. Speak to me,
then, in English, if you please, monsieur."

"My lord," replied Athos, "I have frequently seen men in certain
circumstances have sufficient command over themselves not to reply to
a question put to them in a language they understood. The fisherman is
perhaps more learned than we believe him to be. Send him away, my lord,
I beg you."

"Decidedly," said Monk, "he wishes to have me alone in this vault. Never
mind, we shall go through with it; one man is as good as another man;
and we are alone. My friend," said Monk to the fisherman, "go back
up the stairs we have just descended, and watch that nobody comes to
disturb us." The fisherman made a sign of obedience. "Leave your torch,"
said Monk; "it would betray your presence, and might procure you a
musket-ball."

The fisherman appeared to appreciate the counsel; he laid down the
light, and disappeared under the vault of the stairs. Monk took up the
torch, and brought it to the foot of the column.

"Ah, ah!" said he; "money, then, is concealed under this tomb?"

"Yes, my lord; and in five minutes you will no longer doubt it."

At the same time Athos struck a violent blow upon the plaster, which
split, presenting a chink for the point of the lever. Athos introduced
the bar into this crack, and soon large pieces of plaster yielded,
rising up like rounded slabs. Then the Comte de la Fere seized the
stones and threw them away with a force that hands so delicate as his
might not have been supposed capable of having.

"My lord," said Athos, "this is plainly the masonry of which I told your
honor."

"Yes; but I do not yet see the casks," said Monk.

"If I had a dagger," said Athos, looking round him, "you should soon see
them, monsieur. Unfortunately, I left mine in your tent."

"I would willingly offer you mine," said Monk, "but the blade is too
thin for such work."

Athos appeared to look around him for a thing of some kind that might
serve as a substitute for the weapon he desired. Monk did not lose one
of the movements of his hands, or one of the expressions of his eyes.
"Why do you not ask the fisherman for his cutlass?" said Monk; "he has a
cutlass."

"Ah! that is true," said Athos; "for he cut the tree down with it." And
he advanced towards the stairs.

"Friend," said he to the fisherman, "throw me down your cutlass, if you
please; I want it."

The noise of the falling weapon sounded on the steps.

"Take it," said Monk; "it is a solid instr