which he has forbidden me ever to go through,
because he says it is the most dangerous of the doors, the door of the
torture-chamber!"

"Christine, that is where we are!"

"You are in the torture-chamber?"

"Yes, but we can not see the door."

"Oh, if I could only drag myself so far! I would knock at the door and
that would tell you where it is."

"Is it a door with a lock to it?" I asked.

"Yes, with a lock."

"Mademoiselle," I said, "it is absolutely necessary, that you should
open that door to us!"

"But how?" asked the poor girl tearfully.

We heard her straining, trying to free herself from the bonds that held
her.

"I know where the key is," she said, in a voice that seemed exhausted
by the effort she had made. "But I am fastened so tight ... Oh, the
wretch!"

And she gave a sob.

"Where is the key?" I asked, signing to M. de Chagny not to speak and
to leave the business to me, for we had not a moment to lose.

"In the next room, near the organ, with another little bronze key,
which he also forbade me to touch. They are both in a little leather
bag which he calls the bag of life and death... Raoul! Raoul! Fly!
Everything is mysterious and terrible here, and Erik will soon have
gone quite mad, and you are in the torture-chamber! ... Go back by the
way you came. There must be a reason why the room is called by that
name!"

"Christine," said the young man. "We will go from here together or die
together!"

"We must keep cool," I whispered. "Why has he fastened you,
mademoiselle? You can't escape from his house; and he knows it!"

"I tried to commit suicide! The monster went out last night, after
carrying me here fainting and half chloroformed. He was going TO HIS
BANKER, so he said! ... When he returned he found me with my face
covered with blood ... I had tried to kill myself by striking my
forehead against the walls."

"Christine!" groaned Raoul; and he began to sob.

"Then he bound me ... I am not allowed to die until eleven o'clock
to-morrow evening."

"Mademoiselle," I declared, "the monster bound you ... and he shall
unbind you. You have only to play the necessary part! Remember that
he loves you!"

"Alas!" we heard. "Am I likely to forget it!"

"Remember it and smile to him ... entreat him ... tell him that your
bonds hurt you."

But Christine Daae said:

"Hush! ... I hear something in the wall on the lake! ... It is he! ...
Go away! Go away! Go away!"