to evolve the number which is the key of the document.”
“Will you explain to me how you ought to proceed to do that, sir?”
asked Manoel, who probably caught a glimpse of one more hope.
“Nothing can be more simple,” answered the judge. “Let us take, for
example, one of the words in the sentence we have just written–my
name, if you like. It is represented in the cryptogram by this queer
succession of letters, _ncuvktygc_. Well, arranging these letters in
a column, one under the other, and then placing against them the
letters of my name and deducting one from the other the numbers of
their places in alphabetical order, I see the following result:
Between _n_ and _j_ we have 4 letters
— _c_ — _a_ — 2 —
— _u_ — _r_ — 3 —
— _v_ — _r_ — 4 —
— _k_ — _i_ — 2 —
— _t_ — _q_ — 3 —
— _y_ — _u_ — 4 —
— _g_ — _e_ — 2 —
— _c_ — _z_ — 3 —
“Now what is the column of ciphers made up of that we have got by
this simple operation? Look here! 423 423 423, that is to say, of
repetitions of the numbers 423, or 234, or 342.”
“Yes, that is it!” answered Manoel.
“You understand, then, by this means, that in calculating the true
letter from the false, instead of the false from the true, I have
been able to discover the number with ease; and the number I was in
search of is really the 234 which I took as the key of my
cryptogram.”
“Well, sir!” exclaimed Manoel, “if that is so, the name of Dacosta is
in the last paragraph; and taking successively each letter of those
lines for the first of the seven letters which compose his name, we
ought to get—-”
“That would be impossible,” interrupted the judge, “except on one
condition.”
“What is that?”
“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.”
“But still,” said Manoel, “chance might give us this number.”
“This number,” exclaimed the magistrate–“this number? But how many
ciphers is it composed of? Of two, or three, or four, or nine, or
ten? Is it made of different ciphers only or of ciphers in different
order many times repeated? Do you not know, young man, that with the
ordinary ten ciphers, using all at a time, but without any
repetition, you can make three million two hundred and sixty-eight
thousand and eight hundred different numbers, and that if you use the
same cipher more than once in the number, these millions of
combinations will be enormously increased! And do you not know that
if we employ every one of the five hundred and twenty-five thousand
and six hundred minutes of which the year is composed to try at each
of these numbers, it would take you six years, and that you would
want three centuries if each operation you an hour? No! You ask the
impossible!”
“Impossible, sir?” answered Manoel. “An innocent man has been branded
as guilty, and Joam Dacosta is to lose his life and his honor while
you hold in your hands the material proof of his innocence! That is
what is impossible!”
“Ah! young man!” exclaimed Jarriquez, “who told you, after all, that
Torres did not tell a lie? Who told you that he really did have in
his hands a document written by the author of the crime? that this
paper was the document, and that this document refers to Joam
Dacosta?”
“Who told me so?” repeated Manoel, and his face was hidden in his
hands.
In fact, nothing could prove for certain that the document had
anything to do with the affair in the diamond province. There was, in
fact, nothing to show that it was not utterly devoid of meaning, and