THIS IS VOLUME 12 OF A COMPLETE SET OF THE WORKS OF

Jules Verne

consisting of fifteen vol- umes, issued strictly as a limited edition. In Volume One will be found a certif- icate as to the limitation of the edition and the reg- istered number of this set.

\

WOKKS

JULE /El IE

THE STEAM HOUSE.

At sunrise a strange and most remarkable equipage had been seen to issue from the suburbs of the Indian capital, attended by a dense crowd of people drawn by curiosity to watch its departure.

First, and apparently drawing the caravan, came a gigantic elephant. The monstrous animal, twenty feet in height, and thirty in length, advanced deliberately, steadily, and with a certain mystery of movement which struck the gazer with a thrill of awe. His trunk, curved like a cornucopia, was uplifted high in the air. His gilded tusks, projecting from behind the massive jaws, resembled a pair of huge scythes. On his back was a highly ornamented howdah, which looked like a tower surmounted, in India'n style, by a dome-shaped roof and furnished with lens-shaped glasses to serve for windows.

This elephant drew after him a train consisting of two enormous cars, or actual houses, moving bungalows in fact, each mounted on four wheels. — Page 152.

Vol. 12.

VINCENT PARKE AND COMPANY

W YORK LONDON

.38U

•

.

.

HTR 3HT

.•••('

"

JULES VE

EDITED BY

CHARLES F. HORNE, Ph.D.

Professor of English, College of the City of New York; Author of "The Technique of the Novel," etc.

VINCENT PARKE AND COMPANY NEW YORK LONDON

COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY VINCENT PARKE AND COMPANY.

CONTENTS VOLUME TWELVE

PAGE

INTRODUCTION 1

THE GIANT RAFT

THE CRYPTOGRAM 3

THE STEAM HOUSE

THE DEMON OF CAWNPORE • • • .113 TIGERS AND TRAITORS 255

ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME

THE STEAM HOUSE .... Frontispiece

THE AMAZONS . 96

NANA SAHIB'S DEFIANCE ..... 208

rii

INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME TWELVE

HE CRYPTOGRAM," published in 1881, is the second book dealing with " The Giant Raft." The first part, "Eight Hundred Leagues on the Amazon" had beenf as its

name suggests, mainly a geographical tale.

Readers were this time conducted through the tropical for- ests and across the boundless prairies of Peru and Brazil.

In " The Cryptogram" however, the geographical inter- est is almost entirely subordinate to the story. The solving of the cryptogram becomes the central feature, in working out which our author shows a skill scarce inferior to that of Poe himself. Here, for the 'first time in the body of his works, Verne takes express care to state his fondness for and indebtedness to the work of Poe, whom he denominates " that great analytical genius." He points to Poe's " Gold Bug " as the source of his own tale, calling the earlier story a masterpiece " never to be forgotten." The handling and appreciation of cipher writings in "The Cryptogram" are as different from the superficial explanation of the cipher in Verne's earlier " Center of the Earth" as is the appreciation of a master from that of the most idle amateur.

In addition to his admiration of Poe, Verne in another book expresses equal admiration and indebtedness toward Dickens. He was also an enthusiastic devotee of Victor Hugo and of J. Fenimore Cooper. Surely a sufficiently cosmopolitan grouping of names! Yet it is worth noting that the four men whom Verne turned to, whom he thus per- haps unconsciously grouped together f are the four most ex- treme of romantic writers who hold yet a grasp on realism. It is to this group that Verne himself belongs.

" The Steam House" is again a two book story belonging among the "Voyages Extraordinaire* ." In this case the

i

* INTRODUCTION

country selected for depiction is India, and the characters, except for the French traveler Maucler, are once more Eng- lishmen. Thus, in a way, Verne had gone back to his first love. His own practical qualities endeared to him this calmly practical race. He was a Breton, a race quite as much English as French in its characteristics. Indeed, Verne himself was called among his confreres " a half Eng- lishman." Certainly the characters of " The Steam House" are appreciatively and even affectionately drawn, especially those of the hunter Captain Hood and his servant Fox.

