"Algiers."
"Ah, now I understand—you are sending emissaries for the discovery of poor Albert."
Monte-Cristo smiled and then said:
"Monsieur Beauchamp, if you desired to accomplish a certain thing to your satisfaction, how would you go to work?"
"Well, that is very simple, because I should attend to it myself."
"Then you will know whom I am sending to Algiers to find Captain Joliette."
"Have I understood you right? You are ready to venture into the desert? Count, you have undertaken a difficult task, and although I do not doubt your courage nor energy, I must nevertheless say that your resolution is a very bold one. In Algiers it is not only necessary to combat with men who hardly deserve the appellation, but also all the dangers of nature are there arrayed in battle against you! The simoom, the fatal breath of the desert, has put many a one there under the sand, and bleached bones caution the wanderer not to set his step on the deceptive ground of the Sahara!"
"Monsieur Beauchamp," replied the count earnestly, "if you were to know what I have already gone through you would not discourage me from doing my duty. What is that to the combat with beasts in human shape which I have stood victoriously? No, let me go and do my duty; I am not afraid of the Sahara."
"But the countess and her son?"
A shadow fell across Monte-Cristo's face, but his voice sounded clear and steady when he replied: