The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1921-04-15


was a man OF the wodd-educated,
cynical.
One night he heard cry of anguish.
Hurriedly he rolled aside the great
stone that concealed the tunnel open,
ing, crawIed swiftly to his neighbours
cell. He found him writhing In agony.
At dawn he was dead
That night Edmond carried the
corpse to his own cell and laid it on
his own bed, face to the wall, 50 that
the jailer would think it Edmond
asleep. Secreting crude knife with
which to effect an escape, he then
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 great height. He
had been flung from the chateau roof
into the sea.
He screamed aloud as he struck the
water and then the weight dragged him
into the fce-cold depths. He ripped
open the sack. convulsiveIy 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
settles receded further into the dis
tance. He learned from his shipmates
that 1t was February %, 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 VIIlefort. A
baleful light fiickered in his hard eyes.
Edmond had fallen in with a band
| of smuggiers. On one Of their voy-
| ages, he gazed eagerly at a granite
| 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
Ieaping 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 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, and cried "Open,
| Sesamew 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 strange mis-
giving, he descended, broke open a
! passage into an inner cave, and dug
| away the earth over an oak Golfer
bound with iron. He burst it open
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 Criste-
| fabulously wealthy. romantic in ap-
pearance. a performer of miracles. His
betrayers had risen to heights of fame
and affluence. Danglars was a
wealthy banker; Fernand an hOnored
warrior; Vfllefort high In office. Mer-
cedes, believing Edmond dead, had
yielded to Fernand's importunate
| pleadings 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 OUTLAWS.
Everyone paid court to this mysteri-
| Gus stranger who rained gold about
him. Sometimes he disguised himself
now as the Able BusonI, now as the
Italian Zazzone, now as the English
Lord Wilmore, now as Sinbad the
sailor.
He tortured Dangiars, Fernand,
villefort, methodically and yet so
skflfuIly that they did not know the
hand that directed the blows that fell
upon them. Piece by piece Dangiars'
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
Vfllefort, his crimes dragged into the
light Of day, went raving mad. Mer-
eedes, made poor. but happy in the
love of her devoted son, lived on, PEN
itent.