The events of the great " Indian Mutiny9' of 1857 which supply the story of the book, are described with impartiality toward both sides. This warm denunciation of the suffer- ings and wrongs of Hindoos as well as Englishmen, has brought forth more than one protest from British sources.

As for the selection of India as the seat of the story, Verne himself explained that his purpose was to cover, one by one, each of the countries of the globe, more especially those little known, so as to make of his completed works a sort of universal geography. Traveling under his guidance, he meant that we should travel everywhere.

The mechanical invention of the steam house itself is in no way impossible. Such a construction was rather beyond the skill of thirty years ago when the book was written; but almost any good engineering firm to-day would contract to build you such a " steam-house '* if you cared to afford the expense. In fact our automobiles have already quite out- done this somewhat clumsy giant steam-engine, both in power and in speed.

Mainly then " The Steam House "and more especially its second book, " Tigers and Traitors" will be remembered as a thrilling hunting story. "Big game" incidents of the most exciting yet most natural character, such as the in- vasion of the naturalist's kraal, throng its busy pages.

The Giant Raft

BOOK TWO

The Cryptogram

CHAPTER I

THE FIRST MOMENTS

CARCELY had the pirogue which bore off Joam Garral, or rather Joam Dacosta — for it is more convenient that he should resume his real name — disappeared, than Benito stepped up to Manoel.

" What is it you know? " he asked. " I know that your father* is innocent! Yes, innocent! " replied Manoel, " and that he was sentenced to death three- and-twenty years ago for a crime which he never com- mitted!*"

"He has told you all about it, Manoel?" " All about it," replied the young man. " The noble fazender did not wish that any part of his past life should be hidden from him who, when he marries his daughter, is to be his second son."

" And the proof of his innocence my father can one day produce? "

[< That proof, Benito, lies wholly in the three-and-twenty years of an honorable and honored life, lies entirely in the bearing of Joam Dacosta, who comes forward to say to justice, ' Here am I ! I do not care for this false existence any more. I do not care to hide under a name which is not my true one ! You have condemned an innocent man ! Con- fess your error and set matters right.' '

" And when my father spoke like that, you did not hesitate for a moment to believe him? "

" Not for an instant," replied Manoel.

3

4 THE CRYPTOGRAM

The hands of the two young fellows closed in a long and cordial grasp. Then Benito went up to Padre Passanha. " Padre," he said, " take my mother and sister away to their rooms. Do not leave them all day. No one here doubts my father's innocence — not one, you know that! To-morrow my mother and I will seek ottt the chief of police. They will not refuse us permission to visit the prison. No ! that would be too cruel. We will see my father again, and decide what steps shall be taken to procure his vindi- cation."

Yaquita was almost helpless, but the brave woman, though nearly crushed by the sudden blow, arose. With Yaquita Dacosta it was as with Yaquita Garral. She had not a doubt as to the innocence of her husband. The idea even never occurred to her that Joam Dacosta had been to blame in marrying her under a name which was not his own. She only thought of the life of happiness she had led with the noble man who had been injured so unjustly. Yes! On the morrow she would go to the gate of the prison, and never leave it until it was opened! Padre Passanha took her and her daughter, who could not restrain her tears, and the three entered the house.

The two young fellows found themselves alone. " And now," said Benito, " I ought to know all that my father has told you."

" I have nothing to hide from you."

" Why did Torres come on board the jangada? "

" To sell to Joam Dacosta the secret of his past life."

" And so, when we first met Torres in the forest of Iquitos, his plan had already been formed to enter into communication with my father? "

" There cannot be a doubt of it," replied Manoel. " The scoundrel was on his way to the fazenda with the idea of consummating a vile scheme of extortion which he had been preparing for a long time."

" And when he learned from us that my father and his whole family were about to pass the frontier, he suddenly changed his line of conduct?"

' Yes. Because Joam Dacosta once in Brazilian territory became more at his mercy than while within the frontiers of Peru. That is why we found Torres at Tabatinga, where he was waiting in expectation of our arrival."

THE FIRST MOMENTS 5

" And it was I who offered him a passage on the raft ! " exclaimed Benito, with a gesture of despair.

