گنجینه

Chapter 14 - Treasure

Edmond climbed carefully down from the rocks.

’ I didn’t really fall. I wanted the men to leave me here. I don’t want to fall and hurt myself now!’ he thought.

He followed the line of marks on the stones again. They started from a small place on the shore. Only a small ship could land there.’ But Spada’s boat landed here,’ Dantes said to himself.

The marks ended at the large round rock.

’ But,’ thought Edmond,’ how did Prince Spada lift this heavy rock into this place? Twenty men couldn’t move a rock like this.’ Suddenly a thought came to him.’They didn’t lift this rock into its place — it fell here!’

He jumped from the rock to look at the ground above it.

‘Somebody cut a path here, and moved the rock down it.

They put a large stone here to hold it in its place. Now the stone is almost hidden by the grass. But the rock does not fit perfectly.

The holes are full of small stones and earth.’

Dantes cut away these small stones at the top, and after ten minutes he put his arm into the hole. He took his axe and cut wood from a strong tree. Then he put one end of the wood into the hole and pulled on the other. The rock moved. Again he pulled. The rock moved from its place, and then fell back again.

Dantes rested. He gave a last, strong pull. The rock fell down the hill into the sea.

In the place of the rock, Dantes saw a large square stone, with a ring in the centre of it. He felt weak, so he waited for a minute.

Then he put the wood into the ring and lifted the stone. He saw steps going down into the darkness of an underground room.

But there was some light down there, and the air was fresh.

Both the light and air came in through small holes in the rock above his head. Dantes looked into the corners of the underground room. There was nothing in them.

He remembered the words of the letter: ‘Break into the second room.’ He was in the first room, and he must now find the second room. He began to hit the wall with his axe. In one place the sound of the axe was a little different. He hit it again.

The hard rock broke away easily. Behind it there was a wall of square white stones.

‘Somebody built this opening. Then they painted it to look like rock,’ Dantes thought.

He felt very weak. He put the axe on the ground and went up the steps, out into the open air.

‘I have not eaten any food for hours. I am not hungry, but I must eat.’ He ate a little bread and took a drink from his water bottle.

Then he returned. He was able to use the axe more easily now.

‘This wall in front of me is only made of stones, one on top of another.’ He pulled them off, one by one. Finally, Dantes broke the wall into the second room. It was smaller and darker than the first one. He waited for fresh air to fill the room. Then he went in.

There was a dark corner to the left of the opening. He looked round this second room. ‘If there is treasure,’ he thought, ‘it is hidden in that dark corner.’

Dantes went to the corner and began to move the earth.

Suddenly, his axe hit a hard place. He lifted the axe to hit the place again. Again he heard the same sound.

‘It is a great wooden chest. There are strong pieces of metal round it,’ he thought, finally. He went outside.

There, he stood and thought. Then he took a dry piece of wood, lit it, and went down again. He looked at the top of the chest. It was about a metre long and half a metre wide. In the centre, there was a piece of silver in the wood. There was a mark on the silver - the mark of the Spada family.

‘The treasure is here!’ Dantes thought. He tried to lift the box but he couldn’t. He tried to open it, but there was no key. He took his axe to break it open. The top came away; the wood was old and soft.

There were three smaller boxes inside. In the first box there were gold coins from many different countries. In the second box were bars of gold. From the third box, Edmond took a handful of gold rings.

He touched, felt and looked at the treasure. Then Edmond ran quickly back to the steps. He jumped up on a rock and looked out at the sea. He was alone - alone with this great treasure! Was he awake — or was it a dream ?