Because of the smallness of the luminous disk, it was difficult at first to make out the appearance of things: they saw a corner of a branch … and a leaf … and another leaf … and, next to it, nothing at all, nothing but the ray of light that seemed to reflect itself. … Raoul passed his hand over that nothing, over that reflection.
“Hullo!” he said. “The wall is a looking-glass!”
“Yes, a looking-glass!” said the Persian, in a tone of deep emotion. And, passing the hand that held the pistol over his moist forehead, he added, “We have dropped into the torture-chamber!”
What the Persian knew of this torture-chamber and what there befell him and his companion shall be told in his own words, as set down in a manuscript which he left behind him, and which I copy verbatim .