document, and then the innocence of Joam Dacosta will be palpable to
the eyes of all.”
This was likewise the hope of Yaquita, of Benito, of Manoel, and of
Minha, and, shut up in the house, they passed long hours in
endeavoring to decipher the writing.
But if it was their hope–and there is no need to insist on that
point–it was none the less that of Judge Jarriquez.
After having drawn up his report at the end of his examination
establishing the identity of Joam Dacosta, the magistrate had sent it
off to headquarters, and therewith he thought he had finished with
the affair so far as he was concerned. It could not well be
otherwise.
On the discovery of the document, Jarriquez suddenly found himself
face to face with the study of which he was a master. He, the seeker
after numerical combinations, the solver of amusing problems, the
answerer of charades, rebuses, logogryphs, and such things, was at
last in his true element.
At the thought that the document might perhaps contain the
justification of Joam Dacosta, he felt all the instinct of the
analyst aroused. Here, before his very eyes, was a cryptogram! And so
from that moment he thought of nothing but how to discover its
meaning, and it is scarcely necessary to say that he made up his mind
to work at it continuously, even if he forgot to eat or to drink.
After the departure of the young people, Judge Jarriquez installed
himself in his study. His door, barred against every one, assured him
of several hours of perfect solitude. His spectacles were on his
nose, his snuff-box on the table. He took a good pinch so as to
develop the finesse and sagacity of his mind. He picked up the
document and became absorbed in meditation, which soon became
materialized in the shape of a monologue. The worthy justice was one
of those unreserved men who think more easily aloud than to himself.
“Let us proceed with method,” he said. “No method, no logic; no
logic, no success.”
Then, taking the document, he ran through it from beginning to end,
without understanding it in the least.
The document contained a hundred lines, which were divided into half
a dozen paragraphs.
“Hum!” said the judge, after a little reflection; “to try every
paragraph, one after the other, would be to lose precious time, and
be of no use. I had better select one of these paragraphs, and take
the one which is likely to prove the most interesting. Which of them
would do this better than the last, where the recital of the whole
affair is probably summed up? Proper names might put me on the track,
among others that of Joam Dacosta; and if he had anything to do with
this document, his name will evidently not be absent from its
concluding paragraph.”
The magistrate’s reasoning was logical, and he was decidedly right in
bringing all his resources to bear in the first place on the gist of
the cryptogram as contained in its last paragraph.
Here is the paragraph, for it is necessary to again bring it before
the eyes of the reader so as to show how an analyst set to work to
discover its meaning.
_”P h y j s l y d d q f d z x g a s g z z q q e h x g k f n d r x u j
u g I o c y t d x v k s b x h h u y p o h d v y r y m h u h p u y d k
j o x p h e t o z l s l e t n p m v f f o v p d p a j x h y y n o j y
g g a y m e q y n f u q l n m v l y f g s u z m q I z t l b q q y u g
s q e u b v n r c r e d g r u z b l r m x y u h q h p z d r r g c r o