" Brother," said Manoel, " you need not reproach your- sell Torres would have joined us sooner or later. He was not the man to abandon such a trail. Had we lost him at Tabatinga, we should have found him at Manaos."

" Yes, Manoel, you are right. But we are not concerned with the past now. We must think of the present. An end to useless recriminations ! Let us see ! " And while speak- ing, Benito, passing his hand across his forehead, endeavored to grasp the details of this strange affair.

" How," he asked, " did Torres ascertain that my father had been sentenced three-and-twenty years back for this abominable crime at Ti juco ? "

" I do not know," answered Manoel, " and everything leads me to think that your father did not know that."

" But Torres knew that Garral was the name under which Joam Dacosta was living? "

" Evidently."

" And he knew that it was in Peru, at Iquitos, that for so many years my father had taken refuge? "

" He knew it," said Manoel, " but how he came to know it I do not understand."

" One more question," continued Benito. " What was the proposition that Torres made to my father during the short interview which preceded his expulsion?"

" He threatened to denounce Joam Garral as being Joam Dacosta, if he declined to purchase his silence."

"And at what price?"

" At the price of his daughter's hand ! " answered Manoel, unhesitatingly, but pale with anger.

* This scoundrel dared to do that ! " exclaimed Benito.

"To this infamous request, Benito, you saw the reply that your father gave."

' Yes, Manoel, yes ! The indignant reply of an honest man. He kicked Torres off the raft. But it is not enough to have kicked him out. No ! That will not do for me. It was on Torres' information that they came here and ar- rested my father; is not that so? "

'* Yes, on his denunciation."

" Very well," continued Benito, shaking his fist toward the left bank of the river, " I must find out Torres. I must

6 THE CRYPTOGRAM

know how he became master of the secret. He must tell me if he knows the real author of this crime. He shall speak out. And if he does not speak out, I know what I shall have to do."

" What you will have to do is for me to do as well ! " added Manoel, more coolly, but not less resolutely.

" No, Manoel, no, to me alone ! "

" We are brothers, Benito," replied Manoel. '' The right of demanding an explanation belongs to us both."

Benito made no reply. Evidently on that subject his decision was irrevocable.

At this moment the pilot Araujo, who had been observ- ing the state of the river, came up to them.

" Have you decided," he asked, " if the raft is to remain at her moorings at the Isle of Muras, or to go on to the port of Manaos? " The question had to be decided before nightfall, and the sooner it was settled the better.

In fact, the news of the arrest of Joam Dacosta ought already to have spread through the town. That it was of a nature to excite the interest of the population of Manaos could scarcely be doubted. But would it provoke more than curiosity against the condemned man, who was the principal author of the crime of Tijuco, which had formerly created such a sensation? Ought they not fear that some popular movement might be directed against the prisoner ?

In the face of this hypothesis was it not better to leave the jangada moored near the Isle of Muras on the right bank of the river at a few miles from Manaos ?

" No ! " at length exclaimed Benito ; " to remain here would look as though we were abandoning my father and doubting his innocence — as though we were afraid to make common cause with him. We must go to Manaos, and without delay ! "

:t You are right," replied Manoel. " Let us go ! "

Araujo, with an approving nod, began his preparations for leaving the island. The maneuver necessitated a good deal of care. They had to work the raft slantingly across the current of the Amazon, here doubled in force by that of the Rio Negro, and to make for the embouchure of the tributary about a dozen miles down on the left bank.

The ropes were cast off from the island. The jangada, again started on the river, began to drift off diagonally.

THE FIRST MOMENTS 7

Araujo, cleverly profiting by the bendings of the current, which were due to the projections of the banks, and assisted by the long poles of his crew, succeeded in working the immense raft in the desired direction.

In two hours the jangada was on the other side of the Amazon a little above the mouth of the Rio Negro, and fairly in the current which was to take it to the lower bank of the vast bay which opened on the left side of the stream.

At five o'clock in the evening it was strongly moored alongside this bank, not in the port of Manaos itself, which it could not enter without stemming a rather powerful cur- rent, but a short mile below it.

