v
j h d,_ of which the series also commences with a _p,_ and which in no
case could stand for the _d_ in _Dacosta,_ because these letters were in
like manner twelve spaces apart.

So it was not his name that figured here.

The same observation applies to the words _arrayal_ and _Tijuco,_ which
were successively tried, but whose construction did not correspond with
the cryptographic series.

After he had got so far, Judge Jarriquez, with his head nearly
splitting, arose and paced his office, went for fresh air to the
window, and gave utterance to a growl, at the noise of which a flock
of hummingbirds, murmuring among the foliage of a mimosa tree, betook
themselves to flight. Then he returned to the document.

He picked it up and turned it over and over.

"The humbug! the rascal!" he hissed; "it will end by driving me mad! But
steady! Be calm! Don't let our spirits go down! This is not the time!"

And then, having refreshed himself by giving his head a thorough
sluicing with cold water:

"Let us try another way," he said, "and as I cannot hit upon the number
from the arrangement of the letters, let us see what number the author
of the document would have chosen in confessing that he was the author
of the crime at Tijuco."

This was another method for the magistrate to enter upon, and maybe he
was right, for there was a certain amount of logic about it.

"And first let us try a date! Why should not the culprit have taken the
date of the year in which Dacosta, the innocent man he allowed to be
sentenced in his own place, was born? Was he likely to forget a number
which was so important to him? Then Joam Dacosta was born in 1804. Let
us see what 1804 will give us as a cryptographical number."

And Judge Jarriquez wrote the first letters of the paragraph, and
putting over them the number 1804 repeated thrice, he obtained

1804 1804 1804
_phyj slyd dqfd_

Then in counting up the spaces in alphabetical order, he obtained

_s.yf rdy. cif._

And this was meaningless! And he wanted three letters which he had to
replace by points, because the ciphers, 8, 4, and 4, which command the
three letters, _h, d,_ and _d,_ do not give corresponding letters in
ascending the series.

"That is not it again!" exclaimed Jarriquez. "Let us try another
number."

And he asked himself, if instead of this first date the author of the
document