“Incessantly, alas!” cried the abbé.
“And you have discovered a means of regaining our freedom, have you not?” asked Dantès eagerly.
“I have; if it were only possible to place a deaf and blind sentinel in the gallery beyond us.”
“He shall be both blind and deaf,” replied the young man, with an air of determination that made his companion shudder.
“No, no,” cried the abbé; “impossible!”
Dantès endeavored to renew the subject; the abbé shook his head in token of disapproval, and refused to make any further response.
Three months passed away.
“Are you strong?” the abbé asked one day of Dantès. The young man, in reply, took up the chisel, bent it into the form of a horseshoe, and then as readily straightened it.
“And will you