Night came; Dantes hoped that his neighbor would profit by the silence to address him, but he was mistaken.

The next morning, however, just as he removed his bed from the wall, he heard three knocks; he threw himself on his knees.
"Is it you ?" said he; "I am here." "Is your jailer gone ?" "Yes," said Dantes; "he will not return until the evening; so that we have twelve hours before us." "I can work, then ?" said the voice.
"Oh, yes, yes; this instant, I entreat you." In a moment that part of the floor on which Dantes was resting his two hands, as he knelt with his head in the opening, suddenly gave way; he drew back smartly, while a mass of stones and earth disappeared in a hole that opened beneath the aperture he himself had formed.

Then from the bottom of this passage, the depth of which it was impossible to measure, he saw appear, first the head, then the shoulders, and lastly the body of a man, who sprang lightly into his cell..