The Smugglers
- We learn that Edmond has found his way onto a smuggler's ship – it's right in the chapter title if you hadn't guessed it before.
- Accustomed to breaking the law, the captain doesn't worry too much about Edmond's origin.
- When they get to Leghorn, Edmond sets off to get a haircut. When he looks in the barber's mirror, he finds his face greatly changed. His complexion is pale, his eyes sad, his eyebrows arched, as if he were in constant thought. He finds himself an older, more compact and muscular man, and he realizes that his years of living in darkness have given him the ability see clearly even at night. He is, in short, totally unrecognizable.
- The captain of the smugglers, eager to hold onto a skilled seaman like Edmond, asks him if he will stay on. Edmond accepts. Edmond buys himself a new outfit and gives Jacopo back his clothing.
- One day, while out sailing, Edmond comes up on deck to see the island of Monte Cristo less than a league away. He considers leaping into the sea and making a swim for it, but decides it would be better to wait.
- Over time, Edmond befriends Jacopo; he takes the sailor under his wing and attempts to teach him Jacopo in the same way that Faria had taught him.
- A few months pass.
- It just so happens that the captain wants to use the island of Monte Cristo as a meeting place for an upcoming smuggling operation.