shook
his head, "and chance does not often do much in things of this sort."

"But still," said Manoel, "chance might give us this number."

"This number," exclaimed the magistrate--"this number? But how many
ciphers is it composed of? Of two, or three, or four, or nine, or ten?
Is it made of different ciphers only or of ciphers in different order
many times repeated? Do you not know, young man, that with the ordinary
ten ciphers, using all at a time, but without any repetition, you
can make three million two hundred and sixty-eight thousand and eight
hundred different numbers, and that if you use the same cipher more than
once in the number, these millions of combinations will be enormously
increased! And do you not know that if we employ every one of the five
hundred and twenty-five thousand and six hundred minutes of which the
year is composed to try at each of these numbers, it would take you six
years, and that you would want three centuries if each operation took
you an hour? No! You ask the impossible!"

"Impossible, sir?" answered Manoel. "An innocent man has been branded
as guilty, and Joam Dacosta is to lose his life and his honor while you
hold in your hands the material proof of his innocence! That is what is
impossible!"

"Ah! young man!" exclaimed Jarriquez, "who told you, after all, that
Torres did not tell a lie? Who told you that he really did have in his
hands a document written by the author of the crime? that this paper was
the document, and that this document refers to Joam Dacosta?"

"Who told me so?" repeated Manoel, and his face was hidden in his hands.

In fact, nothing could prove for certain that the document had anything
to do with the affair in the diamond province. There was, in fact,
nothing to show that it was not utterly devoid of meaning, and that it
had been imagined by Torres himself, who was as capable of selling a
false thing as a true one!

"It does not matter, Manoel," continued the judge, rising; "it does not
matter! Whatever it may be to which the document refers, I have not
yet given up discovering the cipher. After all, it is worth more than a
logogryph or a rebus!"

At these words Manoel rose, shook hands with the magistrate, and
returned to the jangada, feeling more hopeless when he went back than
when he set out.

CHAPTER XIV. CHANCE!

A COMPLETE change took place in public opinion on the subject of Joam
Dacosta. To anger succeeded pity. The population no l