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.