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The Black Cat

TOMORROW I DIE. Tomorrow I die1, and today I want to
tell the world what happened and thus perhaps free my soul
from the horrible* weight which lies upon it.

But listen! Listen, and you shall hear how I have been
destroyed.

When I was a child I had a natural goodness of soul
which led me to love animals — all kinds of animals, but espe-
cially those animals we call pets, animals which have learned to
live with men and share their homes with them. There is some-
thing in the love of these animals which speaks directly to the
heart of the man who has learned from experience how uncer-
tain and changeable is the love of other men.

I was quite young when I married. You will understand
the joy I felt to find that my wife shared with me my love for
animals. Quickly she got for us several pets of the most like-
able kind. We had birds, some goldfish, a fine dog, and a cat.

The cat was a beautiful animal, of unusually large size,
and entirely black. I named the cat Pluto2, and it was the pet I
liked best. I alone fed it, and it followed me all around the
house. It was even with difficulty that I stopped it from fol-
lowing me through the streets.

Our friendship lasted, in this manner, for several years,
during which, however, my own character became greatly
changed. I began to drink too much wine and other strong
drinks. As the days passed I became less loving in my manner;
I became quick to anger; I forgot how to smile and laugh. My
wife — yes, and my pets, too, all except the cat — were made
to3 feel the change in my character.

One night I came home quite late from the inn*, where I
now spent more and more time drinking. Walking with uncer-
tain step, I made my way with effort into the house. As I
entered I saw — or thought I saw — that Pluto, the cat, was
trying to stay out of my way, to avoid me. This action, by an
animal which I had thought still loved me, made me angry
beyond reason. My soul seemed to fly from my body. I took a
small knife* out of my coat and opened it. Then I took the
poor animal by the neck and with one quick movement I cut
out one of its fear-filled eyes!

Slowly the cat got4 well. The hole* where its eye had
been was not a pretty thing to look at, it is true; but the cat no
longer appeared to suffer any pain. As might be expected,
however, it ran from me in fear whenever* I came near. Why
should it not run? Yet this did not fail to anger me. I felt
growing inside myself a new feeling. Who has not, a hundred
times, found himself doing wrong, doing some evil* thing for
no other reason than because he knows he should not? Are not
we humans at all times pushed, ever driven5 in some unknown
way to break the law just because we understand it to be the
law?

One day, in cold blood6, I tied a strong rope* around
the cat’s neck, and taking it down into the cellar* under the
house I hung it from one of the wood beams* above my head.
I hung it there until it was dead. I hung it there with tears* in
my eyes, I hung it because I knew it had loved me, because I
felt it had given me no reason to hurt it, because I knew that
my doing so was a wrong so great, a sin so deadly* that it
would place my soul forever outside the reach of the love of
God!

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That same night, as I lay sleeping, I heard through my
open window the cries of our neighbors. I jumped from my
bed and found that the entire house was filled with fire. It was
only with great difficulty that my wife and I escaped. And
when we were out of the house, all we could do was stand and
watch it burn to the ground. I thought of the cat as I watched
it burn, the cat whose dead body I had left7 hanging in the
cellar. It seemed almost that the cat had in some mysterious*
way caused the house to burn so that it could make me pay
for my evil act, so that it could take revenge* upon me.

Months went by, and I could not drive the thought of the
cat out of my mind. One night I sat in the inn, drinking, as
usual. In the corner I saw a dark object that I had not seen
before. I went over to see what it could be. It was a cat, a
cat almost exactly like Pluto. I touched it with my hand and

petted it, passing my hand softly along its back. The cat rose
and pushed its back against my hand.

Suddenly I realized that I wanted the cat. I offered to
buy it from the innkeeper, but he claimed he had never seen
the animal before. As I left the inn, it followed me, and I
allowed it to do so. It soon became a pet of both my wife and
myself.

The morning after I brought it home, however, I dis-
covered that this cat, like Pluto, had only one eye. How was it
possible that I had not noticed this the night before? This fact
only made my wife love the cat more. But I, myself, found a
feeling of dislike* growing in me. My growing dislike of the
animal only seemed to increase its love for me. It followed me,
followed me everywhere*, always. When I sat, it lay down
under my chair. When I stood up it got between my feet8 and
nearly made me fall. Wherever I went, it was always there. At
night I dreamed of it. And I began to hate* that cat!

One day my wife called to me from the cellar of the old
building where we were now forced to live. As I went down
the stairs*, the cat, following me as always, ran under my feet
and nearly threw me down.

In sudden anger, I took a knife and struck wildly at the
cat. Quickly my wife put out her hand and stopped my arm.
This only increased my anger and, without thinking, I turned
and put the knife’s point deep into her heart! She fell to the
floor and died without a sound.

I spent9 a few moments looking for the cat, but it was
gone. And I had other things to do, for I knew I must do
something with the body, and quickly. Suddenly I noted a
place in the wall of the cellar where stones had been added to
the wall to cover an old fireplace* which was no longer
wanted. The walls were not very strongly built, and I found I
could easily take down those stones. Behind them there was,
as I knew there must be, a hole just big enough to hold the
body. With much effort I put the body in and carefully put
the stones back in their place. I was pleased to see that it was
quite impossible for anyone to know that a single stone had
been moved.

Days passed. Still there was no cat. A few people came
and asked about my wife; but I answered them easily. Then
one day several officers of the police came. Certain that they
could find nothing, I asked them in10 and went with them as
they searched.

Finally they searched the cellar from end to end. I
watched them quietly, and, as I expected, they noticed
nothing. But as they started up the stairs again, I felt myself
driven by some unknown inner force to let them know, to
make them know, that I had won the battle*.

“The walls of this building,” I said, “are very strongly
built; it is a fine old house.” And as I spoke I struck with my
stick that very place in the wall behind which was the body of
my wife. Immediately I felt a cold feeling up and down my
back as we heard coming out of the wall itself a horrible cry.

For one short moment the officers stood looking at each
other. Then quickly they began to pick at the stones, and in a
short time they saw before them the body of my wife, black
with dried blood and smelling of decay*. On the body’s head,
its one eye filled with fire, its wide open mouth the color of
blood, sat the cat, crying out its revenge!*

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