Stories to remember - Chapter 22

THE PRISON REGISTER

The next day, Lord Wilmore visited the Inspector of Prisons in Marseilles. He told the Inspector that, as a young man, he had studied in Rome under a priest named Faria. This priest had disappeared and he later heard that the old man had been a prisoner in the Chateau d'If.

'I remember him,' said the Inspector. 'He was crazy. He pretended to know of an immense treasure. He was always talking about it.'

'And is he still alive?' asked Lord Wilmore.

'Oh no, he died in February this year.'

'You have a good memory to remember the date.'

'I have good reason to remember when he died because an unusual thing happened,' said the Inspector.

'May I ask what that was?' said Lord Wilmore.

'Well, Faria's cell in the dungeons was about fifty feet away from the cell of a dangerous Bonapartist agent named Dante. I saw this Bonapartist once in his cell. He had a very fierce face. I would recognise him again anywhere.'

Lord Wilmore smiled to himself.

'Really?' he said. 'And this dangerous man; this-what did you say his name was?'

'Dante. Edmond Dante.'

'Ah yes. Dante. How does he come into the story?'

'He made a tunnel between the two cells. When Faria died, he carried the dead man through the tunnel to his own cell. Then he went back to Faria's cell, took his place in the sack in which they had sewn the body, and waited to be buried in the ground.'

'That was a very bold thing to do,' said Lord Wilmore.

'I have already said he was a very dangerous man,' said the Inspector, 'but fortunately we got rid of the crazy prisoner and the fierce one at the same time.'

'How was that?'

'The Chateau d'If has no cemetery. The dead are thrown into the sea with a thirty-six pound cannon ball tied to their feet.'

'Well?' said Lord Wilmore, as if he were slow to understand.

'Well, the jailers fastened a thirty-six pound ball to Dante's feet and threw him into the sea.'

'Really?' exclaimed Lord Wilmore.

'Yes,' said the Inspector of Prisons. 'Just imagine how surprised he was! I should like to have seen his face when he fell into the sea.'

'That would have been rather difficult.'

'Yes, but I can imagine it,' replied the Inspector laughing loudly.

'So can I,' said Lord Wilmore, and he began to laugh too; but he laughed with his mouth and not with his eyes.

When they had stopped laughing, Lord Wilmore asked if he might see the prison register relating to the Abbe Faria. He wanted to have some particulars as to his death.

'Certainly,' said the Inspector. He found the register and handed it to Lord Wilmore. While Lord Wilmore was looking at the register, the Inspector sat down in a corner and read his newspaper. He did not notice that the noble lord seemed to be more interested in the records of Edmond Dante than those of the Abbe Faria. He also did not notice when Lord Wilmore quickly removed from the register the letter, written by Danglars and posted by Fernand, accusing Dante of being a bonapartist agent. Lord Wilmore put the letter into his pocket. Then he arose, thanked the Inspector for his kindness, and went away.

The next day Lord Wilmore sailed away from Marseilles, in the direction of Italy.

Not long after this Bertuccio arrived in Italy. He went to the address given him by Father Busoni. As soon as the Count of Monte Cristo read the letter from the priest, he told Bertuccio that he would give him a job.

'You shall be my personal servant. I shall call you my steward,' said the Count. 

Stories to remember - Chapter 21

BERTUCCIO'S CONFESSION

Father Busoni, meanwhile, had returned to Marseilles. There, he took off his wig, his beard and his priest's dress, and he changed once again into the fine clothes of Lord Wilmore. Going aboard his yacht, he sailed out of the harbour, past the Chateau d'If. Lord Wilmore smiled faintly as he looked at the grim fortress.

He sailed to Italy and landed in Naples. From there, he took a carriage to Rome. In Rome, he arranged to purchase the island of Monte Cristo. He also bought from the government the right to call himself the Count of Monte Cristo.

When he had done this, Edmonnd, who was now the Count of Monte Cristo, took many workmen to the island. They were ordered to build a wonderful secret palace under the ground, in the spot where the cave was.

