`Yes, a great artist, in my own line.'

`But tell me, Erik, why did you call that room the torture-chamber?'

`Oh, it's very simple. First of all, what did you see?'

`I saw a forest.'

`And what is in a forest?'

`Trees.'

`And what is in a tree?'

`Birds.'

`Did you see any birds?'

`No, I did not see any birds.'

`Well, what did you see? Think! You saw branches And what are the branches?' asked the terrible voice. `There's a gibbet ! That is why I call my wood the torture-chamber!...You see, it's all a joke. I never express myself like other people. But I am very tired of it!...I'm sick and tired of having a forest and a torture- chamber in my house and of living like a mountebank, in a house with a false bottom!...I'm tired of it! I want to have a nice, quiet flat, with ordinary doors and windows and a wife inside it, like anybody else! A wife whom I could love and take out on Sundays and keep amused on week-days...Here, shall I show you some card-tricks? That will help us to pass a few minutes, while waiting for eleven o'clock to-morrow evening....My dear little Christine!...Are you listening to me?...Tell me you love me!... No, you don't love me...but no matter, you will!...Once, you could not look at my mask because you knew what was behind....And now you don't mind looking at it and you forget what is behind!...One can get used to everything...if one wishes....Plenty of young people who did not care for each other before marriage have adored each other since! Oh, I don't know what I am talking about! But you would have lots of fun with me. For instance, I am the greatest ventriloquist that ever lived, I am the first ventriloquist in the world!...You're laughing.... Perhaps you don't believe me? Listen.'

The wretch, who really was the first ventriloquist in the world, was only trying to divert the child's attention from the torture-chamber; but it was a stupid scheme, for Christine thought of nothing but us! She repeatedly besought him, in the gentlest tones which she could assume:

`Put out the light in the little window!...Erik, do put out the light in the little window!'

For she saw that this light, which appeared so suddenly and of which the monster had spoken in so threatening a voice, must mean something terrible. One thing must have pacified her for a moment; and that was seeing the two of us, behind the wall, in the midst of that resplendent light, alive and well. But she would certainly have felt much easier if the light had been put out.

Meantime, the other had already begun to play the ventriloquist. He said:

`Here, I raise my mask a little....Oh, only a little!... You see my lips, such lips as I have? They're not moving!...My mouth is closed - such mouth as I have - and yet you hear my voice....Where will you have it? In your left ear? In your right ear? In the table? In those little ebony boxes on the mantelpiece?... Listen, dear, it's in the little box on the right of the mantelpiece: what does it say? `Shall I turn the scorpion?'...And now, crack! What does it say in the little box on the left? `Shall I turn the grasshopper?'...And now, crack! Here it is in the little leather bag....What does it say? `I am the little bag of life and death!'...And now, crack! It is in Carlotta's throat, in Carlotta's golden throat, in Carlotta's crystal throat, as I live! What does it say? It says, `It's I, Mr. Toad, it's I singing! I feel without alarm - co-ack - with its melody enwind