Stories to remember - Chapter 3

A TRAP IS SET

Danglars and Caderousse went towards the rocky sea-shore, to the Hotel La Reserve. As they were sitting drinking wine on the terrace of the hotel, they saw Fernand Mondego coming in their direction. The young man looked very unhappy. Caderousse, who knew him, called to him to come and join them.

'What's the matter with you?' asked Caderousse. 'Has Mercedes sent you away? I hear that she and Dante are to marry tomorrow.'

Fernand groaned. He had just left Mercedes with Dante, and he was wild with jealousy.

'And I hear,' went on Caderousse, 'that he is making a trip to Paris soon after the marriage.'

'What's that?' asked Danglars. ' A trip to Paris, did you say? No doubt to deliver the letter which was given to him on the island of Elba. This gives me an idea.'

Then he muttered to himself in a low voice, 'Dante, you are not yet captain of the Pharaon.'

Turning to Fernand with an artful look on his face, he said, 'My friend, you are in love with Mercedes, aren't you?'

'I have loved her all my life,' replied Fernand.

Danglars stared straight into his eyes. 'You must remove Dante,' he said slowly, 'then you can marry her.'

'If I were to kill Dante,' answered Fernand, 'Mercedes has told me that she would take her own life.'

'Ah, but you would not have to kill him,' said Danglars craftily. 'There are other ways of removing people whom we do not like. We can get them sent to prison, for instance.'

'And how would I send Dante to prison?' asked Fernand scornfully.

'It wouldn't be difficult,' said Danglars. 'I will show you. Waiter, bring me a pen and ink and paper.'

The waiter brought them.

'Just think,' said Caderousse, 'Here we have something which will kill a man more surely than if we waited in a wood to stab him with a knife. I have always been more afraid of a pen, a bottle of ink and a sheet of paper, than of a sword or a pistol.'

'Now then,' said Danglars, putting the paper before him, 'all we have to do is to dip the pen in the ink and write with the left hand so that the writing shall not be recognised.'

'But what shall we write?' asked Fernand.

'We shall write a letter to the State Prosecutor saying that Dante is a Bonapartist agent.'

As he spoke, Danglars started to write with his left hand, in a backward slant which did not look a bit like his own handwriting.

'The State Prosecutor,' he wrote, 'is informed that one Edmond Dante, mate of the ship Pharaon which arrived at Marseilles this morning after having touched the island of Elba, has been given a letter from Napoleon addressed to the Bonapartist Committee in Paris. If he is arrested, this letter will be found either on him or at his father's house, or in his cabin on the Pharaon.'

'But you cannot do that.' cried Caderousse. 'Dante is not guilty.'

'Oh, I was only joking,' said Danglars, laughing.

He crumpled up the letter and threw it away in the corner of the terrace.

Just then they looked towards the sea-shore and saw Dante and Mercedes walking there together. The pair looked very happy. Caderousse waved to them and Dante waved back. Fernand stood still, a scowl upon his face.

'Come,' said Danglars to Caderousse, 'let us go home. It is getting late. Will you come with us, Fernand?'

'No, I am going the other way,' the young man replied. So Danglars left La Reserve with Caderousse beside him. When they had gone a few yards, he looked back. He saw Fernand stoop down and pick up the crumpled piece of paper. Putting it into his pocket the young man hurried away.

'Now,' said Danglars to himself. 'Everything will go according to plan.'