The works of Edgar Allan Poe; newly collected and edited, with a memoir, critical introductions, and notes, by Edmund Clarence Stedman and George Edward Woodberry; the illustrations by Albert Edward Sterner.

TALES OF PSEUDO-SCIENCE

"Yes; still asleep - dying."
It was now the opinion, or rather the wish, of the
physicians, that M. Valdemar should be suffered to
remain undisturbed in his present apparently tranquil
condition, until death should supervene - and this, it
was generally agreed, must now take place within a
few minutes. I concluded, however, to speak to him
once more, and merely repeated my previous question.
While I spoke, there came a marked change over
the countenance of the sleep-waker. The eyes rolled
themselves slowly open, the pupils disappearing upwardly; the skin generally assumed a cadaverous hue,
resembling not so much parchment as white paper;
and the circular hectic spots which, hitherto, had been
strongly defined in the centre of each cheek, went out
at once. I use this expression, because the suddenness of their departure put me in mind of nothing so
much as the extinguishment of a candle by a puff of
the breath. The upper lip, at the same time, writhed
itself away from the teeth, which it had previously
covered completely; while the lower jaw fell with an
audible jerk, leaving the mouth widely extended, and
disclosing in full view the swollen and blackened
tongue. I presume that no member of the party then
present had been unaccustomed to death-bed horrors;
but so hideous beyond conception was the appearance
of M. Valdemar at this moment, that there was a
general shrinking back from the region of the bed.
I now feel that I have reached a point of this narrative at which every reader will be startled into
positive disbelief. It is my business, however, simply
to proceed.
There was no longer the faintest sign of vitality in
M. Valdemar; and concluding him to be dead, we
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