The Arvada enterprise., 1913-08-14

that he said, in a gloomy voice. 1
will play you Mozart, II you like,
which Will only make you weep: but
my Don Juan, Christine, burns: and
yet he Is not struck by fire from
heaven Thereupon We returned to
the drawing-room. | noticed that
there was no mirror in the whole
apartment. | was going to remark
upon this, but Erik had already sat
down to the plano. He said, You
see, Christine. there is some music
that is so terrible that IT consumes
all those who approach it. Fortunate
ly, you have not come TO that music
yet, for you would lose all your pretty
coloring and nobody would know you
when you returned to Paris. Let us
sing something from the opera, Chris
tine Daae.' He spoke these last words
as though he were tiinging an insult
at me-"
What did you do?"
81 had no time to think about the
meaning he put into his words, We
at once began the duet in Othello and
already the catastrophe was upon us.
| sang Desdemona with a despair,
terror which | had never displayed
before AS for him, his voice thun-
dered forth his revengeful soul at
every note. Love, jealousy, hatred,
burst out around us In narrowing
cries. Erik's black mask made me
think of the natural mask of the Moor
Of Venice He was OtheIlo himself.
Suddenly, felt a need to see beneath
the mask. | wanted to>know the face
Of the voice, and, with a movement
which l was utterly unable to control,
swiftly my fingers tore away the
mask. Oh. horror. horror horror"
Christine stopped, at the thought OF
the vision that had scared her. while
the echoes of the night, which had
repeated the name of Erik, now thrice
moaned the cry:
Horror! Horror! Z.
Horror"
Raoul and Christine, clasping each
other closely, raised their eyes to the
stars that shone in clear and peace
full sky. Raoul said:
strange, Christine, that this calm.
soft night should be so full of plaintive
sounds. One would think that it was
sorrowing with US"
when you know the secret, Raoul,
your ears, like mine. will be full OF
lamentations"
She took Raouls protecting hands
in hers and, with long SILVER. con
tinued:
Yes. if lived to be a hundred,
| should always hear the superhuman
cry of grief and rage which he ut
tered when the terrible sight ap-
| peared before my eyes. Ra0ul,
! you have seen deaths heads, when
they have been dried and witheTed by
the centuries, and. perhaps, If you
We're not the victim of a nightmare,
you saw his deaths head at Perros.
And then you saw Red Death stalk.
ing about at the last masked ball. But
all those deaths heads We're motion.
less and their dumb horror was not
alive. But imagine, If you can, Red
Deaths mask suddenly coming to life
in order to express. with the -four
black holes of its eyes, its nose and
its mouth, the extreme anger, the
mighty fury OF a demon; and not a
ray of light from the sockets. for, as
| learned later. you cannot see his
blazing eyes except in the dark.
81 tell back against the wall and he
came up to me. grinding his teeth
and, as | fell upon my knees, he
Kissed mad, incoherent words and
curses at me. Leaning over me, he
cried: Look! You want to see! See.
Feast your eyes, glut your soul on
my cursed uglinessl Look at Eriks
face, Now you know the face of the
voice! You were not content to hear
me, Ell? You wanted to know what
looked like! Oh, you women are so
inquisitive! Well, are you satisfied
I'm a very good-looking fellow, en-
When woman has seen me,
as you have. she belongs to me. She
loves me for ever. | am a kind OF
Don Juan, you know And, drawing
himself up to his full height, with
his hand on his hip. wagging the
hideous thing that was his head on
mo ohobAA'l . ne lbtl GU, lsDbh al me
am Don Juan triumphant And
when | turned away my head and
begged for mercy. he drew 1t to hin,
brutally, twisting his dead fingers into
my hair"
Enough! Enough" cried Raoul.
Il will kill him. In heavens name
Christine, tell me where the dining.
room on the lake is! must Kill
HIM"
"Oh, be quiet Raoul. If you want to
know"
Yes, want to know how and why
you went back; must know
But in any case, will kill him!"
oh Raoul listen. listen!
He dragged me by my hair and then
and then Oh, It Is
too horrible!"
We'll, what? Out with IT." ex.
claimed Raoul fiercely. out with 1t,
quick"
Then he Kissed at me. An. /
brighten you, do /? dare
say! Perhaps you think that
have another mask ch ana that