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 wasThe 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 thewhom 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 happiness. Oh, no!" exclaimed
Edmond, "that will not be. The wise, unerring Faria could not be
mistaken in this one thing. Besides, it were better to die than to
continue to lead this low and wretched life." Thus Dantes, who but
three months before had no desire but liberty had now not liberty
enough, and panted for wealth. The cause was not in Dantes, but in
providence, who, while limiting the power of man, has filled him
with boundless desires.
Meanwhile, by a cleft between two walls of rock, following a
path worn by a torrent, and which, in all human probability, human
foot had never before trod, Dantes approached the spot where he
supposed the grottos must have existed. Keeping along the shore,
and examining the smallest object with serious attention, he
thought he could trace, on certain rocks, marks made by the hand of
man.
Time, which encrusts all physical substances with its mossy
mantle, as it invests all things of the mind with forgetfulness,
seemed to have respected these signs, which apparently had been
made with some degree of regularity, and probably with a definite
purpose. Occasionally the marks were hidden under tufts of myrtle,
which spread into large bushes laden with blossoms, or beneath