e judge, "and you will be forced to
give in to the evidence."

The magistrate took the document and put it before the eyes of Manoel
and showed him what he had done.

"I began," he said, "by treating this document in the proper way, that
is to say, logically, leaving nothing to chance. I applied to it an
alphabet based on the proportion the letters bear to one another
which is usual in our language, and I sought to obtain the meaning by
following the precepts of our immortal analyst, Edgar Poe. Well, what
succeeded with him collapsed with me."

"Collapsed!" exclaimed Manoel.

"Yes, my dear young man, and I at once saw that success sought in that
fashion was impossible. In truth, a stronger man than I might have been
deceived."

"But I should like to understand," said Manoel, "and I do not----"

"Take the document," continued Judge Jarriquez; "first look at the
disposition of the letters, and read it through."

Manoel obeyed.

"Do you not see that the combination of several of the letters is very
strange?" asked the magistrate.

"I do not see anything," said Manoel, after having for perhaps the
hundredth time read through the document.

"Well! study the last paragraph! There you understand the sense of the
whole is bound to be summed up. Do you see anything abnormal?"

"Nothing."

"There is, however, one thing which absolutely proves that the language
is subject to the laws of number."

"And that is?"

"That is that you see three _h's_ coming together in two different
places."

What Jarriquez said was correct, and it was of a nature to attract
attention. The two hundred and fourth, two hundred and fifth, and two
hundred and sixth letters of the paragraph, and the two hundred and
fifty-eight, two hundred and fifty-ninth, and two hundred and sixtieth
letters of the paragraph were consecutive _h's_. At first this
peculiarity had not struck the magistrate.

"And that proves?" asked Manoel, without divining the deduction that
could be drawn from the combination.

"That simply proves that the basis of the document is a number. It shows
_a priori_ that each letter is modified in virtue of the ciphers of the
number and according to the place which it occupies."

"And why?"

"Because in no language will you find words with three consecutive
repetitions of the letter _h."_

Manoel was struck with the argument; he thought about it, and, in short,
had no reply to make.

"And had I made the observation s