading on the dry leaves in the garden and hurried away.
Almost at the same time, João da Cruz approached from the opposite direction and examined every place where a shadow might hide a man. He went around the church, about two hundred paces away, and saw two figures sheltered in the tower's shadows. João suspected them but could not recognise them and continued on his way. The servants, however, recognised the farrier and recalled that he had served Baltasar before opening his workshop with his former master's money. One of them thought João would be on their side, but the other recalled that Domingos had saved him from the gallows. The first replied that bullets would pierce João just as they would any other man, although his companion remained uneasy. Soon afterwards, the two men heard a horse's hoofbeats in the distance. João appeared before Simão, who had his pistols ready, while the muleteer held a carbine, a short rifle.
‘There is no trouble yet, but you might already be under your horse with four lead pellets in your chest,’ the farrier warned. The muleteer then recognised João as his brother-in-law, and Simão held out his hand to his new protector. ‘I want to feel the hand of an honourable man in mine,’ Simão said with emotion. João replied that men revealed themselves in difficult moments and refused to waste more time on words. He said that two men were hiding behind the church and might be Baltasar's servants. He told Simão to dismount because he expected a fight. Simão assured him that he was not trembling, but João replied that they would see about that when he faced the enemy. After Simão dismounted, the farrier led the horse back and tied it to the ring of an inn. He ordered him to follow twenty paces behind him and his brother-in-law. If the two men stopped near the garden, Simão was to remain where he was. The student tried to protest against a plan that humiliated him as a protected man, but João allowed no argument. ‘Do as I tell you, sir,’ the farrier repeated firmly.
João and his brother-in-law advanced, examining every corner, and saw a figure disappear towards the church. The farrier decided to pursue the men to the churchyard so that Simão could reach the gate and enter the garden. The two protectors quickened their pace while Simão walked towards the gate with his pistols ready. Before the wall there was a gravel slope ending in a dark avenue. When they heard the horse stop, the killers sought a place in that avenue from which they could attack Simão when he came out. When they saw João and the muleteer advancing directly towards them, they chose to flee. Baltasar appeared before them and called them cowards, forcing them to stop and ready their blunderbusses. João and his brother-in-law arrived at that moment, and Baltasar ordered them to stop. João asked the muleteer to speak because he did not want to be recognised by his voice. ‘Who is ordering us to stop, and what do you want from us?’ the muleteer asked. Baltasar replied that he had three guns and demanded to know what they were doing in that place. The muleteer returned the question, but the heir advanced a few paces and declared that he would not accept questions. At João's command, his brother-in-law threatened to shoot him down if he took another step, and Baltasar stopped. One servant called Baltasar aside and told him that the silent man appeared to be João da Cruz. The farrier heard those words and withdrew with his brother-in-law before they could confirm his identity. The servants took the withdrawal for a victory and ran after them, although Baltasar ordered them not to follow.
Simão heard his protectors' quick footsteps and, compelled by Teresa's alarm, opened the garden gate. João jokingly asked whether the marriage had already been arranged and warned that there was no time for conversation. Simão understood the danger and squeezed Teresa's hand convulsively before withdrawing. Simão still wished to recognise the distant figures, but João ordered him to go back the way he had come without looking back. The young man obeyed, found the horse, mounted and waited for the two guards who followed him slowly. João and his brother-in-law wondered at the servants' sudden disappearance and feared another ambush outside the town.
The farrier knew a shortcut that could take the enemies to the road and advised Simão to gallop away. He and his brother-in-law would take another route and meet the horseman again. Wounded in his pride, Simão replied that they should not judge him such a coward and deliberately pulled on the reins. João let him travel as he pleased but led his brother-in-law away from the road. They climbed a slope of olive trees and advanced hidden by broom bushes and a wall parallel to the road. João explained that the shortcut reached the bend in the hill, where the killers might hide behind the cork oaks. For a few moments they crossed open ground and then bent low beneath the vegetation again. When they reached a bank, they heard the footsteps of the two men crossing a small bridge over the stream. Simão's horse was still far behind, and João realised with distress that they would not arrive in time. The muleteer proposed shouting to stop Simão from advancing, but the farrier replied that it was too late. ‘Whether they kill him or not, when they return they will be ours,’ João concluded, and the two men ran without fear of being seen.
They had crossed the bridge and were climbing the slope when they heard two shots. João feared that the attackers would reach the road and escape if they had killed the young gentleman. He and his brother-in-law reached the top, breathless and with their carbines ready. Contrary to João's prediction, the killers were returning by the same shortcut, believing that Simão's companions were farther ahead. The farrier sat behind a small bank and told his brother-in-law to do the same. At a distance of ten paces, the servants saw the two figures rise before them and fled in opposite directions. One climbed the terraces of a vineyard, and the other threw himself into a thicket. ‘Fire at the one on the left,’ João ordered. The two guns went off at the same time, but only the farrier's aim found its target. João immediately killed one of the attackers, while his brother-in-law's shot missed the man hidden in the brush. At that moment, Simão appeared on the ridge and ran towards the place from which the second shots had come.
