Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1921-04-15

WHICH 10 eHeCt an SSClpe, ne tleu
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 a great
iron ball. and swung the sack power.
fully. Edmond suddenly realized that
he vas falling from a great height. Ee
had been flung from the chateau roci
into the sea.
He screamed aloud as he struck the
water and hen the weight dragged hin
into the ice-cold depths. He ripped
open the sack, convulsively cut the
rope that was knotted TO the shot. and
rose 30 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 10 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.
settles receded further into the dis
lance. He learned from his shipmates
that 1t was February %, 1920. 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 fickered In his hard eyes.
Edmond had fallen in with a bar d
of smugglers. On one of their vor.
1900 10 -0.AI nrrAp1 ak N vnnifa
mass rose-hued in the dawn. 1t was
Monte Cristo. A few weeks later
chance brought him to the island.
None of his comrades suspected the
leaping thoughts that thronged in Ed
mond's mind. They were simple folk,
easily deceived. Edmond fell from a
rock and complained that he was so
hurt that he could not W. 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, and cried "Open,
Sesamei" He was alone on Monte
Cristo.
Following the clues of the Abbe's
ancient manuscript. he located the
great slab of rock, overgrown with veg
citation. He slashed at the edges with
his pickax and made a hole. With his
horn of powder, he easily blasted the
rock away. Before him was an iron
ring embedded in a fiagstone. He
raised it and saw a flight of stairs.
with 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 Golfer
and there blaZed gold coins, bars OF
gold, diamonds, rubies and pearls that
glittered in glorious ~profusion.
When Edmond came back TO France,
1t was as the count of Monte Cristo-
fabulously wealthy. romantic In APP
pearance, a performer of miracles. His
betrayers had risen TO heights of fame
and a%ffluence. Danglars was a
wealthy banker: Fernand an honored
warrior; villefort high in office. Mer-
cedes, believing Edmond dead, had
yielded to Fernand's importunate
pleadings and had married him.
Z~ealously did the count of Monte
Cristo devote his days and nights to
ruin these three. Usually 1t was In
his w ~unrecognized personality that
he dazzled Paris with his feasts, his
extravagances, his l%prodigal OUTLAWS.
Everyone paid court to this mysteri.
GUS stranger who rained gold about
- r--.1a..o- H. Jfaeu-tgnd h.n,aa I
now as the Able Bus0ni, now as tie
Italian Zazzone, now as the English
Lord Wilmore, now as Sinbad ia
sailor.
He tortured Danglars, Fernand,
V%illefort, m~ethodlcally and yet 50
skilfuIly 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 b%itterest blow that
/ could have befallen him. Fernald, en-
meshed slowly in revelations of his
? guilty past, finally blew out his brains
v~illefort. his crimes dragged into the
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
mar who presented him with notes he
; could not meet. And on the uninhabit
ed island of Monte Cristo, Morrel''
son. true and tried as his father
: learned that Villefort's daughter. the
girl who had remained fine through al
? vicissitudes. still lived. She stood be
side him on the pinnacle of the islan6
and they looked with blurred eyes
into the distance, where each moment
; a ship grew fainter and fainter. i
vas hearing from their sight the mar
who had once been Edmond Dantes