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Speaker 1: The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Pole. For the most

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wild yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen,

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I neither expect nor solicit belief, mad Indeed would I

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be to expect it in a case where my very

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senses reject their own evidence. Yet, mad Am, I not,

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and very surely do I not dream. But tomorrow I die,

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and to day I would unburthen my soul. My immediate

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purpose is to place before the world, plainly, succinctly, and

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without comment, a series of mere household events. In their consequences.

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These events have terrified, have tortured, have destroyed me. Yet

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I will not attempt to expound them. To me, they

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have presented little but horror, and to many they will

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seem less terrible than baroque. Hereafter, perhaps some intellect may

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be found which will reduce my phanfasm to the commonplace,

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some intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable

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than my own, which will perceive, in the circumstances I

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detail with awe nothing more than an ordinary succession of

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very natural causes and effects. From my infancy. I was

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noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition, My

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tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make

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me the jest of my companions. I was especially fond

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of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a

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great variety of pets. With these I spent most of

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my time, and never was so happy as when feeding

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and caressing them. This peculiarity of character grew with my growth,

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and in my manhood. I derived from it one of

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my principal sources of pleasure. To those who have cherished

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an affection for a faithful and sagacious dog, I need

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hardly be at the trouble of explaining the nature or

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the intensity of the gratification thus derivable. There is something

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in the unselfish and self sacrificing love of a brute

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which goes directly to the heart of him who has

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had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer

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fidelity of mere man. I married early, and was happy

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to find in my wife a disposition not uncongenial with

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my own. Observing my partiality for domestic pets, she lost

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no opportunity of procuring those of the most agreeable kind.

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We had birds, goldfish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey,

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and a cat. This latter was a remarkably large and

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beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree.

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In speaking of his intelligence, my wife, who at heart

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was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion

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to the ancient popular notion which regarded all black cats

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as witches in disguise. Not that she was ever serious

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upon this point, And I mentioned the matter at all

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for no better reason than that it happens just now

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to be remembered. Pluto, this was the cat's name, was

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my favorite pet and playmate. I alone fed him, and

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he attended me wherever I went about the house. It

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was even with difficulty that I could prevent him from

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following me through the streets. Our friendship lasted in this

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manner for several years, during which my general temperament and character,

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through the instrumentality of the fiend in temperance, had I

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blushed to confess, it, experienced a radical alteration. For the worse.

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I grew day by day more moody, more irritable, more

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regardless of the feelings of others. I suffered myself to

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use intemperate language to my wife. At length, I even

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offered her personal violence. My pets, of course, were made

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to feel the change in my disposition. I not only

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neglected but ill used them. For Pluto, however, I still

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retained sufficient regard to restrain me from maltreating him, as

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I made no scruple of maltreating the rabbits, the monkey,

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or even the dog, when by accident or through affection

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they came in my way. But my disease grew upon me,

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for what disease is like alcohol, And at length even Pluto,

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who was now becoming old and consequently somewhat peevish. Even

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Pluto began to experience the effects of my ill temper.

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One night, returning home, much intoxicated from one of my

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haunts about town, I fancied that the cat avoided my presence.

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I seized him, when, in his fright at my violence,

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he inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth.

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The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew

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myself no longer. My original soul seemed at once to

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take its flight from my body, and more than fiendish malevolence,

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Gin nurtured thrilled every fiber of my frame. I took

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from my waistcoat pocket a pen knife. Opened it, grasped

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the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one

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of its eyes from the socket. I blush, I burn,

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I shudder while I penned the damnable atrocity. When reason

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returned with the morning, when I had slept off the

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fumes of the night's debauch, I experienced a sentiment half

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of horror, half of remorse for the crime of which

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I had been guilty. But it was at best a

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feeble and equivocal feeling, and the soul remained untouched. I

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again plunged into excess, and soon drowned in wine all

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the memory of the deed. In the meantime, the cat

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slowly recovered the socket of the lost eye, presented, it

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is true, a frightful appearance, but he no longer appeared

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to suffer any pain. He went about the house as usual,

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but as might be expected, fled in extreme terror at

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my approach. I had so much of my old heart

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left as to be at first grieved by this evident

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dislike on the part of a creature which had once

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so loved me. But this feeling soon gave place to irritation,

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and then came, as if to my final and irrevocable overthrow.

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The spirit of perverseness of this spirit, philosophy takes no account.

