“Yes, your excellency. I did not look on Caderousse as a bad man, and I
thought him incapable of committing a crime, or even a theft.”
“That did more honor to your heart than to your experience, M.
Bertuccio. Had you known this Edmond Dantès, of whom they spoke?”
“No, your excellency, I had never heard of him before, and never but
once afterwards, and that was from the Abbé Busoni himself, when I saw
him in the prison at Nîmes.”
“Go on.”
“The jeweller took the ring, and drawing from his pocket a pair of steel
pliers and a small set of copper scales, he took the stone out of its
setting, and weighed it carefully.
“‘I will give you 45,000,’ said he, ‘but not a sou more; besides, as
that is the exact value of the stone, I brought just that sum with me.’
“‘Oh, that’s no matter,’ r
