داستان گنجینه

Chapter 9 The Story of the Treasure

The next morning, Dantes returned to Faria’s room. Faria looked a little better. He showed Dantes a small piece of paper. Half of it was burnt away.

Edmond said, ‘I can’t see anything except broken lines and words.’

‘I know what the words mean,’ said Faria. ‘But first I will tell you the story of this paper. I was the friend and helper of Prince Spada, the last of the princes of that name. I was very happy with him. A long time ago, his family was very rich — people often say, “as rich as a Spada” — but my friend, Prince Spada, had very little money. He told me about another Spada; this man lived - and died — at the time of Cesare Borgia.’Cesare Borgia needed money for his wars, but the country was very poor. Finally he thought of a plan. He asked two famous rich men, Rospigliosi and Spada, to dinner. Rospigliosi was very pleased, but Spada was a wise man. “Cesare Borgia wants my money,” he thought.

“He will kill me.” He wrote a note, then he went to the dinner. There was death in the glass of wine in front of him. “If I don’t drink the wine, Borgia will kill me in another way,” he thought. So Spada drank — and died.

‘Cesare Borgia took all the dead man’s papers, and the last letter that Spada wrote before the dinner. This said: I give everything to my brother’s child — all my money and all my books. Tell him to keep the prayer book with the gold comers carefully. It will help him to remember his uncle.’

‘Cesare looked everywhere. There were some gold cups and a little money — very little — and he took those. But he could not find the treasure of the Spadas.

‘Years passed. The famous prayer book stayed in the family, and my friend, the Prince, now owned it. Like many people before me, I looked through all the family papers — through rooms full of papers. Where was the treasure of the Spadas? I found nothing. I read the history of the Borgia family. Cesare Borgia took all the Rospigliosis’ money — true — but I found no information about the Spada treasure. I was sure that the treasure was still hidden somewhere.

‘My friend died and left everything to me. He asked me to write a history of the Spada family.

‘In 1807, a month before I became a prisoner, I was reading some papers. I fell asleep. It was evening when I woke up. The only light was from the fire. I felt for a piece of paper. I wanted to get a light for the lamp from the fire. I didn’t want to burn any important papers, but I remembered a piece of plain white paper in the prayer book. I took it and put a corner in the fire.

‘The fire began to burn the paper. Suddenly, I saw yellow writing! I quickly put out the fire, and looked at the paper.

There were words on it. You could only read them when the paper was hot. I burnt a lot of the paper, but the last piece is in your hands.’

Dantes looked again at the yellow writing.

‘And now,’ said Faria,’ look at this.’ He gave Dantes a second piece of paper with broken lines of writing on it.’ Put the two pieces together.’

” On My 25th 1498, Cesar Borgia invited me to dinner. He wants to kill me. He wants all my money.

When I die give everything to Guido Spada. It is hidden safely on the island of Monte Cristo. Guido knows the place because we visited it together.

All my gold and money are there. Lift up the twenty second rock from the beach at the east end of the island.

Find the steps that go underground. Break into the second room. The treasure is in the north east corner of the room.

Cesare Spada, May 25th, 1498.”

‘Yes,’ Dantes said. ‘ I understand. But the writing on the second piece is different.’

‘It is my writing,’ said Faria.’ I thought about it and completed the old paper. When I understood the words, I left immediately.

But the government was afraid of me. When I went on board the ship, soldiers took me prisoner.’

Faria looked at Dantes. ‘And now, my dear man,’ he said, ‘you know as much as I do. If we ever escape together, half this treasure is yours. If I die here, all of the treasure is yours. You are my son. You were born to me in this prison. God sent you to help a sad old prisoner.’

‘Thank you,’ said the young man to Faria. ‘But we will never have the treasure, because we won’t leave this prison. My real treasure is your teaching and your wise words.’