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Suddenly Raoul and the Persian heard noises on the other side of the wall. It was Erik's voice. 'Decide!' he shouted. 'The wedding-mass or the requiem-mass①. The choice is yours, Christine!'

They heard Christine's voice. She was making a noise of pain.

'You're frightened of me,' Erik said softly. 'You think I'm evil② and dangerous, but I'm not. I just need love, Christine. Love me and I'll be gentle and good. I promise you it's the truth.'

Christine did not reply to Erik. There was silence in the next room. Then a bell began to ring.

'We have a visitor!' Erik cried angrily. 'Who has the courage to come near my house? Wait for me here, Christine.' He walked out of the room.

'Now is our chance!' Raoul said to the Persian. 'Maybe Christine will be able to free us if we call out to her.'

Raoul called her name softly, two or three times.

'Raoul!' she called back. 'Is it really you? Where are you?'

'We're trapped in the room next to you,' Raoul called.

'Can you let us out?'

'I can't move,' Christine told him. 'He has tied me up③.'

Then she told them what Erik was planning to do.

'He says he'll kill everybody if I won't marry him. He says everybody will be dead if I don't agree. He says he'll kill himself, too. He's mad, Raoul —mad with love.'

Raoul and the Persian were desperate now. They had to escape from the room they were in, and Christine couldn't help them.

Then the Persian found the mechanism to open a trap-door in the room. He pushed it, and the two men escaped. They walked down some stairs, and then found themselves in a cellar. There were a lot of barrels④ in the cellar.

'This is Erik's wine cellar,' Raoul said.

'Wine,' said the Persian thoughtfully. 'I wonder if it's really wine in those barrels.'

He broke open one of the barrels and looked inside. The barrel was full of gunpowder⑤!

'Now I understand!' the Persian cried. 'Erik told Christine that everybody would be dead if she didn't agree to marry him.

He's going to blow up⑥ the Opera House —we've got to warn her⑦!'

They ran back up the stairs into the torture chamber.

'Christine! Christine!' Raoul shouted.

'I'm still here,' Christine called back. 'Erik came in a few minutes ago. He said the visitor was dead. I think ... I think he killed him, Raoul! I'm frightened.'

'Listen to me,' Raoul said. 'The cellar is full of gunpowder. Erik will blow up the Opera House if you don't marry him.'

Just then they all heard Erik's footsteps. He came into the room where Christine was.

'Who are you talking to, my love?' he asked her.

He crossed the room and knocked on the wall of the torture chamber. Then he smiled at her.

'Ah,' he said, 'it's the little viscount, is it?'

'Let Raoul go,' Christine begged⑧ him.

'You must decide what you're going to do,' Erik told her. 'There are two boxes in this room. One contains the figure of a grasshopper⑨, and the other a scorpion. You must turn one of them to show what you've decided. If you turn the scorpion, then you agree to marry me. If you turn the grasshopper, then you refuse to marry me. I'll leave you alone while you think about it. Decide, Christine, decide!' Erik walked out of the room.

'What an evil plan!' the Persian said. 'If she turns the grasshopper, she'll make the gunpowder in the cellar explode. We'll all die, and so will everyone in the Opera House.'

'I don't know what to do!' Christine cried in despair.

A few minutes passed, and then Erik returned to Christine.

'Well, my love,' he asked, 'what are you going to do? Will it be the grasshopper or the scorpion?'

Christine hesitated, and then she turned the figure of the scorpion⑩.

Raoul and the Persian waited to see what would happen.

They heard a strange noise far below them.

'Water!' the Persian cried. 'He's flooding⑪ the cellar!'

The sound of the water was clear now. The cellar below the torture chamber was soon full, and the gunpowder was wet.

But the water did not stop, and soon it arrived at the torture chamber. Raoul and the Persian began to swim. They swam to the top of the chamber, but there was no way out. They were going to drown⑫! Both men fought against the water, but they began to lose consciousness⑬.

The Persian woke up and looked around him. He was lying on a sofa in Erik's house. Erik was standing over him. He could see Christine in the room, too.

'I saved your lives,' Erik told him. 'I did it to please my wife.' He handed the Persian a glass. 'Drink this,' he commanded. The Persian drank from the glass and fell asleep.

* * * *

A few days later the Persian was resting in his apartment.

He had read the Paris newspapers. He knew that Raoul's brother was dead. Someone had found his body near the underground lake. 'Erik's last visitor,' the Persian thought sadly. He also knew that Christine and Raoul had disappeared. The newspapers had long articles about the missing couple.

The Persian's servant came into the room to say that there was a visitor. A few minutes later he showed Erik into the room.

'Murderer!' the Persian cried. 'Why did you kill Raoul's brother? And what have you done with Christine and Raoul?'

Erik put his hand on his head. He looked ill and tired.

'I am dying,' he said. 'I came here to see you for the last time, my old friend. I want to tell you what happened.'

He sat down in a chair.

'I didn't kill Raoul's brother. He was dead when I arrived at the lake. He fell into the water and he drowned.'

He stopped talking for a moment and looked unhappily at the Persian.

'This is the end for me. I love her. She allowed me to kiss her. It was so... beautiful!'

'Where are they?' the Persian demanded. 'What have you done with them, you monster?'

'Christine and Raoul are safe,' Erik replied. 'She saved you both, you know. She turned the scorpion because she wanted you both to live. It was so brave of her. She promised to be my wife if I let you both live. And then I kissed her. I was happy and I wept. It was the first kiss of my life. Even my own mother never kissed me! She just gave me a mask to put over my face. Then she ran away from me.'

There were tears in Erik's eyes as he told the story.

'Then I knew what I had to do. I gave her a wedding-ring, and I said to her: '"Take this ... it's for you and Raoul. I know you love each other." Then they went away together to a secret place. I'll die soon. But that kiss, it was all my happiness!'

The Persian looked at his old enemy sadly. He believed everything that Erik had told him. There were tears in the Persian's eyes after his visitor left him.

旺

财

旺

福

Words

① requiem-mass：安魂弥散。

② evil：邪恶。

③ tied me up：把我捆起来。

④ barrels：酒桶。

⑤ gunpowder：火药。

⑥ blow up：炸毁。

⑦ warn her：提前警告她。

⑧ begged：乞求。

⑨ grasshopper：草蜢。

⑩ scorpion：蝎子。

⑪ flooding：使……灌满水。

⑫ drown：淹死。

⑬ consciousness：意识。

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