It came softly, at first, then louder, then very loud.But it was not the hiss of fire.It was more like the hiss of water.
And now it became a gurgling sound: "Guggle! Guggle!"We rushed to the trap-door.All our thirst, which vanished when the terror came, now returned with the lapping of the water.
The water rose in the cellar, above the barrels, the powder-barrels--"Barrels!
...Barrels! Any barrels to sell?"--and we went down to it with parched throats.It rose to our chins, to our mouths.
And we drank.We stood on the floor of the cellar and drank.And we went up the stairs again in the dark, step by step, went up with the water.
The water came out of the cellar with us and spread over the floor of the room.If, this went on, the whole house on the lake would be swamped.The, floor of the torture-chamber had itself become a regular little lake, in which our feet splashed.Surely there was water enough now! Erik must turn off the tap!
"Erik! Erik! That is water enough for the gunpowder! Turn off the tap! Turn off the scorpion!"But Erik did not reply.We heard nothing but the water rising:
it was half-way to our waists!
"Christine!" cried M.de Chagny."Christine! The water is up to our knees!"But Christine did not reply....We heard nothing but the water rising.
No one, no one in the next room, no one to turn the tap, no one to turn the scorpion!
We were all alone, in the dark, with the dark water that seized us and clasped us and froze us!
"Erik! Erik!"
"Christine! Christine!"
By this time, we had lost our foothold and were spinning round in the water, carried away by an irresistible whirl, for the water turned with us and dashed us against the dark mirror, which thrust us back again; and our throats, raised above the whirlpool, roared aloud.
Were we to die here, drowned in the torture-chamber? I had never seen that.Erik, at the time of the rosy hours of Mazenderan, had never shown me that, through the little invisible window.
"Erik! Erik!" I cried."I saved your life! Remember!...You were sentenced to death! But for me, you would be dead now!...
Erik!"
We whirled around, in the water like so much wreckage.
But, suddenly, my straying hands seized the trunk of the iron tree!
I called M.de Chagny, and we both hung to the branch of the iron tree.
And the water rose still higher.
"Oh! Oh! Can you remember? How much space is there between the branch of the tree and the dome-shaped ceiling? Do try to remember!...
After all, the water may stop, it must find its level!...There, I think it is stopping!...No, no, oh, horrible!...Swim!
Swim for your life!"
Our arms became entangled in the effort of swimming; we choked;we fought in the dark water; already we could hardly breathe the dark air above the dark water, the air which escaped, which we could hear escaping through some vent-hole or other.
"Oh, let us turn and turn and turn until we find the air hole and then glue our mouths to it!"But I lost my strength; I tried to lay hold of the walls!
Oh, how those glass walls slipped from under my groping fingers!...We whirled round again!...We began to sink!
...One last effort!...A last cry: "Erik!...Christine!...""Guggle, guggle, guggle!" in our ears."Guggle! Guggle!" At the bottom of the dark water, our ears went, "Guggle! Guggle!"And, before losing consciousness entirely, I seemed to hear, between two guggles:
"Barrels! Barrels! Any barrels to sell?"
