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"And why do you bear that name?" "Because for twenty-three years I wished to hide myself from the pursuit of Brazilian justice." The answers were so exact, and seemed to show that Joam Dacosta had made up his mind to confess everything concerning his past and present life, that Judge Jarriquez, little accustomed to such a course, cocked up his nose more than was usual to him.
But the name of Ortega, brought back by Fragoso, and which was the signature of the document, had afforded the means of unraveling the cryptogram, thanks to the sagacity of Judge Jarriquez. Yes, the material proof sought after for so long was the incontestable witness of the innocence of Joam Dacosta, returned to life, restored to honor.
But this document might still be worth a fortune if, supposing I am acquitted or executed, it should ever escape him. Hence his interest is to sell me the document, which can thus not injure him in any way, and I think he will act according to his interest." The reasoning of Joam Dacosta was unanswerable, and Judge Jarriquez felt it to be so. He made the only possible objection.
"No," replied Fragoso; "but, I repeat, Torres has not lied. One of his companions, with whom he was very intimate, died a few months ago, and there can be no doubt but that this man gave him the document he came to sell to Joam Dacosta." "No," answered Jarriquez "no, there is no doubt about it as far as we are concerned; but that is not enough for those who dispose of the doomed man's life.
Judge Jarriquez sat down on a stone seat, and then, while Minha, Benito, Manoel, and Fragoso stood round him, while Joam Dacosta clasped Yaquita to his heart, he first unraveled the last paragraph of the document by means of the number, and as the words appeared by the institution of the true letters for the cryptological ones, he divided and punctuated them, and then read it out in a loud voice.
"Because I had had enough of this lying life, this obligation to live under a false name, of this impossibility to be able to restore to my wife and children that which belongs to them; in short, sir, because " "Because?" "I was innocent!" "That is what I was waiting for," said Judge Jarriquez.
In private life, Jarriquez, who was a confirmed old bachelor, never left his law-books but for the table which he did not despise; for chess, of which he was a past master; and above all things for Chinese puzzles, enigmas, charades, rebuses, anagrams, riddles, and such things, with which, like more than one European justice thorough sphinxes by taste as well as by profession he principally passed his leisure.
In truth, a stronger man than I might have been deceived." "But I should like to understand," said Manoel, "and I do not " "Take the document," continued Judge Jarriquez; "first look at the disposition of the letters, and read it through." Manoel obeyed. "Do you not see that the combination of several of the letters is very strange?" asked the magistrate.
"That the first cipher of the number should happen to be the first letter of the word Dacosta, and I think you will agree with me that that is not probable." "Quite so!" sighed Manoel, who, with this improbability, saw the last chance vanish. "And so we must trust to chance alone," continued Jarriquez, who shook his head, "and chance does not often do much in things of this sort."
"Without the slightest hesitation," replied Joam, in a firm voice; "for, I repeat it, I had no other object in leaving Iquitos to come to Manaos." This was said in such a tone of truthfulness that Judge Jarriquez experienced a kind of feeling making its way to that corner of the heart where convictions are formed, but he did not yet give in. He could hardly help being astonished.
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