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Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives

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than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive

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impulses of the human heart, one of the indivisible primary

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faculties or sentiments, which give direction to the character of man,

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who has not a hundred times found himself committing a

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vile or a silly action for no other reason than

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because he knows he should not. Have We not a

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perpetual inclination in the teeth of our best judgment to

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violate that which is law, merely because we understand it

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to be such. This spirit of perverseness, I say, came

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to my final overthrow. It was this unfathomable longing of

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the soul to vex itself, to offer violence to its

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own nature, to do wrong for the wrong's sake, only

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that urged me to continue, and finally to consummate the

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injury I had inflicted upon the unoffending brute. One morning

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in cool blood, I slipped a noose about its neck

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and hung it to the limb of a tree. Hung

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it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with

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the bitterest remorse at my heart. Hung it because I

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knew that it had loved me, and because I felt

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it had given me no reason of offense. Hung it

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because I knew that in so doing I was committing

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a sin, a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my

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immortal soul as to place it if such a thing

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were possible, even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy

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of the most merciful and most terrible God. On the

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night of the day on which this cruel deed was done,

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I was aroused from sleep by the cry of fire.

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The curtains of my bed were in flames. The whole

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house was blazing. It was with great difficulty that my wife,

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a servant, and myself made our escape from the conflagration.

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The destruction was complete, My entire worldly wealth was swallowed up,

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and I resigned myself thenceforward to despair. I am above

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the weakness of seeking to establish a sequence of cause

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and effect between the disaster and the atrocity. But I

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am detailing a chain of facts, and wish not to

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leave even a possible link in perfect. On the day

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succeeding the fire, I visited the ruins the walls, with

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one exception had fallen in. This exception was found in

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a compartment wall not very thick, which stood about the

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middle of the house, and against which had rested the

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head of my bed. The plastering had here in great

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measure resisted the action of the fire, a fact which

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I attributed to its having been recently spread about this wall.

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A dense crowd were collected, and many persons seemed to

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be examining a particular portion of it with very minute

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and eager attention. The words strange, singular, and other similar

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expressions excited my curiosity. I approached and saw, as if

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graven in boss relief, upon the white surface, the figure

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of a gigantic cat. The impression was given with an

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accuracy truly marked. There was a rope about the animal's neck.

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When I first beheld this apparition, for I could scarcely

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regard it as less, my wonder and my terror were extreme.

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But at length reflection came to my aid. The cat

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I remembered, had been hung in a garden adjacent to

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the house upon the alarm of fire. This garden had

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been immediately filled by the crowd, by some one of

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whom the animal must have been cut from the tree

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and thrown through an open window into my chamber. This

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had probably been done with the view of arousing me

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from sleep. The falling of other walls had compressed the

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victim of my cruelty into the substance of the freshly

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spread plaster, the lime of which, with the flames and

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the ammonia from the carcass, had then accomplished the portraiture

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as I saw it. Although I thus readily accounted to

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my reason, if not altogether to my conscience, for the

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startling fact just deeps, it did not the less fail

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to make a deep impression upon my fancy. For months

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I could not rid myself of the phantasm of the cat,

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And during this period there came back into my spirit

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a half sentiment that seen, but was not remorse. I

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went so far as to regret the loss of the animal,

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and to look about me among the vile haunts which

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I now habitually frequented, for another pet of the same

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species and of somewhat similar appearance, with which to supply

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its place. One night, as I sat half stupefied in

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a den of more than infamy. My attention was suddenly

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drawn to some black object reposing upon the head of

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one of the immense hogsheads of gin or of Rum,

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which constituted the chief furniture of the apartment. I had

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been looking steadily at the top of this hogshead for

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some minutes, and what now caused me surprise was the

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fact that I had not sooner received the object. Thereupon

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I approached it and touched it with my hand. It

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was a black cat, a very large one, fully as

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large as Pluto, and closely resembling him in every respect

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but one. Pluto had not a white hair upon any

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portion of his body, but this cat had a large,

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although indefinite, splotch of white covering nearly the whole region

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of the breast. Upon my touching him, he immediately arose, purred, loudly,

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rubbed against my hand, and appeared delighted with my notice. This, then,

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was the very creature of which I was in search.

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I at once offered to purchase it of the landlord,

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but this person made no claim to it, knew nothing

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of it, had never seen it before. I continued my caresses,

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and when I prepared to go home. The animal evinced

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a disposition to accompany me. I permitted it to do so,

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occasionally stooping and patting it as I proceeded. When it

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reached the house, it domesticated itself at once and became

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immediately a great favorite with my wife. For my own part,

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I soon found a dislike to it arising within me.

