Phantom- First Ventriloquist

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;
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  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!
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  Oh, the ventriloquist’s terrible voice! It was everywhere, everywhere. It passed through the little invisible window, through the walls. It ran around us, between us. Erik was there, speaking to us! We made a movement as though to fling ourselves upon him. But, already, swifter, more fleeting than the voice of the echo, Erik’s voice had leaped back behind the wall!

-Chapter XXIII