Page 68 - Phantom of the Opera

"Before we go, do you mind if I look in your pocket?" asked "Isn't it? And what is quite extraordinary is that you are
Moncharmin. learning it from me!"
"You must!" "Yes," said Richard, taking his head in his hands and saying to
As Moncharmin was feeling the pocket, Richard asked, himself, "It's enough to make a man give up." He looked up and
"Well?" said to the detective, "So she .. she disappeared in the middle of
.
"I can feel the pin." the performance?"
"Of course, as you said, we can't be robbed without noticing "Yes, carried off at the moment she was asking the angels to
it." take her away. But I doubt she was carried off by an angel."
But Moncharmin shouted, "I can feel the pin, but I can't feel "And I am sure she was!"
the bills!" Everybody looked at the young man, pale and trembling with
Richard pulled off his coat. The two managers turned the excitement, who repeated, "I am sure of it!"
pocket inside out. The pocket was empty. But the pin remained in "Sure of what?" asked Mifroid.
the same place. There was no longer any doubt. "Christine Daae was carried off by an angel, and I can tell you
"The ghost," whispered Moncharmin. his name!"
But Richard jumped on his partner. "No one except you has The detective asked everyone to leave except the managers
touched my pocket! Give me back my 20,000 francs!" and the viscount. Then Raoul spoke. "Sir, the angel is called Erik.
"I swear I don't have it." He lives in the Opera and he is the Angel of Music!"
Then somebody knocked at the door. Moncharmin opened it Mifroid turned to the managers and asked, "Do you have an
automatically. He hardly recognized Mercier, exchanged a few Angel of Music in the opera house, gentlemen?"
words with him without knowing what he was saying and, with Richard and Moncharmin shook their heads, without even
an unconscious movement, put the safety pin into the hands of speaking.
his puzzled scenery manager. "These gentlemen know him as the Opera ghost, who is the
same person as the Angel of Music, and his real name is Erik,"
explained Raoul.
Chapter 9 Raoul Follows the Persian "Gentlemen, do you know the Opera ghost?"
Richard stood and said, "No, sir, we do not know him, but we
Police detective Mifroid entered the managers' office and asked, would like to. Because this evening he robbed us of 20,000
"Is Christine Daae here?" francs!"
"Why do you ask if Christine Daae is here?" asked Richard. And Richard turned a terrible look on Moncharmin and said,
"Because she has to be found." "Give me back the 20,000 francs, or I'll tell the whole story."
"Has she disappeared?" Moncharmin said, "Oh, tell him everything."
"In the middle of the performance." Mifroid looked at Raoul and at the two managers and
"This is extraordinary!" wondered if he were in a madhouse.

58 59