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The Phantom of the Opera Chapter XXIII - The Tortures Begin · The Gaston Leroux Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty three of The Phantom of the Opera by
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  Speaker 1: Gaston Leue, translated by Alexander to Zara Domatos. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Chapter twenty three, the
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  Speaker 1: tortures begin. The persian's narrative continued. The voice repeated angrily,
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  Speaker 1: what have you done with my bag? So it was
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  Speaker 1: to take my bag that you asked me to release you,
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  Speaker 1: we heard hurried steps Christine running back to the Louis
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  Speaker 1: Felipe room, as though to seek shelter on the other
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  Speaker 1: side of our wall. What are you running away for,
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  Speaker 1: asked the furious boys which had followed her. Give me
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  Speaker 1: back my bag? Will you? Don't you know that it
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  Speaker 1: is the bag of life and death. Listen to me,
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  Speaker 1: Eric sighed the girl. As it is settled that we
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  Speaker 1: are to live together. What difference can it make to you?
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  Speaker 1: You know there are only two keys in it, said
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  Speaker 1: the monster. What do you want to do? I want
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  Speaker 1: to look at this room, which I have never seen,
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  Speaker 1: and which you have always kept from me. It's woman's curiosity,
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  Speaker 1: she said, in a tone which she tried to render playful,
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  Speaker 1: But the trick was too childish for Eric to be
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  Speaker 1: taken in by it. I don't like curious women, he retorted,
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  Speaker 1: and you had better remember the story of Bluebeard and
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  Speaker 1: be careful. Come give me back my bag, Give me
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  Speaker 1: back my bag. Leave the key alone, will you, you
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  Speaker 1: inquisitive little thing? And he chuckled, while Christine gave a
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  Speaker 1: cry of pain. Eric had evidently recovered the bag from her.
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  Speaker 1: At that moment, the Viscount could not help uttering an
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  Speaker 1: exclamation of impotent rage. Why what's that, said the monster.
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  Speaker 1: Did you hear Christine? No, no, replied the poor girl.
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  Speaker 1: I heard nothing. I thought I heard a cry, a cry.
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  Speaker 1: Are you going mad? Eric? Whom do you expect to
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  Speaker 1: give a cry in this house? I cried out because
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  Speaker 1: you hurt me. I heard nothing. I don't like the
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  Speaker 1: way you said that. You're trembling. You're quite excited. You're lying.
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  Speaker 1: That was a cry. There was a cry. There is
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  Speaker 1: some one in the torture chamber. Ah, I understand now,
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  Speaker 1: there is no one there, Eric, I understand, no one.
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  Speaker 1: The man you want to marry. Perhaps I don't want
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  Speaker 1: to marry anybody, you know, I don't another nasty chuckle. Well,
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  Speaker 1: it won't take long to find out, Christine, my love,
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  Speaker 1: we need not open the door to see what is
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  Speaker 1: happening in the torture chamber. Would you like to see?
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  Speaker 1: Look here? If there is some one, if there is
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  Speaker 1: really some one there, you will see the invisible window
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  Speaker 1: light up at the top near the ceiling. We need
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  Speaker 1: only draw the black curtain and put out the light
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  Speaker 1: in here there. That's it. Let's put out the light.
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  Speaker 1: You're not afraid of the dark when you're with your
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  Speaker 1: little husband. Then we heard Christine's voice of anguish. No,
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  Speaker 1: I'm frightened. I tell you, I'm afraid of the dark.
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  Speaker 1: I don't care about that room now. You're always frightening
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  Speaker 1: me like a child with your torture chamber. And so
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  Speaker 1: I became inquisitive. But I don't care about it now,
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  Speaker 1: not a bit, not a bit. And that which I
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  Speaker 1: feared above all things began automatically. We were suddenly flooded
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  Speaker 1: with light. Yes on our side of the wall. Everything
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  Speaker 1: seemed aglow. The Vicomte de Chennie was so much taken
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  Speaker 1: aback that he staggered, and the angry voice roared, I
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  Speaker 1: told you there was some one. Do you see the
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  Speaker 1: window now, the lighted window right up there. A man
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  Speaker 1: behind the wall can't see it. But you shall go
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  Speaker 1: up the folding steps. That is what they are there for.