Edmond stayed on the island of Monte Cristo for some time, watching the progress of the work. At the beginning of September he sailed back to Marseilles. There he heard the story of a smuggler, named Bertuccio, who had been arrested at the Inn of Pont du Gard near Beaucaire. It seemed that this smuggler was accused of murdering two people at the inn, but he claimed to be innocent. The smuggler said that if a certain Father Busoni, who had stopped at the inn on the morning before the murders, could be found, everything could be explained. Enquiries had been made, for the past three months, for Father Busoni. He could not be found. The smuggler was to be tried by a court in a few days. He would probably be condemned to death for the murders.

The day after this story was told to Lord Wilmore, the good Father Busoni called at Bertuccio's prison, saying that he believed one of the prisoners wished to speak to him. Bertuccio, who by this time had given up hope of ever finding Father Busoni, was overjoyed. He told the priest his story and Father Busoni appeared to believe him. He also asked the 'priest' to hear a confession. Father Busoni agreed and he now heard a strange story.

'At the time of the Hundred Days, in 1815,' said Bertuccio, 'I had a brother who was a soldier in Napoleon's army. When Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, my brother retreated with the army. He came to the South. I arranged to meet him at Nimes. From there, we were to go back to our home in Corsica. At this time, the Royalists in France were taking revenge on the Bonapartists. When my brother came to Nimes, still in the uniform of Napoleon's army, he was murdered by some Royalists.

'I immediately went to the State Prosecutor to report the murder. The State Prosecutor was a young man, named Villefort, who had just come to Nimes from Marseilles. He had been the Assistant State Prosecutor there. I asked him to find the murderers of my brother and bring them to trial.

'But this Villefort was a royalist himself and did not care about my brother. He said that if my brother had been a soldier in Napoleon's army, he probably deserved to die. He told me to go away.

'I then determined to take revenge on this heartless man. Because he was a Royalist, he thought it a good deed to kill my brother who was a Bonapartist. So I told him that I would kill him the next time I met him.'

From then on Villefort knew that, wherever he went, I was following him. He became alarmed. He asked to be moved from Nimes. They made him a State Prosecutor in Paris. I followed him there.'

'On the night of the 27th September, 1816, I was waiting in the garden of his house at Auteuil, just outside Paris, when I saw him come out with a small bundle under his arm. He went to the bottom of the garden and put the bundle on the ground. Then he took a spade and started to dig. He dug a hole and put the bundle in it. I saw that this was my chance. As he was bending over the spade, I rushed up to him and plunged my dagger into his back.'

'Then I picked up the bundle out of the hole, thinking it must be some treasure he was burying. As Villefort lay on the ground, gasping his last breath, I told him that this was my revenge for my brother's death. I said I would give his treasure to my brother's widow.'

'Did he die?' asked the priest.

'I am sure he did,' replied Bertuccio.

'Well,' said Father Busoni, 'since you are willing to confess to that murder, I must believe you when you say you are innocent of the other two.'

Father Busoni managed to persuade the prison authorities to postpone Bertuccio's trial. As good luck would have it, Caderousse was caught soon afterwards in a foreign country and brought back to France. He confessed to the murders and was sentenced to life-imprisonment. Bertuccio was set free.

Bertuccio went to thank Father Busoni for what he had done for him.

'I was interested in your story,' said Father Busoni. 'What happened to the treasure you took from M. Villefort? Did you give it to your brother's wife?'

'There was no treasure in the bundle,' said Bertuccio. 'I ran away with it and when I had gone some distance I sat down by the bank of a river. I opened the bundle. Inside, was a new-born child, wrapped in a cloth embroidered with the letters H. and N. His purple face and hands showed that he had been suffocated. But he was not yet dead. I felt a slight beating in the child's heart. I have worked in a hospital and I knew what to do. I blew air into his lungs. After a quarter of an hour, I saw him breathe and heard a feeble cry.'

