The Cask of Amontillado

 
(MUSIC)

 
"What is it?" he asked, putting his large hand on my shoulder.

 
"What!" he said, "A cask of Amontillado at this time of year.  An entire barrel? Impossible!"

 
I smiled to myself and said "But some people say that he is as good a judge of wine as you are."
 
Fortunato grabbed my arm. "Take me to it," he said. "I'll taste the Amontillado for you."
 
"But my friend," I protested, "it is late. The wine is in my wine cellar, underneath the palace. Those rooms are very damp and cold and the walls drip with water."
 
"I don't care," he said. "I am the only person who can tell you if your wine man has cheated you. Lucresi cannot!"

 
"Where are we?" Fortunato asked. "I thought you said the cask of Amontillado was in your wine cellar."

 
"It's nothing," he said, but he couldn't stop coughing.
 
"Come," I said firmly, "we will go back upstairs. Your health is important.You are rich, respected, admired, and loved. You have a wife and children. Many people would miss you if you died. We will go back before you get seriously ill. I can go to Lucresi for help with the wine."

 
"That is true," I said, "but you must be careful." He took my arm and we began to walk through the cold, dark rooms. We went deeper and deeper into the cellar.
 
Finally, we arrived in a small room. Bones were pushed high against one wall. A doorway in another wall opened to an even smaller room, about one meter wide and two meters high. Its walls were solid rock.

 
I finished the second and third rows of stone blocks. As I began the fourth row, I heard Fortunato begin to shake the chains that held him to the wall. He was trying to pull them out of the granite wall.

 
Suddenly, loud screams burst from the throat of the chained man. For a moment I worried. What if someone heard him? Then I placed my hand on the solid rock of the walls and felt safe. I looked into the tiny room, where he was still screaming. And I began to scream, too. My screams grew louder than his and he stopped.

 
The laugh made the hair on my head stand up. Then Fortunato spoke, in a sad voice that no longer sounded like him.