Page:The Count of Monte-Cristo (1887 Volume 1).djvu/312

292 meration of all the benefits he would have reaped had he been able to quit the isle; but, as La Jeune Amélie had merely come to Monte-Cristo to fetch him away, he embarked that same evening, and proceeded with the captain to Leghorn.

Arrived at Leghorn, he repaired to the house of a Jew, a dealer in precious stones, to whom he disposed of four of his smallest diamonds, for five thousand francs each. The Jew might have asked how a sailor became possessor of such objects; but he took good care not to do so, as he made a thousand francs on each.

The following day Dantès presented Jacopo with an entirely new vessel, accompanying the gift by one hundred piastres, that he might provide himself with a crew, upon conditions of his going to Marseilles for the purpose of inquiring after an old man named Louis Dantès, residing in the Allées de Meilhan, and also a young female called Mercédès, an inhabitant of the Catalan village.

Jacopo could scarcely believe his senses, but Dantès told him that he had merely been a sailor from whim, because his family did not allow him the money necessary for his support; but that on his arrival at Leghorn he had come into possession of a large fortune, left him by an uncle, whose sole heir he was. The superior education of Dantès gave an air of such probability to this statement that it never once occurred to Jacopo to doubt its accuracy.

The term for which Edmond had engaged to serve on board La Jeune Amélie having expired, Dantès took leave of the captain, who at first tried to retain him as one of the crew, but, having been told the history of the legacy, he ceased to importune him further.

The succeeding morning Jacopo set sail for Marseilles, with directions from Dantès to join him at the island of Monte-Cristo.

The same day Dantès departed without saying where he was going; he took leave of the crew of La Jeune Amélie after distributing a splendid gratuity, and of the captain with a promise to let him hear of him some day or other. Dantès went to Genoa.

At the moment of his arrival a small yacht was being tried in the bay, by order of an Englishman, who, having heard that the Genoese were the best builders of the Mediterranean, wanted a yacht built there. The price agreed upon with the Englishman was forty thousand francs. Dantès offered sixty thousand francs, upon condition of being allowed to take immediate possession of it. The Englishman had gone upon a tour through Switzerland, and was not expected back in less than three weeks or a month, by which time the builder reckoned upon being able to complete another. Dantès led the builder to a Jew, retired to a small back parlor, and the Jew counted out to the shipbuilder the sum of sixty thousand francs.