Bearing against the mirror, after a short silence, he said: "It takes some time to release the counterbalance, when you press on

the spring from the inside of the room. It is different when you are

behind the wall and can act directly on the counterbalance. Then the

mirror turns at once and is moved with incredible rapidity."

"What counterbalance?" asked Raoul.

"Why, the counterbalance that lifts the whole of this wall on to its

pivot. You surely don't expect it to move of itself, by enchantment!

If you watch, you will see the mirror first rise an inch or two and

then shift an inch or two from left to right. It will then be on a

pivot and will swing round."

"It's not turning!" said Raoul impatiently.

"Oh, wait! You have time enough to be impatient, sir! The mechanism

has obviously become rusty, or else the spring isn't working... Unless

it is something else," added the Persian, anxiously.

"What?"

"He may simply have cut the cord of the counterbalance and blocked the

whole apparatus."

"Why should he? He does not know that we are coming this way!"

"I dare say he suspects it, for he knows that I understand the system."

"It's not turning! ... And Christine, sir, Christine?"

The Persian said coldly: "We shall do all that it is humanly possible to do! ... But he may stop

us at the first step! ... He commands the walls, the doors and the

trapdoors. In my country, he was known by a name which means the

'trap-door lover.'"

"But why do these walls obey him alone? He did not build them!"

"Yes, sir, that is just what he did!"

Raoul looked at him in amazement; but the Persian made a sign to him to

be silent and pointed to the glass ... There was a sort of shivering

reflection. Their image was troubled as in a rippling sheet of water

and then all became stationary again.

"You see, sir, that it is not turning! Let us take another road!"

"To-night, there is no other!" declared the Persian, in a singularly

mournful voice. "And now, look out! And be ready to fire."

He himself raised his pistol opposite the glass. Raoul imitated his

movement. With his free arm, the Persian drew the young man to his

chest and, suddenly, the mirror turned, in a blinding daze of

cross-lights: it turned like one of those revolving doors which have

lately been fixed to the entrances of most restaurants, it turned,

carrying Raoul and the Persian with it and suddenly hurling them from

the full light into the deepest darkness.




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