He had noticed, however, that the prisoner on the other side had ceased to labor; no matter, this was a greater reason for proceeding--if his neighbor would not come to him, he would go to his neighbor.

All day he toiled on untiringly, and by the evening he had succeeded in extracting ten handfuls of plaster and fragments of stone.

When the hour for his jailer's visit arrived, Dantes straightened the handle of the saucepan as well as he could, and placed it in its accustomed place.

The turnkey poured his ration of soup into it, together with the fish--for thrice a week the prisoners were deprived of meat.

This would have been a method of reckoning time, had not Dantes long ceased to do so.