'The Murders in the Rue Morgue,' by Edgar Allen Poe, Part Two

01The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe Part 2 It was in Paris in the summer of 1840 that I met Auguste Dupin.

02Dupin was a strangely interesting young man with a busy, forceful mind.

03He seemed to look right through a person and uncover their deepest thoughts.

04Sometimes Dupin seemed to be not one, but two people.

05One who coldly put things together and another who just as coldly took them apart.

06One morning, in the heat of the summer, Dupin showed me once again his special mental power.

07We read in the newspaper about a terrible killing.

08An old woman and her daughter, living alone in an old house in the Rue Morgue, had been killed in the middle of the night.

09The story in the paper went...

10Paris, July 7th, 1840.

11Early this morning, cries of terror were heard in the western part of the city.

12They reportedly came from a house on the Rue Morgue, in which the only occupants were a Mrs.

13L'Espanier and her daughter Camille.

14Several neighbors and a policeman ran to the house.

15By the time they reached it, the cries had stopped.

16They forced the door open.

17As they entered, they heard two voices, apparently from above.

18The group searched, but found nothing, until the fourth floor.

19There they came to a door, locked from the inside.

20Quickly, they forced it open.

21Before them was a bloody horror scene.

22The room was in total disorder.

23Broken chairs and tables.

24And the mattress pulled from the bed.

25Blood was everywhere.

26On the walls, the floor, the bed.

27A sharp knife lay on the floor in a pool of blood.

28In front of the fireplace was a clump of long gray hair, also bloodied.

29It seemed to have been pulled straight out of a head.

30On the floor were four pieces of gold, an earring, several silver objects, and two bags containing a large amount of money in gold.

31Clothes had been thrown around the room.

32A lockbox was found left open with just a few old letters and papers inside.

33There was no one there.

34But when the group inspected the fireplace, they discovered another horror.

35A still warm body had been forced up the chimney.

36It was the old woman's daughter.

37There was blood on the face and dark, deep finger marks on the neck, suggesting a strangling.

38After searching the house thoroughly, the group went outside.

39They found the body of the old woman behind the building.

40Her neck had been cut so severely that when they tried to lift the body, the head fell off.

41The next day, the newspaper offered to its readers these new facts.

42Paris, July 8, 1840.

43The police have questioned many people about the vicious murders in the old house on the rue morgue.

44But none of the answers revealed the identity of the killers.

45Pauline Dubourg, a wash woman, said she has known both of the victims for more than three years and washed their clothes.

46She said, She said, The two seemed to love each other dearly.

47Pierre Moreau, a shopkeeper, said Mrs.

48Lespagnier had bought food at his shop for almost four years.

49She owned the house and had lived in it for more than six years.

50He never saw anyone enter the door except the old lady and her daughter, and a doctor eight or ten times, perhaps.

51Many other persons, neighbors, said the same thing.

52Almost no one ever went into the house.

53Mrs.

54Lespagnier and her daughter were not often seen.

55Banker Jules Mignon said that Mrs.

56Lespagnier had put money in his bank, beginning eight years before.

57Three days before the killings, she withdrew a large amount in gold.

58A man from the bank carried it to her house for her.

59Isidore Musée, a policeman, said that he was with the group that first entered the house.

60While he was going up the stairs, he heard two voices, one low and soft, and one hard, high, and very strange.

61The voice of someone who was surely not French.

62The voice of a foreigner.

63Maybe Spanish.

64It was not a woman's voice, he said, although he could not understand what it said.

65But the other voice said softly, in French, My God.

66Alfonso Garcia, who is Spanish and lives on the Rue Morgue, says he entered the house, but did not go up the stairs.

67A nervous man, he was afraid he might be sick.

68He heard the voices.

69He believes the high voice was not that of a Frenchman.

70Perhaps it was English, but he said he doesn't understand English, so he is not sure.

71William Byrd, an Englishman who has lived in Paris for two years, also entered the house.

72He said the low voice was that of a Frenchman, he was sure, because he heard it say, in French, My God.

73The high voice was very loud, he said.

74He is sure it was not the voice of an Englishman, nor the voice of a Frenchman.

75It seemed to be that of an Italian, a language he does not understand.

76He said it might have been a woman's voice.

77Mr.

78Alberto Montani, an Italian, was passing the house at the time of the cries.

79He said the screams lasted for about two minutes.

80Montani, who speaks Spanish but not French, says that he also heard two voices.

81He thought both voices were French, but he could not understand any of the words spoken.

82All who went in the house agreed that the door to the room on the fourth floor was locked from the inside.

83It was quiet.

84They saw no one.

85The windows were closed and locked from the inside.

86There is only one stairway to the fourth floor.

87They said that the chimney opening is too small for escape that way.

88It took four or five people to pull the daughter's body out of the chimney.

89It was four or five minutes from the time they heard the voices to the moment they entered the room.

90Paul Dumas, a doctor, says that he was called to inspect the bodies soon after they were found.

91They were in a horrible condition, badly marked and broken.

92He said only a man could have caused such injury.

93The daughter had been strangled, he said.

94When we had finished reading the newspaper's report of the murders, we were quiet for a while.

95Dupin had that cold, empty look that I know means his mind is working busily.

96He asked me what I thought of the crime.

97I said I considered it a mystery with no answer.

98But Dupin responded, No, no.

99No, I think you are wrong.

100A mystery, yes, but there must be an answer.

101Let us go to the house and see what we can see.

102There must be an answer.

103There must.

104There must be an answer.

105There must be an answer.

106There must be an answer.

107There must be an answer.

108There must be an answer.

109There must be an answer.