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.
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