The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1913-08-08

Chagny broke the glass OF his watch
and felt the two hands. He
questioned the hands OF the watch
with his fingerttps, going by the Do-
sitiOn Of the ring of the watch
Judging by the space between the
hands. he thought it might be just
eleven o'clock!
But perhaps it was not the eleven
o'clock OF which we stood In dread.
Perhaps we had still twelve hours be-
fore u.s.
Suddenly, | exclaimed: 'Hush!"
seemed to hear footsteps in the
next room. Some one tapped against
the wall. Christine Daae's voice said
'Raoul! Raoul."
We were now all talking at once,
on either side of the wall. Christine
sobbed; she was not sure that she
would find M. de Chagny alive. The
monster had been terrible. it seemed,
had done nothing but rave. waiting
for her to give him the yes" which
she refused. And yet she had prom
ised him that yes" if he would take
her to the torture-chambe But he
had obstinately declined, and had ut
tered hideous threats against all the
members of the human race! At last,
after hours and hours of that he'll he
had that moment gone out, leaving
her alone to reflect for the last time.
Hours and hours? What is the
time now? What is the time, Chris
tine?"
1T is eleven O'Clock. Eleven O'Clock,
all but five minutes
But which eleven o'clock"
The eleven O'Clock that is to de-
eide life or death! He told
me so just before he went. =.
He is terrible He is quite
mad: he tore off his mask and his
yellow eyes shot flames. lie
did nothing but laugh, He
said, 81 give you five minutes to spare
your bushes, Here he said, taking
q key from the little bag OF life and
death here is the little bronze key
that opens the two ebony caskets on
the mantelpiece in the Louis-Philippe
room. In one of the caSkets,
you will find scorpion, in the other,
a grasshopper, both very cleverly i'm
Tilted in japanese bronze; they will
say yes or no for you II you turn
the scorpion round, that will mean
TO me, when ] return, that you have
said yes The grasshopper VIII mean
no. And he laughed like a drunken
demon. | did nothing but beg and
entrest him to give me the key' OF the
tortured chamber, promising to be his
wife if he granted me that request
But he told me that there was
no future need for that key and that
he was going to throw it into the
lake, And he again laughed
like a drunken demon and left me.
Oh, his last words were. The grass
hopper, Be careful of the grasshop-
per! A grasshopper does not only
turn: it hops. 1t hops. And it hops
jolly high"
The five minutes had nearly elapsed
and the scorpion and the grasshopper
were scratching at my brain. Never
theless, had sufficient lucidity left to
understand that, If the grasshopper
were turned. it would hop =.
and with it many members OF the hui
man race! There was no doubt but
that the grasshopper controlled an
electric current intended to blow up
the powder magazine,
NJ. de Chagny, who seemed to have
recovered all his moral force from
hearing Christine's voice, explained to
her. in a few hurried words, the stu
alton in which we and all the opera
were. He told her to turn the scor-
pion at once.
There was d pause.
Christine" | cried where are
you?"
By the scorpion.
Don't touch it,
The idea had come to me-for |
knew my Erik-that the monster had
perhaps deceived the girl once more
Perhaps it was the scorpion that
would blow everything up. After all.
why wasn't he there? The i've min
utes were long past and he
was not back. Perhaps he
had taken shelter and was waiting for
the explosion! Why had he
not returned? He could not
really expect Christine ever to con-
sent to become his voluntary prey!
Why had be hDt returned?
Don't touch ine scorpion" | said.