 Set in the late 19th Century, a slightly unhinged man begins to obsess about his neighbour s  vulture eye . He is kind to him in the day but spies on him nightly at midnight, slowly intruding into his room in the pitch black. Finally on the eighth night, a ray of light falls on the offending eye inflaming our protagonist and driving him to murder. He has so objectified his nemesis that he sees this act only as a triumph over the  evil eye . When the police come to investigate, he is so confident he brings them into the murdered man s room for the interview and seats himself directly above the floorboards beneath which the murdered man lies. All goes well until he begins to  hear  a tap---is it his imagination, or is it the thud of the dead man s heart? The thud becomes a thump and then a bold tattoo---he becomes convinced the sound is audible to the police who are toying with him.