used the door to him.

"Tell me," I said, when we were alone. "You must have been on your way
here when you heard the fatal news?"

"On the contrary, I was at Sullacro. Have you for-forgotten what I told
you about the apparitions in my family?"

"Has your brother appeared to you?" I cried.

"Yes. He told me he had been killed in a duel by M. de Chateau-Renard. I
saw my brother in his room the day he was killed," Lucien went on, "and
that night in a dream I saw the place where the duel was fought, and
heard the name of M. de Chateau-Renard. And I have come to Paris to kill
the man who killed my brother. My brother had never touched a pistol in
his life, and it was as easy to kill him as to kill a tame stag. My
mother knows why I have come. She is a true Corsican, and she kissed me
on the forehead and said 'Go!'"

The next morning Lucien wrote to Giordano and sent a challenge to
Chateau-Renard. Then he went with me to Vincennes, and, though he had
never been there in his life before, Lucien walked straight to the spot
where his brother had fallen. He turned round, walked twenty paces, and
said, "This is where the villain stood, and to-morrow he will lie here."

Lucien predicted with absolute confidence the death of Chateau-Renard.
The challenge was accepted, the same seconds acted, and on the morrow we
assembled in the fatal glade. Chateau-Renard was obviously uneasy. The
signal was given, both men fired, and, sure enough, Chateau-Renard fell,
shot through the temple as Lucien had foretold.

Then, for the first time since Louis' death, Lucien burst into tears. He
dropped his pistol and threw himself into my arms. "My brother, my dear
brother!" he cried.

* * * * *

The Count of Monte Cristo

"The Count of Monte Cristo" appeared in 1844, when Dumas had
been writing plays and stories for twenty years, and at a
period when he was most extraordinarily prolific. In that
year, assisted by his staff of compilers and transcribers, he
is said to have turned out something like forty volumes!
"Monte Cristo" first gave Dumas' novels a world-wide audience.
Its unflagging spirit, the endless surprises, and the air of
reality which was cast over the most extravagant situations
made the work worthy of the popularity it enjoyed in almost
every country in the world. The island from which it takes its
name is a barren rock rising 2,000