The Count of Monte Cristo

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how I hoped, how I struck every piece of turf, thinking to find some
resistance to my spade! But no, I found nothing, though I had made a
hole twice as large as the first. I thought I had been deceived--had
mistaken the spot. I turned around, I looked at the trees, I tried to
recall the details which had struck me at the time. A cold, sharp wind
whistled through the leafless branches, and yet the drops fell from my
forehead. I recollected that I was stabbed just as I was trampling
the ground to fill up the hole; while doing so I had leaned against a
laburnum; behind me was an artificial rockery, intended to serve as a
resting-place for persons walking in the garden; in falling, my hand,
relaxing its hold of the laburnum, felt the coldness of the stone. On my
right I saw the tree, behind me the rock. I stood in the same attitude,
and threw myself down. I rose, and again began digging and enlarging the
hole; still I found nothing, nothing--the chest was no longer there!"

"The chest no longer there?" murmured Madame Danglars, choking with
fear.