The Unknown — The Count of Monte Cristo

At dawn Edmond goes back into the cave and fills his pockets with gems. Then he works like an artist to hide what he did. He puts the chest back, covers the spot with sand, rolls the stone into place, plants myrtle and thorn, and wipes away every footprint. The entrance looks wild and untouched again. He does not want to guard gold on a lonely island. He wants to live among people and use wealth to gain power.

Six days later La Jeune Amélie returns. Edmond pretends his knee still hurts and listens to their stories. In Leghorn he sells four small diamonds to a Jewish dealer for twenty thousand francs. He buys Jacopo a new boat and sends him to Marseilles to ask about old Louis Dantes and Mercédès. He tells Jacopo a false story about an uncle's inheritance so no one asks too many questions.

In Genoa Edmond buys a fast yacht for sixty thousand francs and has secret lockers built in his cabin. He sails back to Monte Cristo, moves the rest of the treasure into those lockers, and waits for Jacopo. The news is terrible: his father is dead, and Mercédès has vanished. Edmond stays calm in front of the men, then goes ashore alone to grieve.

As Lord Wilmore, an Englishman on a false passport, he enters Marseilles. A sailor from the Pharaon does not recognize him and even returns a gold coin Edmond overpaid by mistake. Edmond visits his father's old room, buys the whole building for far more than it is worth, and gives the young couple upstairs their choice of better rooms. He learns Caderousse now keeps a roadside inn. That night he is seen in the Catalan village asking after the dead and the gone. The next day he sends a new fishing boat to Mercédès' family and rides out of the city without revealing who he really is.