World Literature Classics Library: The Count of Monte Cristo

Chapter 36 Tiburon Island (2)
While talking to himself, Dantès looked towards the place where the boat hit and sank, and couldn't help shivering.On the edge of a rock hangs a Phrygian hat worn by a shipwrecked sailor, a tall red conical hat with a forward tip that was popular during the French Revolution.Floating beside it were fragments of the ship's hull, the beams of the ship, now limply on the water, as the waves crashed again and again towards the shore of Rock Island, like tired rams on the top corner, They kept colliding with each other.Edmund made up his mind in an instant, jumped into the water, swam to the hat, put it on his head, and then, grabbing a piece of the log, swam across the course of the approaching ship. "I'm saved now," he murmured, and his confidence restored him instantly.

Presently he saw the sloop, which was sailing against the wind, and was therefore zigzagging between the Château d'If and the lighthouse of Planier.For a moment Dantès was afraid that the ship would not stick to the shore, but go into the deep sea, because if the ship sailed to Corsica or Sardinia, it would definitely go to the deep sea.But from the way she sailed, Dantès soon concluded that, like most ships bound for Italy, this one was going to pass between the Isle of El Arra and the Isle of Gala Sereni.

However, the distance between the boat and the swimming Dantès was not significantly shortened. Once, when it veered outward, the boat was almost a quarter of a nautical mile away from Dantès.He then surfaced and waved his cap as a signal for help.But no one on the boat saw it, and the boat turned around again to the sea outside.Dantès wanted to call out loudly, but he checked the distance with his eyes, and knew that the call would not reach the ship, it would be blown away by the sea wind and drowned by the sound of the waves.At this time, he was thankful that he was thoughtful, and fortunately he hugged a section of the beam.He is very weak now, and he may not be able to insist on swimming to the boat, and the boat may not find him and sail away. He will definitely not be able to reach the shore by swimming alone.

Although Dantès could almost determine the course of the ship, he still looked at the ship anxiously until the ship turned around and turned towards him again.So he swam forward again to meet him, but before he could get any closer, the boat turned and veered out again.Immediately, with all his strength, Dantès almost rose up in the water, and, waving his hat, he uttered the mournful cry of a shipwrecked sailor, as if some god of the sea were weeping.This time the people on board saw him and heard him shout, and the sloop immediately changed course and steered towards him, and he also clearly saw that the boat was about to lower the boat.A moment later, the boat, rowed by two men, came swiftly towards him.Dantès felt that the beam was now of no use, so he let it go, and swam forward with all his might, so as to save the journey of those who came to his rescue.

However, Dantès was wrong. In fact, he had no strength at this time. He felt that the wooden beam was very useful, but the beam had slowly drifted away, a hundred steps away from him.His arms began to stiffen, his legs couldn't bend, his whole body's movements became sluggish and incoherent, and his chest was so tight that he could hardly breathe.He yelled again, and the two men in the boat rowed harder, and one of them called out in Italian, "Hold on!"

As soon as he heard the shout, a wave broke over.He no longer had the strength to surface again, his head was buried under the waves, and his whole body was submerged by the waves.He thumped and finally surfaced, but his movement was the desperate, erratic struggle of a drowning man. He yelled a third time, and then he only felt himself sinking, as if his feet were still on his feet. Tied to that deadly iron ball.The water covered his head, and through the water he saw the blue sky turn leaden and speckled with black spots.Someone came and pulled him to the top of the water, and he felt like they were pulling his hair, and then he couldn't see, he couldn't hear, and he passed out.

When Dantès opened his eyes again, he found himself lying on the deck of the dhow.The ship was still moving, and Dantès took a look at it immediately. He wanted to find out what course it was heading. The ship had left the Château d'If behind and moved forward.Dantès was extremely exhausted at this moment, and although he was very happy, his cheers sounded like moans of pain to others.

As I said, he was lying on the deck.One sailor was rubbing his limbs with a blanket, another—he recognized the one who told him to hold on—was pouring a jug into his mouth, and the third was an elderly sailor who was both the driver and the It was the captain, and he looked on with a look of kindred pity on his face.If a person knows that although he escaped the disaster yesterday, the disaster may befall him tomorrow, he will generally have this kind of emotion.After all, Dantès was young, and after pouring a few drops of rum in the jug, his failing heart recovered, and the sailor who knelt beside him and massaged him with a blanket restored the elasticity of his limbs.

"Who are you?" asked the captain in broken French.

"I'm a sailor from Malta," Dantès replied in broken Italian. "We ship wine from Syracuse, a port in Sicily, Italy. We were caught in a storm last night when we crossed Cape Meron. On the rock you can still see, our ship sank."

"Where did you swim from now?"

"Come over these rocks, and it was my luck to cling to the rocks and save my life, but our poor captain crashed headfirst into the rocks and died, and the other three sailors were drowned too. Live, I think. I was the only one. I saw your boat, and I was afraid that I would have to wait a long time on this lonely desert island before another boat came to rescue me, so I took the risk of holding a piece of broken boat plank and wanted to swim to your boat Come over. Thank you," continued Dantès, "you saved my life, and when one of your sailors scratched my hair, I was out of my wits."

"That's me," said an honest-looking sailor with long, black sideburns, "and it'll be too late, and you'll be sinking."

"Yes," said Dantès, holding out his hand to the sailor, "yes, sir, I thank you once more."

"Good fellow!" said the sailor, "I hesitated at the time. Your beard is six inches long and your hair is a foot long. How can you look like a good man? You look like a robber."

It was only then that Dantès remembered that he had never shaved his head or beard since he entered the Château d'If. "Yes," he said, "once I was in distress, I made a vow to the Holy Mother that I would not shave my head or beard for ten years. Today is exactly ten years, and I almost drowned."

