Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1921-04-14

IN February %, 1915, Edmond
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 a
cell in the gloomy Chateau DIFF, for
tress on a bare rock off Marsellles.
And fourteen years were to pass be-
fore he strobe again in the sunlight.
Three men had wrought his ruin.
Danglars envied 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 mssive Edmond was bearing
to Paris. Chance decreed that this
warning, addressed to Villefort's ia
Their, fell into the hands of the I'M
scrupuous 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 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
eliminating letter before EdmOnds
eyes and promised that the lad should
soon be free. Even as he spoke the
words, he knew that in the disappear
ance Of this youth 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 dungeon. The
thunder of the guns at Waterloo did
not penetrate the walls of the Chateau
DIFF, Napoleon was borne away to,
st. Helena; the Hundred days were
over. And Dantes 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
Shiny 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
to 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 human
mole, burrowing stealthfly, 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 Able
Farla, prisoner for eight years. His
tunnel. dug with arduous toll, had
failed to reach the sunlight, but It led
io fellowship. Unsupported by their
jallers, the two men met daily and
studied uhweariedly. Out Of his ripe
wisdom and his prodigious memory,
the Able 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 liv-
ing death. So Edmond had a new in
centlve for freedom. He sought re-
venge. The Able revealed too the Sc
cret Of the great treasure of gold and
Jewels that lay in a cave on Monte
Cristo. an uninhablted 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 WIS
a vey different man from the carcfree