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  Speaker 1: You have often asked me to tell you, and now
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  Speaker 1: you know they are there to give a peep into
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  Speaker 1: the torture chamber. You inquisitive little thing. What tortures? Who
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  Speaker 1: is being tortured? Eric? Eric? Say? You are only trying
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  Speaker 1: to frighten me. Say it if you love me, Eric,
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  Speaker 1: There are no tortures, are there? Go and look at
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  Speaker 1: the little window. Dear. I do not know if the
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  Speaker 1: Viscount heard the girl's swooning voice, for he was too
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  Speaker 1: much occupied by the astounding spectacle that now appeared before
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  Speaker 1: his distracted gaze. As for me, I had seen that
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  Speaker 1: sight too often through the little window at the time
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  Speaker 1: of the rosy hours of Mazenderan, and I cared only
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  Speaker 1: for what was being said next door, seeking for a
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  Speaker 1: hint how to act, what resolution to take. Go peep
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  Speaker 1: through the little window, Tell me what he looks like.
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  Speaker 1: We heard the steps being dragged against the wall. Up
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  Speaker 1: with you, No, No, I will go up myself, dear,
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  Speaker 1: Oh very well, I will go up. Let me go. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: my darling, my darling, How sweet of you, how nice
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  Speaker 1: of you to save me The exertion at my age.
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  Speaker 1: Tell me what he looks like. At that moment, we
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  Speaker 1: distinctly heard these words above our heads. There is no
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  Speaker 1: one there, dear, no one. Are you sure there is
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  Speaker 1: no one? Why? Of course, not no one. Well, that's
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  Speaker 1: all right. What's the matter, Christine? You are not going
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  Speaker 1: to faint? Are you? As there is no one there? Here?
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  Speaker 1: Come down there, pull yourself together, as there is no
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  Speaker 1: one there. But how do you like the landscape? Oh?
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  Speaker 1: Very much? There, that's better. You're better now, are you not?
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  Speaker 1: That's all right, you're better. No excitement. And what a
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  Speaker 1: funny house, isn't it with landscapes like that in it? Yes,
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  Speaker 1: it's like the Mussy Gribbin. But say, Eric, there are
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  Speaker 1: no tortures in there? What a fright you gave me? Why,
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  Speaker 1: as there is no one there, did you design that room?
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  Speaker 1: It's very handsome. You're a great artist, Erik, Yes, a
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  Speaker 1: great artist in my own line. But tell me Eric,
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  Speaker 1: why did you call that room the torture chamber? Oh?
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  Speaker 1: It's very simple. First of all, what did you see?
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  Speaker 1: I saw a forest? And what is in a forest? Trees?
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  Speaker 1: And what is in a tree? Birds? Did you see
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  Speaker 1: any birds? No? I did not see any birds. Well
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  Speaker 1: what did you see? Think you saw branches? And what
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  Speaker 1: are the branches? Asked the terrible voice. There's a gibbet.
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  Speaker 1: That is why I call my wood the torture chamber.
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  Speaker 1: You see, it's all a joke. I never express myself
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  Speaker 1: like other people. But I am very tired of it.
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  Speaker 1: I am sick and tired of having a forest and
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  Speaker 1: a torture chamber in my house, and of living like
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  Speaker 1: a montebank in a house with a false bottom. I'm
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  Speaker 1: tired of it. I want to have a nice, quiet
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  Speaker 1: flat with ordinary doors and windows, and a wife inside
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  Speaker 1: it like everybody else, a wife whom I could love
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  Speaker 1: and take out on Sundays and keep amused on week days.
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  Speaker 1: Here shall I show you some card tricks that will
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  Speaker 1: help us to pass a few minutes while waiting for
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  Speaker 1: eleven o'clock to morrow evening. My dear little Christine, are
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  Speaker 1: you listening to me? Tell me you love me? No,
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  Speaker 1: you don't love me, but no matter you will. Once
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  Speaker 1: you could not look at my mask because you knew
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  Speaker 1: what was behind, And now you don't mind looking at it.
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  Speaker 1: You forget what is behind. One can get used to
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  Speaker 1: everything if one wishes. Plenty of young people who did
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  Speaker 1: not care for each other before marriage have adored each
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  Speaker 1: other since. Oh, I don't know what I'm talking about,
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  Speaker 1: but you would have lots of fun with me. For instance,
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  Speaker 1: I am the greatest n triloquist that ever lived. I
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  Speaker 1: am the first ventriloquist in the world. You're laughing. Perhaps
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  Speaker 1: you don't believe me. Listen. The wretch who really was
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  Speaker 1: the first ventriloquist in the world, was only trying to
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  Speaker 1: divert the child's attention from the torture chamber. But it
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  Speaker 1: was a stupid scheme. For Christine thought of nothing but us.
