refuse to direct our brains to unravel it."

Joam Dacosta shook hands with Benito and Manoel, and then the three
young men, much agitated, retired to the jangada, where Yaquita was
awaiting them.

Yaquita was soon informed of what had happened since the evening--the
reappearance of the body of Torres, the discovery of the document, and
the strange form under which the real culprit, the companion of the
adventurer, had thought proper to write his confession--doubtless, so
that it should not compromise him if it fell into strange hands.

Naturally, Lina was informed of this unexpected complication, and of the
discovery made by Fragoso that Torres was an old captain of the woods
belonging to the gang who were employed about the mouths of the Madeira.

"But under what circumstances did you meet him?" asked the young
mulatto.

"It was during one of my runs across the province of Amazones," replied
Fragoso, "when I was going from village to village, working at my
trade."

"And the scar?"

"What happened was this: One day I arrived at the mission of Aranas
at the moment that Torres, whom I had never before seen, had picked
a quarrel with one of his comrades--and a bad lot they are!--and this
quarrel ended with a stab from a knife, which entered the arm of the
captain of the woods. There was no doctor there, and so I took charge of
the wound, and that is how I made his acquaintance."

"What does it matter after all," replied the young girl, "that we know
what Torres had been? He was not the author of the crime, and it does
not help us in the least."

"No, it does not," answered Fragoso; "for we shall end by reading the
document, and then the innocence of Joam Dacosta will be palpable to the
eyes of all."

This was likewise the hope of Yaquita, of Benito, of Manoel, and of
Minha, and, shut up in the house, they passed long hours in endeavoring
to decipher the writing.

But if it was their hope--and there is no need to insist on that
point--it was none the less that of Judge Jarriquez.

After having drawn up his report at the end of his examination
establishing the identity of Joam Dacosta, the magistrate had sent it
off to headquarters, and therewith he thought he had finished with the
affair so far as he was concerned. It could not well be otherwise.

On the discovery of the document, Jarriquez suddenly found himself face
to face with the study of which he was a master. He, the seeker after
numerical combinatio