he ringing of
an electric bell. There was a bound on the other side of the wall and
Erik's voice of thunder:

"Somebody ringing! Walk in, please!"

A sinister chuckle.

"Who has come bothering now? Wait for me here ... I AM GOING TO TELL
THE SIREN TO OPEN THE DOOR."

Steps moved away, a door closed. I had no time to think of the fresh
horror that was preparing; I forgot that the monster was only going out
perhaps to perpetrate a fresh crime; I understood but one thing:
Christine was alone behind the wall!

The Vicomte de Chagny was already calling to her:

"Christine! Christine!"

As we could hear what was said in the next room, there was no reason
why my companion should not be heard in his turn. Nevertheless, the
viscount had to repeat his cry time after time.

At last, a faint voice reached us.

"I am dreaming!" it said.

"Christine, Christine, it is I, Raoul!"

A silence.

"But answer me, Christine! ... In Heaven's name, if you are alone,
answer me!"

Then Christine's voice whispered Raoul's name.

"Yes! Yes! It is I! It is not a dream! ... Christine, trust me! ...
We are here to save you ... but be prudent! When you hear the monster,
warn us!"

Then Christine gave way to fear. She trembled lest Erik should
discover where Raoul was hidden; she told us in a few hurried words
that Erik had gone quite mad with love and that he had decided TO KILL
EVERYBODY AND HIMSELF WITH EVERYBODY if she did not consent to become
his wife. He had given her till eleven o'clock the next evening for
reflection. It was the last respite. She must choose, as he said,
between the wedding mass and the requiem.

And Erik had then uttered a phrase which Christine did not quite
understand:

"Yes or no! If your answer is no, everybody will be dead AND BURIED!"

But I understood the sentence perfectly, for it corresponded in a
terrible manner with my own dreadful thought.

"Can you tell us where Erik is?" I asked.

She replied that he must have left the house.

"Could you make sure?"

"No. I am fastened. I can not stir a limb."

When we heard this, M. de Chagny and I gave a yell of fury. Our
safety, the safety of all three of us, depended on the girl's liberty
of movement.

"But where are you?" asked Christine. "There are only two doors in my
room, the Louis-Philippe room of which I told you, Raoul; a door
through which Erik comes and goes, and another which he has never
opened before me and