"THE PHANTOM OF THE MOULIN ROUGE" "One morning in Paris, at the home of Julien Boissel... a prominente figure in that fair city's commercial life ......" "George Vaultier." "An important business deal, successfully completed had... that morning formed the subject of one of the chief news item." "And only one paper had seen fit to criticise: the "Echo des Rues"..." " the leading organ of the Yellow Press." "Gautier, the man behind the "Echo des Rues" ....." "Jose Davert" "... your Yvonne" "For Yvonne Vincent the morning's new held... a special interest" " Sandra Milowanoff" "Paul Vincent, her father." "Formerly a Minister od State... his failing health and advancing years had now deprived the country... of the services of one of the most brilliant leaders." "Treasuring the secret of her promise to Julien Boissel -- ... revelling in its romance, as lovers love to do." "Georges Martine, a news reporter, plentifully endowed... with those qualities so necessary to men of his calling." "....." "Albert Prejean." ""Its quite all night: he knows I'm coming:" "I'm a reporter from the 'Echo des Rues'!"" ""My dear fellow, don't you understand?" "This is an important appointment!"" ""The 'Echo des Ruas', Monsieur Boissel..." "Can you give me any further information about the deal?"" ""No!" " and when you get back, please tell Gautier... to keep my name out of his detestable paper!"" ""As you wish, monsieur, but I would just like to ask..."" ""I refuse to tell you nothing!" "..." "Don't come here worrying me again."" "Later that day at the Vincent home: a threatening cloud" ""Yes or no?" "Will you agree to my marriage with your daughter?"" ""I cannot dispose of my daughter against her wish!"" ""You promised me you would persuade her - and a promise made, should be kept!"" ""I hardly need to remind you, Vincent, of that affair ten years ago..." "Those documents signed by you are still in my possession..."" ""...and you would not like to see them published?"" ""What of yourself?" "You forget you were concerned in it."" ""That fact would not absolve you, my dear Vincent!"" ""It rests entirely with your daughter." "Persuade her -- ... and I will hand over the papers on the day we are married."" ""It will be very difficult - you must give me time."" "The task which had so often been deferred." ""Gautier has been here - he wants to marry you."" ""How absurd." "You laughed at the idea, I suppose?"" ""My child, there is something else you must know;... something which has worried me for many years."" ""During my period of office I was guilty of a grave political... indiscretion which involved the safety of State secrets."" ""The matter was hushed up, but Gautier, who was then one... of my colleagues, holds evidence of it to this day."" ""He professes his love for you;" "he wants you to be his wife..." "Doubtless the social prestige of our good name would be a valuable asset to him."" ""I cannot compel you, my child,... but if you do not accept he will publish the documents - and ruin us."" ""Father, it is impossible!"" ""There is someone I have already promised to marry."" ""Ask him to be good enough to wait."" ""We have kept our engagement secret..."" ""Remember, Yvonne, it is for you to decide."" ""If Gautier learns that you have promised to marry Boissel... he will not hesitate to carry out his threat."" ""We must have to think... but I implore you to do nothing to anger Gautier."" ""You must, for the present, keep away from Julien..." "He must not know - he would want to interfere."" ""So you have scored another success, Julien?"" ""-- and I'm now looking forward to my next - with you."" ""I heard that Gautier was here to-day."" ""He came to see father - on business, I believe."" ""I cannot imagine your father doing business with such a man - does he come here often?"" ""There is something troubling you." "What is wrong?"" ""I want to speak to you - alone."" ""I must ask you, Boissel, to cease paying attention to my daughter."" ""But why?" "What is your objection?"" ""My daughter is shortly to be married."" ""That is most unfortunate." "I had intended to ask for Yvonne's hand."" ""I have always held you in high esteem... but I have other plans for Yvonne" " I am sorry."" ""Do not distress yourself, there may yet be a way out."" "At the end of the day which, for Julien, had begun so well - and yet had brought dismay." "Floundering in the wreckage of his