office by remembering that erik had not been nicknamed the trap-door lover for nothing.i promised the persian to do so as soon as ihad time, and i may as well tell the reader at once that the results of my investigation were perfectly satisfactory; and i hardly believed that i should ever discover so many undeniable proofs of the authenticity of the feats ascribed to the ghost.
the persian's manuscript, christine daae's papers, the statements made to me by the people who used to work under mm.richard and moncharmin, by little meg herself (the worthy madame giry, i am sorry to say, is no more)and by sorelli, who is now living in retirement at louveciennes:
all the documents relating to the existence of the ghost, which ipropose to deposit in the archives of the opera, have been checked and confirmed by a number of important discoveries of which i am justly proud.i have not been able to find the house on the lake, erik having blocked up all the secret entrances.[12] on the other hand, i have discovered the secret passage of the communists, the planking of which is falling to pieces in parts, and also the trap-door through which raoul and the persian penetrated into the cellars of the opera-house.in the communists' dungeon, i noticed numbers of initials traced on the walls by the unfortunate people confined in it;and among these were an "r" and a "c." r.c.: raoul de chagny.
the letters are there to this day.
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[12] even so, i am convinced that it would be easy to reach it by draining the lake, as i have repeatedly requested the ministry of fine arts to do.i was speaking about it to m.dujardin-beaumetz, the under-secretary for fine arts, only forty-eight hours before the publication of this book.who knows but that the score of donjuan triumphant might yet be discovered in the house on the lake?
the voice contained in it seemed rather to come from the opposite side, for, as we have seen, the ghost was an expert ventriloquist.
the column was elaborately carved and decorated with the sculptor's chisel; and i do not despair of one day discovering the ornament that could be raised or lowered at will, so as to admit of the ghost's mysterious correspondence with mme.giry and of his generosity.