the dampness of the atmosphere had prevented from hardening.Moreover, in one of the walls was a projection, caused by a false chimney, or fireplace, that had been filled up, and made to resemble the red of the cellar.I made no doubt that I could readily displace the bricks at this point, insert the corpse, and wall the whole up as before, so that no eye could detect any thing suspicious.
And in this calculation I was not deceived.By means of a crow-bar I easily dislodged the bricks, and, having carefully deposited the body against the inner wall, I propped it in that position, while, with little trouble, I re-laid the whole structure as it originally stood.Having procured mortar, sand, and hair, with every possible precaution, I prepared a plaster which could not be distinguished from the old, and with this I very carefully went over the new brickwork.When I had finished, I felt satisfied that all was right.The wall did not present the slightest appearance of having been disturbed.The rubbish on the floor was picked up with the minutest care.I looked around triumphantly, and said to myself—“Here at least, then, my labor has not been in vain.”
My next step was to look for the beast which had been the cause of so much
wretchedness；for I had, at length, firmly resolved to put it to death. Had I been able to meet with it, at the moment, there could have been no doubt of its fate；but it appeared that the crafty animal had been alarmed at the violence of my previous anger, and forebore to present itself in my present mood.It is impossible to describe, or to imagine, the deep, the blissful sense of relief which the absence of the detested creature occasioned in my bosom.It did not make its appearance
during the night—and thus for one night at least, since its introduction into the house, I soundly and tranquilly slept；aye, slept even with the burden of murder upon my soul！
The second and the third day passed, and still my tormentor came not. Once
again I breathed as a free man.The monster, in terror, had fed the premises forever！I should behold it no more！My happiness was supreme！The guilt of my dark deed disturbed me but little.Some few inquiries had been made, but these had been readily answered.Even a search had been instituted—but of course nothing was to be discovered.I looked upon my future felicity as secured.
Upon the fourth day of the assassination, a party of the police came, very
unexpectedly, into the house, and proceeded again to make rigorous investigation of the premises. Secure, however, in the inscrutability of my place of concealment, I felt no embarrassment whatever.The officers bade me accompany them in their search.They left no nook or corner unexplored.At length, for the third or fourth time, they descended into the cellar.I quivered not in a muscle.My heart beat calmly as that of one who slumbers in innocence.I walked the cellar from end to end.I folded my arms upon my bosom, and roamed easily to and fro.The police were thoroughly satisfied and prepared to depart.The glee at my heart was too strong to be restrained.I burned to say if but one word, by way of triumph, and to render doubly sure their assurance of my guiltlessness.
“Gentlemen，”I said at last, as the party ascended the steps，“I delight to have
allayed your suspicions. I wish you all health, and a little more courtesy.By the bye,
gentlemen, this—this is a very well constructed house.”[In the rabid desire say something easily, I scarcely knew what I uttered at all.]—“I may say an excellently well-constructed house.These walls—are you going, gentlemen?—these walls are solidly put together；”and here, through the mere phrenzy of bravado, I rapped heavily, with a cane which I held in my hand, upon that very portion of the brick-work behind which stood the corpse of the wife of my bosom.
But may God shield and deliver me from the fangs of the Arch-Fiend！No
sooner had the reverberation of my blows sunk into silence, than I was answered by a voice from within the tomb！—by a cry, at first muffled and broken, like the sobbing of a child, and then quickly swelling into one long, loud, and continuous scream, utterly anomalous and inhuman—a howl—a wailing shriek, half of horror and half of triumph, such as might have arisen only out of hell, conjointly from the throats of the dammed in their agony and of the demons that exult in the damnation.
Of my own thoughts it is folly to speak. Swooning, I staggered to the opposite
wall.For one instant the party upon the stairs remained motionless, through extremity of terror and of awe.In the next, a dozen stout arms were toiling at the wall.It fell bodily.The corpse, already greatly decayed and clotted with gore, stood erect before the eyes of the spectators.Upon its head, with red extended mouth and solitary eye of fre, sat the hideous beast whose craft had seduced me into murder, and whose informing voice had consigned me to the hangman.I had walled the monster up within the tomb！
中学必读经典英文短篇小说《The black cat》赏析