The raft was then in the black waters of the Rio Negro, near rather a high bluff covered with cecropias with buds of reddish brown, and palisaded with stiff-stalked reeds called jroxas, of which the Indians made some of their weapons.

A few citizens were strolling along the bank. A feeling of curiosity had doubtless attracted them to the anchorage of the raft. The news of the arrest of Joam Dacosta had soon spread about, but the curiosity of the Manaens did not outrun their discretion, and they were very quiet.

Benito's intention had been to land that evening, but Manoel dissuaded him. " Wait till to-morrow," he said, " night is approaching, and there is no necessity for us to leave the raft."

" So be it ! To-morrow," answered Benito.

And here Yaquita, followed by her daughter and Padre Passanha, came out of the house. Minha was still weeping, but her mother's face was tearless, and she had that look of calm resolution which showed that the wife was now ready for all things, either to do her duty or to insist on her rights.

Yaquita slowly advanced toward Manoel. " Manoel," she said, " listen to what I have to say, for my conscience commands me to speak as I am about to do."

" I am listening," replied Manoel.

Yaquita, looking him straight in the face, continued: " Yesterday, after the interview you had with Joam Da- cesta, my husband, you came to me and called me — mother ! You took Minna's hand, and called her- — your wife! You

8 THE CRYPTOGRAM

then knew everything, and the past life of Joam Dacosta had been then disclosed to you."

" Yes," answered Manoel, " and Heaven forbid I should have any hesitation in doing so ! "

" Perhaps so," replied Yaquita ; " but then Joam Dacosta had not been arrested. The position is not now the same. However innocent he may be, my husband is in the hands of justice ; his past life has been publicly proclaimed. Minha is a convict's daughter."

" Minha Dacosta or Minha Garral, what matters it to me ? " exclaimed Manoel, who could keep silent no longer.

" Manoel ! " murmured Minha.

And she would certainly have fallen, had not Lina's arm supported her.

" Mother, if you do not wish to kill her," said Manoel, " call me your son ! "

"My son! my child!"

It was all Yaquita could say, and the tears, which she restrained with difficulty, filled her eyes.

And then they all entered the house. But during the long night not an hour's sleep fell to the lot of the unfor- tunate family who were so cruelly tried.

CHAPTER II

RETROSPECTIVE

JOAM DACOSTA had relied entirely on Judge Ribeiro, and his death was most unfortunate.

Before he was judge at Manaos, and chief magistrate in the province, Ribeiro had known the young clerk at the time he was being prosecuted for the murder in the diamond arrayal. He was then an advocate at Villa Rica, and he t was who defended the prisoner at the trial. He took the cause to heart and made it his own, and from an exami- nation of ^the papers and detailed information, and not from the simple fact of his position in the matter, he came to the conclusion that his client was wrongfully accused, and that he had taken not the slightest part in the murder of the escort of the diamonds — in a word, that Joam Da- costa was innocent.

But, notwithstanding this conviction, notwithstanding his

RETROSPECTIVE 9

talent and zeal, Ribeiro was unable to persuade the jury to take the same view of the matter. How could he remove so strong a presumption? If it was not Joam Dacosta, who had every facility for informing the scoundrels of the con- voy's departure, who was it? The official who accompanied the escort had perished with the greater part of the soldiers, and suspicion could not point against him. Everything agreed in distinguishing Dacosta as the true and only author of the crime.

Ribeiro defended him with great warmth and with all his powers, but he could not succeed in saving him. The verdict of the jury was affirmative on all the questions. Joam Dacosta, convicted of aggravated and premeditated murder, did not even obtain the benefit of extenuating cir- cumstances, and heard himself condemned to death.

There was no hope left for the accused. No commuta- tion of the sentence was possible, for the crime was com- mitted in the diamond arrayal. The condemned man was lost. But during the night which preceded his execution, and when the gallows was already erected, Joam Dacosta managed to escape from the prison at Villa Rica. We know the rest.