greatest ambition." "Then, in the midst of his turmoil of heart... came the voice of his cousin." "Jacqueline..." "....." "Madeleine Rodriquez" "Jacqueline comes of the Restless Age." "Her most recent experiment... was her divorce, but even in that she had found no great measure of satisfaction." ""I was wondering if you would like to come with your little cousin... to The Moulin Rouge." "I have a table for four, and I want one to comlete the party."" ""I hardly feel up to it, Jacqueline, and besides, I am busy."" ""More excuses!" "You are the most unobliging cousin I have ever had."" "But the idea came to Julien:" "At the Moulin Rouge... he might at least forget his sorrows" " Jacqueline was good company and " ""Well, if you think that of me, I had better come along." "Don't wait, I'll meet you there in an hour."" "So Julen dressed and went to the Palace of Forgetfulness... where Laughter is the password - where Gaiety and Buffoonery drives the cares of the day away." "THE MOULIN ROUGE." "Martine, the president." "Still bent on getting an interview with Julien." "But persistence can be carried too far." "And when Julien had laid bare his troubles." "Jacqueline offers some useless advice." ""Well, my dear Julien, the sooner you forget her the sooner will happiness return."" ""The world is big enough." "You have many admirers..." " I could almost fall in love with you myself."" ""It is dull here." "Let us go and see the Russian Dancers at the Annexe."" ""Won't you come?"" ""No" " I prefer to stay here."" "Striving blindly to drive away despair..." " taunted by the mocking blare of music and laughter around him." "Doutor Renault, an eminent brain specialist and... among other things, a student of psychology." "Often he comes to the Moulin Rouge --- watching; hearing; studiung his fellow creatures at play ... for him this was one of Life's Museum- a veritable feast of study." ""If I may say so, your worried face seems just a little out of place - here."" ""Oh!" "It is nothing - just a passing through - business worries -"" ""I have been watching you for some time - will you let me make a suggestion - ?"" "A week passes, and all Paris is startled by... a strange sequence of mysterious happenings." "Each day, some new sensation is recorder creating a series... of problems, which had, so far, defied all efforts to solve them." "And at the offices of the 'Echo des Rues' two more surprises are revealed." ""Julien Boissel has been missing for several days." "His servant has reported it to the police."" ""Deal with that later." "Go and get something at The Moulin Rouge..." "There was a burglary there last night."" "The latest outrage-perpetrated at the Cloak Room of the Moulin Rouge... where hats and cloaks had literally walked off." ""I cannot say how it happened, m'sieur." "I was on duty here last evening as usual..."" "Julien's disappearance had brought further anxiety to Yvonne." "And at Julien's home." " Martine, the audacious " " decides to find out for himself." ""Where did you come from?"" ""About the first floor up, m'sieur."" ""Many thanks for preserving my hat - good morning!"" ""Renault?" "Renault?" "Where does he live?"" "At the house of Doctor Renault." ""The doctor is not at home."" "Meanwhile, the Vincent home remains enshrouded in a pall of gloom." ""Gautier is impatient for your answer." "I fear he will not delay much longer..."" ""...he is a hard man, but if you could but appeal to him personally, he may yet release us!"" ""I may be able to persuade him." "I will call on him."" ""My father has told me everything, but I cannot believe that you were serious in your threats." "I have come to ask you for those papers."" ""Then I understand that you accept my conditions?"" ""What's on in there - a bull-fight?"" ""Pardon me for intruding, but this requires your immediate attention."" "Nightfall.... and at the residence of Doctor Renault." " Martine, with feline, stealth... emplyes a popular method of house-breaking." ""That's better!" "Now perhaps you will tell me what that means!"" ""I am no murderer!" "That man is not dead; he merely sleeps."" ""I do not quite understand." "Why should he come here to sleep?"" ""Let me explain." "For many years I have searched for someone... who would allow me to make on him a seemingly dangerous experiment... which I hoped would result in an epoch-making discovery..."" ""One evening I met this