Page 74 - Phantom of the Opera

this, gentlemen?" The managers stood with surprised faces at the Chapter 10 The Persian's Story
top of the stairs, and in fact had very little to say.
The stage manager, who was still standing there, said, "This is When I began searching for the truth about this extraordinary
not the first time that Mauclair has fallen asleep in the theater. I tragedy involving Count Chagny, his brother the viscount, and
remember finding him once before." Christine Daae, I had the good fortune to meet Detective Faure.
"When was that?" He told me all about the Persian, who still lived in Rue de
"The night when Carlotta — you know, sir — gave her famous Rivoli, and I went to visit him. He gave me some documents,
'Co-ack'!" including this report of events that happened in the torture
"Really?" asked Mifroid, staring hard at the stage manager. room. The words here are exactly as he wrote them:
Raoul and the Persian watched as the bodies were taken away,
then the Persian took Raoul down to the third cellar. It was a It was the first time that I had entered the house on the lake. I
long way up and down stairs and through narrow passages, and had often begged "the trap door lover" to open its mysterious
they heard many strange and frightening noises along the way. doors to me. He always refused. After he started living in the
When they came to the spot where Joseph Buquet had been Opera, I tried to watch and learn as he worked the door in the
found hanging, the Persian pressed against the wall and a stone wall on the lake, but it was too dark to see. One day, when I
fell, leaving a hole through which the two men passed. thought I was alone, I. took the boat out on the lake toward the
"Take off your shoes. We shall get them when we leave," the part of the wall where I had seen Erik disappear.
Persian said. He went a little farther on his knees, then said, "I am In the lake I heard singing, beautiful singing, beside me in the
going to hang by my hands from the edge of the stone and let water. The lake was perfectly calm and I knew that it had to be a
myself drop into his house. You must do exactly the same. Do not new invention of Erik's. But this invention was so perfect that I
be afraid. I will catch you in my arms." leaned out of the boat, charmed by the voice, and suddenly two
They dropped down as the Persian said, and stood still, arms came out of the water and seized me around the neck,
listening. The darkness was thick around them; the silence was dragging me down with great force. I cried out. Erik knew it was
heavy and terrible. The Persian held up his light and looked for me, and instead of drowning me as he had planned, he swam
the hole through which they had dropped, but it had closed with me and laid me on the shore.
up. Then he noticed something like a cord on the ground, and He told me I was foolish and that he did not want me, or
he bent down to pick it up. He examined it for a moment, anybody, there. And he asked me, "Did you save my life only to
then, in horror, threw it away. It was a Punjab rope — maybe the make it unbearable for me?"
one that had been used around Buquet's neck. The Persian I didn't answer. I wanted to know how he had managed the
knew how skillful Erik was with this rope. He had seen it trick of the singing lake, and he agreed to satisfy my curiosity.
before. There is nothing he loves more, after surprising people, than to
Anxiously, he looked around, then with deep emotion he prove how mysteriously his mind works. I knew this because I
whispered, "We have dropped into the torture room!" had known him in Persia. I also knew that he was a monster.

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