e Count then ordered a boat lowered, into
which he descended with Zuleika and Ali. A stout sailor took the rudder,
two others grasped the oars, and, in a few minutes, a little cove was
gained and the disembarkation effected.

"Men," said the Count, addressing the sailors, "you can now row back to
the yacht. When you see me come upon the beach and wave my handkerchief
thrice, return for us."

"Aye, aye, Signor Count," answered the coxswain for the boat's crew. His
words were accompanied by the fall of the oars and the boat shot off
towards the Haydee.

"You are now on the Isle of Monte-Cristo," said the Count to Zuleika as
he took her hand to lead her forward. "Prepare to see what you have
termed its wonders!"

"They will, no doubt, prove wonders to me, at any rate," returned the
girl, smiling.

The Nubian stood before his master with uncovered head, respectfully
waiting for orders.

"Go in advance, Ali," said the Count, "and see that all is right."

The Nubian made a profound salaam in oriental fashion and hastened
away.

The Count and his daughter leisurely followed. As they walked they
disturbed hosts of grasshoppers, that leaped with a whirring flutter of
wings from the bushes and fled before them. This amused Zuleika, but she
could not repress a cry of affright as now and then a green, repulsive
looking lizard emerged from under the loose stones beneath her very feet
and shot hastily away in search of a more secure hiding-place.
Occasionally, too, they saw wild goats that pricked up their ears and
stared at them with wide open eyes, then gathering themselves for a
spring bounded off up the rocks and vanished.

At last Monte-Cristo and Zuleika came upon the Nubian, who had stopped
beside a huge bowlder that seemed to have lain for ages where it had
fallen from the cliffs above. A thick, bushy growth of wild myrtle and
flowering thorn had sprung up around it, and its surface was covered
with emerald hued moss. The Count and his daughter also stopped, the
former glancing around him and at the vast stone with evident
satisfaction.

"Nothing has been touched since I was here last," said he, as if to
himself; then, turning to Ali, he added: "Unmask the entrance to the
grottoes!"

The Nubian produced a rusty crowbar from some nook where he had
evidently concealed it in the past, thrusting the point beneath the
bowlder; then he exerted a strong, steady pressure upon the crowbar and
the great rock slowly move