letters!”
It was the last hope.
And then, with a hand whose agitation nearly prevented him from
writing at all, he placed the name of Ortega over the six last
letters of the paragraph, as he had done over the first.
An exclamation immediately escaped him. He saw, at first glance, that
the six last letters were inferior in alphabetical order to those
which composed Ortega’s name, and that consequently they might yield
the number.
And when he reduced the formula, reckoning each later letter from the
earlier letter of the word, he obtained.
O r t e g a
4 3 2 5 1 3
_S u v j h d_
The number thus disclosed was 432513.
But was this number that which had been used in the document? Was it
not as erroneous as those he had previously tried?
At this moment the shouts below redoubled–shouts of pity which
betrayed the sympathy of the excited crowd. A few minutes more were
all that the doomed man had to live!
Fragoso, maddened with grief, darted from the room! He wished to see,
for the last time, his benefactor who was on the road to death! He
longed to throw himself before the mournful procession and stop it,
shouting, “Do not kill this just man! do not kill him!”
But already Judge Jarriquez had placed the given number above the
first letters of the paragraph, repeating them as often as was
necessary, as follows:
4 3 2 5 1 3 4 3 2 5 1 3 4 3 2 5 1 3 4 3 2 5 1 3
_P h y j s l y d d q f d z x g a s g z z q q e h_
And then, reckoning the true letters according to their alphabetical
order, he read:
“Le véritable auteur du vol de—-”
A yell of delight escaped him! This number, 432513, was the number
sought for so long! The name of Ortega had enabled him to discover
it! At length he held the key of the document, which would
incontestably prove the innocence of Joam Dacosta, and without
reading any more he flew from his study into the street, shouting:
“Halt! Halt!”
To cleave the crowd, which opened as he ran, to dash to the prison,
whence the convict was coming at the last moment, with his wife and
children clinging to him with the violence of despair, was but the
work of a minute for Judge Jarriquez.
Stopping before Joam Dacosta, he could not speak for a second, and
then these words escaped his lips:
“Innocent! Innocent!”
CHAPTER XIX
THE CRIME OF TIJUCO
ON THE ARRIVAL of the judge the mournful procession halted. A roaring
echo had repeated after him and again repeated the cry which escaped
from every mouth:
“Innocent! Innocent!”
Then complete silence fell on all. The people did not want to lose
one syllable of what was about to be proclaimed.
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.
And this is what he read in the midst of profound silence:
_Le véritable auteur du vol des diamants et de_
43 251343251 343251 34 325 134 32513432 51 34
_Ph yjslyddf dzxgas gz zqq ehx gkfndrxu ju gi
l’assassinat des soldats qui escortaient le convoi,_
32513432513 432 5134325 134 32513432513 43 251343
_ocytdxvksbx bhu ypohdvy rym huhpuydkjox ph etozsl
commis dans la nuit du vingt-deux janvier mil_
251343 2513 43 2513 43 251343251 3432513 432
_etnpmv ffov pd pajx hy ynojyggay meqynfu q1n
huit-cent vingt-six, n’est donc pas Joam Dacosta,_
5134 3251 3425 134 3251 3432 513 4325 1343251
_mvly fgsu zmqiz tlb qgyu gsqe uvb nrcc edgruzb
injustement condamné à mort, c’est moi, les misérable_
34325134325 13432513 4 3251 3432 513 43 251343251
_l4msyuhqpz drrgcroh e pqxu fivv rpl ph onthvddqf
employé de l’administration du district diamantin,_