Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 1).djvu/173

Rh "No. 27," said the inspector.

"It is here; unlock the door, Antoine."

The turnkey obeyed, and the inspector gazed curiously into the chamber of the mad abbé, as the prisoner was usually called. In the center of the cell, in a circle traced with a fragment of

plaster detached from the wall, sat a man whose tattered garments scarcely covered him. He was drawing in this circle geometrical lines, and seemed as much absorbed in his problem as Archimedes when the soldier of Marcellus slew him. He did not move at the sound of the