Twenty years later Ribeiro the advocate became the chief justice of Manaos. In the depths of his retreat the fazender of Iquitos heard of the change, and in it saw a favorable opportunity for bringing forward the revision of the former proceedings against him, with some chance of success. He knew that the old convictions of the advocate would be still unshaken in the mind of the judge. He therefore resolved to try and rehabilitate himself. Had it not been for Ri- beiro's nomination to the chief justiceship in the province of Amazones, he might perhaps have hesitated, for he had no new material proof of his innocence to bring forward. Although the honest man suffered acutely, he might still have remained hidden in exile at Iquitos, and still have asked for time to smother the remembrances of the horrible occurrence, but something was urging him to act in the matter without delay.

In fact, before Yaquita had spoken to him, Joam Dacosta had noticed that Manoel was in love with his daughter.

The union of the young army doctor and his daughter was in every respect a suitable one. It was evident to Joam

10 THE CRYPTOGRAM

that some day or other he would be asked for her hand in marriage, and he did not wish to be obliged to refuse.

But then the thought that his daughter would have to marry under a name which did not belong to her, that Manoel Valdez, thinking he was entering the family of Garral, would enter that of Dacosta, the head of which was under sentence of death, was intolerable to him. No ! The wedding should not take place unless under proper condi- tions ! Never !

Let us recall what had happened up to this time. Four years after the young clerk who eventually became the part- ner of Magalhaes, had arrived at Iquitos, the old Portu- guese had been taken back to the farm mortally injured. A few days only were left for him to live. He was alarmed at the thought that his daughter would be left alone and unprotected; but knowing that Joam and Yaquita were in love with each other, he desired their union without delay.

Joam at first refused. He offered to remain the protector or the servant of Yaquita without becoming her husband. The wish of the dying Magalhaes was so urgent that re- sistance became impossible. Yaquita put her hand into the hand of Joam, and Joam did not withdraw it.

Yes! It was a serious matter! Joam Dacosta ought to have confessed all, or to have fled forever from the house in which he had been so hospitably received, from the estab- lishment of which he had built up the prosperity! Yes! To confess everything rather than to give to the daughter of his benefactor a name which was not his, instead of the name of a felon condemned to death for murder, innocent though he might be!

But the case was pressing, the old fazender was on the point of death, his hands were stretched out toward the young people! Joam was silent, the marriage took place, and the remainder of his life was devoted to the happiness of the girl he had made his wife.

" The day when I confess everything," Joam repeated, " Yaquita will pardon everything ! She will not doubt me for an instant! But if I ought not to have deceived her, I certainly will not deceive the honest fellow who wishes to enter our family by marrying Minha! No! I would rather give myself up and have done with this life ! "

Many times had Joam thought of telling his wife about

RETROSPECTIVE 11

his past life. Yes! the avowal was on his lips whenever she asked him to take her into Brazil, and with her and her daughter descend the beautiful Amazon River. He knew sufficient of Yaquita to be sure that her affection for him would not thereby be diminished in the least. But courage failed him!

And this is easily intelligible in the face of the happiness of the family which increased on every side. This happi- ness was his work, and it might be destroyed forever by his return.

Such had been his life for those long years; such had been the continuous source of his sufferings, of which he had kept the secret so well ; such had been the existence of this man, who had no action to be ashamed of, and whom a great injustice compelled to hide!

But at length the day arrived when there could no longer remain a doubt as to the affection which Manoel bore to Minha, when he could see that a year would not go by before he was asked to give his consent to her marriage, and after a short delay he no longer hesitated to proceed in the matter.

A letter from him, addressed to Judge Ribeiro, acquaint- ed the chief justice with the secret of the existence of Joam Dacosta, with the name under which he was concealed, with the place where he lived with his family, and at the same time with his formal intention of delivering himself up to justice, and taking steps to procure the revision of the pro- ceedings, which would either result in his rehabilitation or in the execution of the iniquitous judgment delivered at Villa Rica.

What were the feelings which agitated the heart of the worthy magistrate? We can easily divine them. It was no longer to the advocate that the accused applied, it was to the chief justice of the province that the convict appealed. Joam Dacosta gave himself over to him entirely, and did not even ask him to keep the secret.

