Connecticut western news., 1921-07-28

lCaoI '" '4iV 'a'-t VI d NuHSF'H' Ai'tf was man of the worlL-cducat2E cynical.
 One night he heard a cry of anguish | Hurriedly he rolled aside the great | stone that concealed the tunnel C.1en- ! ing, crawled swiftly to his nciShh r's cell. He found him writh.ng in agony. i At dawn he was dead.
 That night Edmond carried the corpse to his own cell and laid tt on his own bed, face to the wall, so that the jailer would think 1t Edmond asleep. Secreting a crude knife with 1 which to effect an escape, he then 1 sewed himself into the coarse sack In which the jailers had put the body. Two men later bore out the supposed corpse, weighted the legs with great iron ball, and swung the sack power fully. Edmond suddenly realized that he was falling from a great height. He had been flung from the chateau roof into the sea.
 He screamed aloud as he struck the water and then heweight dragged him into the ice-cold depths. He ripped open the sack, convulsively cut the rope that was knotted to the shot, and rose to the surface. He had not for gotten how to swim. He struck out in the blackness for an islet. Just as he was losing hope, his knee struck rock. He staggered to his feet and above him rose a gloomy mass, his goal.
 At daybreak he flung himself into the sea and was pulled aboard an out ward-bound bark. Each moment Mar seilles receded further into the dis tance. He learned from his shipmates that 1t was February 28, 1929. He had been shut away from the world for IA years. He wondered what had become of Mercedes. Then he thought of Danglars, Fernand and Villefort. A baleful light f1ickered in his hard eyes.
 Edmond had fallen in with band of smugglers. On one of their voy- ages, he gazed eagerly at a granite mass rose-hued in the dawn. It was Monte Cristo. A few weeks later chance brought him to the island. None of his comrades suspected the leaping thoughts that thronged tr Ed mond's mind. They were simple fOia, easily deceived. Edmond fell from a rock and complained that he was so hurt that he could not move. He was confident, he insisted, that he could cure himself if he were left here. At last they sailed away. When the boat was out of sight, he leaped to his feet, seized his pickax. q and cried "Open, Sesame r He was alone on Monte Cristo. :. r. 4s<< }.SE >
 Following the clues Of the Abbe's ancient manuscript, he located the xgreatislab of rock, overgrown with veg citation. He slashed at the edges with hispfckax and made h6le. ssWith his !. horn of powder, he easily blasted the ! rock away. Before hifa was an Iron ring embedded in a fagstone. He raised it and saw a flight of stairs. Win hope mingled with>a strange mis- giving he descended, broke open a passage into an inner cave, and dug away the earth over an oak coffer bound with iron. He burst it open and there blazed gold coins, bars of SOI0. Ol0InOnOS, TuDlSS anu pSdElS ludl glittered in glorious prOfusion.
 When Edmond came back to France, it was as the count of Monte Cristo- fabulously wealthy, romantic In ap- pearance, a performer of miracles. His betrayers had risen to heights of fame and affluence. Danglars was wealthy banker; Fernand an honOred warrior; VillefOrt high in office. Mer- cedes, believing Edmond dead, had yielded to Fernands impOrtunate pleadngs and had married him.
 Zealously did the count of Monte Cristo devote his days and nights to ruin these three. Usually 1t was in | his own unrecognized personality that he daZZled Paris with his feasts, his extravagances, his prodigal outlays Everyone paid court to this mysteri- ous stranger who rained gold about him. Sometimes he disguised himself : now as the Abbe BusOni, now as the Italian ZazZone, now as the English Lord WilmOre, now as Sinbad the sailor.
 He tortured Danglars, Fernand i VfllefOrt, methOdlcally ana yet so skilfully that they did not know the hand that directed the blows that fell upon them. Piece by piece Danglars' fortune was Topped away. At last he was beggared, the bitterest blow that could have befallen him. Fernald, en- meshed slowly in revelations of his ! guilty past, finally blew out his brains; : U{11oFort orirooc dPa opp6 into fhp : light of day, went raving mad. Mer- cedes made poor, but happy in the love of her devoted son, lived on, pen itent.
 Yet were there those whom Monte Cristo rewarded The noble Morrel his former employer. was saved from bankruptcy by a mysterious English man who presented him with notes he could not meet. And on the uninhabit- C11 oF T~;C c