Connecticut western news., 1921-07-28

NN February 29, 1915, Edmond X Dantes sailed into Marseilles. ~ He was but nineteen years of age and ardently in love. His con- science was clear; he had violated no law. Yet the next night he was in cell in the gloomy Chateau diff, for tress on a bare rock off Marseilles. And fourteen years were to pass be fore he strOde again in the sunlight.
 Three men had wrought his ruin. Danglars envfed Edmond's rapid pro- motion. Fernand was crazed with love for Mercedes, Edmond's beloved. Dan- glars wrote and Fernand dispatched a letter warning the authorities to inter- cept the missive Edmond was bearing to Paris. Chance decreed that this warning, addressed to Villefort's fa- ther, fell into the hands of the un- scrupulous VillefOrt himself.
 Of this dark intrigue Edmond knew nothing. At his captains dying re- quest, he had called at Elba where he had seen the captive Napoleon and been intrusted with a sealed letter. VillefOrt, a turn-cOat devoted to the aristocracy, had changed his name to make men forget that his father was a Bonapartist. He destroyed the in- criminating letter before Edmond's eyoe 0nd promised that the lad should soon be free. Even as he spoke the words, he knew that in the disappear ance of thiSyouth lay his own security.
 Thus it. happened that while the COrsican came out of Elba by stealth and rode to Paris amid tumultuOus cheers, Edmond lay in a dungeon. The thunder of the guns at Waterloo did not penetrate the walls of the Chateau diff. Napoleon was borne away 10 St. Helena; the Hundred days were over. And Dante& knew naught of these things. He ate out his heart in thoughts of Mercedes and wondered what mad freak of fortune had thrust him away from the world of men.
 Days dragged into years. He lost track of time. Confined in a black and slimy dungeon, he saw only his jailer. There were moments when he hoped hours when he despaired, weeks when he raved in impOtent anger. Four years rolled past. He was starving himself l t0 death. Then he heard a rasping scratching noise. The spark of human hope burned anew. He swallowed his broth he must win back his strength. Somewhere near him was a human mole, burrOwing stealthily, worming to- ward freedom.
 Four days later a section of floor ing fell in and out of~a dark tunnel sprang an old man. He was the Abbe Faria, a prisoner for eight years. His | tunnel dug with arduous toll, had failed to reach the sunlight, but 1t led to fellowship. UnSuspected by their jailers, the two men met daily and studied unweariedly. Out of his ripe wisdom and his prodigious memory, the Abbe taught Edmond mathematics, history and languages.
 Less guileless than Edmond, he was able to prove, from the youths own story, that Danglars, Fernand and Villefort were responsible for his 1iv- ing death. So Edmond had a new in- centive for freedom. He sought re- venge. The Abbe revealed too the se- ,cret of the great treasure of gold and jewels that lay in a cave on Monte Cristo, an uninhabited island off Italy.
 The years rolled on. Another at tempt to escape was frustrated by the paralysis of the Abbe's right side. Ed mond refused to leave him. He was very different man from the carefree