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 bade 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 brought chairs into the room,
and desired them here to rest from their fatigues, while I myself, in the wild 83
audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath
which reposed the corpse of the victim.
[Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849): The Tell-Tale Heart]