Verne Juliusz PieÄ tygodni w balonie
Verne Juliusz KrĂłl przestrzeni
verne_archipel_en_feu
James Alan Gardner [League Of Peoples 03] Vigilant
Fiedler Arkady PiÄkna, straszna Amazonia
Kraszewski Józef Ignacy Boleszczyce
CBSC
KrasiśÂski; O stanowisku Polski z bośźych i ludzkich wzglćÂdów
Harrison Harry Planeta Smierci 03
Beckett Samuel Czekajac na Godota
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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 writtenmy 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"
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"That would be impossible," interrupted the judge, "except on one condition."
Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon
CHAPTER XIII. IS IT A MATTER OF FIGURES?
145
"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 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
sixtyeight 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 twentyfive 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 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 longer thronged to the prison of Manaos to roar out cries of
death to the prisoner. On the contrary, the most forward of them in accusing
him of being the principal author of the crime of Tijuco now averred that he
was not guilty, and demanded his immediate restoration to liberty. Thus it
always is with the mobfrom one extreme they run to the other. But the change
was intelligible.
Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon
CHAPTER XIV. CHANCE!
146
The events which had happened during the last few daysthe struggle between
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Benito and Torres; the search for the corpse, which had reappeared under such
extraordinary circumstances; the finding of the
"indecipherable" document, if we can so call it; the information it concealed,
the assurance that it contained, or rather the wish that it contained, the
material proof of the guiltlessness of Joam Dacosta; and the hope that it was
written by the real culpritall these things had contributed to work the change
in public opinion.
What the people had desired and impatiently demanded fortyeight hours before,
they now feared, and that was the arrival of the instructions due from Rio de
Janeiro.
These, however, were not likely to be delayed.
Joam Dacosta had been arrested on the 24th of August, and examined next day.
The judge's report was sent off on the 26th. It was now the 28th. In three or
four days more the minister would have come to a decision regarding the
convict, and it was only too certain that justice would take its course.
There was no doubt that such would be the case. On the other hand, that the
assurance of Dacosta's innocence would appear from the document, was not
doubted by anybody, neither by his family nor by the fickle population of
Manaos, who excitedly followed the phases of this dramatic affair.
But, on the other hand, in the eyes of disinterested or indifferent persons
who were not affected by the event, what value could be assigned to this
document? and how could they even declare that it referred to the crime in the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
