When I ..................... a long time, very patiently, without ..................... him lie down, I resolved to open a little — a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it — you cannot imagine how stealthily,
stealthily — until, at length, a single dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and full upon the vulture eye.
Extracted from The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
Choose the words that best keep the meaning of the original sentence if they are substituted for the underlined words.