第68章 Interesting and Instructive (2)

From that day, I gave up all thought of penetrating into his house by the lake.That entrance was obviously too well guarded, especially since he had learned that I knew about it.But I felt that there must be another entrance, for I had often seen Erik disappear in the third cellar, when I was watching him, though Icould not imagine how.

Ever since I had discovered Erik installed in the Opera, I lived in a perpetual terror of his horrible fancies, not in so far as Iwas concerned, but I dreaded everything for others.[10]

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[10] The Persian might easily have admitted that Erik's fate also interested himself, for he was well aware that, if the government of Teheran had learned that Erik was still alive, it would have been all up with the modest pension of the erstwhile daroga.

It is only fair, however, to add tha the Persian had a noble and generous heart; and I do not doubt for a moment that the catastrophes which he feared for others greatly occupied his mind.His conduct, throughout this business, proves it and is above all praise.

And whenever some accident, some fatal event happened, I always thought to myself, "I should not be surprised if that were Erik,"even as others used to say, "It's the ghost!" How often have Inot heard people utter that phrase with a smile! Poor devils!

If they had known that the ghost existed in the flesh, I swear they would not have laughed!

Although Erik announced to me very solemnly that he had changed and that he had become the most virtuous of men SINCE HE WAS LOVEDFOR HIMSELF--a sentence that, at first, perplexed me most terribly--I could not help shuddering when I thought of the monster.

His horrible, unparalleled and repulsive ugliness put him without the pale of humanity; and it often seemed to me that, for this reason, he no longer believed that he had any duty toward the human race.

The way in which he spoke of his love affairs only increased my alarm, for I foresaw the cause of fresh and more hideous tragedies in this event to which he alluded so boastfully.

On the other hand, I soon discovered the curious moral traffic established between the monster and Christine Daae.Hiding in the lumber-room next to the young prima donna's dressing-room, I listened to wonderful musical displays that evidently flung Christine into marvelous ecstasy; but, all the same, I would never have thought that Erik's voice--which was loud as thunder or soft as angels' voices, at will--could have made her forget his ugliness.I understood all when I learned that Christine had not yet seen him! I had occasion to go to the dressing-room and, remembering the lessons he had once given me, I had no difficulty in discovering the trick that made the wall with the mirror swing round and I ascertained the means of hollow bricks and so on--by which he made his voice carry to Christine as though she heard it close beside her.In this way also I discovered the road that led to the well and the dungeon--the Communists' dungeon--and also the trap-door that enabled Erik to go straight to the cellars below the stage.

A few days later, what was not my amazement to learn by my own eyes and ears that Erik and Christine Daae saw each other and to catch the monster stooping over the little well, in the Communists'

road and sprinkling the forehead of Christine Daae, who had fainted.

A white horse, the horse out of the PROFETA, which had disappeared from the stables under the Opera, was standing quietly beside them.

I showed myself.It was terrible.I saw sparks fly from those yellow eyes and, before I had time to say a word, I received a blow on the head that stunned me.

When I came to myself, Erik, Christine and the white horse had disappeared.

I felt sure that the poor girl was a prisoner in the house on the lake.Without hesitation, I resolved to return to the bank, notwithstanding the attendant danger.For twenty-four hours, I lay in wait for the monster to appear; for I felt that he must go out, driven by the need of obtaining provisions.And, in this connection, I may say, that, when he went out in the streets or ventured to show himself in public, he wore a pasteboard nose, with a mustache attached to it, instead of his own horrible hole of a nose.

This did not quite take away his corpse-like air, but it made him almost, I say almost, endurable to look at.

I therefore watched on the bank of the lake and, weary of long waiting, was beginning to think that he had gone through the other door, the door in the third cellar, when I heard a slight splashing in the dark, I saw the two yellow eyes shining like candles and soon the boat touched shore.Erik jumped out and walked up to me:

"You've been here for twenty-four hours," he said, "and you're annoying me.I tell you, all this will end very badly.And you will have brought it upon yourself; for I have been extraordinarily patient with you.You think you are following me, you great booby, whereas it's I who am following you; and I know all that you know about me, here.I spared you yesterday, in MY COMMUNISTS' ROAD;but I warn you, seriously, don't let me catch you there again!

Upon my word, you don't seem able to take a hint!"He was so furious that I did not think, for the moment, of interrupting him.After puffing and blowing like a walrus, he put his horrible thought into words:

"Yes, you must learn, once and for all--once and for all, I say--to take a hint! I tell you that, with your recklessness--for you have already been twice arrested by the shade in the felt hat, who did not know what you were doing in the cellars and took you to the managers, who looked upon you as an eccentric Persian interested in stage mechanism and life behind the scenes: I know all about it, I was there, in the office; you know I am everywhere--well, I tell you that, with your recklessness, they will end by wondering what you are after here...and they will end by knowing that you are after Erik...and then they will be after Erik themselves and they will discover the house on the lake....If they do, it will be a bad lookout for you, old chap, a bad lookout!...