Stories to remember - Chapter 39

THE TELEGRAPH

The Count of Monte Cristo was walking on a hillside, a few miles outside Paris. On the top of the hill there was a tower. It had big black arms sticking out from it on both sides and it looked very much like a large beetle. This was a telegraph tower.

A long line of such telegraph towers stretched right across the country. Each tower had a man in it, who could see the next tower in front of him and the next one behind him. If the tower in front signalled a message with its huge black arms, he had to pass on the same message to the tower behind him. In this way, news could be sent across the country very quickly.

Monte Cristo walked to the top of the hill until he came to the telegraph tower. It had a little garden around it. The telegraph man was there, picking strawberries.

'Good morning,' said Monte Cristo. 'Are you the telegraph man?'

'Yes,' replied the man.

'Don't you have to stay in the tower to look out for messages?'

'Oh, there'll be nothing coming through for the next five minutes. Would you like to come up there, sir, and see how it works?'

'That would be very interesting. I'd like to come,' said Monte Cristo.

The telegraph man led the way into the tower. On the ground floor there were only gardening implements, such as spades, rakes and watering-pots. On the next floor was the man's living room, with two chairs, a table, a bed and a stove, and on the top floor there was the telegraph room.

The man showed Monte Cristo the two iron handles which worked the telegraph.

'What are your wages for this job?' asked Monte Cristo.

'Three thousand francs a year.'

'And do you get a pension?'

'Yes, in fifteen years' time I shall retire and receive a small pension of a hundred crowns.'

'Poor man!' murmured Monte Cristo.

'What did you say, sir?' asked the man.

'I said it is very interesting. And do you understand all the signals?'

'Oh no, sir. I just pass on what I receive from the other man. I only understand a few signals.'

'But look!' said Monte Cristo. 'The man in front is signalling now. Do you understand it?'

'Yes, he's asking if I'm ready.'

'And how do you reply?'

'With a signal which says "yes" to the man in front and asks the man behind if he is ready.'

'It's very clever,' said the Count.

'You'll see,' said the man proudly. 'In two minutes he will signal a message to me which I shall have to pass on.'

'That gives me two minutes to do what I have to do,' said Monte Cristo to himself. Then, speaking aloud to the man, he said, 'What would happen if you should turn your head away when the other man is signalling to you?'

'I would miss the signal and wouldn't be able to pass it on.'

'And then what would happen?'

'They would fine me a hundred francs.'

'But suppose you were to alter the signal and send a wrong message?'

'Ah, that would be another thing. Then I should be discharged and I'd lose my pension. So you see, sir, I'm not likely to do anything like that.'

'Not even for fifteen years' wages? Fifteen thousand francs! That would be worth thinking about, wouldn't it?'

'You frighten me, sir.'

'Am I frightening you with fifteen thousand francs?'

'Please sir, let me see the telegraph tower in front. He's signalling to me now.'

'Don't look at him! Look at these little papers.'

'Bank notes!'

'Yes, there are fifteen of them. They are all yours if you like.'

'Oh sir, the man in front is signalling. You've taken my attention away. I'll be fined!' cried the man.

'That will cost you a hundred francs; so you see, you'd better take my bank notes.' The Count placed the notes in the man's hand. 'But this isn't all,' he said. 'You can't live on your fifteen thousand francs. Here are ten thousand more. That makes twenty five thousand altogether. You can buy a pretty little house, with two acres of land, for five thousand. The remaining twenty thousand will bring you in a thousand francs a year in interest.'

'A garden with two acres of land! Oh, heavens!'

'And a house and a thousand francs a year. Come, take them!' said Monte Cristo forcing the notes into the man's hand.

'What am I to do?'

Monte Cristo gave the man a piece of paper on which three signals were drawn. 'Just send these signals! There are only three of them, so it won't take long,' he said.

'Yes, but---'

'Do this and you'll have all you wish for.'

The telegraph man could resist no longer. He made the signals which the Count had written on the paper. When the man in front saw these signals he became very excited. He thought the telegraph man must have gone mad. But the man behind faithfully passed them on to the next telegraph tower, and so on until the wrong message reached Paris.

When the message reached Paris, it was passed on to the Minister of the Interior. The Minister was a friend of Baron Danglars. He immediately wrote a note to the baron, saying that if he had any Spanish bonds he should sell them quickly, because Don Carlos, the King of Spain, had escaped from prison in France and had returned to Spain. There was a revolution in Spain.

The baron had the largest part of his fortune, about six millions worth, invested in spanish bonds; for, as we know, he had made his fortune years ago in Spain. Now he rushed to the stock exchange to sell his bonds quickly before the price dropped. But he was too late. The news of the return of Don Carlos to Spain and a revolution in Barcelona had already reached the stock exchange. Danglars' bonds were worth almost nothing when he sold them. He had lost most of his fortune in less than an hour.

The next morning the newspapers said that it had been a false report about the king returning to Spain, and there was no revolution there. The price of the Spanish bonds went up to more than they had been before. If Danglars had only held on to his bonds, he would have made a big profit. Instead, he had lost nearly everything he had.

Dante was still taking his revenge!