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This was just the reverse of what I had anticipated,

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But I know not how or why. It was its

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evident fondness for myself rather disgusted and annoyed. By slow degrees,

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these feelings of disgust and annoyance rose into the bitterness

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of hatred. I avoided the creature, a certain sense of shame,

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and the remembrance of my former deed of cruelty preventing

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me from physically abusing it. I did not, for some

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week's strike or otherwise violently ill use it. But gradually,

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very gradually, I came to look upon it with unutterable loathing,

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and to flee silently from its odious presence. As for

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the breath of a pestilence. What added no doubt to

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my hatred of the beast was the discovery, on the

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morning after I brought it home that, like Pluto, it

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also had been deprived of one of its eyes. This circumstance, however,

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only endeared it to my wife, who, as I have

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already said, possessed in a high degree that humanity of feeling,

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which had once been my distinguishing trait and the source

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of many of my simplest and purest pleasures. With my

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aversion to this cat, however, its partiality for myself seemed

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to increase. It followed my footsteps with a pertinent sea,

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which it would be difficult to make the reader comprehend.

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Whenever I sat, it would crouch beneath my chair, or

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spring upon my knees, covering me with its loathsome caresses.

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If I arose to walk, it would get it between

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my feet, and thus nearly throw me down, or fastening

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its long sharp claws in my dress, clamor in this

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manner to my breast. At such times, although I longed

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to destroy it with a blow, I was yet withheld

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from so doing, partly by a memory of my former crime,

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but chiefly, let me confess it at once by absolute

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dread of the beast. This dread was not exactly a

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dread of physical evil, and yet I should be at

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a loss how otherwise to define it. I am almost

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ashamed to own. Yes, even in this Felon's cell, I

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am almost ashamed to own that the terror and horror

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with which the animal inspired me had been heightened by

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one of the merest chimeras it would be possible to conceive.

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My wife had called my attention more than once to

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the character of the mark of white hair, of which

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I have spoken, and which constituted the sole visible difference

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between the strange beast and the one I had destroyed.

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The reader will remember that this mark, although large, had

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been originally very indefinite, but by slow degrees degrees nearly imperceptible,

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and which for a long time my reason struggled to

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reject as fanciful, it had at length assumed a rigorous

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distinctness of outline. It was now the representation of an

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object that I shudder to name, And for this above

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all I loathed and dreaded, and would have rid myself

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of the monster had I dared. It was now, I say,

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the image of a hideous, of a ghastly thing of

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the gallows, all mournful and terrible, engine of horror and

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of crime, of agony, and of death. And now was

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I indeed wretched beyond the wretchedness of mere humanity, and

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a brute beast whose fellow I had contemptuously destroyed, A

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brute beast to word work out for me, for me,

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a man fashioned in the image of the High God,

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so much of insufferable woe, alas neither by day nor

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by night knew I the blessing of rest any more.

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During the former, the creature left me no moment alone,

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And in the latter I started, hourly from dreams of

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unutterable fear to find the hot breath of the thing

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upon my face, and its vast weight, an incarnate nightmare

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that I had no power to shake off, incumbent eternally

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upon my heart. Beneath the pressure of torments such as these,

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the feeble remnant of the good within me succumbed. Evil

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thoughts became my soul intimates the darkest and most evil

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of thoughts. The moodiness of my usual temper increased to

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hatred of all things and of all mankind, while from

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the sudden, frequent and ungovernable outbursts of a fury to

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which I now blindly abandoned myself. My uncomplaining wife, alas

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was the most usual and the most patient of sufferers.

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One day she accompanied me upon some household errand into

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the cellar of the old building which our poverty compelled

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us to inhabit. The cat followed me down the steep stairs,

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and nearly throwing me headlong, exasperated me to madness, uplifting

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an axe and forgetting in my wrath the childish dread

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which had hitherto stayed my hand. I aimed a blow

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at the animal, which of course would have proved instantly

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fatal had it descended as I wished. But this blow

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was arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded by

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the interference into a rage more than demoniacal, I withdrew

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my arm from her grasp and buried the axe in

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her brain. She fell dead upon the spot without a groan.

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This hideous murder accomplished. I set myself forthwith and with

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entire deliberation, to the task of concealing the body. I

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knew that I could not remove it from the house,

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either by day or by night, without the risk of

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being observed by the neighbors. Many projects centered my mind.

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At one period I thought of cutting the corpse into

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minute fragments and destroying them by fire. At another I

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resolved to dig a grave for it in the floor

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of the cellar. Again, I deliberated about testing it in

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the well in the yard, about packing it in a

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box as if merchandised with the usual arrangements, and so

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getting a porter to take it from the house. Finally,

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I hit upon what I considered a far better expedient

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than either of these. I determined to wall it up

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in the cellar, as the monks of the Middle Ages

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are recorded to have walloped their victims for a purpose

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such as this. The cellar was well adapted. Its walls

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were loosely constructed, and had lately been plastered throughout with

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a rough plaster, which the dampness of the atmosphere had

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prevented from hardening. Moreover, in one of the walls was

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a projection caused by a false chimney or fireplace that

