The Tell-Tale Heart

0:00The Tal-Tel Heart. True, nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I have been and am. But why will you say that I am mad? The disease has sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Harkin, observe how healthily, how calmly I can tell you the whole story. It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain. But once conceived it haunted me day and night. Objective there was none, passion there was none. I loved the old man, he had never wronged me, he had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye, yes it was this, he had the eye of a vulture, a pale blue eye with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold, and so by degrees very gradually, I made up my mind to take the life of the old man and thus rid myself of the eye forever. Now this is the point, you fancy me mad, mad men know nothing, but you should have

1:03seen me, you should have seen how wisely I proceeded, with what caution, with what foresight, with what dissimulation I went to work. I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him, and every night, about midnight, I turned the latch of his door and opened it oh so gently. And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, so that no light show now, and then I thrust my head in. Oh you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in. I moved it slowly, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the old man's sleep. Took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed, ha, would a mad man have been so wise as this? And then, when my head was well in the room, I undid the lantern cautiously, oh so cautiously, for the hinges creaked. I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye. And this I did, for seven long nights, every night, just at midnight, but I found the eye

2:07always closed, and so it was impossible to do the work, for it was not the old man who vexed me but his evil eye. And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into the chamber and spoke courageously to him, calling him by name at a hearty tone and inquiring how he has passed the night. So you see, he would have been a very profound old man indeed to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked upon him while he slept. Upon the eighth night, I was more than usually cautious in opening the door. A watch's minute hand moves more quickly than I did mine. Never before that night, I had felt the extent of my own powers, my sagacity. I could scarcely contain my feelings of triumph. To think that there I was, opening the door, little by little, and he not even to dream of my secret deeds or thoughts. I fairly chuckled at the idea, and perhaps he heard me for he moved on the bed suddenly as it startled. Now you may think that I drew back, but no. His room was black as pitch with a thick darkness, for the shutters were closed fastened,

3:10through the fear of robbers, and so I knew that he could not see the opening of the door. I kept pushing it on steadily, steadily. I had my head in and was about to open the lantern, when my thumb slipped upon the tint and fastening, and the old man sprang off the bed crying out, who's there? I kept quite still and said nothing. For whole hour I did not move a muscle, and in the meantime I did not hear him lie down. He was still sitting up in the bed, listening, just as I have done, night after night, harkening to the death watches in the wall. Presently, I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror. It was not a groan of pain or grief, oh no. It was the low, stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul, when overcharged with awe. I knew the sound well, many a night just in midnight, when all the world slept, in his well that from my own bosom, deepening with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me, I say I knew it well. I knew what the old man felt, and pitted him, although I chuckled at heart.

4:12I knew that he had been lying awake ever since the first slight noise, and when he had turned in the bed. His fears had been ever since growing upon him. He had been trying to fancy them causeless, but could not. He had been saying to himself, it is nothing but the wind and the chimney, it is only a mouse crossing the floor, or he is merely a cricket which has made a single chirp, yes, he had been trying to comfort himself with those superstitions, but he had found all in vain. All in vain because death in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him and enveloped the victim, and it was the mournful influence of unperceived shadow that caused him to feel, although he neither saw nor heard, to feel the presence of my head within the room. When I had waited a long time, very patiently, without hearing him lie down, I resolved to open a little, a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it, you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily, until, at length, a simple dim ray with the thread of a spider, shut out from the crevice and fell full upon the

5:15revolter eye. It was open wide, wide open, and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it with perfect distinctness, all in dull blue, with a hideous veil over that, chilled the very marrow in my bones, but I could see nothing else of the old man's face or person, for I had directed the ray as if by instinct precisely upon the damned spot. And how I not told you about what you mistake for madness is but an overacuteness of the sense. While I say there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew the sound well, too, it was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury as the beating of a drum stimulates a soldier into courage. But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed. I held the lantern motionless. I tried how steadily I could to maintain the ray upon the eve. Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker and louder and louder every instant.

6:19The old man's terror must have been extreme. It grew louder, I say, louder every moment. You mark me well. I have told you that I am nervous, so I am. And now, at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror. And yet, for some minutes longer, I refrained and stood still. With the beating grew louder and louder, I thought the heart was burst. And now, the new anxiety seized me. The sound would be heard by a neighbor. The old man's hour had come. Was a loud yell I threw up in the lantern and leaped into the room. He shrieked once, once only, and in an instant I dragged him to the floor and pulled the heavy bed over him. And then smiled galley to find the deed so far done. But for many minutes the heart beat on with a muffled sound. This however did not dex me, it would not be heard through the wall. At length it ceased. The old man was dead. I removed the bed and examined the corpse. Yes, he was stone-stone dead. I placed my hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes.

7:21There was no pulsation. He was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more. If you still think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body. The night waneed and I worked hastily but in silence. First of all I dismembered the corpse I cut off the head and the arms and legs. Then I took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber and deposited all between the scantlings. I then placed the board 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. I had been too wary for that. The tub had cut it all. When I made the end of the labors it was four o'clock, still, darkest midnight. As the bell sounded the hour, there came a knocking at the street door. I went down to open it with a light heart for what had I now to fear. There entered three men who introduced themselves with perfect swaviti as officers of the police.

8:21A shriek had been heard by a neighbor during the night, suspicion of foul play had aroused. Information had been lodged at the police office and they, the officers, had been deputed to search the premises. I smiled for what had I to fear. I bade the gentleman welcome. The shriek I said was my own in a dream. The old man I mentioned was absent in the country. I took my visitors all over the house. I bade them search, search well. I led them at length to his chamber. I showed them his treasures, secure and undisturbed. In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I brought chairs into the room and desired them here to rest from their fatiques while I, myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim. The officers were satisfied. My manner had convinced them. I was singularly at ease. They sat, and while I answered cheerily, they chatted of familiar things. But air long I felt myself getting pale and wished them gone. My head ached and I fancied a ringing in my ears, but they still sat and chatted.

9:25The ringing became more distinct. It continued and became more distinct. I talked more freely to get rid of the feelings, but it continued and gained definiteness until at length I found the noise was not within my ears. No doubt now I grew very pale, but I talked more fluently and with a heightened voice, yet the sound increased and what could I do? It was a low dull, quick sound, much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I gasped for breath and yet the officers heard it not. I talked more quickly, more vehemently, but the noise steadily increased. I rose and argued about trifles and a high key with violent gesticulations, but the noise of steadily increased. Why would they not be gone? I paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides as if excited to fury by the observation of the men's, but the noise increased steadily. Oh God, what could I do? I foamed, I raved, I swore, I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and graded

10:25upon the boards, but the noise arose overall and continuously increased. It grew louder, louder, louder, and still the men chatted pleasantly and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Oh mighty God, no, no, they heard, they suspected, they knew, they were making a mockery of my horror. This I thought, and this I think, but anything was better than this agony. Anything was more tolerable than this derision. I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer. I felt that I'm a scream or die, and now again, hark, louder, louder, louder, louder, villains, I shrieked. Deceble no more, I admit the deed, tear up the planks here, here it is the beating of his hideous heart. End of The Telltale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe.