You may one of these days reap the reward of your disinterested devotion.

But as I cannot, and you will not, quit this place, it becomes necessary to fill up the excavation beneath the soldier's gallery; he might, by chance, hear the hollow sound of his footsteps, and call the attention of his officer to the circumstance.

That would bring about a discovery which would inevitably lead to our being separated.

Go, then, and set about this work, in which, unhappily, I can offer you no assistance; keep at it all night, if necessary, and do not return here to-morrow till after the jailer his visited me.

I shall have something of the greatest importance to communicate to you." Dantes took the hand of the abbe in his, and affectionately pressed it.