aptain of the
woods, and for many years he followed the trade of a chaser of men.

During this time Torres, the adventurer, himself in absolute want,
became his companion. Ortega and he became most intimate. But, as he had
told Torres, remorse began gradually to trouble the scoundrel's life.
The remembrance of his crime became horrible to him. He knew that
another had been condemned in his place! He knew subsequently that the
innocent man had escaped from the last penalty, but that he would never
be free from the shadow of the capital sentence! And then, during an
expedition of his party for several months beyond the Peruvian frontier,
chance caused Ortega to visit the neighborhood of Iquitos, and there in
Joam Garral, who did not recognize him, he recognized Joam Dacosta.

Henceforth he resolved to make all the reparation he could for the
injustice of which his old comrade had been the victim. He committed to
the document all the facts relative to the crime of Tijuco, writing it
first in French, which had been his mother's native tongue, and then
putting it into the mysterious form we know, his intention being to
transmit it to the fazender of Iquitos, with the cipher by which it
could be read.

Death prevented his completing his work of reparation. Mortally wounded
in a scuffle with some negroes on the Madeira, Ortega felt he was
doomed. His comrade Torres was then with him. He thought he could
intrust to his friend the secret which had so grievously darkened his
life. He gave him the document, and made him swear to convey it to Joam
Dacosta, whose name and address he gave him, and with his last breath
he whispered the number 432513, without which the document would remain
undecipherable.

Ortega dead, we know how the unworthy Torres acquitted himself of his
mission, how he resolved to turn to his own profit the secret of which
he was the possessor, and how he tried to make it the subject of an
odious bargain.

Torres died without accomplishing his work, and carried his secret with
him. But the name of Ortega, brought back by Fragoso, and which was
the signature of the document, had afforded the means of unraveling the
cryptogram, thanks to the sagacity of Judge Jarriquez. Yes, the material
proof sought after for so long was the incontestable witness of the
innocence of Joam Dacosta, returned to life, restored to honor.

The cheers redoubled when the worthy magistrate, in a loud voice,
and for the edification o