our had come at which the doomed man
was to start from the prison, and the crowd was flowing back to the spot
where the gallows had been erected.

Judge Jarriquez, quite frightful to look upon, devoured the lines of the
document with a fixed stare.

"The last letters!" he muttered. "Let us try once more the last
letters!"

It was the last hope.

And then, with a hand whose agitation nearly prevented him from writing
at all, he placed the name of Ortega over the six last letters of the
paragraph, as he had done over the first.

An exclamation immediately escaped him. He saw, at first glance, that
the six last letters were inferior in alphabetical order to those which
composed Ortega's name, and that consequently they might yield the
number.

And when he reduced the formula, reckoning each later letter from the
earlier letter of the word, he obtained.

O r t e g a
4 3 2 5 1 3
_S u v j h d_

The number thus disclosed was 432513.

But was this number that which had been used in the document? Was it not
as erroneous as those he had previously tried?

At this moment the shouts below redoubled--shouts of pity which betrayed
the sympathy of the excited crowd. A few minutes more were all that the
doomed man had to live!

Fragoso, maddened with grief, darted from the room! He wished to see,
for the last time, his benefactor who was on the road to death! He
longed to throw himself before the mournful procession and stop it,
shouting, "Do not kill this just man! do not kill him!"

But already Judge Jarriquez had placed the given number above the first
letters of the paragraph, repeating them as often as was necessary, as
follows:

4 3 2 5 1 3 4 3 2 5 1 3 4 3 2 5 1 3 4 3 2 5 1 3
_P h y j s l y d d q f d z x g a s g z z q q e h_

And then, reckoning the true letters according to their alphabetical
order, he read:

"Le veritable auteur du vol de----"

A yell of delight escaped him! This number, 432513, was the number
sought for so long! The name of Ortega had enabled him to discover it!
At length he held the key of the document, which would incontestably
prove the innocence of Joam Dacosta, and without reading any more he
flew from his study into the street, shouting:

"Halt! Halt!"

To cleave the crowd, which opened as he ran, to dash to the prison,
whence the convict was coming at the