"
"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 sixty-eight
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 twenty-five 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 took 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.
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