man, and at last I knew that my great chance had come." ""I felt that I could mpose my will on that man, who seemed to have lost his..."" ""...he was labouring under some great trouble, and I proposed..."" "to free him of his sorrows." "He accepted my suggestion... came with me here, and on that unhappy man I made my first experiment..."" ""..." "I succeeded in releasing the spirit from its earthly bonds..." " I gave freedom unto the soul."" ""Thus liberated, that soul kept but little resemblance to its earthly form..."" ""...my subject had found new happiness in that spiritual state..." "So grateful was he that on the next day he returned... and asked me to repeat the experiment..."" ""...the experiment was then conducted over a longer period of time..." "His soul seemed to revel in its freedom; going away... coming back; yet always at my command..."" ""...invisible to all eyes, save mine."" ""But one day, after an experiment particularly long..." "I somehow seemed to lose all control..."" ""Come!" "I order you!" "Back to your earthly state."" ""To return to my earthly state is to return to those earthly cares, which I have so gladly shaken off."" ""You are under my command!" "Obey me!"" ""Your command counts for nothing, unless I agree to obey." "In my present form I am happy, and in this form I choose to remain."" ""It is he who is the author of all these mysterious happenings... which are troubling Paris."" ""You know, now, that I have not murdered him, but how... shall I prove my innocence if the body is found in my house?"" "But the spirit of Julien, in the joy of his new found freedem... displays a selfish disregard for the plight of his benefactor." "The Underground Eccentric Bar." "Memories" "At a house of sorrow, where a woman weeps." ""She really loved me!"" ""Father, I begin to fear that Gautier is responsible for Julien's disappearance."" ""That may be so, but our danger still remains." "While he has... those papers in his possession we are at his mercy."" "The following day." "The Law's untiring arm " "In which Martine, the pertinent one, ventures to speak his mind." ""The Vincent papers, monsieur."" ""Have you got them ready for publication?"" ""I have not!" "I refuse to handle such dirty business!" "I am leaving!"" ""And before I go, let me tell you this:" "If it were not for your... detestable paper and your ugly self, Paris would be a beautiful city!"" "DEAD" " OR ASLEEP?" "Mystery of Julien Boissel's "DEATH"" "Pot-Mortem Examination to be Held this Afternoon" "In spite of the amazing assertions made by Doctor Renault at the time... of his arrest, it has now been definitely established that there is no possibility... of life returning to the body." "Doctor Renault's story is..." ""Why have you let them take my body?"" ""What power had I to prevent them?"" ""Are you aware that a post-mortem examination is to take place very shortly?"" ""When the life is taken from that body, how can I return to it?"" ""You must solve that problem yourself." "I gave you happiness... and in return you have brought me ruin." "Now you shall bring... about your own salvation - if you can!"" ""You know that it is impossible;" "that I must respond only to your will!"" ""Be warned!" "If you do not save me -"" ""Weak mortal!" "How easy it is to turn that clever brain of yours into an addled mess."" ""Do what you will - you cannot so easily destroy what you have created!"" ""Bats in the belfry!"" ""Demand permission to make one last experiment." "Bring me... to my earthly form, and you will be free." "Refuse, and I will continue... to torment you so that you will crave for death."" "Frantic endeavours to regain his earthly state..." "" " Endeavours that were futile in the absence of the Doctor." "In which the Devil gets his dues." ""You again!" "How is it you are not dead?"" ""Then you still refuse?" "Very well; tomorrow..." "Paris shall learn something more of her beloved Stateman!"" ""Now it's my turn!"" ""Yes, kill him, by all means, but please hurry and get it over!"" ""Yvonne, there is a gentleman waiting to see you."" ""Somebody wishes to speak to you, m'sieur."" ""Pardon me, I should just like to have the story of your - er - resurrection."" ""For the 'Echo des Rues' I will tell you nothing."" ""I should have told you, I am no longer with the 'Echo des Rues'."" ""Well, I have no time for stories now" " I am going to be busy."" "THE END"