CHAPTER XIV
CHANCE!
A COMPLETE change took place in public opinion on the subject of Joam
Dacosta. To anger succeeded pity. The population no longer thronged
to the prison of Manaos to roar out cries of death to the prisoner.
On the contrary, the most forward of them in accusing him of being
the principal author of the crime of Tijuco now averred that he was
not guilty, and demanded his immediate restoration to liberty. Thus
it always is with the mob--from one extreme they run to the other.
But the change was intelligible.
The events which had happened during the last few days--the struggle
between Benito and Torres; the search for the corpse, which had
reappeared under such extraordinary circumstances; the finding of the
"indecipherable" document, if we can so call it; the information it
concealed, the assurance that it contained, or rather the wish that
it contained, the material proof of the guiltlessness of Joam
Dacosta; and the hope that it was written by the real culprit--all
these things had contributed to work the change in public opinion.
What the people had desired and impatiently demanded forty-eight
hours before, they now feared, and that was the arrival of the
instructions due from Rio de Janeiro.
These, however, were not likely to be delayed.
Joam Dacosta had been arrested on the 24th of August, and examined
next day. The judge's report was sent off on the 26th. It was now the
28th. In three or four days more the minister would have come to a
decision regarding the convict, and it was only too certain that
justice would take its course.
There was no doubt that such would be the case. On the other hand,
that the assurance of Dacosta's innocence would appear from the
document, was not doubted by anybody, neither by his family nor by
the fickle population of Manaos, who excitedly followed the phases of
this dramatic affair.
But, on the other hand, in the eyes of disinterested or indifferent
persons who were not affected by the event, what value could be
assigned to this document? and how could they even declare that it
referred to the crime in the diamond arrayal? It existed, that was
undeniable; it had been found on the corpse of Torres, nothing could
be more certain. It could even be seen, by comparing it with the
letter in which Torres gave the information about Joam Dacosta, that
the document was not in the handwriting of the adventurer. But, as
had been suggested by Judge Jarriquez, why should not the scoundrel
have invented it for the sake of his bargain? And this was less
unlikely to be the case, considering that Torres had declined to part
with it until after his marriage with Dacosta's daughter--that is to
say, when it would have been impossible to undo an accomplished fact.
All these views were held by some people in some form, and we can
quite understand what interest the affair created. In any case, the
situation of Joam Dacosta was most hazardous. If trhe document were
not deciphered, it would be just the same as if it did not exist; and
if the secret of the cryptogram were not miraculously divined or
revealed before the end of the three days, the supreme sentence would
inevitably be suffered by the doomed man of Tijuco. And this miracle
a man attempted to perform! The man was Jarriquez, and he now really
set to work more in the interest of Joam Dacosta than for the
satisfaction of his analytical faculties. A complete change had also
taken place in his opinion. Was not this man, who had voluntarily
abandoned his retreat at Iquitos, who had come at the risk of his
life to demand his rehabilitation at the hands of Brazilian justice,
a moral enigma worth all the others put together? And so the judge
had resolved never to leave the document until he had discovered the
cipher. He set to work at it in a fury. He ate no more; he slept no
more! All his time was passed in inventing combinations of numbers,
in forging a key to force this lock!
This idea had taken possession of Judge Jarriquez's brain at the end
of the first day. Suppressed frenzy consumed him, and kept him in a
perpetual heat. His whole house trembled; his servants, black or
white, dared not come near him. Fortunately he was a bachelor; had
there been a Madame Jarriquez she would have had a very uncomfortable
time of it. Never had a problem so taken possession of this oddity,
and he had thoroughly made up his mind to get at the solution, even
if his head exploded like an overheated boiler under the tension of
its vapor.
It was perfectly clear to the mind of the worthy magistrate that the
key to the document was a number, composed of two or more ciphers,
but what this number was all investigation seemed powerless to
discover.
This was the enterprise on which Jarriquez, in quite a fury, was
engaged, and during this 28th of August he brought all his faculties
to bear on it, and worked away almost superhumanly.
To arrive at the number by chance, he said, was to lose himself in
millions of combinations, which would absorb the life of a first-rate
calculator. But if he could in no respect reckon on chance, was it
impossible to proceed by reasoning? Decidedly not! And so it was "to
reason till he became unreasoning" that Judge Jarriquez gave himself
up after vainly seeking repose in a few hours of sleep. He who
ventured in upon him at this moment, after braving the formal
defenses which protected his solitude, would have found him, as on
the day before, in his study, before his desk, with the document
under his eyes, the thousands of letters of which seemed all jumbled
together and flying about his head.
"Ah!" he explaimed, "why did not the scoundrel who wrote this
separate the words in this paragraph? We might--we will try--but no!
However, if there is anything here about the murder and the robbery,
two or three words there must be in it--'arrayal,' 'diamond,'
'Tijuco,' 'Dacosta,' and others; and in putting down their
cryptological equivalents the number could be arrived at. But there
is nothing--not a single break!--not one word by itself! One word of
two hundred and seventy-six letters! I hope the wretch may be blessed
two hundred and seventy-six times for complicating his system in this
way! He ought to be hanged two hundred and seventy-six times!"
And a violent thump with his fist on the document emphasized this
charitable wish.
"But," continued the magistrate, "if I cannot find one of the words
in the body of the document, I might at least try my hand at the
beginning and end of each paragraph. There may be a chance there that
I ought not to miss."
