a faded paper, folded with care, and which the water did not
seem to have even touched.

"The document! that is the document!" shouted Fragoso; "that is the very
paper I saw in the hands of Torres!"

Judge Jarriquez unfolded the paper and cast his eyes over it, and then
he turned it over so as to examine it on the back and the front, which
were both covered with writing. "A document it really is!" said he;
"there is no doubt of that. It is indeed a document!"

"Yes," replied Benito; "and that is the document which proves my
father's innocence!"

"I do not know that," replied Judge Jarriquez; "and I am much afraid it
will be very difficult to know it."

"Why?" exclaimed Benito, who became pale as death.

"Because this document is a cryptogram, and----"

"Well?"

"We have not got the key!"

CHAPTER XII. THE DOCUMENT

THIS WAS a contingency which neither Joam Dacosta nor his people could
have anticipated. In fact, as those who have not forgotten the first
scene in this story are aware, the document was written in a disguised
form in one of the numerous systems used in cryptography.

But in which of them?

To discover this would require all the ingenuity of which the human
brain was capable.

Before dismissing Benito and his companions, Judge Jarriquez had an
exact copy made of the document, and, keeping the original, handed it
over to them after due comparison, so that they could communicate with
the prisoner.

Then, making an appointment for the morrow, they retired, and not
wishing to lose an instant in seeing Joam Dacosta, they hastened on to
the prison, and there, in a short interview, informed him of all that
had passed.

Joam Dacosta took the document and carefully examined it. Shaking
his head, he handed it back to his son. "Perhaps," he said, "there is
therein written the proof I shall never be able to produce. But if that
proof escapes me, if the whole tenor of my life does not plead for me,
I have nothing more to expect from the justice of men, and my fate is in
the hands of God!"

And all felt it to be so. If the document remained indecipherable, the
position of the convict was a desperate one.

"We shall find it, father!" exclaimed Benito. "There never was
a document of this sort yet which could stand examination. Have
confidence--yes, confidence! Heaven has, so to speak, miraculously
given us the paper which vindicates you, and, after guiding our hands to
recover it, it will not