MR. UTTERSON was sitting by his fireside one evening after\u00a0dinner, when he was surprised to receive a visit from Poole.<\/p>\r\n
\"Bless me, Poole, what brings you here?\" he cried; and then\u00a0taking a second look at him, \"What ails you?\" he added; \"is the\u00a0doctor ill?\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Mr. Utterson,\" said the man, \"there is something wrong.\"<\/p>\r\n\"Take a seat, and here is a glass of wine for you,\" said the\u00a0lawyer. \"Now, take your time, and tell me plainly what you want.\"\r\n
\"You know the doctor's ways, sir,\" replied Poole, \"and how he\u00a0shuts himself up. Well, he's shut up again in the cabinet; and I\u00a0don't like it, sir\u2014I wish I may die if I like it. Mr. Utterson,\u00a0sir, I'm afraid.\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Now, my good man,\" said the lawyer, \"be explicit. What are you\u00a0afraid of?\"<\/p>\r\n
\"I've been afraid for about a week,\" returned Poole, doggedly\u00a0disregarding the question, \"and I can bear it no more.\"<\/p>\r\n
The man's appearance amply bore out his\u00a0words; his manner was altered for the worse; and except for the\u00a0moment when he had first announced his terror, he had not once\u00a0looked the lawyer in the face. Even now, he sat with the glass of\u00a0wine untasted on his knee, and his eyes directed to a corner of\u00a0the floor. \"I can bear it no more,\" he repeated.<\/p>\r\n
\"Come,\" said the lawyer, \"I see you have some good reason, Poole;\u00a0I see there is something seriously amiss. Try to tell me what it\u00a0is.\"<\/p>\r\n
\"I think there's been foul play,\" said Poole, hoarsely.<\/p>\r\n\"Foul play!\" cried the lawyer, a good deal frightened and rather\u00a0inclined to be irritated in consequence. \"What foul play? What\u00a0does the man mean?\"\r\n
\"I daren't say, sir,\" was the answer; \"but will you come along\u00a0with me and see for yourself?\"<\/p>\r\n
Mr. Utterson's only answer was to rise and get his hat and\u00a0great-coat; but he observed with wonder the greatness of the\u00a0relief that appeared upon the butler's face, and perhaps with no\u00a0less, that the wine was still untasted when he set it down to\u00a0follow.<\/p>\r\n
It was a wild, cold, seasonable night of March, with a pale moon,\u00a0lying on her back as though the wind had tilted her, and a flying\u00a0wrack of the most diaphanous and lawny texture. The wind made\u00a0talking difficult, and flecked the blood into the face. It seemed\u00a0to have swept the\u00a0streets unusually bare of passengers, besides; for Mr. Utterson\u00a0thought he had never seen that part of London so deserted. He\u00a0could have wished it otherwise; never in his life had he been\u00a0conscious of so sharp a wish to see and touch his\u00a0fellow-creatures; for struggle as he might, there was borne in\u00a0upon his mind a crushing anticipation of calamity. The square,\u00a0when they got there, was all full of wind and dust, and the thin\u00a0trees in the garden were lashing themselves along the railing.\u00a0Poole, who had kept all the way a pace or two ahead, now pulled\u00a0up in the middle of the pavement, and in spite of the biting\u00a0weather, took off his hat and mopped his brow with a red\u00a0pocket-handkerchief. But for all the hurry of his coming, these\u00a0were not the dews of exertion that he wiped away, but the\u00a0moisture of some strangling anguish; for his face was white and\u00a0his voice, when he spoke, harsh and broken.<\/p>\r\n
\"Well, sir,\" he said, \"here we are, and God grant there be\u00a0nothing wrong.\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Amen, Poole,\" said the lawyer.<\/p>\r\n
Thereupon the servant knocked in a very guarded manner; the door\u00a0was opened on the chain; and a voice asked from within, \"Is that\u00a0you, Poole?\"<\/p>\r\n