Judge Ribeiro was at first troubled about this unexpected revelation, but he soon recovered himself, and scrupulously considered the duties which the position imposed on him. It was his place to pursue criminals, and here was one who delivered himself into his hands. This criminal, it was true, he had defended; he had never doubted but that he

12 THE CRYPTOGRAM

had been unjustly condemned; his joy had been extreme when he saw him escape by flight from the last penalty ; he had even instigated and facilitated his flight ! But what the advocate had done in the past could the magistrate do in the present ?

" Well, yes ! " had the judge said, " my conscience tells me not to abandon that just man. The step he is taking is a fresh proof of his innocence, a moral proof, even if he brings me others, which may be the most convincing of all. No ! I will not abandon him ! "

From this day forward a secret correspondence took place between the magistrate and Joam Dacosta. Ribeiro at the outset cautioned his client against compromising himself by his imprudence. He had again to work up the matter, again to read over the papers, again to look through the inquiries. He had to find out if any new facts had come to light in the diamond province referring to so serious a case. Had any of the accomplices of the crime, of the smugglers who had attacked the convoy, been arrested since the attempt? Had any confessions or half-con- fessions been brought forward? Joam Dacosta had done nothing but protest his innocence from the very first. But that was not enough, and Judge Ribeiro was de- sirous of finding in the case itself the clue to the real culprit.

Joam Dacosta had accordingly been prudent. He had promised to be so. But in all his trials it was an immense consolation for him to find his old advocate, though now a chief justice, so firmly convinced that he was not guilty. Yes! Joam Dacosta, in spite of his condemnation, was a victim, a martyr, an honest man to whom society owed a signal reparation ! And when the magistrate knew the past career of the fazender of Iquitos since his sentence, the position of his family, all that life of devotion, of work, employed unceasingly for the happiness of those belonging to him, he was not only more convinced but more affected, and determined to do all he could to procure the rehabilita- tion of the felon of Tijuco.

For six months a correspondence had passed between these two men.

One day, the case being pressing, Joam Dacosta wrote to Judge Ribeiro:

RETROSPECTIVE 13

" In two months I will be with y©u, in the power of the chief justice of the province ! "

" Come, then," replied Ribeiro.

The jangada was then ready to go down the river. Joam Dacosta embarked on it with all his people. During the voyage, to the great astonishment of his wife and son, he landed but rarely, as we know. More often he remained shut up in his room, writing, working, not at his trade accounts, but, without saying anything about it, at a kind of memoir, which he called " The History of My Life," and which was meant to be used in the revision of the legal proceedings.

Eight days before his new arrest, made on account of information given by Torres, which forestalled and per- haps would ruin his prospects, he intrusted to an Indian on the Amazon a letter, in which he warned Judge Ribeiro of his approaching arrival.

The letter was sent and delivered as addressed, and the magistrate only waited for Joam Dacosta to commence on the serious undertaking which he hoped to bring to a suc- cessful issue.

During the night before the arrival of the raft at Ma- naos, Judge Ribeiro was seized with an attack of apoplexy. But the denunciation of Torres, whose scheme of extortion had collapsed in face of the noble anger of his victim, had produced its effect. Joam Dacosta was arrested in the bosom of his family, and his old advocate was no longer in this world to defend him.

Yes! the blow was terrible indeed. His lot was cast, whatever his fate might be; there was no going back for him! And Joam Dacosta rose from beneath the blow which had so unexpectedly struck him! It was not only his own honor which was in question, but the honor of all who belonged to him!

CHAPTER III

MORAL PROOFS

THE warrant against Joam Dacosta, alias Joam Garral, had been issued by the assistant of Judge Ribeiro, who filled the position of magistrate in the province of Amazones, until the nomination of the successor of the late justice.

This assistant bore the name of Vicente Jarriquez. He was a surly little fellow, whom forty years' practice in criminal procedure had not rendered particularly friendly toward those who came before him. He had had so many cases of this sort, and tried and sentenced so many rascals, that a prisoner's innocence seemed to him a priori inad- missible. To be sure, he did not come to a decision un- conscientiously ; but his conscience was strongly fortified, and was not easily affected by the circumstances of the examination or the arguments for the defense. Like a good many judges, he thought but little of the indulgence of the jury, and when a prisoner was brought before him, after having passed through the sieve of inquest, inquiry, and examination, there was every presumption in his eyes that the man was quite ten times guilty.