'And what did you do with this child?' asked the priest.

'I took him with me to my brother's wife in Corsica. She brought him up as her own child. We called him Benedetto. But I think God punished us with him. Although he was a very good-looking boy, he grew up to be bad. Before he was very old, he was stealing from our neighbours. Now he is only thirteen, but he has robbed everything from our house and has run away. I do not know where he is.'

'Well, Bertuccio, I hope all this has been a lesson to you,' said the priest. 'I think you should give up smuggling.'

'But what else can I do?' asked Bertuccio.

'I'll give you a letter to a friend of mine,' said Father Busoni.

He sat down at a table and wrote a short note addressed to the Count of Monte Cristo. 'This gentleman lives in Italy,' he said to Bertuccio. 'Take this note to him. Here's some money for your journey. I'm sure he will be able to find work for you.'

 

Stories to remember - Chapter 20

THE INN OF PONT DU GARD

Caderousse and his wife stood at the door of the inn, admiring the wonderful diamond.

'We must find out if it is a real diamond,' said Caderousse. 'There will be jewellers at the fair in Beaucaire. I'll show it to them. Take care of the house, wife. I'll be back soon.' He left the inn quickly.

The Inn of Pont du Gard stood in a lonely part of the country. Not many travellers came there. Because of this, it was used by smugglers. They would meet one another there and sometimes they came to seek shelter from the police or the customs officers.

On the outer wall of the inn there was a small shed, where the smugglers could creep in without being seen. There were little holes in the wall, so that they could look into the inn. If strangers were there, they stayed in the shed. When everything was safe, they would go into the inn, where Caderousse would greet them and make them welcome.

On the day that Caderousse was in Beaucaire, a smuggler named Bertuccio was running away from the police. He made his way towards the Inn of Pont du Gard.

It so happened that, just as Caderousse returned to the inn, Bertuccio was creeping unseen into the shed at the side. When he looked through the hole in the wall, he saw Caderousse and a jeweller from the fair at Beaucaire. Caderousse called to his wife.

'The priest has not deceived us; the diamond is real. This jeweller will give us fifty thousand francs for it, but he first wants to be sure that it really belongs to us. Will you please tell him how we got it, while I bring him some wine.'

The woman told the jeweller how the priest named Father Busoni had come to the inn with the diamond, saying that it was a present from her husband's old friend, Edmond Dante. When the jeweller found that the wife told the same story as her husband, he was satisfied. He bought the diamond for fifty thousand francs.

Bertuccio, looking through the hole in the wall, was amazed when he saw all this money changing hands. Caderousse locked the money away in a cupboard.

The jeweller put the diamond in a little bag, which he placed in a pocket inside his coat. Then he prepared to leave the inn. Just as he was about to go, there was a bright flash of lightning, then a tremendous peal of thunder. A storm was gathering.

'Oh dear,' said Caderousse, 'you must not go out in such weather.'

'No,' said the wife. 'Stay the night with us.'

She and Caderousse looked at one another. It seemed as though they both had the same horrible thought at the same time.

'Oh, I'll be all right,' replied the jeweller. 'I am not afraid of thunder.' He went out into the storm.

When he had gone, the wife said to her husband, 'Why did you let him go?'

'What do you mean, woman?' said Caderousse.

'I mean you should have kept  him here. You should not have let the diamond go.'

'Do not think such thoughts,' said the innkeeper. 'You offend God.'

At that moment, there was an even louder peal of thunder and the wind could be heard howling around the inn. The smuggler, Bertuccio, was about to let Caderousse know he was there, when he heard a loud knocking on the door of the inn. So he kept quiet.

'Who's there?' cried Caderousse.

'It is I, the jeweller. I can't find my way in all this wind and rain,' said a voice outside.

Caderousse looked at his wife.

'You said I offend God,' she sneered. 'It's the good God who sends him back to us.'

She went to the door and opened it.

'Come in, good sir,' she said to the jeweller.