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had been filled up and made to resemble the red

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of the cellar. I made no doubt that I could

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readily displace the bricks at this point, insert the corpse,

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and wall the whole up as before, so that no

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eye could detect anything suspicious, and in this calculation I

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was not deceived by means of a crowbar. I easily

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dislodged the bricks, and having carefully deposited the body against

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the inner wall, I propped it in that position, while

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with little trouble, I relayed the whole structure as it

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originally stood, Having procured mortar, sand and hair with every

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possible precaution, I prepared a plaster which could not be

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distinguished from the old, and with this I very carefully

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went over the new brickwork. When I had finished, I

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felt satisfied that all was right. The wall did not

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present the slightest appearance of having been disturbed. The rubbish

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on the floor was picked up with the minutest tear.

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I looked round triumphantly and said to myself, here, at least,

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then my labor has not been in vain. My next

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step was to look for the beast which had been

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the cause of so much wretchedness, For I had at

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length firmly resolved to put it to death. Had I

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been able to meet with it at the moment, there

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could have been no doubt of its fate. But it

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appeared that the crafty animal had been alarmed at the

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violence of my previous anger, and forebore to present itself

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in my present mood. It is impossible to describe or

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to imagine the deep, the blissful sense of relief which

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the absence of the detested creature occasioned in my bosom.

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It did not make its appearance during the night, and

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thus for one night at least, since its introduction into

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the house, I soundly and tranquility slept. I slept, even

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with the burden of murder upon my soul. The second

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and the third day passed, and still my tormentor came.

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Not once again. I breathed as a free man. The

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monster in terror had fled the premises, forever I should

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behold it no more. My happiness was supreme. The guilt

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of my dark deed disturbed me but little. Some few

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inquiries had been made, but these had been readily answered.

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Even a search had been instituted, but of course nothing

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was to be discovered. I looked upon my future felicity

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as secured. Upon the fourth day of the assassination, a

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party of the police came very unexpectedly into the house

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and proceeded again to make rigorous investigation. Of the premises secure. However,

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in the inscrutability of my place of a concealment, I

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felt no embarrassment whatever. The officers bade me accompany them

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in their search. They left no nook nor corner unexplored.

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At length. For the third or fourth time they descended

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into the cellar, I quivered not in a muscle. My

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heart beat calmly as that of one whose slumbers in innocence.

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I walked the cellar from end to end. I folded

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my arms upon my bosom, and roamed easily to and fro.

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The police were thoroughly satisfied and prepared to depart. The

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glee at my heart was too strong to be restrained.

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I burned to say if but one word by way

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of triumph, and to render doubly sure their assurance of

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my guiltlessness. Gentlemen, I said at last, as the already

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ascended the steps, I delight to have allayed your suspicions.

359
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I wish you all health and a little more courtesy.

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By the bye, gentlemen, this this is a very well

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constructed house. In the rabid desire to say something easily,

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I scarcely knew what I uttered. It all I may say,

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an excellently well constructed house. These walls are you going, gentlemen,

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These walls are solidly put together. And here, through the

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mere frenzy of Bravado, I rapped heavily with a cane,

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which I held in my hand, upon that very portion

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of the brickwork, behind which stood the corpse of the

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wife of my bosom. But may God shield and deliver

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me from the fangs of the arch fiend. No sooner

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had the reverberation of my blow sunk into the silence,

371
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than I was answered by a voice from within the tomb,

372
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by a cry, at first muffled and broken, like the

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sobbing of a child, and then quickly swelling into one long,

374
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loud and continuous scream, utterly anomalous and inhuman, a howl,

375
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a wailing shriek, half of horror and half of triumph,

376
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such as might have arisen only out of hell, conjointly

377
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from the throats of the damned in their agony, and

378
00:25:21,799 --> 00:25:26,039
of the demons that exult in the damnation of my

379
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own thoughts. It is folly to speak swooning. I staggered

380
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to the opposite wall for one instant. The party upon

381
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the stairs remained motionless through extremity of terror and of awe.

382
00:25:38,799 --> 00:25:41,839
In the next a dozen stout arms were toiling at

383
00:25:41,839 --> 00:25:47,039
the wall. It fell bodily. The corpse, already greatly decayed

384
00:25:47,119 --> 00:25:50,640
and clotted with gore, stood erect before the eyes of

385
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the spectators. Upon its head, with red extended mouth and

386
00:25:55,359 --> 00:25:59,839
solitary eye of fire, sat the hideous beast, whose craft

387
00:26:00,039 --> 00:26:03,880
had seduced me into murder, and whose informing voice had

388
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:07,400
consigned me to the hangman. I had walled the monster

389
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up within the tomb end of the Black Cat