Jarriquez, however, was not a bad man. Nervous, fidgety, talkative, keen, crafty, he had a curious look about him, with his big head on his little body; his ruffled hair, which would not have disgraced the judge's wig of the past ; his piercing, gimletlike eyes, with their expression of sur- prising acuteness ; his prominent nose, with which he would assuredly have gesticulated had it been movable; his ears wide open, so as to better catch all that was said, even when it was out of range of ordinary auditory apparatus; his fingers unceasingly tapping the table in front of him, like those of a pianist practising on the mute ; and his body so long and his legs so short, and his feet perpetually cross- ing and recrossing, as he sat in state in his magistrate's chair.

In private life, Jarriquez, who was a confirmed old bachelor, never left his law books but for the table, which he did not despise ; for chess, of which he was a past master ; and above all things for Chinese puzzles, enigmas, charades, rebuses, anagrams, riddles, and such things, with which, like more than one European justice — thorough sphinxes

MORAL PROOFS 15

by taste as well as by profession — he principally passed his leisure.

It will be seen that he was an original, and it will be seen also how much Joam Dacosta had lost by the death of Judge Ribeiro, inasmuch as his case would come before this not very agreeable judge.

Moreover, the task of Jarriquez was in a way very simple. He had neither to inquire nor to rule; he had not even to regulate a discussion nor to obtain a verdict, neither to apply the articles of the penal code, nor to pronounce a sentence. Unfortunately for the fazender, such formalities were no longer necessary ; Joam Dacosta had been arrested, convicted, and sentenced three-and-twenty years ago for the crime at Tijuco; no limitation had yet affected his sentence. No demand in commutation of the penalty could be introduced, and no appeal for mercy could be received. It was only necessary then to establish his identity, and as soon as the order arrived from Rio Janeiro justice would have taken its course.

But in the nature of things Joam Dacosta would protest his innocence; he would say he had been unjustly con- demned. The magistrate's duty, notwithstanding the opin- ions he held, would be to listen to him. The question would be, what proofs could the convict offer to make good his assertions? And if he was not able to produce them when he appeared before his first judges, was he able to do so now?

Herein consisted all the interest of the examination. There would have to be admitted the fact of a defaulter, prosperous and safe in a foreign country, leaving his re- fuge of his own free will to face the justice which his past life should have taught him to dread, and herein would be one of those rare and curious cases which ought to interest even a magistrate hardened with all the surroundings of forensic strife. Was it impudent folly on the part of the doomed man of Tijuco, who was tired of his life, or was it the impulse of a conscience which would at all risks have wrong set right? The problem was a strange one, it must be acknowledged.

On the morrow of Joam Dacosta's arrest, Judge Jar- riquez made his way to the prison in God-the-Son Street, where the convict had been placed. The prison was an old

16 THE CRYPTOGRAM

missionary convent, situated on the bank of one of the principal inguarapes of the town. To the voluntary pris- oners of former times there had succeeded in this build- ing, which was but little adapted for the purpose, the com- pulsory prisoners of to-day. The room occupied by Joam Dacosta was nothing like one of those sad little cells which form part of our modern penitentiary system; but an old monk's room, with a barred window without shutters, open- ing on to an uncultivated space, a bench in one corner, and a kind of pallet in the other.

It was from this apartment that Joam Dacosta, on this 25th of August, about eleven o'clock in the morning, was taken and brought into the judge's room, which was the old common hall of the convent.

Judge Jarriquez was there in front of his desk, perched on his high chair, his back turned toward the window, so that his face was in shadow while that of the accused re- mained in full daylight. His clerk, with the indifference which characterizes these legal folks, had taken his seat at the end of the table, his pen behind his ear, ready to record the questions and answers.

Joam Dacosta was introduced into the room, and at a sign from the judge the guards who had brought him withdrew.

Judge Jarriquez looked at the accused for some time. The latter, leaning slightly forward and maintaining a be- coming attitude, neither careless nor humble, waited with dignity for the questions to which he was expected to reply.