She made the jeweller welcome and set before him a good supper with plenty of wine. When he had eaten and drunk his fill, he went upstairs to bed.

Bertuccio, waiting in the shed at the side, was by this time so tired that he fell asleep. Later in the night he was awakened by a shot and sounds of a struggle in one of the rooms upstairs. There were groans and cries as though someone was being murdered. A kind of warm moisture was falling from above, dropping on his head. Then he heard someone coming downstairs. He got up and looked through the hole in the wall.

Caderousse was entering the room, carrying a lantern in one hand and, in the other, the little bag in which Bertuccio had seen the jeweller put the diamond. Now Caderousse went to the cupboard, took out the fifty thousand francs he had earlier locked away there and, rushing towards the door, he disappeared into the darkness of the night.

Bertuccio ran into the inn. Going up the stairs, he stumbled over the body of Caderousse's wife. She had been killed by a pistol shot. He went into a bedroom and there he saw the jeweller lying on the floor. Blood was gushing from four horrible wounds in his body. The handle of a large kitchen knife stuck from his chest, where it had been plunged into his heart.

Bertuccio rushed downstairs and, at that moment, the police officers who had been tracking him arrived at the door of the inn. They immediately seized Bertuccio. One of them pointed to his head and his clothes. Looking at himself, Bertuccio saw that he was covered with blood. He remembered the warm rain which had fallen on him when he was in the shed. He tried to explain that he had been outside when the murders happened. But the police thought he must have broken in from the outside and killed the two people in the inn.

Stories to remember - Chapter 19

FATHER BUSONI

It was the 3rd June 1829.

Caderousse was standing at the door of his inn, called the ' Inn of Pont du Gard '. Someone was coming along the road on horseback. As the figure came nearer, Caderousse noticed that it was a priest, dressed in black, and wearing a three-cornered hat. The priest dismounted at the inn. It was a hot day. He asked for some refreshing wine to drink. After the landlord had brought the wine and poured some into a glass, the priest said to him, 'Is your name Caderousse?'

'That is right.'

'My name is Father Busoni,' said the priest. 'Did you know, in the year 1814 or 1815, a sailor called Dante?'

'He was my best friend,' replied the innkeeper. 'Do you know him? What has become of him?'

'He died in prison,' said Father Busoni. 'I was called to his bedside when he was dying. He gave me a diamond which he had received from another prisoner and he asked me to sell it and divide the money among his five best friends. I have the jewel with me and you are one of the friends I seek.'

'What a surprise!' cried Caderousse. 'How much is the jewel worth?'

'The diamond is worth fifty thousand francs.'

'And who are the four other friends?'

'His father, a girl called Mercedes, who was to have been his bride, a young man named Fernand and another man named Danglars.'

'Alas! Poor Edmond!' exclaimed Caderousse. 'His father died many years ago and the others were not his friends at all. I am his only true friend.'

'Please tell me about the others,' said the priest. 'Begin with the father.'

'Old Dante was very sad when Edmond was taken away,' said Caderousse. 'He waited at home for his son to return. Monsieur Morrel, the shipowner, tried to help him by giving him money to buy food, but the old man was too proud to use it. In the end, he died of hunger. Monsieur Morrel paid for his funeral.'

'And what about Dante's other friends, Fernand and Danglars?' said the priest. 'Didn't they help the old man?'

'They were the cause of his misery,' replied Caderousse. 'They had denounced the son as a Bonapartist agent.'

'How do you know this?'

'I was with them at the Hotel La Reserve when they plotted together. Danglars wrote the letter and Fernand posted it.'

'Ah, Faria, how right you were,' murmured the priest softly to himself.

'What did you say?' asked Caderousse.

'Nothing,' replied the priest. 'Tell me more about Danglars and Fernand.'

'They are wealthy men now.'

'How did that happen?'