João called to him and asked whether the killers had killed him. ‘I do not think so,’ Simão replied. João regretted that his brother-in-law had let the second man escape and went down three terraces to see the dead man. As he bent over the body, he wished aloud that he had another gun to send the fugitive to hell as well. The muleteer called him and showed him that blood was running from Simão's shoulder. With a surgeon's skill, the farrier bandaged his wounded arm with several handkerchiefs. Simão explained that he had seen two heads above a bank and had thought they were João and the muleteer. He had stopped the horse and asked whether there was any trouble, but no one had answered. He still had one foot in the stirrup when the two men fired at him. Simão had jumped to the ground, but the brush had stopped him climbing directly and forced him to find a longer way around. Only then had he realised that he was wounded.
João said that the wound was a mere scratch and claimed to have plenty of experience with such treatments. ‘On donkeys, Master João?’ Simão asked with a smile. ‘And on Christians too,’ the farrier replied, saying that his body was covered in scars and he had never sought a surgeon. He added, with dark humour, that ointment and vinegar could almost revive the dead man in the vineyard. At that moment, they heard a faint noise in the foliage where the second attacker had disappeared. João listened like a hunting dog and asked whether the man might still be trembling there. When a flock of birds flew out of the brush, he became certain that the fugitive was still hiding there. He asked Simão for a pistol and ran towards the bushes, where the noise of branches betrayed the man. He ordered his brother-in-law to throw stones into the brush and force the ‘wild boar’ out. Simão went around the hedge, entered a cultivated field and warned João not to fire in his direction. João replied that they had him surrounded and entered the thicket like a ferret.
The fugitive had injured a knee when he jumped into the brush and had lain dazed for some time. When he recovered his senses, he dragged himself to a group of trees where many birds were roosting. The birds made him retreat, and the large stones thrown by the muleteer prevented him from finding another shelter. João took a pruning hook, a curved blade used for pruning, from his pocket and began cutting the branches around the hiding place. The work advanced slowly, and the farrier tired before clearing a path through the vegetation. He therefore sent the muleteer to fetch dry stubble and announced that he would set fire to the brush and roast the man inside. On hearing the threat of fire, the servant found courage in desperation, broke through the thicket and jumped into the field. Simão and the muleteer ran towards the fugitive at the same time.
When he realised he would be caught, the man knelt, raised his hands and begged for mercy. He said that Baltasar had forced him to take part in that dreadful act. The muleteer was already bringing the butt of his gun down towards the man's chest when Simão seized his arm. ‘You do not strike a helpless man like that; stand up,’ the young man ordered. The servant replied that he could not stand because he had a broken leg and would be crippled for life. João arrived at that moment and rushed at him with the pruning hook, amazed that he was still alive. ‘Do not kill the man, Master João,’ Simão said firmly.
The farrier found the order absurd and asked whether Simão wished to repay his protection by sending him to the gallows. He argued that Simão, as a magistrate's son, might escape punishment, but a farrier would end up with a rope around his neck. One witness was enough to guide the investigation, especially with Baltasar using his influence. The man promised to remain silent and swore that he would never return to Castro Daire. Simão again asked João to let him live and said that one witness would do them no harm. João was outraged when Simão spoke his name before the survivor and again pointed out that the man had tried to kill Simão. Simão acknowledged that João had reasons to be afraid but refused to punish a wretch who no longer resisted. João asked ironically whether Simão, once killed by the attacker, would still be able to punish him. Simão ended the argument and ordered them to leave the helpless man there and return to the road.
João thought for a few moments, scratched his head and agreed with obvious displeasure. ‘Whoever spares an enemy ends up dying at his hands,’ the farrier muttered. The three men left the field, jumped over the fence and began descending towards the road. Suddenly, João claimed that he had left his carbine against the hedge and asked the others to continue. The muleteer was leading the horse, which had grazed peacefully beside the road, when Simão heard cries. Simão immediately understood that João had returned to kill the man whose life he had spared. ‘Leave him, master; he knows what he is doing,’ the muleteer said calmly. Soon afterwards, João reappeared, wiping the bloody pruning hook with ferns.
‘You are cruel, Master João,’ the student said. The farrier denied the accusation and answered with a proverb: if someone had to die, it was better for the father to die because he was older. He said that killing one or two made no difference and compared the crime to kneading one or three bushels of flour. For João, a task had to be finished, and his conscience was calm because neither man could inform against him. Simão was horrified by the killer and regretted having allied himself with such a man.