\"It's all right,\" said Poole. \"Open the door.\" The hall, when\u00a0they entered it, was brightly lighted up; the fire was built\u00a0high; and about the hearth the whole of the servants, men and\u00a0women, stood huddled together like a flock of sheep. At the sight\u00a0of Mr. Utterson, the housemaid broke into hysterical whimpering;\u00a0and the cook, crying out, \"Bless God! it's Mr. Utterson,\" ran\u00a0forward as if to take him in her arms.<\/p>\r\n
\"What, what? Are you all here?\" said the lawyer peevishly. \"Very\u00a0irregular, very unseemly; your master would be far from pleased.\"<\/p>\r\n
\"They're all afraid,\" said Poole.<\/p>\r\n
Blank silence followed, no one protesting; only the maid lifted\u00a0up her voice and now wept loudly.<\/p>\r\n
\"Hold your tongue!\" Poole said to her, with a ferocity of accent\u00a0that testified to his own jangled nerves; and indeed, when the\u00a0girl had so suddenly raised the note of her lamentation, they had\u00a0all started and turned toward the inner door with faces of\u00a0dreadful expectation. \"And now,\" continued the butler, addressing\u00a0the knife-boy, \"reach me a candle, and we'll get this through\u00a0hands at once.\" And then he begged Mr. Utterson to follow him,\u00a0and led the way to the back-garden.<\/p>\r\n
\"Now, sir,\" said he, \"you come as gently as you can. I want you\u00a0to hear, and I don't want you to be heard. And see here, sir, if\u00a0by any chance he was to ask you in, don't go.\"<\/p>\r\n
Mr. Utterson's nerves, at this unlooked-for termination, gave a\u00a0jerk that nearly threw him from his balance; but he re-collected\u00a0his courage\u00a0and followed the butler into the laboratory building and through\u00a0the surgical theatre, with its lumber of crates and bottles, to\u00a0the foot of the stair. Here Poole motioned him to stand on one\u00a0side and listen; while he himself, setting down the candle and\u00a0making a great and obvious call on his resolution, mounted the\u00a0steps and knocked with a somewhat uncertain hand on the red baize\u00a0of the cabinet door.<\/p>\r\n
\"Mr. Utterson, sir, asking to see you,\" he called; and even as he\u00a0did so, once more violently signed to the lawyer to give ear.<\/p>\r\n
A voice answered from within: \"Tell him I cannot see any one,\" it\u00a0said complainingly.<\/p>\r\n
\"Thank you, sir,\" said Poole, with a note of something like\u00a0triumph in his voice; and taking up his candle, he led Mr.\u00a0Utterson back across the yard and into the great kitchen, where\u00a0the fire was out and the beetles were leaping on the floor.<\/p>\r\n
\"Sir,\" he said, looking Mr. Utterson in the eyes, \"was that my\u00a0master's voice?\"<\/p>\r\n
\"It seems much changed,\" replied the lawyer, very pale, but\u00a0giving look for look.<\/p>\r\n
\"Changed? Well, yes, I think so,\" said the butler. \"Have I been\u00a0twenty years in this man's house, to be deceived about his voice?\u00a0No, sir; master's made away with; he was made, away with eight\u00a0days ago, when we heard him cry out upon the name of God; and\u00a0who's in there instead of him, and why it stays there, is a thing\u00a0that cries to Heaven, Mr. Utterson!\"<\/p>\r\n
\"This is a very strange tale, Poole; this is rather a wild tale,\u00a0my man,\" said Mr. Utterson, biting his finger. \"Suppose it were\u00a0as you suppose, supposing Dr. Jekyll to have been\u2014well,\u00a0murdered, what could induce the murderer to stay? That won't hold\u00a0water; it doesn't commend itself to reason.\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Well, Mr. Utterson, you are a hard man to satisfy, but I'll do\u00a0it yet,\" said Poole. \"All this last week (you must know) him, or\u00a0it, or whatever it is that lives in that cabinet, has been crying\u00a0night and day for some sort of medicine and cannot get it to his\u00a0mind. It was sometimes his way\u2014the master's, that is\u2014to\u00a0write his orders on a sheet of paper and throw it on the stair.