Chapter 1
My friend Auguste Dupin
My friend Auguste Dupin, he could read other people's thoughts as easily as writing on a wall.One night we were walking down a long street near the Jardin du Luxembourg.On the way, he knew through many details that I was thinking that Chantilly cannot write a tragedy.
Chapter 2
The murders
Not long after that night, we were looking through the Gazette, an evening newspaper.Had a murders from the fourth floor of a house in the Rue Morgue, which belongs to a Madame L'Espanaye, and her daughter, Mademoiselle Camille L'Espanaye. The police found the dead body of the daughter in the chimney.In front of the fireplace on the floor was a razor, with blood on it, and some long grey hair, with blood on the end. Also on the floor were three large silver spoons, and two bags, which contained nearly four thousand francs in gold. A small strong-box was found under the mattress. It was open, with the key in the lock, and contained only a few old letters.Then they went down into the small yard at the back of the house.There they found the dead body of Madame L'Espanaye.At the moment, the police say, there are no answers to this horrible mystery.
Chapter 3
What the witnesses said
The next day Dupin opened the morning newspaper at once.Witnesses' testimonies are recorded in newspaper.Witnesses include washerwoman, shopkeepers, police, neighbors, chefs, bankers, bank clerks, musicians, chefs, fruit vendors, doctors.Many other neighbours said the same thing. There were no visitors to the house.The shutters of the windows, front and back, were nearly always closed, except for the large back room on the fourth floor.They heard the two voices arguing.One was a deep voice, the other high and shrill.The deep voice was that of a Frenchman.The shrill voice was a foreigner.Everything was silent when they got up there, and when they broke the door open, they saw nobody in the room.The young lady's body was bruised and cut all over when it was pushed up the chimney.The neck was badly bruised, with deep red marks made by very strong fingers.The mother's body was also horribly bruised, and all the bones of the right leg and arm were broken.A razor was used to cut the neck, and the head was no longer joined to the body.How did the murderer or murderers escape from the house?Whose voices did the witnesses hear? Why was the money left in the room?The police have no answers to these questions.
Chapter 4
Auguste Dupin visits the Rue Morgue
Dupin read the evening newspaper, and then said, 'There is nothing new about the murders, but the police have arrested Adolphe Le Bon(bank clerk). Why, I don't know.Now, why don't we go round to the Rue Morgue?'We went that same afternoon.Dupin looked at everything.It was dark when we left the Rue Morgue, and on our way home Dupin went in for a moment to the office of one of the daily newspapers.The next day,'The answer to this mystery is not really difficult at all—I think I know it already.I am now waiting,'Dupin said to me,'for a person who is probably not the murderer himself, but who certainly knows something about the murders.Here are four guns, two for you and two for me.'
Chapter 5
The mysteries of the voice and the window
Dupin began to explain his thoughts to me.All the witnesses agreed that the deep voice was that of a Frenchman. But none of them agreed about the shrill voice.Speakers of five European languages did not hear one word that they knew.Then Dupin talked to me that room on the fourth floor of the house in the Rue Morgue.'A strong and agile—very agile—person could take hold of the latticed shutter with both hands, push his feet against the wall, and swing himself and the shutter across the window. And if the window is open and this person is very agile indeed, he could swing himself into the room.'Dupin said,'I am talking about somebody who is very strong and agile—agile in a very unusual way, perhaps. Remember also the voice, that peculiar, shrill voice, which spoke in a language that nobody knew.'
Chapter 6
A madman has done this
Dupin put his hand in his pocket and took some short, orangey-brown hair out to me.'I took this from between the fingers of Madame L'Espanaye's hand.It is not human hair.You remember the marks on the neck of Mademoiselle L'Espanaye—marks made by the fingers that killed her?These marks were not made by a human hand.' he said.Then Dupin brought the book to me.The book described an animal that is found in the East Indian Islands —the orang-outang.'A Frenchman brings home an orang-outang from the East Indian Islands, but one night the animal escapes from him. Our Frenchman follows it through the city, trying to catch it. When the orang-outang gets into the house in the Rue Morgue, the Frenchman sees what happens, but cannot catch the animal or stop it killing the two women.And I found this small piece of ribbon on the ground at the bottom of the lightning-rod.This colour is a favourite of Maltese sailors.I left advertisement at the office of Le Monde newspaper on our way home last night.So perhaps he will answer the advertisement.'Dupin said and gave me the ribbon to look at.Then we heard the sound of feet on the stairs.
Chapter 7
A visitor for Auguste Dupin
The door opened and a sailor came in.'You must tell me everything—about these murders in the Rue Morgue.'Dupin said these last words very quietly. Just as quietly, he walked to the door, locked it, and put the key in his pocket. He then took a gun from his coat pocket.The sailor was silent for a while. Then he said, 'I will tell you what I know.I have just come back from the East Indies. While I was there, I visited the island of Borneo. There I found and caught this orang-outang.I kept it hidden because of the neighbours, and I was planning to sell it as soon as possible for a lot of money.But the orang-outang ran out of the room.Then, when we were going down a narrow street at the back of the Rue Morgue, the animal saw a light in a window on the fourth floor.The animal saw the lightning-rod, quickly climbed up it, took hold of the latticed shutter, and swung itself through the open window.I decided to follow it up the lightning-rod at once.At that moment a most terrible screaming began.The orang-outang kill Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter.I almost fell down the lightning-rod, and ran home. I just wanted to get away from the horror of it.'