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Nando pointed out to Paul the desert island of Monte Cristo, looking like a mere black rock upon the horizon. Upon this the youth related, to the astonishment of his companion, an outline of his adventures, and received in return the confidence of the young man. This mutual confession endeared them more to each other, and before the day was over they were sworn friends.

On reaching the end of the beach in that direction, they struck off from the highway, and began ascending a rugged mountain, which bore the same kind of black short turf and herbage Paul had previously noticed in Monte Cristo.

From the summit, whence a fine view of the sea was obtainable, and a broad expanse of country, but still no human habitation, and but one human figure, a shepherd, with the usual gun at his back, watching some goats upon a neighbouring eminence, they began descending into a valley, which was filled with chesnut trees and a few dwarf oaks, that climbed up the face of a hill opposite, over which their course lay.

Paul stopped to examine a bush upon which grew some peculiarly shaped berries, when from a pile of stones beneath his feet there glided a large black snake, which after sundry convolutions, darted into a heap of rotten wood and weeds, and was lost to view.

The youth started and turned pale, but was somewhat calmed by the remark of his friend, that the bestia was quite harmless, Corsica not possessing a

DANGERS OF THE ISLAND.

single venomous creature of

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any

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added Nando, with a smile, a bandito or two." This assurance, however, did not make the youth see with less repugnance a small viper which, a few minutes afterwards, he observed leap from rising to rising, disturbed in its solitude by the unusual step of man, and evidently hastening far away from his presence.

They had now reached the first of the trees, some dwarf oaks, which threw an agreeable shade, as the sun was very powerful. Each step now brought them into a deeper and cooler spot, until they reached the bottom, a watercourse, through which, in winter, a stream ran to the sea. It was now for the most part dry; but in other places forming deep holes, it had stagnated, and decayed leaves and vegetable matter being steeped in it, the odour emitted was faint and unpleasant.

"A month hence," said Nando, "and places like these become perfectly pestiferous. A day's, nay an hour's, exposure to the malaria of such spots in the heat of summer would be fatal to human life."

Leaving this dangerous locality, although looking so attractive upon that hot noon, with its green and golden bower, the two wayfarers commenced the ascent of the opposite hill, stopping every now and then to take breath, and admire the prospect as they procured a peep at it through the openings in the

trees.

As they ascended, the walnut trees were found intermixed with larch and a few domestic pine,

that made an agreeable contrast with the former, on account of their different foliage and graceful shape.

When near the summit, Paul, who was a step or two behind his companion, observed him stop short and looking attentively upwards, quietly unsling his gun. By the time, however, the youth had come up to him, he was apparently satisfied with his survey, and merely remarking to Paul that there was some one on the top, began humming an air in a low tone, and quickened his pace.

Paul peered through the remaining trees, and observed within some fifty paces of them, in the open ground, two men in conversation, both apparently young, with the invariable carbine across the shoulder.

On Nando and his companion issuing from the wood, the two strangers turned sharply round, and Paul saw them distinctly.

Both were habited in the same coarse sergy cloth that appeared common to the country, and wore hats of common straw.

One had nothing particular in his look or manner to distinguish him from a host of others, and he might have been one of the guards that had left the Casone that morning, for all that Paul would have remarked to the contrary.

But the other possessed a face and bearing that compel attention, and that once seen, leave an indelible impression on the memory. He may have been about four and twenty years of age, was of the

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