He turned towards me, and looked into my eyes with two filmy orbs that distilled the rheum of intoxication.“Nitre?” he asked, at length.“Nitre,” I replied. “How long have you had that cough?”“Ugh! ugh! ugh! — ugh! ugh! ugh! — ugh! ugh! ugh! — ugh! ugh! ugh! — ugh! ugh! ugh!”My poor friend found it impossible to reply for many minutes.“It is nothing,” he said, at last.
“Come,” I said, with decision, “we will go back; your health is precious. You are rich, respected, admired,beloved; you are happy, as once I was. You are a man to be missed. For me it is no matter. We will go back; youwill be ill, and I cannot be responsible. Besides, there is Luchesi — ”“Enough,” he said; “the cough’s a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough.”“True — true,” I replied; “and, indeed, I had no intention of alarming you unnecessarily — but you should use allproper caution. A draught of this Medoc will defend us from the damps.”
“Then you are not of the brotherhood.”“How?”“You are not of the masons.”“Yes, yes,” I said; “yes, yes.”“You? Impossible! A mason?”“A mason,” I replied.“A sign,” he said, “a sign.”“It is this,” I answered, producing from beneath the folds of my roquelaire a trowel.26“You jest,” he exclaimed, recoiling a few paces. “But let us proceed to the Amontillado.”
“He is an ignoramus,” interrupted my friend, as he stepped unsteadily forward, while I followed immediately at his heels. In niche, and finding an instant he had reached the extremity of the niche, and finding his progress arrested by the rock, stood stupidly bewildered. A moment more and I had fettered him to the granite. In its surface were two iron staples, distant from each other about two feet, horizontally. From one of these depended a short chain, from the other a padlock. Throwing the links about his waist, it was but the work of a few seconds to secure it. He was too much astounded to resist. Withdrawing the key I stepped back from the recess.
A succession of loud and shrill screams, bursting suddenly from the throat of the chained form, seemed to thrust me violently back. For a brief moment I hesitated, I trembled. Unsheathing my rapier, I began to grope with it about the recess; but the thought of an instant reassured me. I placed my hand upon the solid fabric of the catacombs and felt satisfied. I reapproached the wall; I replied to the yells of him who clamored. I reechoed, I aided, I surpassed them in volume and in strength. I did this, and the clamorer grew still.
“The Amontillado!” I said.“He! he! he! — he! he! he! — yes, the Amontillado. But is it not getting late? Will not they be awaiting us at the palazzo, the Lady Fortunato and the rest? Let us be gone.”“Yes,” I said, “let us be gone.”“For the love of God, Montresor!”“Yes,” I said, “for the love of God!”But to these words I hearkened in vain for a reply. I grew impatient. I called aloud —“Fortunato!”No answer. I called again —“Fortunato!”
Sukurta daugiau nei 30 milijonų siužetinių lentelių