If still you think me mad(我还真的就认为你疯了……), you will think so no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body.
I cut off the head and the arms and the legs.
I then took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all between the scantling.
I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human eye---not even his---could have detected any thing wrong.
There was nothing to wash out---no stain of any kind---no blood-spot whatever.
I had been to wary for that.
A tub had caught all---ha! ha!
When I 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.
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 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 the (the officers) had been deputed to search the premises.
I smiled, ---for what had I to fear?
I bade the gentlemen 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 ade them search---search well.
I led them, at length, to his chamber.
I showed them his treasures, secure, undisturbed.
In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I bought chairs into the room, and desired them here to rest from their fatigues, 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.