muffled at first, and then rising to a staccato sound for all to hear. Louder and louder it grows, but still the officers smile and chat. Louder, louder, and LOUDER until Poe shrieks, Villains, dissemble no more! I admit the deed!—tear up the planks—here, here—it is the beating of his hideous heart! Despite a story that may have risen out of a drug dream, Edgar Allan Poe comes close to a truth from which we cannot escape. As he sat in the presence of the officers, the imaginary beating of the telltale