rs' wages? Come, it is worth thinking about?"

"For fifteen thousand francs?"

"Yes."

"Sir, you alarm me."

"Nonsense."

"Sir, you are tempting me?"

"Just so; fifteen thousand francs, do you understand?"

"Sir, let me see my right-hand correspondent."

"On the contrary, do not look at him, but at this."

"What is it?"

"What? Do you not know these bits of paper?"

"Bank-notes!"

"Exactly; there are fifteen of them."

"And whose are they?"

"Yours, if you like."

"Mine?" exclaimed the man, half-suffocated.

"Yes; yours--your own property."

"Sir, my right-hand correspondent is signalling."

"Let him signal."

"Sir, you have distracted me; I shall be fined."

"That will cost you a hundred francs; you see it is your interest to
take my bank-notes."

"Sir, my right-hand correspondent redoubles his signals; he is
impatient."

"Never mind--take these;" and the count placed the packet in the man's
hands. "Now this is not all," he said; "you cannot live upon your
fifteen thousand francs."

"I shall still have my place."

"No, you will lose it, for you are going to alter your correspondent's
message."

"Oh, sir, what are you proposing?"

"A jest."

"Sir, unless you force me"--

"I think I can effectually force you;" and Monte Cristo drew another
packet from his pocket. "Here are ten thousand more francs," he said,
"with the fifteen thousand already in your pocket, they will make
twenty-five thousand. With five thousand you can buy a pretty little
house with two acres of land; the remaining twenty thousand will bring
you in a thousand francs a year."

"A garden with two acres of land!"

"And a thousand francs a year."

"Oh, heavens!"

"Come, take them," and Monte Cristo forced the bank-notes into his hand.

"What am I to do?"

"Nothing very difficult."

"But what is it?"

"To repeat these signs." Monte Cristo took a paper from his pocket,
upon which were drawn three signs, with numbers to indicate the order in
which they were to be worked.

"There, you see it will not take long."

"Yes; but"--

"Do this, and you will have nectarines and all the rest." The shot
told; red with fever, while the large drops fell from his brow, the man
executed, one after the other, the three signs given by the count, in
spite of the frightful contortions of the right-hand correspondent, who,
not understanding the change, began to think the gardener had gone mad.
As to the left-hand one, he c