'Danglars left Marseilles and became a cashier in a Spanish bank. During the war between France and Spain, he became a clerk with the French army. By stealing the funds, he made a fortune in Spain. With that money he returned to France and became a banker. He also married a wealthy widow who is a friend of the king. Now he is a millionaire and they have made him a baron. Baron Danglars, he is called, and he lives in a big house in Paris.'

'And Fernand?'

'Ah, Fernand was a soldier. Napoleon called him into his army. Before the battle of Waterloo, he was a sentry at the door of a general. The general deserted to the English and Fernand went with him. When Napoleon was defeated, Fernand returned with the general to France. He now had the rank of a lieutenant. Soon he became a captain. He was sent to Spain. There he met Danglars again. These two helped one another to make money. In Spain Fernand became a colonel. Next he was sent east, to help Prince Ali Tebelin Pacha of Janina. Ali Pacha was killed but, before he died, he left a fortune to Fernand. Fernand at last returned to France, a wealthy man with the rank of general, and the title of Count Morcerf. He, too, lives in a large house in Paris.'

'And Monsieur Morrel, the owner of the ship on which Dante sailed. What of him?'

'Ah, poor Monsieur Morrel. He spent all his money trying to set Dante free. He wrote letter after letter to the State Prosecutor asking for Dante's release from the Chateau d'If. But all his efforts were in vain. He lives with his son in Marseilles, a sorrowful and disappointed man.'

The priest paused for a moment as if undecided what his next words would be. Then, in a voice hardly more than a whisper, he asked, 'And what of Mercedes?'

'Oh, she was in despair when Dante was taken away, but when Fernand returned to Marseilles as a lieutenant, she married him.'

'She married him?' exclaimed the priest in surprise.

'Yes, she is now the Countess Morcerf, and they have a son named Albert. So you see, Father Busoni, all these others have become rich. Yet I, who was the only true friend of Edmond Dante, have remained poor.'

'Thank you for telling me everything,' said the priest.

'I am sure Edmond would wish me to give this diamond to you alone, since you were his only real friend. Here it is. There is no longer any need for me to look for the others.'

So saying, he handed the diamond to Caderousse, mounted his horse and rode away.

Caderousse, his greedy eyes gleaming, looked at the big, bright diamond. Then he called to his wife to come and hear his good fortune.

Stories to remember - Chapter 18

LORD WILMORE

On the sixth day, the smugglers returned to the island. Dante walked slowly to meet them, pretending to be in great pain. The captain asked him if he was better. Dante said he was feeling much better, but his ribs were still hurting him. They took him aboard the Young Amelia and sailed away for Genoa.

When they arrived at Genoa, Dante went to a dealer in precious stones and sold to him four of his smallest diamonds for twenty thousand francs. The dealer might have wondered how a poor sailor happened to be selling these jewels, but he did not ask any troublesome questions. They were worth much more than the twenty thousand francs he was paying to Dante.

Dante now went back to the Young Amelia and told the captain that an uncle had died, leaving him a fortune. So he would not be sailing on the ship again.

'We shall be sorry to lose you,' said the captain.

'Yes, we shall miss you,' said the sailors.

When he said goodbye, Dante gave each sailor a present of some money. He promised to write to the captain later. They had been good friends and he would like to see him again.

So when the Young Amelia sailed the next day, Dante stayed in Genoa. First, he bought himself some fine clothes. Next, he purchased an English passport. It was made out in the name of a Lord Wilmore. With this he would have no difficulty in going anywhere, even back to France, pretending he was an English nobleman. He knew that nobody would recognise him any more. If he came to Marseilles as Lord Wilmore, who would dream that he was really Edmond Dante, the escaped prisoner from the Chateau d'If?

Now he went to a boat builder and bought a fine little yacht. He took the yacht out into the harbour and found that he could easily sail her by himself. He asked the boat builder to make three secret compartments in the cabin at the head of his bed. This was done. Dante was now ready to sail.

