azure sky. Dantes ordered the helmsman to put down his helm,
in order to leave La Pianosa to starboard, as he knew that
he should shorten his course by two or three knots. About
five o'clock in the evening the island was distinct, and
everything on it was plainly perceptible, owing to that
clearness of the atmosphere peculiar to the light which the
rays of the sun cast at its setting.

Edmond gazed very earnestly at the mass of rocks which gave
out all the variety of twilight colors, from the brightest
pink to the deepest blue; and from time to time his cheeks
flushed, his brow darkened, and a mist passed over his eyes.
Never did gamester, whose whole fortune is staked on one
cast of the die, experience the anguish which Edmond felt in
his paroxysms of hope. Night came, and at ten o'clock they
anchored. The Young Amelia was first at the rendezvous. In
spite of his usual command over himself, Dantes could not
restrain his impetuosity. He was the first to jump on shore;
and had he dared, he would, like Lucius Brutus, have "kissed
his mother earth." It was dark, but at eleven o'clock the
moon rose in the midst of the ocean, whose every wave she
silvered, and then, "ascending high," played in floods of
pale light on the rocky hills of this second Pelion.

The island was familiar to the crew of The Young Amelia, --
it was one of her regular haunts. As to Dantes, he had
passed it on his voyage to and from the Levant, but never
touched at it. He questioned Jacopo. "Where shall we pass
the night?" he inquired.

"Why, on board the tartan," replied the sailor.

"Should we not do better in the grottos?"

"What grottos?"

"Why, the grottos -- caves of the island."

"I do not know of any grottos," replied Jacopo. The cold
sweat sprang forth on Dantes' brow.

"What, are there no grottos at Monte Cristo?" he asked.

"None."

For a moment Dantes was speechless; then he remembered that
these caves might have been filled up by some accident, or
even stopped up, for the sake of greater security, by
Cardinal Spada. The point was, then, to discover the hidden
entrance. It was useless to search at night, and Dantes
therefore delayed all investigation until the morning.
Besides, a signal made half a league out at sea, and to
which The Young Amelia replied by a similar signal,
indicated that the moment for business had come. The boat
that now arrived, assured by the answering signal that all
was well, soon came in sight, white and silent as a phantom,
and cast anchor within a cable's length of shore.

Then the landing began. Dantes reflected, as he worked, on
the shout of joy which, with a single word, he could evoke
from all these men, if he gave utterance to the one
unchanging thought that pervaded his heart; but, far from
disclosing this precious secret, he almost feared that he
had already said too much, and by his restlessness and
continual questions, his minute observations and evident
pre-occupation, aroused suspicions. Fortunately, as regarded
this circumstance at least, his painful past gave to his
countenance an indelible sadness, and the glimmerings of
gayety seen beneath this cloud were indeed but transitory.

No one had the slightest suspicion; and when next day,
taking a fowling-piece, powder, and shot, Dantes declared
his intention to go and kill some of the wild goats that
were seen springing from rock to rock, his wish was
construed into a love of sport, or a desire for solitude.
However, Jacopo insisted on following him, and Dantes did
not oppose this, fearing if he did so that he might incur
distrust. Scarcely, however, had they gone a quarter of a
league when, having killed a kid, he begged Jacopo to take
it to his comrades, and request them to cook it, and when
ready to let him know by firing a gun. This and some dried
fruits and a flask of Monte Pulciano, was the bill of fare.
Dantes went on, looking from time to time behind and around
about him. Having reached the summit of a rock, he saw, a
thousand feet beneath him, his companions, whom Jacopo had
rejoined, and who were all busy preparing the repast which
Edmond's skill as a marksman had augmented with a capital
dish.

Edmond looked at them for a moment with the sad and gentle
smile of a man superior to his fellows. "In two hours'
time," said he, "these persons will depart richer by fifty
piastres each, to go and risk their lives again by
endeavoring to gain fifty more; then they will return with a
fortune of six hundred francs, and waste this treasure in
some city with the pride of sultans and the insolence of
nabobs. At this moment hope makes me despise their riches,
which seem to me contemptible. Yet perchance to-morrow
deception will so act on me, that I shall, on compulsion,
consider such a contemptible possession as the utmost


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