lity, and he was
almost breathless.

He shouted again. The two sailors redoubled their efforts, and one of
them cried in Italian, "Courage!"

The word reached his ear as a wave which he no longer had the strength
to surmount passed over his head. He rose again to the surface,
struggled with the last desperate effort of a drowning man, uttered a
third cry, and felt himself sinking, as if the fatal cannon shot were
again tied to his feet. The water passed over his head, and the sky
turned gray. A convulsive movement again brought him to the surface. He
felt himself seized by the hair, then he saw and heard nothing. He had
fainted.

When he opened his eyes Dantes found himself on the deck of the tartan.
His first care was to see what course they were taking. They were
rapidly leaving the Chateau d'If behind. Dantes was so exhausted that
the exclamation of joy he uttered was mistaken for a sigh.

As we have said, he was lying on the deck. A sailor was rubbing his
limbs with a woollen cloth; another, whom he recognized as the one who
had cried out "Courage!" held a gourd full of rum to his mouth; while
the third, an old sailer, at once the pilot and captain, looked on with
that egotistical pity men feel for a misfortune that they have escaped
yesterday, and which may overtake them to-morrow.

A few drops of the rum restored suspended animation, while the friction
of his limbs restored their elasticity.

"Who are you?" said the pilot in bad French.

"I am," replied Dantes, in bad Italian, "a Maltese sailor. We were
coming from Syracuse laden with grain. The storm of last night overtook
us at Cape Morgion, and we were wrecked on these rocks."

"Where do you come from?"

"From these rocks that I had the good luck to cling to while our captain
and the rest of the crew were all lost. I saw your vessel, and fearful
of being left to perish on the desolate island, I swam off on a piece of
wreckage to try and intercept your course. You have saved my life, and
I thank you," continued Dantes. "I was lost when one of your sailors
caught hold of my hair."

"It was I," said a sailor of a frank and manly appearance; "and it was
time, for you were sinking."

"Yes," returned Dantes, holding out his hand, "I thank you again."

"I almost hesitated, though," replied the sailor; "you looked more like
a brigand than an honest man, with your beard six inches, and your hair
a foot long." Dantes recollected that his hair and beard had