composed of seven letters, as the name
of Dacosta is--it would not have been impossible to evolve the number
which is the key of the document."

"Will you explain to me how you ought to proceed to do that, sir?" asked
Manoel, who probably caught a glimpse of one more hope.

"Nothing can be more simple," answered the judge. "Let us take, for
example, one of the words in the sentence we have just written--my
name, if you like. It is represented in the cryptogram by this queer
succession of letters, _ncuvktygc_. Well, arranging these letters in a
column, one under the other, and then placing against them the letters
of my name and deducting one from the other the numbers of their places
in alphabetical order, I see the following result:

Between _n_ and _j_ we have 4 letters
-- _c_ -- _a_ -- 2 --
-- _u_ -- _r_ -- 3 --
-- _v_ -- _r_ -- 4 --
-- _k_ -- _i_ -- 2 --
-- _t_ -- _q_ -- 3 --
-- _y_ -- _u_ -- 4 --
-- _g_ -- _e_ -- 2 --
-- _c_ -- _z_ -- 3 --

"Now what is the column of ciphers made up of that we have got by this
simple operation? Look here! 423 423 423, that is to say, of repetitions
of the numbers 423, or 234, or 342."

"Yes, that is it!" answered Manoel.

"You understand, then, by this means, that in calculating the true
letter from the false, instead of the false from the true, I have been
able to discover the number with ease; and the number I was in search of
is really the 234 which I took as the key of my cryptogram."

"Well, sir!" exclaimed Manoel, "if that is so, the name of Dacosta is in
the last paragraph; and taking successively each letter of those lines
for the first of the seven letters which compose his name, we ought to
get----"

"That would be impossible," interrupted the judge, "except on one
condition."

"What is that?"

"That the first cipher of the number should happen to be the first
letter of the word Dacosta, and I think you will agree with me that that
is not probable."

"Quite so!" sighed Manoel, who, with this improbability, saw the last
chance vanish.

"And so we must trust to chance alone," continued Jarriquez, who