"What shall we do with you now?" asked the captain.

"Well," replied Dantès, "you can figure it out. The ship I was working on was sunk, and the captain was dead, as you all saw. I survived, but everything was lost. Speaking of luck, I'm a very good sailor, whatever port you call on, leave me alone, and I'll always find work on a merchant ship."

"Are you familiar with the Mediterranean Sea?"

"I grew up sailing the Mediterranean."

"Do you know how to break anchor in a port?"

"I can sail in and out of almost any port, even the most navigable ones, with my eyes closed."

"Well, say something, captain," said the sailor who called to Dantès to persist, "if the fellow tells the truth, what's wrong with keeping him?"

"Yes, as long as what he says is the truth." The captain said with a suspicious expression, "If a person is in such a difficult situation, he will naturally promise a lot, and it doesn't matter whether he can keep it in the future."

"What I can do must be better than what I said now." Dantès said.

"Ah, ah," said the captain, laughing, "we shall see."

"You can test me anytime." Dantès continued, leaning up, "Where are you going?"

"To Livorno (a port in Italy.)."

"Hey, you've wasted a lot of precious time by rushing back and forth like this, why don't you just follow the wind?"

"I'm afraid I'll bump into Lirong Island."

"You happened to pass over 20 meters from the edge of the island, equal to 1.624 meters."

"Take the helm, please," said the captain, "and let us see how you are."

Dantès sat down at the helm of the boat, pressed it lightly, and the boat turned accordingly. He had confidence in his mind, but he also saw that the boat was not first-class, but he did not refuse. "Pull the boom line! Pull the jib!" he cried.The four sailors on board rushed to their respective posts, while the captain watched. "Straighten!" cried Dantès again, and the sailor's movements were more correct. "Now tie the rope, fasten!"

The three orders before and after were all executed, and the sailboat immediately changed from tacking and began to sail towards Lirong Island. As expected by Dantès, the boat passed by the side, and the starboard side was 20 fathoms away from the island. look.

"Excellent," said the captain.

"Excellent." The sailors shouted in unison.

All were looking at him, and now his eyes were refreshed, his body revived, and no one could doubt him.

"You see," said Dantès, leaving the tiller, "I am still of some use to you, at least I can do something on this voyage. If you don't want me at Leghorn, it's all right, just leave me there." It’s ok, as for the food money from here to Livorno and the clothes you borrowed from me, I will return it to you after I get my wages in the first few months.”

"Okay, okay," said the captain, "as long as you don't ask too much, it's all right."

"One for each," said Dantès, "I'll give them as much as you give them, and that's all."

"It's not fair," said the sailor who was pulling Dantès at sea, "you have better skills than us."

"What are you meddling with? What's your business, Jacopo?" said the captain. "Whether you want more or less is up to you."

"That's right," said Jacopo, "I was just talking."

"I said, this guy doesn't have any clothes yet, if you want a replacement, you can borrow a jacket and a pair of trousers for him to wear."

"No change of clothes," Jacopo said, "but I have a shirt and a pair of trousers."

"That is enough," said Dantès, "thank you, brother."

Jacopo rushed down to the cabin, and after a while he returned to the deck with two coats, which Dantès put on with an indescribable joy.

"Is there anything else you want now?" asked the captain.

"Give me a piece of bread. The rum I drank just now is very good. Please give me another drink. I haven't eaten for a long time." Indeed, this long time is almost forty hours. Come, Jacopo handed him the jug of wine.

"Full port!" shouted the captain, turning to the helmsman.Dantès glanced over there, and while pushing the kettle to his mouth, he stopped moving as soon as he raised his hand halfway.

"Well," asked the captain, "what happened to the Château d'If?"

Sure enough, there was a small white cloud over there, floating just beside the muzzle of the south fort of Château d'If.A second later, the distant sound of cannon barely reached the dhow.The sailors raised their heads one by one, and couldn't help but look at each other.

"What does that mean?" asked the captain.

"Maybe a prisoner ran away last night, and now they are firing a warning," Dantès said.The captain glanced at him.As Dantès was speaking, he was putting the jug to his lips, when the captain saw him drinking from it with calm and satisfaction, so that any doubts in the captain's mind were only passed in a flash. .

"This rum is a bloodbath," said Dantès, mopping his brow with his shirtsleeve.

"Never mind him," the captain muttered to himself, looking at him, "it would be nice if it was him. I've picked a capable man."

Dantès complained that he was tired and wanted to sit at the helm for a while.The helmsman, glad to have someone in his place, glanced at the captain, who nodded, signaling that he could leave the helm to his new mate.In this way, as soon as Dantès sat at the helm, he could keep an eye on what was going on in Marseilles.After the Château d'If had disappeared from view, Jacopo came and sat down beside Dantès, who asked him:
"What's the date today?"

"February 2," Jacopo replied.

"What year?" Dantès asked again.

"What, what year? Did you ask me what year?"

"Yes," said Dantès, "I ask you what year it is."

"Have you forgotten what year it is?"

"What's all the fuss about?" Dantès said with a smile, "I was so scared last night that I can't even remember what happened, so I ask you what year is February 2th today?" .”

"1829," said Jacopo.

One day is not more, one day is less, it has been 14 years since Dantès was arrested.He was taken into the Château d'If at the age of 19, and now he is 33 years old when he escaped.A sad smile flickered across his lips, and he thought to himself, Mercedes probably thought I was dead, how did she get here these 14 years?Then a flash of hatred flashed in Dantès' eyes, and he thought of the three people who made him suffer so long and so cruelly behind bars. The oath made by Villefort.This oath was no longer an empty threat, for the fastest sailing ship on the Mediterranean could not overtake the little sloop, which was already sailing to Leghorn with full sail.

(End of this chapter)