The Tell Tale
Heart
TRUE! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous he had been and is; but why will you say that he is mad? The disease had sharpened his senses --not destroyed --not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. He heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. He heard many things in hell. How, then, is he mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily --how calmly he can tell you the whole story.
It is impossible to say how first the idea entered his brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. he loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold he had no desire. He thought it was his eye! yes, it was this! He had the eye of a vulture --a pale blue eye, with a film over
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The night waned, and he worked hastily, but in silence. First of all he dismembered the corpse. he cut off the head and the arms and the legs. he then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scantlings. he then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human eye --not even his --could have detected anything wrong. There was nothing to wash out --no stain of any kind --no blood-spot whatever. he had been too wary for that. A tub had caught all --ha! ha!
When he had made an end of these labors, it was four o'clock --still dark as midnight. As the bell sounded the hour, there came a knocking at the street door. he went down to open it with a light heart, --for what had he now to fear? There entered three men, who introduced themselves, with perfect suavity, as officers of the police. A shriek had been heard by a neighbour during the night; suspicion of foul play had been aroused; information had been lodged at the police office, and they (the officers) had been deputed to search the