Yes, Raoul and the Persian were ready to faint, like Pampin the
fireman. But the head of fire turned round in answer to their cries,
and spoke to them: "Don't move! Don't move! ... Whatever you do, don't come after me!
... I am the rat-catcher! ... Let me pass, with my rats! ..."
And the head of fire disappeared, vanished in the darkness, while the
passage in front of it lit up, as the result of the change which the
rat-catcher had made in his dark lantern. Before, so as not to scare
the rats in front of him, he had turned his dark lantern on himself,
lighting up his own head; now, to hasten their flight, he lit the dark
space in front of him. And he jumped along, dragging with him the
waves of scratching rats, all the thousand sounds.
Raoul and the Persian breathed again, though still trembling.
"I ought to have remembered that Erik talked to me about the
rat-catcher," said the Persian. "But he never told me that he looked
like that ... and it's funny that I should never have met him before
... Of course, Erik never comes to this part!"
[Illustration: two page color illustration] "Are we very far from the lake, sir?" asked Raoul. "When shall we get
there? ... Take me to the lake, oh, take me to the lake! ... When we
are at the lake, we will call out! ... Christine will hear us! ... And
HE will hear us, too! ... And, as you know him, we shall talk to him!"
"Baby!" said the Persian. "We shall never enter the house on the lake
by the lake! ... I myself have never landed on the other bank ... the
bank on which the house stands. ... You have to cross the lake first
... and it is well guarded! ... I fear that more than one of those
men--old scene-shifters, old door-shutters--who have never been seen
again were simply tempted to cross the lake ... It is terrible ... I
myself would have been nearly killed there ... if the monster had not
recognized me in time! ... One piece of advice, sir; never go near the
lake... And, above all, shut your ears if you hear the voice singing
under the water, the siren's voice!"
"But then, what are we here for?" asked Raoul, in a transport of fever,
impatience and rage. "If you can do nothing for Christine, at least
let me die for her!" The Persian tried to calm the young man.
"We have only one means of saving Christine Daae, believe me, which is
to enter the house unperceived by the monster."
"And is there any hope of that, sir?"
"Ah, if I had not that hope, I would not have come to fetch you!"
"And how can one enter the house on the lake without crossing the lake?"