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

01The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe Part 1 Paris.

02It was in Paris during the summer of 1840.

03There and then I met a strange and interesting young man named Auguste Dupin.

04Dupin was the last member of a well-known family, a family that had once been rich and famous.

05Auguste Dupin, however, was far from rich.

06He cared little about money.

07He had enough to buy necessities and a few books.

08That was all, just books.

09With books, he was happy.

10In fact, we first met in an old bookstore.

11A few more chance meetings at such stores followed.

12Soon, we began to talk.

13I was deeply interested in the family history, he told me.

14I was surprised, too, at how much and how widely he had read.

15More important, the force of his busy mind was like a bright light in my soul.

16I felt that the friendship of such a man would be, for me, riches without price.

17So I told him how I felt, and asked him to come live with me.

18He would enjoy using my many fine books, and I would have the pleasure of company, for I was not happy alone.

19We passed the day's reading, writing, and talking.

20But Dupin was a lover of the night.

21So often, we walked the streets of Paris after dark.

22I soon noticed that Dupin had a special way of understanding people.

23Using it gave him great pleasure.

24He told me once, with a soft laugh, that he could see through the windows that most men have over their hearts.

25He could look into their souls.

26Then, he surprised me by telling what he knew about my own soul.

27He knew things about me that I had thought only I could possibly know.

28At these times, he acted cold and emotionally distant.

29His eyes looked empty and far away.

30His voice became high and nervous.

31At such times, it seemed to me that I saw not just Dupin, but two Dupin.

32One who coldly put things together, and another who just as coldly took them apart.

33One night, we were walking down one of Paris's long, dirty streets.

34We were quiet, both busy with our own thoughts.

35But suddenly, Dupin spoke.

36You're right, he said.

37He is a very little fellow, that's true, and he would be more successful if he acted in lighter, less serious plays.

38Yes, there can be no doubt of that, I said.

39At first, I saw nothing strange in this.

40Dupin had agreed with me.

41This, of course, seemed to me quite natural.

42A few moments passed.

43Then, it hit me.

44Dupin had not agreed with something I had said.

45He had agreed directly with my thoughts.

46I had not spoken a word.

47Dupin had read my mind.

48I stopped walking.

49Dupin, I said.

50Dupin, I don't understand.

51How could you know that I was thinking of...

52Here I stopped speaking.

53If he really had heard my thoughts, he would have to prove it.

54And he did.

55He said, How did I know you were thinking of Sean T?

56You were thinking that Sean T is too small for the plays in which he acts.

57That is indeed what I was thinking.

58But tell me, in heaven's name, how did you know?

59It was the fruit seller.

60Fruit seller?

61I mean the man who bumped into you as we entered the street, maybe 15 minutes ago.

62Oh, yes.

63I remember now.

64A fruit seller with a large basket of apples bumped into me.

65But what does that have to do with you knowing I was thinking of Sean T?

66I will explain.

67Listen closely now.

68Let us follow your thoughts from the fruit seller to the stage actor Sean T.

69Those thoughts must have gone like this.

70Fruit seller to cobblestones, cobblestones to stereotomy, stereotomy to epicurus, to Orion, and then to Sean T.

71He continued, As we turned onto this street, the fruit seller bumped you.

72You stepped on some uneven cobblestones.

73I could see that it hurt your foot.

74You spoke a few angry words to yourself and continued walking.

75But you kept looking at the cobblestones in the street, so I knew you were thinking of them.

76Then we came to a small street where they are putting down new street stones.

77Here your face became brighter.

78You were looking at these more even stones.

79And your lips moved.

80I was sure they formed the word stereotomy, which is the name for how these new stones are cut.

81Stereotomy takes a large block and divides it evenly into smaller pieces.

82You will remember that we read about it in the newspaper only yesterday.

83I thought that the word stereotomy must make you think of the old Greek writer and thinker, Epicurus.

84His ideas are also about dividing objects into smaller and smaller pieces called atoms.

85He argued that the world and everything else are made of these atoms.

86You and I were talking about Epicurus and his ideas, his atoms, recently.

87We were talking about how much those old ideas are like today's scientific study of the planets and stars.

88So I felt sure that now, as we walked, you would look up to the sky.

89And you did.

90I looked also at the sky.

91I saw that the group of stars we call Orion is very bright and clear tonight.

92I knew you would notice this and that you would think about the name Orion.

93Now keep listening carefully.

94Only yesterday, in the newspaper, there was a report about the actor Shanti.

95The critic did not praise him.

96And he used a Latin saying that had also been used to describe Orion.

97So I knew you would put together the two ideas of Orion and Shanti.

98I saw you smile, remembering the article and the mean words in it.

99Then I saw you straighten up, as tall as you could make yourself.

100I was sure you were thinking of Shanti's size and especially his height.

101He is small.

102He is short.

103And so I spoke saying that he is indeed a very little man, this Shanti, and he would be more successful if he acted in lighter, less serious plays.

104I cannot say I was surprised by what Dupin had just reported.

105My reaction was much bigger than just surprise.

106I was astonished.

107Dupin was right, as right as he could be.

108Those were, in fact, my thoughts, my unspoken thoughts, as my mind moved from one thought to the next.

109But if I was astonished by this, I would soon be more than astonished.

110One morning, this strangely interesting man showed me once again his unusual reasoning power.

111We heard that an old woman had been killed by unknown persons.

112The killer, or killers, had cut her head off and escaped into the night.

113Who was this killer, this murderer?

114The police had no answer.

115They had looked everywhere and found nothing that helped them.

116They did not know what to do next.

117And so they did nothing.

118But not Dupin.

119He knew what to do.

120He knew what to do.

121He knew what to do.

122He knew what to do.

123He knew what to do.

124He knew what to do.

125He knew what to do.

126He knew what to do.

127He knew what to do.

128He knew what to do.

129He knew what to do.

130He knew what to do.

131He knew what to do.

132He knew what to do.