The Phantom of the Opera - Page 148/178

"But what does this mean? ... The wall is really getting quite hot! ...

The wall is burning!"

"I'll tell you, Christine, dear: it is because of the forest next

door."

"Well, what has that to do with it? The forest?"

"WHY, DIDN'T YOU SEE THAT IT WAS AN AFRICAN FOREST?"

And the monster laughed so loudly and hideously that we could no longer

distinguish Christine's supplicating cries! The Vicomte de Chagny

shouted and banged against the walls like a madman. I could not

restrain him. But we heard nothing except the monster's laughter, and

the monster himself can have heard nothing else. And then there was

the sound of a body falling on the floor and being dragged along and a

door slammed and then nothing, nothing more around us save the

scorching silence of the south in the heart of a tropical forest!