"Your hand high, ready to fire!" repeated Raoul's companion quickly.
The wall, behind them, having completed the circle which it described upon itself, closed again; and the two men stood motionless for a moment, holding their breath.
At last, the Persian decided to make a movement; and Raoul heard him slip on his knees and feel for something in the dark with his groping hands.Suddenly, the darkness was made visible by a small dark lantern and Raoul instinctively stepped backward as though to escape the scrutiny of a secret enemy.But he soon perceived that the light belonged to the Persian, whose movements he was closely observing.
The little red disk was turned in every direction and Raoul saw that the floor, the walls and the ceiling were all formed of planking.It must have been the ordinary road taken by Erik to reach Christine's dressing-room and impose upon her innocence.
And Raoul, remembering the Persian's remark, thought that it had been mysteriously constructed by the ghost himself.Later, he learned that Erik had found, all prepared for him, a secret passage, long known to himself alone and contrived at the time of the Paris Commune to allow the jailers to convey their prisoners straight to the dungeons that had been constructed for them in the cellars;for the Federates had occupied the opera-house immediately after the eighteenth of March and had made a starting-place right at the top for their Mongolfier balloons, which carried their incendiary proclamations to the departmcnts, and a state prison right at the bottom.
The Persian went on his knees and put his lantern on the ground.
He seemed to be working at the floor; and suddenly he turned off his light.Then Raoul heard a faint click and saw a very pale luminous square in the floor of the passage.It was as though a window had opened on the Opera cellars, which were still lit.
Raoul no longer saw the Persian, but he suddenly felt him by his side and heard him whisper:
"Follow me and do all that I do."
Raoul turned to the luminous aperture.Then he saw the Persian, who was still on his knees, hang by his hands from the rim of the opening, with his pistol between his teeth, and slide into the cellar below.
Curiously enough, the viscount had absolute confidence in the Persian, though he knew nothing about him.His emotion when speaking of the "monster" struck him as sincere; and, if the Persian had cherished any sinister designs against him, he would not have armed him with his own hands.Besides, Raoul must reach Christine at all costs.
He therefore went on his knees also and hung from the trap with both hands.
"Let go!" said a voice.
And he dropped into the arms of the Persian, who told him to lie down flat, closed the trap-door above him and crouched down beside him.
Raoul tried to ask a question, but the Persian's hand was on his mouth and he heard a voice which he recognized as that of the commissary of police.
Raoul and the Persian were completely hidden behind a wooden partition.
Near them, a small staircase led to a little room in which the commissary appeared to be walking up and down, asking questions.
The faint light was just enough to enable Raoul to distinguish the shape of things around him.And he could not restrain a dull cry:
there were three corpses there.
The first lay on the narrow landing of the little staircase;the two others had rolled to the bottom of the staircase.
Raoul could have touched one of the two poor wretches by passing his fingers through the partition.
"Silence!" whispered the Persian.
He too had seen the bodies and he gave one word in explanation:
"HE!"
The commissary's voice was now heard more distinctly.
He was asking for information about the system of lighting, which the stage-manager supplied.The commissary therefore must be in the "organ" or its immediate neighborhood.
Contrary to what one might think, especially in connection with an opera-house, the "organ" is not a musical instrument.At that time, electricity was employed only for a very few scenic effects and for the bells.The immense building and the stage itself were still lit by gas; hydrogen was used to regulate and modify the lighting of a scene; and this was done by means of a special apparatus which, because of the multiplicity of its pipes, was known as the "organ."A box beside the prompter's box was reserved for the chief gas-man, who from there gave his orders to his assistants and saw that they were executed.Mauclair stayed in this box during all the performances.
But now Mauclair was not in his box and his assistants not in their places.
"Mauclair! Mauclair!"
The stage-manager's voice echoed through the cellars.But Mauclair did not reply.
I have said that a door opened on a little staircase that led to the second cellar.The commissary pushed it, but it resisted.
"I say," he said to the stage-manager, "I can't open this door:
is it always so difficult?"
The stage-manager forced it open with his shoulder.He saw that, at the same time, he was pushing a human body and he could not keep back an exclamation, for he recognized the body at once:
"Mauclair! Poor devil! He is dead!"
But Mr.Commissary Mifroid, whom nothing surprised, was stooping over that big body.
"No," he said, "he is dead-drunk, which is not quite the same thing.""It's the first time, if so," said the stage-manager"Then some one has given him a narcotic.That is quite possible."Mifroid went down a few steps and said:
"Look!"
By the light of a little red lantern, at the foot of the stairs, they saw two other bodies.The stage-manager recognized Mauclair's assistants.Mifroid went down and listened to their breathing.
"They are sound asleep," he said."Very curious business!
