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Updated: June 28, 2025
"That the document is not based on conventional signs, but on what is known in cryptology as a cipher, that is to say, on a number." "Well, sir," answered Manoel, "cannot a document of that kind always be read?" "Yes," said Jarriquez, "if a letter is invariably represented by the same letter; if an a, for example, is always a p, and a p is always an x; if not, it cannot." "And in this document?"
There could be no doubt as to the vindication of Joam Dacosta. The true author of the crime of Tijuco confessed of his own free will, and described the circumstances under which it had been perpetrated! By means of the number Judge Jarriquez interpreted the whole of the cryptogram. And this was what Ortega confessed.
Judge Jarriquez had worked himself into such a state of exasperation that there really was some fear that his mental faculties would lose their balance. He jumped about, and twisted about, and wrestled about as if he really had got hold of his enemy's body. Then suddenly he cried, "Now for chance! Heaven help me now, logic is powerless!" His hand seized a bell-pull hanging near his table.
"That is that you see three h's coming together in two different places." What Jarriquez said was correct, and it was of a nature to attract attention. The two hundred and fourth, two hundred and fifth, and two hundred and sixth letters of the paragraph, and the two hundred and fifty-eight, two hundred and fifty-ninth, and two hundred and sixtieth letters of the paragraph were consecutive h's.
"Come, leave me alone! leave me alone!" shouted Jarriquez, and, a prey to an outburst of rage, he grasped the document to tear it to atoms. Fragoso seized his hands and stopped him. "The truth is there!" he said. "I know," answered Jarriquez; "but it is a truth which will never see the light!" "It will appear it must! it must!" "Once more, have you the cipher?"
At these words Judge Jarriquez rose, and, in not quite such an indifferent tone, said, "Joam Dacosta, in examining you here, in allowing you to relate the particulars of your past life and to protest your innocence, I have gone further than my instructions allow me.
Fragoso jumped to one of the windows, and opened it before the judge could hinder him. The people filled the road. The hour had come at which the doomed man was to start from the prison, and the crowd was flowing back to the spot where the gallows had been erected. Judge Jarriquez, quite frightful to look upon, devoured the lines of the document with a fixed stare.
Judge Jarriquez unfolded the paper and cast his eyes over it, and then he turned it over so as to examine it on the back and the front, which were both covered with writing. "A document it really is!" said he; "there is no doubt of that. It is indeed a document!" "Yes," replied Benito; "and that is the document which proves my father's innocence!"
"But the presumptions on which you trusted are insufficient," replied Manoel, "and the material proof of your innocence is still wanting! If we tell you that you ought to fly, it is because Judge Jarriquez himself told us so. You have now only this one chance left to escape from death!" "I will die, then," said Joam, in a calm voice. "I will die protesting against the decision which condemned me!
Benito, followed by Manoel, hurried along his mother, and half an hour later they arrived before the prison. Owing to the order previously given by Judge Jarriquez they were immediately admitted, and conducted to the chamber occupied by the prisoner. The door opened. Joam Dacosta saw his wife, his son, and Manoel enter the room. "Ah! Joam, my Joam!" exclaimed Yaquita.
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