3432513 43 251343251343251 34 32513432 513432513
_hqsntzh hh nfepmqkyuuexkto gz gkyuumfv ijdqdpzjq
out, moi seul, qui signe de mon vrai nom, Ortega._
432 513 4325 134 32513 43 251 3432 513 432513
_syk rpl xhxq rym vkloh hh oto zvdk spp suvjhd._
“The real author of the robbery of the diamonds and of the murder of
the soldiers who escorted the convoy, committed during the night of
the twenty-second of January, one thousand eight hundred and
twenty-six, was thus not Joam Dacosta, unjustly condemned to death;
it was I, the wretched servant of the Administration of the diamond
district; yes, I alone, who sign this with my true name, Ortega.”
The reading of this had hardly finished when the air was rent with
prolonged hurrahs.
What could be more conclusive than this last paragraph, which
summarized the whole of the document, and proclaimed so absolutely
the innocence of the fazender of Iquitos, and which snatched from the
gallows this victim of a frightful judicial mistake!
Joam Dacosta, surrounded by his wife, his children, and his friends,
was unable to shake the hands which were held out to him. Such was
the strength of his character that a reaction occurred, tears of joy
escaped from his eyes, and at the same instant his heart was lifted
up to that Providence which had come to save him so miraculously at
the moment he was about to offer the last expiation to that God who
would not permit the accomplishment of that greatest of crimes, the
death of an innocent man!
Yes! 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.
He had been the colleague of Joam Dacosta, employed, like him, at
Tijuco, in the offices of the governor of the diamond arrayal. He had
been the official appointed to accompany the convoy to Rio de
Janeiro, and, far from recoiling at the horrible idea of enriching
himself by means of murder and robbery, he had informed the smugglers
of the very day the convoy was to leave Tijuco.
During the attack of the scoundrels, who awaited the convoy just
beyond Villa Rica, he pretended to defend himself with the soldiers
of the escort, and then, falling among the dead, he was carried away
by his accomplices. Hence it was that the solitary soldier who
survived the massacre had reported that Ortega had perished in the
struggle.
But the robbery did not profit the guilty man in the long run, for, a
little time afterward, he was robbed by those whom he had helped to
commit the crime.
Penniless, and unable to enter Tijuco again, Ortega fled away to the
provinces in the north of Brazil, to those districts of the Upper
Amazon where the _capitaes da mato_ are to be found. He had to live
somehow, and so he joined this not very honorable company; they
neither asked him who he was nor whence he came, and so Ortega became
a captain of the woods, and for many years he followed the trade of a
chaser of men.
During this time Torres, the adventurer, himself in absolute want,
became his companion. Ortega and he became most intimate. But, as he
had told Torres, remorse began gradually to trouble the scoundrel’s
life. The remembrance of his crime became horrible to him. He knew
that another had been condemned in his place! He knew subsequently
that the innocent man had escaped from the last penalty, but that he
would never be free from the shadow of the capital sentence! And
then, during an expedition of his party for several months beyond the
Peruvian frontier, chance caused Ortega to visit the neighborhood of
Iquitos, and there in Joam Garral, who did not recognize him, he
recognized Joam Dacosta.
Henceforth he resolved to make all the reparation he could for the
injustice of which is old comrade had been the victim. He committed
to the document all the facts relative to the crime of Tijuco,