And impressed with this idea Judge Jarriquez successively tried if
the letters which commenced or finished the different paragraphs
could be made to correspond with those which formed the most
important word, which was sure to be found somewhre, that of
_Dacosta_.
He could do nothing of the kind.
In fact, to take only the last paragraph with which he began, the
formula was:
P = D
h = a
y = c
f = o
s = s
l = t
y = a
Now, at the very first letter Jarriquez was stopped in his
calculations, for the difference in alphabetical position between the
_d_ and the _p_ gave him not one cipher, but two, namely, 12, and in
this kind of cryptograph only one letter can take the place of
another.
It was the same for the seven last letters of the paragraph, _p s u v
j h d,_ of which the series also commences with a _p,_ and which in
no case could stand for the _d_ in _Dacosta,_ because these letters
were in like manner twelve spaces apart.
So it was not his name that figured here.
The same observation applies to the words _arrayal_ and _Tijuco,_
which were successively tried, but whose construction did not
correspond with the cryptographic series.
After he had got so far, Judge Jarriquez, with his head nearly
splitting, arose and paced his office, went for fresh air to the
window, and gave utterance to a growl, at the noise of which a flock
of hummingbirds, murmuring among the foliage of a mimosa tree, betook
themselves to flight. Then he returned to the document.
He picked it up and turned it over and over.
"The humbig! the rascal!" he hissed; "it will end by driving me mad!
But steady! Be calm! Don't let our spirits go down! This is not the
time!"
And then, having refreshed himself by giving his head a thorough
sluicing with cold water:
"Let us try another way," he said, "and as I cannot hit upon the
number from the arrangement of the letters, let us see what number
the author of the document would have chosen in confessing that he
was the author of the crime at Tijuco."
This was another method for the magistrate to enter upon, and maybe
he was right, for there was a certain amount of logic about it.
"And first let us try a date! Why should not the culprit have taken
the date of the year in which Dacosta, the innocent man he allowed to
be sentenced in his own place, was born? Was he likely to forget a
number which was so important to him? Then Joam Dacosta was born in
1804. Let us see what 1804 will give us as a cryptographical number."
And Judge Jarriquez wrote the first letters of the paragraph, and
putting over them the number 1804 repeated thrice, he obtained
1804 1804 1804
_phyj slyd dqfd_
Then in counting up the spaced in alphabetical order, he obtained
_s.yf rdy. cif._
And this was meaningless! And he wanted three letters which he had to
replace by points, because the ciphers, 8, 4, and 4, which command
the three letters, _h, d,_ and _d,_ do not give corresponding letters
in ascending the series.
"That is not it again!" exclaimed Jarriques. "Let us try another
number."
And he asked himself, if instead of this first date the author of the
document had not rather selected the date of the year in which the
crime was committed.
This was in 1826.
And so proceeding as above, he obtained.
1826 1826 1826
_phyj slyd dqfd_
and that gave
_o.vd rdv. cid._
the same meaningless series, the same absence of sense, as many
letters wanting as in the former instance, and for the same reason.
"Bother the number!" exclaimed the magistrate. "We must give it up
again. Let us have another one! Perhaps the rascal chose the number
of contos representing the amount of the booty!"
Now the value of the stolen diamonds was estimated at eight hundred
and thirty-four contos, or about 2,500,000 francs, and so the formula
became
834 834 834 834
_phy jsl ydd qfd_
and this gave a result as little gratifying as the others----
_het bph pa. ic._
"Confound the document and him who imagined it!" shouted Jarriquez,
throwing down the paper, which was wafted to the other side of the
room. "It would try the patience of a saint!"
But the short burst of anger passed away, and the magistrate, who had
no idea of being beaten, picked up the paper. What he had done with
the first letters of the different paragraphs he did with the
last--and to no purpose. Then he tried everything his excited
imagination could suggest.
He tried in succession the numbers which represented Dacosta's age,
which would have been known to the author of the crime, the date of
his arrest, the date of the sentence at the Villa Rica assizes, the
date fixed for the execution, etc., etc., even the number of victims
at the affray at Tijuco!
Nothing! All the time nothing!
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. The bell rang
furiously, and the magistrate strode up to the door, which he opened.
"Bobo!" he shouted.
A moment or two elapsed.
Bobo was a freed negro, who was the privileged servant of Jarriquez.
He did not appear; it was evident that Bobo was afraid to come into
his master's room.
Another ring at the bell; another call to Bobo, who, for his own
safety, pretended to be deaf on this occasion. And now a third ring
at the bell, which unhitched the crank and broke the cord.
This time Bobo came up. "What is it, sir?" asked Bobo, prudently
waiting on the threshold.
"Advance, without uttering a single word!" replied the judge, whose
flaming eyes made the negro quake again.
Bobo advanced.
"Bobo," said Jarriquez, "attend to what I say, and answer
immediately; do not even take time to think, or I----"
Bobo, with fixed eyes and open mouth, brought his feet together like
a soldier and stood at attention.
"Are you ready?" asked his master.
"I am."
"Now, then, tell me, without a moment's thought--you understand--the
first number than comes into your head."
"76223," answered Bobo, all in a breath. Bobo thought he would please
his master by giving him a pretty large one!
Judge Jarriquez had run to the table, and, pencil in hand, had made
out a formula with the number given by Bobo, and which Bobo had in
this way only given him at a venture.
It is obvious that it was most unlikely that a number such as 76223
was the key of the document, and it produced no other result than to
bring to the lips of Jarriquez such a vigorous ejaculation that Bobo
disappeared like a shot!
