The Arvada enterprise., 1913-11-13
Raoul! RaOuli" \

u,
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" II he would take
her to the torture chamber. But he
had obstinately declined, and had ut
tered hideous threats against all the
I members of the human race! At last
after hours and hours of that hell, 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 of his mask and his
yellow eyes shot flames! He
did nothing but laugh! He
said, 81 give you five minutes to spare
your blushes Here he said, taking
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
itated in Japanese bronze; they Will
say yes or no for you. If you turn
the scorpion round. that will mean
to me, when l return, that you have
said yes. The grasshopper will mean
no. And he laughed like drunken
demon. | did nothing but beg and
entreat him to give me the key OF the
torture-chamber, promising to be his
wife II 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 1t into the
lake! And he again laughed
like 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 1t hops
jolly hight"
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, II the grasshopper
were turned. 1t would hop b.. .
and with it many members of the hu-
man race. There was no doubt but
that the grasshopper controlled an
electric current intended to blow up
the powder-n,agazine!
M. de Chagny, who seemed to have
recovered all his moral force from
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 a 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 1t was the scorpion that
would blow everything up. After all,
why wasn't he there? The five 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 he not returned?
Don't touch the scorpion!" | said
Here he comes!" cried Christine.
Il hear him! Here he is"
We heard his steps approaching
the Louis-Philippe room lie came
up to Christine. but did not speak.
Then | raised my voice:
Erik! It is L! DO you know meY'
With extraordinary calmness, he at
once replied
I so you are not dead in there?
Well, then. see that you keep quiet"
| tried to speak. but he said coldly:
Not a word daroga, or shall blow
everything up" And he added, The
honor rests with mademoiselle.
! Mademoiselle had not touched the
scorpion"-how deliberately he spokel
-"mademoiselle has not touched the
grasshopper"-with that composurel
but 1t is not too late TO do the
right thing. There, open the caskets
without key. Tor | am n trap-door
lover and / open and shut what /
/ please aud as please. open the
| little ebony caskets; mademoiselle,
look at the little dears inside. Aren't
they pretty2 II you turn the grass.
hopper. mademoiselle, we shall all be
| blown up. There IL enough gun
| powder under our feet to blow up "A
whole quarter OF Paris. II you turn
the scorpion, mademoiselle, all that
powder will be soaked and drowned
Mademoiselle. to celebrate our wed