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  Speaker 1: She repeatedly besought him, in the gentlest tones which she
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  Speaker 1: could assume, put out the light in the little window. Eric,
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  Speaker 1: do put out the light in the little window, For
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  Speaker 1: she saw that this light, which appeared so suddenly, and
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  Speaker 1: of which the monster had spoken in so threatening a voice,
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  Speaker 1: must mean something terrible. One thing must have pacified her
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  Speaker 1: for a moment, and that was seeing the two of
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  Speaker 1: us behind the wall, in the midst of that resplendent light,
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  Speaker 1: alive and well. But she would certainly have felt much
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  Speaker 1: easier if the light had been put out. Meantime, the
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  Speaker 1: other had already begun to play the ventriloquist. He said,
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  Speaker 1: here I raised my mask a little, oh, only a little.
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  Speaker 1: You see my lips, such lips as I have, They're
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  Speaker 1: not moving. My mouth is closed, such mouth as I have.
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  Speaker 1: And yet you hear my voice? Where will you have it?
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  Speaker 1: In your left ear, in your right ear, in the table,
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  Speaker 1: in those little ebony boxes on the mantel piece, listen,
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  Speaker 1: dear it. In the little box on the right of
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  Speaker 1: the mantelpiece. What does it say? Shall I turn the
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  Speaker 1: scorpion and now crack? What does it say? In the
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  Speaker 1: little box on the left, Shall I turn the grasshopper
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  Speaker 1: and now crack? Here it is in the little leather bag.
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  Speaker 1: What does it say? I am the little bag of
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  Speaker 1: life and death, and now crack. It is in Carlotta's throat,
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  Speaker 1: in Carlotta's golden throat, in Carlotta's crystal throat, as I live.
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  Speaker 1: What does it say? It says, it's I, mister toad.
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  Speaker 1: It's I singing. I feel without alarm, kuak with its
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  Speaker 1: melody and wine me kawak, and now crack. It is
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  Speaker 1: on a chair in the ghost box, and it says,
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  Speaker 1: Madame Carlotta is singing to night to bring the chandelier down.
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  Speaker 1: And now crack aha, where is Eric's voy? Now listen,
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  Speaker 1: Christine Darling, listen, it is behind the door of the
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  Speaker 1: torture chamber. Listen, it's myself in the torture chamber. And
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  Speaker 1: what do I say? I say, woe to them that
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  Speaker 1: have a nose, a real nose, and come to look
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  Speaker 1: round the torture chamber. Ah. Oh, the ventriloquous, terrible voice.
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  Speaker 1: It was everywhere everywhere. It passed through the little invisible window,
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  Speaker 1: through the walls, it ran round us, between us. Eric
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  Speaker 1: was there speaking to us. We made a movement as
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  Speaker 1: though to fling ourselves upon him, but already swifter, more
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  Speaker 1: fleeting than the voice of the echo, Eric's voice had
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  Speaker 1: leaped back behind the wall. Soon we heard nothing more
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  Speaker 1: at all. For this is what happened Eric, Eric said
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  Speaker 1: Christine's voice. You tire me with your voice. Don't go on, Eric.
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  Speaker 1: Isn't it very hot here? Oh? Yes, replied Eric's voice.
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  Speaker 1: The heat is unendurable. But what does this mean? The
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  Speaker 1: wall is really getting quite hot. The wall is burning.
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  Speaker 1: I'll tell you, Christine, dear, it is because of the
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  Speaker 1: forest next door. Well, what has that to do with it?
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  Speaker 1: The forest? Why didn't you see that it was an
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  Speaker 1: African forest? Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
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  Speaker 1: ha ha. And the monster laughed so loudly and hideously
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  Speaker 1: that we could no longer distinguish Christine's supplicating cries. The
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  Speaker 1: Vicomte de Chennyie shouted and banged against the walls like
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  Speaker 1: a madman. I could not restrain him. But we heard
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  Speaker 1: nothing except the monster's laughter, and the monster himself can
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  Speaker 1: have heard nothing else. And then there was the sound
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  Speaker 1: of a body falling on the floor and being dragged along,
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  Speaker 1: and the door slammed, and then nothing nothing more around
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  Speaker 1: us save the scorching silence of the South in the
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  Speaker 1: heart of a tropical forest. End of Chapter twenty three.