captain, "you might have capital sport."
"Where?"
"Do you see that island?" continued the captain, pointing to a
conical pile rising from the indigo sea.
"Well, what is this island?"
"The Island of Monte Cristo."
"But I have no permission to shoot over this island."
"Your excellency does not require a permit, for the island is
uninhabited."
"Ah, indeed!" said the young man. "A desert island in the midst
of the Mediterranean must be a curiosity."
"It is very natural; this island is a mass of rocks, and does
not contain an acre of land capable of cultivation."
"To whom does this island belong?"
"To Tuscany."
"What game shall I find there!"
"Thousands of wild goats."
"Who live upon the stones, I suppose," said Franz with an
incredulous smile.
"No, but by browsing the shrubs and trees that grow out of the
crevices of the rocks."
"Where can I sleep?"
"On shore in the grottos, or on board in your cloak; besides, if
your excellency pleases, we can leave as soon as you like — we can
sail as well by night as by day, and if the wind drops we can use
our oars."
As Franz had sufficient time, and his apartments at Rome were
not yet available, he accepted the proposition. Upon his answer in
the affirmative, the sailors exchanged a few words together in a
low tone. "Well," asked he, "what now? Is there any difficulty in
the way?"
"No." replied the captain, "but we must warn your excellency
that the island is an infected port."
"What do you mean?"
"Monte Cristo although uninhabited, yet serves occasionally as a
refuge for the smugglers and pirates who come from Corsica,
Sardinia, and Africa, and if it becomes known that we have been
there, we shall have to perform quarantine for six days on our
return to Leghorn."
"The deuce! That puts a different face on the matter. Six days!
Why, that's as long as the Almighty took to make the world! Too
long a wait — too long."
"But who will say your excellency has been to Monte Cristo?"
"Oh, I shall not," cried Franz.
"Nor I, nor I," chorused the sailors.
"Then steer for Monte Cristo.""Nor I, nor I," chorused the sailors.
"Then steer for Monte Cristo."
The captain gave his orders, the helm was put up, and the boat
was soon sailing in the direction of the island. Franz waited until
all was in order, and when the sail was filled, and the four
sailors had taken their places — three forward, and one at the helm
— he resumed the conversation. "Gaetano," said he to the captain,
"you tell me Monte Cristo serves as a refuge for pirates, who are,
it seems to me, a very different kind of game from the goats."
"Yes, your excellency, and it is true."
"I knew there were smugglers, but I thought that since the
capture of Algiers, and the destruction of the regency, pirates
existed only in the romances of Cooper and Captain Marryat."
"Your excellency is mistaken; there are pirates, like the
bandits who were believed to have been exterminated by Pope Leo
XII., and who yet, every day, rob travellers at the gates of Rome.
Has not your excellency heard that the French charge d'affaires was
robbed six months ago within five hundred paces of Velletri?"
"Oh, yes, I heard that."
"Well, then, if, like us, your excellency lived at Leghorn, you
would hear, from time to time, that a little merchant vessel, or an
English yacht that was expected at Bastia, at Porto-Ferrajo, or at
Civita Vecchia, has not arrived; no one knows what has become of
it, but, doubtless, it has struck on a rock and foundered. Now this
rock it has met has been a long and narrow boat, manned by six or
eight men, who have surprised and plundered it, some dark and
stormy night, near some desert and gloomy island, as bandits
plunder a carriage in the recesses of a forest."
"But," asked Franz, who lay wrapped in his cloak at the bottom
of the boat, "why do not those who have been plundered complain to
the French, Sardinian, or Tuscan governments?"
"Why?" said Gaetano with a smile.
"Yes, why?"
"Because, in the first place, they transfer from the vessel to
their own boat whatever they think worth taking, then they bind thetheir own boat whatever they think worth taking, then they bind the
crew hand and foot, they attach to every one's neck a four and
twenty pound ball, a large hole is chopped in the vessel's bottom,
and then they leave her. At the end of ten minutes the vessel
begins to roll heavily and settle down. First one gun'l goes under,
then the other. Then they lift and sink again, and both go under at
once. All at once there's a noise like a cannon — that's the air
blowing up the deck. Soon the water rushes out of the scupper-holes
like a whale spouting, the vessel gives a last groan, spins round
and round, and disappears, forming a vast whirlpool in the ocean,
and then all is over, so that in five minutes nothing but the eye
of God can see the vessel where she lies at the bottom of the sea.
Do you understand now," said the captain, "why no complaints are
made to the government, and why the vessel never reaches port?"
It is probable that if Gaetano had related this previous to
proposing the expedition, Franz would have hesitated, but now that
they had started, he thought it would be cowardly to draw back. He
was one of those men who do not rashly court danger, but if danger
presents itself, combat it with the most unalterable coolness. Calm
and resolute, he treated any peril as he would an adversary in a
duel, — calculated its probable method of approach; retreated, if
at all, as a point of strategy and not from cowardice; was quick to
see an opening for attack, and won victory at a single thrust.
"Bah!" said he, "I have travelled through Sicily and Calabria — I
have sailed two months in the Archipelago, and yet I never saw even
the shadow of a bandit or a pirate."
"I did not tell your excellency this to deter you from your
project," replied Gaetano, "but you questioned me, and I have
answered; that's all."
"Yes, and your conversation is most interesting; and as I wish
to enjoy it as long as possible, steer for Monte Cristo."
The wind blew strongly, the boat made six or seven knots an