He sailed southwards between the islands of Elba and Corsica. In thirty-five hours he reached the island of Monte Cristo. Here he anchored the little yacht in the creek. The island was quite deserted. He went ashore and walked all around to make sure that no one was there. Then he went back to the creek and climbed up to the spot where his treasure was hidden. It was all there, just as he had left it. He began to remove the coins, the gold, and the jewels from the big chest. Very soon all his immense wealth was safely stored in the three secret compartments of the cabin on his yacht.

He now set sail again, this time for Marseilles. When he arrived there, he landed as an English nobleman who liked to sail his yacht, by himself, around the Mediterranean Sea.

Lord Wilmore, as Dante now called himself, went to the house where old Mr Dante had lived. He was told that the old man had died many years ago. The house was for sale. Lord Wilmore bought it.

The next thing Lord Wilmore did was to ask about a man called Caderousse who had lived next door to old Dante. Somebody said that Caderousse now kept a small inn, some miles outside Marseilles, near a place called Beaucaire.

Lord Wilmore spent a few days in Marseilles, shopping. Among the things he purchased were a wig, a false beard, and a priest's dress.

Some time later a bearded priest was seen riding on horseback out of Marseilles on the road towards Beaucaire.

Stories to remember - Chapter 17

THE SECRET CAVE

The marks that Dante had seen on the rocks led away from a small creek, up to the open piece of ground where the large rock lay.

'The creek must be the one mentioned in Caesar Spada's will,' thought Dante, 'and the treasure must be buried under the large rock.' He felt sure of this, because the large rock was to the east of the small creek in a right line, just as it said in the will.

He lifted his pickaxe and began to chop the ground at the bottom of this rock. Soon he had made a hole big enough to put his arm inside. Then he  took some gunpowder which he stuffed in the hole under the rock. Lighting his handkerchief, he placed it near the gunpowder and ran away. In a few seconds there was an explosion. Dante looked back and he saw that the rock had split into five pieces. He was easily able to move these pieces out of the way. Looking down at the place where the rock had been, he saw, in the ground, a square paving stone with an iron ring fixed in it. His heart leapt for joy.

This must be the right place.

Now he cut down a branch from a tree. He put the branch into the ring on the paving stone and tried to lift it up. At first it would not move. Then it came up slowly. Underneath the stone there were some steps leading down into an underground cave.

Edmond went slowly down the steps. It was not very dark down there. Light came in through several cracks in the roof of the cave which he had not seen from above. He stood for a few minutes, looking for sparkling jewels. Alas, only the rays of light sparkled through the roof of the cave. There was nothing else there.

Dante was very disappointed. Then he remembered the words of the will :

'The treasure is in the farthest angle of the second opening in the caves.'

He had only found the first opening. Now he must look for the second.

He tapped with his pickaxe around the sides of the cave. At a point farthest away from the steps there was a hollow echo when he hit the wall. He lifted up his pickaxe and gave it a hard blow. The wall of the cave began to crumble away. He struck again, once, twice, three times, and there was a hole big enough for him to enter. Crouching, he went through this hole and found himself in a very small dark cave.

'In the farthest angle of the second opening,' said Dante, repeating the words of the will to himself. He looked around. At the left of the opening through which he had entered, was a dark and deep angle in the cave. That was where the treasure must be buried. Suddenly, a shadow passed across the opening of the first cave, above the steps. Someone must be spying on him. He dashed up the steps and out into the open. His heart was pounding.

He could see only a goat grazing nearby. Could it have been the goat? Or had someone come to the island to find out his secret? He looked at the sea. There were no ships there. There was not even a small boat in the creek. Nobody else could be on the island. It must have been the goat. He looked again in the bushes around this open spot, but he could see nothing.

Now he picked a branch from a resinous tree, lighted it at the fire at which the men of the Young Amelia had cooked their breakfast, and took it down into the cave with him as a torch. He raised his pickaxe once more and began to strike at the ground in the farthest angle of the second cave. He hit something made of iron, buried a few inches under the ground. It seemed to be the top of a large chest. He pulled away the earth until he could see the chest. It had handles on the sides and a padlock on the lid. He seized the handles and tried to lift the chest. It was impossible. It was much too heavy. Putting his pickaxe between the lid and the padlock, he broke the lock and lifted up the lid.

