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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
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Garral, who did not recognize him, he recognized Joam Dacosta.
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CHAPTER XIX. THE CRIME OF TIJUCO
168
Henceforth he resolved to make all the reparation he could for the injustice
of which is 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, dtanks
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 of all, read from the document this terrible history.
And from that moment Judge Jarriquez, whoo possessed this indubitable proof,
arranged with the chief of the police, and declined to allow Joam Dacosta,
while waiting new instructions from Rio Janeiro, to stay in any prison but his
own house.
There could be no difficulty about this, and in the center of the crowd of the
entire population of Manaos, Joam Dacosta, accompanied by all his family,
beheld himself conducted like a conquerer to the magistrate's residence.
And in that minute the honest fazender of Iquitos was well repaid for all that
he had suffered during the long years of exile, and if he was happy for his
family's sake more than for his own, he was none the less proud for his
country's sake that this supreme injustice had not been consummated!
And in all this what had become of Fragoso?
Well, the goodhearted fellow was covered with caresses! Benito, Manoel, and
Minha had overwhelmed him, and Lina had by no means spared him. He did not
know what to do, he defended himself as best he could. He did not deserve
anything like it. Chance alone had done it. Were any thanks due to him for
having recognized Torres as a captain of the woods? No, certainly not. As to
his idea of hurrying off in search of the band to which Torres had belonged,
he did not think it had been worth much, and as to the name of Ortega, he did
not even know its value.
Gallant Fragoso! Whether he wished it or no, he had none the less saved Joam
Dacosta!
And herein what a strange succession of different events all tending to the
same end. The deliverance of
Fragoso at the time when he was dying of exhaustion in the forest of Iquitos;
the hospitable reception he had met with at the fazenda, the meeting with
Torres on the Brazilian frontier, his embarkation on the jangada;
and lastly, the fact that Fragoso had seen him somewhere before.
Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon
CHAPTER XIX. THE CRIME OF TIJUCO
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169
"Well, yes!" Fragoso ended by exclaiming; "but it is not to me that all this
happiness is due, it is due to Lina!"
"To me?" replied the young mulatto.
"No doubt of it. Without the liana, without the idea of the liana, could I
ever have been the cause of so much happiness?"
So that Fragoso and Lina were praised and petted by all the family, and by all
the new friends whom so many trials had procured them at Manaos, need hardly
be insisted on.
But had not Judge Jarriquez also had his share in this rehabilitation of an
innocent man? If, in spite of all the shrewdness of his analytical talents, he
had not been able to read the document, which was absolutely undecipherable to
any one who had not got the key, had he not at any rate discovered the system
on which the cryptogram was composed? Without him what could have been done
with only the name of Ortega to reconstitute the number which the author of
the crime and Torres, both of whom were dead, alone knew?
And so he also received abundant thanks.
Needless to say that the same day there was sent to Rio de Janeiro a detailed
report of the whole affair, and with it the original document and the cipher
to enable it to be read. New instructions from the minister of justice had to
be waited for, though there could be no doubt that they would order the
immediate discharge of the prisoner. A few days would thus have to be passed
at Manaos, and then Joam Dacosta and his people, free from all constraint, and
released from all apprehension, would take leave of their host to go on board
once more and continue their descent of the Amazon to Para, where the voyage
was intended to terminate with the double marriage of Minha and Manoel and
Lina and Fragoso.
Four days afterward, on the fourth of September, the order of discharge
arrived. The document had been recognized as authentic. The handwriting was
really that of Ortega, who had been formerly employed in the diamond district,
and there could be no doubt that the confession of his crime, with the
minutest details that were given, had been entirely written with his own hand.
The innocence of the convict of Villa Rica was at length admitted. The
rehabilitation of Joam Dacosta was at last officially proclaimed.
That very day Judge Jarriquez dined with the family on board the giant raft,
and when evening came he shook hands with them all. Touching were the adieus,
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