-- they were making a mockery of my horror! - this I thought, and this I think.

But
anything was better than this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this
derision! If I were to be caught, I should have been discovered in the deadly
middle of my own cunning! - to witness the astonishment pass over their faces at
how slowly -- so slowly -- the deed was done. Their laughter grew! The terrible
noise hammering my ears - I could stand no longer!

"Villains!" I roared, "scorn me not! -- for I am the cleverest man you have faced!"
The chair clamoured as I barrelled past, "I have taken all measures -- the cunning,
and stealth, and the plans -- oh the planning I did you truly know not!" The noise
had crested and broken over my head, "I buried him under you without suspicion, and
yet it is his heart --" my fist collided with the floor once "-- which beats --"
twice "-- on!" thrice.