The chest was divided into three compartments. One contained shining piles of golden coins. Another was full of gold bars. Edmond put his hands into the third compartment and lifted out diamonds, pearls and rubies.

He could not believe his eyes. There were countless unheard-of treasures here. It was like a dream.

For a long time he was so excited that he did not know what to do. Then he thought carefully. He could not take all this treasure away with him now. He could only take a little and come back for the rest when he had been able to buy a ship for himself to carry it away.

So he filled his pockets with precious stones. Then he put back the lid on the chest and covered it all over again with earth. Going through the larger cave, he went up the steps and put back the paving stone over the hole. Next, he put back the pieces of the big rock on top of the paving stone and filled up all the cracks with earth. He planted bushes and flowers in the earth and watered them to make it look as though they had been growing there for a long time.

He could do no more, for now he must wait for the return of the Young Amelia to Monte Cristo.

Stories to remember - Chapter 16

THE ISLAND OF MONTE CRISTO

In a sheltered bay of the island of Monte Cristo, the Young Amelia rode at anchor. Dante and his companions worked through the night, loading the cargo which had been landed there from the Turkish ship.

When the sun rose in the morning, they were tired and hungry, but all the work was finished. Dante said he would go and shoot a goat for breakfast. He really wanted to get away from the others, by himself, to look for the secret caves. But Jacopo, his friend, offered to go with him. Dante had to agree, or the others would have suspected something. So he said to Jacopo, 'Yes, come along.'

Jacopo and Dante had not gone far when they saw a small goat. Dante raised his gun and shot it.

'Please take it back to our comrades, Jacopo, and ask them to cook it,' he said to his friend. 'I'll walk around a little longer. You can fire a gun to let me know when it is ready.'

Jacopo took the goat and Dante started to climb up a very steep rock. When he reached the top, he looked down. There he saw Jacopo on the beach with the other sailors. They were already cooking the goat over a fire.

Now Dante began to look for the caves. He thought he could see, on some of the rocks, marks made by the hand of man. Perhaps they would lead him to the caves. Sometimes these marks disappeared beneath tufts of moss or under bushes. He had to pull away branches and grass to find them.

The marks seemed to stop at an open piece of ground. There were no caves there. He could see only a big round rock resting on the ground.

Then he heard a gun. Breakfast must be ready. He started to run back to the bay. From the top of the steep rock, he looked down once more and saw Jacopo and the others on the beach. Dante called out and they looked up at him. Suddenly he slipped and fell. When the sailors reached him he was groaning with pain.

'He has broken his ribs,' said the captain.

They tried to lift him up, but Edmond groaned again and ask them not to move him.

'But we cannot leave you here. The  Young Amelia must sail,' said the captain.

'Leave me with some biscuits, a pickaxe and a gun,' said Edmond. 'In a day or two I shall be better. Then I can build myself a shelter with the pickaxe and I can shoot goats for food. When you have sold your cargo, you can sail back here to fetch me.'

Dante was a good sailor and the captain did not like to leave him behind.

'We shall stay here until the evening,' he said. 'Perhaps you will feel better then.'

'No, no!' said Edmond. 'Please go. I shall be all right until you return.'

At last he persuaded them to leave him. They said goodbye, promising to return in a few days.

Dante, lying on the rock, watched the Young Amelia sail out of the bay. The ship became smaller and smaller as she sailed away.

When the Young Amelia was quite out of sight, Dante got up from the ground. He picked up his gun and his pickaxe and moved away. He did not move slowly like a man who had fallen and hurt himself. He walked quickly, jumping from rock to rock like the small goats which lived on the island. There was nothing wrong with Dante. He had pretended to hurt himself so that he could be left alone on the island.

He stood still and looked around him.

'And now,' he cried, 'to find the treasure!'