Page 87 - Phantom of the Opera

no answer. Viscount Chagny broke the glass of his watch and felt
"Here he comes!" cried Christine. "I can hear him!"
the two hands. Judging by the space between the hands, he We heard him enter the sitting room. He walked toward
thought it might be just eleven o'clock! But which eleven Christine, but did not speak.
o'clock — morning or night? And which day?
"Erik! It is I! Do you know me?" I shouted.
Suddenly, I heard footsteps in the next room. Someone
With extraordinary calmness, he answered, "So you are not
knocked lightly on the wall. Christine's voice said, "Raoul!
dead in there? Well, keep quiet."
Raoul!"
I tried to speak, but he said coldly, "Not a word, daroga, or I
We were now all talking at once, on the two sides of the wall. will blow everything up." Then he said to Christine, "If you turn
Afraid that he might be dead, Christine cried when she heard
the grasshopper, mademoiselle, we will all be blown up. There is
Raoul's voice.
enough powder in the cellar to blow up a whole district of Paris.
"What is the time now?" Raoul asked her. "Quickly, If you turn the scorpion, the powder will be drowned in water.
Christine!" To celebrate our wedding, you will give a lot of people a great
"It's five minutes to eleven," she replied. "He has given me five present — their fives. With your own hands, you will turn the
minutes to decide. Before he went out he said, 'Here is the key scorpion .. and happily, happily, we will be married! You have
.
that opens the little boxes in the sitting room. In one of the two minutes, then I will turn the grasshopper. And I tell you, the
boxes, you will find a scorpion, in the other, a grasshopper. If you grasshopper jumps very high!"
turn the scorpion around, that will mean your answer is yes. The "Erik, do you swear to me that the scorpion is the one to
grasshopper will mean no.' And he laughed like a drunk devil. I
turn?" she cried.
begged him to give me the key to the torture room. I said I
"Yes, the scorpion ..." he said, moving his fingers slowly
would marry him if he gave it to me. He laughed again and left
toward the grasshopper in a successful attempt to frighten her.
me. His last words were, 'The grasshopper! A grasshopper does
"Erik! I have turned the scorpion!"
not only turn, it jumps! It jumps! And it jumps very high!'"
Oh, the second we passed through, waiting to find ourselves in
I understood. If the grasshopper were turned, it would jump — little pieces in the middle of the terrible ruins. Suddenly, we
it controlled an electricity supply that would cause the explosion. heard a noise below us. It was the sound of water. All of our
Viscount Chagny quickly explained the situation to Christine thirst, which had disappeared when the terror came, now
in a few hurried words, and he told her to turn the scorpion returned with the sound of the water. The viscount and I went
immediately. But, as she went to follow his instruction, I shouted, down to the cellar and drank. The water rose and we went back
"Don't touch it!" The idea had come to me — I knew my Erik — up to the torture room, where the water was entering and
that maybe he had deceived the girl once more. Maybe it was the forming a little lake. It continued to rise. We called out to Erik
scorpion that would blow everything up. Why wasn't he there? and Christine, but there was no answer. The water was moving
The five minutes had passed and he was not back. Had he found around and around and we were going with it. Were we going to
shelter for himself as he waited for the explosion? Why had he drown here in the torture room?
not returned? "Erik! Erik!" I shouted."I saved your life! Remember! You were

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