1 Your name? " said Judge Jarriquez.

" Joam Dacosta."

"Your age?"

" Fifty-two."

"Where do you live?"

" In Peru, at the village of Iquitos."

"Under what name?"

"Under that of Garral, which is that of my mother."

" And why do you bear that name? "

"Because for three-and-twenty years I wished to hide myself from the pursuit of Brazilian justice."

The answers were so exact, and seemed to show that Joam Dacosta had made up his mind to confess everything

MORAL PROOFS 17

concerning his past life, that Judge Jarriquez, little accus- tomed to such a course, cocked up his nose more than was usual to him.

" And why," he continued, " should Brazilian justice pursue you? "

" Because I was sentenced to death in 1826 in the diamond affair at Tijuco."

' You confess then that you are Joam Dacosta? "

" I am Joam Dacosta."

All this was said with great calmness, and as simply as possible. The little eyes of Judge Jarriquez, hidden by their lids, seemed to say:

" Never came across anything like this before."

He had put the invariable question which had hitherto brought the invariable reply from culprits of every category protesting their innocence. The fingers of the judge began to beat a gentle tattoo on the table.

"Joam Dacosta," he asked, "what were you doing at Iquitos?"

" I was a fazender, and engaged in managing a farm- ing establishment of considerable size."

" It was prospering? "

" Greatly prospering."

" How long ago did you leave your fazenda? "

" About nine weeks."

"Why?"

" As to that, sir," answered Dacosta, " I invented a pretext, but in reality I had a motive."

"What was the pretext?"

" The responsibility of taking into Para a large raft, and a cargo of different products of the Amazon."

" Ah! and what was the real motive of your departure? "

And in asking this question Jarriquez said to himself:

" Now we shall get into denials and falsehoods."

" The real motive," replied Joam Dacosta, in a firm voice, "was the resolution I had taken to give myself up to the justice of my country."

:<You give yourself up!" exclaimed the judge, rising from his stool. " You give yourself up of your own free will?"

" Of my own free will."

"And why?"

V XII Verne

18 THE CRYPTOGRAM

" Because I had had enough of this lying life, this obli- gation to live under a false name, of this impossibility to be able to restore to my wife and children that which be- longs to them; in short, sir, because "

"Because?"

" I was innocent ! "

" That is what I was waiting for ! " said Judge Jarri- quez aside.

And while his fingers tattoed a slightly more audible march, he made a sign with his head to Dacosta, which sig- nified as clearly as possible : " Go on ! Tell me your his- tory! I know it, but I do not wish to interrupt you in telling it in your own way."

Joam Dacosta, who did not disregard the magistrate's far from encouraging attitude, could not but see this, and he told the history of his whole life. He spoke quietly without departing from the calm he had imposed upon him- self, without omitting any circumstances which had preceded or succeeded his condemnation. In the same tone he in- sisted on the honored and honorable life he had led since his escape, and his duties as head of his family, as husband and father, which he had so worthily fulfilled. He laid stress only on one circumstance — that which hacj brought him to Manaos to urge on the revision of the proceedings against him, to procure his rehabilitation — and that he was compelled to do.

Judge Jarriquez, who was naturally prepossessed against all criminals, did not interrupt him. He contented himself with opening and shutting his eyes like a man who heard the story told for the hundredth time; and when Joam Dacosta laid on the table the memoir which he had drawn up, he made no movement to take it.

" You have finished? " he said.

" Yes, sir."

" And you persist in asserting that you only left Iquitos to procure the revision of the judgment against you? "

" I had no other intention."

"What is there to prove that? Who can prove, that without the denunciation which brought about your arrest, you would have given yourself up?"

' This memoir in the first place."

" That memoir was in your possession, and there is noth-

MORAL PROOFS 19

ing to show that had you not been arrested you would have put it to the use you say you intended."

" At the least, sir, there was one thing that was not in my possession, and of the authenticity of which there can be no doubt."

"What?"

" The letter I wrote to your predecessor, Judge Ribeiro, the letter which gave him notice of my early arrival."

"Ah! you wrote?"

" Yes. And the letter which ought to have arrived at its destination should have been handed over to you."