Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-04-27
CHATTER XIV.
Tho Scorpion or the Grasshopper:
Which?
The Persian's Narrative Concluded.

~ wv HiNhi VI Ai'S NJ CSSfaSFFS'
Which?
The Persian's Narrative Concluded.
The discovery flung US into a state
of alarm that made US forget all our
past and present sufferings. We now
knew all that the monster meant to
convey when he said to Christine
Daae:
Yes or 70! If your answer is no,
everybody will be dead and buried!"
Yes, buried under the ruins OF the
Paris Grand Opera!
The monster had given her until
eleven O'Clock in the evening. He
had chosen mis- time well. There
would be many people, many mem
bers of the human race" up there, in
the Respondent theater. What finer
retinue could be expected for his tU-
neral? He would so down to the
tomb escorted by the whitest Shout
ders in the world, decked with the
richest jewels.
Eleven O'Clock tomorrow evening!
We were all to be blown UP in the
middle OF the performance II
Christine Daae said no!
Eleven o'clock tomorrow evening!
And what else could Christine say
but no? Would she not prefer TO es-
pcuse death itself rather than that liv-
ing corpse? She did not know that
. on her acceptance or refusal depend
ed the awful fate of many members
of the human race!
Eleven O'Clock tomorrow evening!
And we dragged ourselves through
the darkness, feeling our way to tho
stone steps, for the light in the trap
door overhead that led 10 the room
OF mirrors was now extinguished; and
We repeated TO ourselves:
Eleven O'Clock tomorrow EVENING""
At last. | found the staircase. But,
suddenly | drew myself up on the
first step, for a terrible thought had
come to my mind:
What is the time?"
All, what was the time? .
For, after all, eleven o'clock tomorrow
evening might be now, might be this
very moment! Who could tell US
I the time? We seemed to have been
/ imprisoned in that hell for days and
/ days for years since
the beginning of the world. Perhaps
: We should be blown up then and
/ there! All, a sound! A crack!
Did you hear that? There,
/ in the corner good heavens!
Like a sound OF machinery!
Again! e.. Oh, for a
light! Perhaps it's the ma
chinery that is to blow everything up!
l tell you, cracking sound:
are you deaf?"
NJ. de Chagny and l began to yell
like madmen. Fear spurred us on,
We rushed up the treads of the stair
case, stumbling as we went, anything
to escape the dark, to return TO the
mortal light of the room of mirrors.
We found the trap -dOor still open
but 1t w2s now as dark in the room
of mirrors as in the cellar which We
had left. We dragged ourselves along
! the floor OF the torture-chamber, the
floor that separated US from the pow
der-magazine. What was the time
We shouted, We called: NJ. de Chagny
TO Christine, | to Erik. l remind ed
him that ! had saved his life. But
no answer. save that Of our despair
of our n adness: what was The time
We argued, we tried 70 calculate the
time We had spent there, but we were
incapable of reasoning. II only We
could see the face of a watch!
Mine had stopped, but NJ. de Chagny'
was still going. He told me
that he had wound it up before dress
ing for the opera. We had
not a match upon US. And
yet we must know. , NJ. de
Chagny broke the glass OF his watch
and felt the two hands. He
questioned the hands Of the watch
with his finger-tips, going by the pc
sition OF the ring of the watch.
Judging by the space between tbs
hands, he thought it might be Just
eleven O'Clock!
But perhaps II was not the clever
O'Clock of which we stood in dread
Perhaps we had still twelve hours be
fore US!
Suddenly. l exclaimed: "Hush!"
/ seemed TO hear footsteps in the
next 4CO-AA sumo INC bapptl d. ANS
the wall. Christine Daae's voice said
'Raoul, Raoul!"
We were now all talking at once
on either side OF the wall ChTistin,
sobbed; she was not sure that sh.
. -Ould find 81. de Chagny alive. Tn,
monster had been terrible, 1t seemed
|. had done nothing but rave, waitin:
for her to give him the yes" which
she refused. And yet she had prom
} Used him that yes" If he would TAX
, her to the torture-chamber. But b
had obstinately declined, and had N
, tered hideous threats against al n
members Of the human race, Al last
, | after hours and hours Of that hell, b.