\u00a0We've had nothing else this week back; nothing but papers, and a\u00a0closed door, and the very meals left there to be smuggled in when\u00a0nobody was looking. Well, sir, every day, ay, and twice and\u00a0thrice in the same day, there have been orders and complaints,\u00a0and I have been sent flying to all the wholesale chemists in\u00a0town. Every time I brought the stuff back, there would be another\u00a0paper telling me to return it, because it was not pure, and\u00a0another order to a different firm. This drug is wanted bitter\u00a0bad, sir, whatever for.\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Have you any of these papers?\" asked Mr. Utterson.<\/p>\r\n
Poole felt in his pocket and handed out a crumpled note, which\u00a0the lawyer, bending nearer\u00a0to the candle, carefully examined. Its contents ran thus: \"Dr.\u00a0Jekyll presents his compliments to Messrs. Maw. He assures them\u00a0that their last sample is impure and quite useless for his\u00a0present purpose. In the year 18\u2014, Dr. J. purchased a somewhat\u00a0large quantity from Messrs. M. He now begs them to search with\u00a0the most sedulous care, and should any of the same quality be\u00a0left, to forward it to him at once. Expense is no consideration.\u00a0The importance of this to Dr. J. can hardly be exaggerated.\" So\u00a0far the letter had run composedly enough, but here with a sudden\u00a0splutter of the pen, the writer's emotion had broken loose. \"For\u00a0God's sake,\" he had added, \"find me some of the old.\"<\/p>\r\n
\"This is a strange note,\" said Mr. Utterson; and then sharply,<\/p>\r\n\"How do you come to have it open?\"\r\n
\"The man at Maw's was main angry, sir, and he threw it back to me\u00a0like so much dirt,\" returned Poole.<\/p>\r\n
\"This is unquestionably the doctor's hand, do you know?\" resumed\u00a0the lawyer.<\/p>\r\n
\"I thought it looked like it,\" said the servant rather sulkily;\u00a0and then, with another voice, \"But what matters hand-of-write?\"\u00a0he said. \"I've seen him!\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Seen him?\" repeated Mr. Utterson. \"Well?\"<\/p>\r\n
\"That's it!\" said Poole. \"It was this way. I came suddenly into\u00a0the theatre from the\u00a0garden. It seems he had slipped out to look for this drug or\u00a0whatever it is; for the cabinet door was open, and there he was\u00a0at the far end of the room digging among the crates. He looked up\u00a0when I came in, gave a kind of cry, and whipped up-stairs into\u00a0the cabinet. It was but for one minute that I saw him, but the\u00a0hair stood upon my head like quills. Sir, if that was my master,\u00a0why had he a mask upon his face? If it was my master, why did he\u00a0cry out like a rat, and run from me? I have served him long\u00a0enough. And then\u2026\" The man paused and passed his hand over his\u00a0face.<\/p>\r\n
\"These are all very strange circumstances,\" said Mr. Utterson,\u00a0\"but I think I begin to see daylight. Your master, Poole, is\u00a0plainly seized with one of those maladies that both torture and\u00a0deform the sufferer; hence, for aught I know, the alteration of\u00a0his voice; hence the mask and the avoidance of his friends; hence\u00a0his eagerness to find this drug, by means of which the poor soul\u00a0retains some hope of ultimate recovery\u2014God grant that he be\u00a0not deceived! There is my explanation; it is sad enough, Poole,\u00a0ay, and appalling to consider; but it is plain and natural, hangs\u00a0well together, and delivers us from all exorbitant alarms.\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Sir,\" said the butler, turning to a sort of mottled pallor,\u00a0\"that thing was not my master, and there's the truth. My master\"\u00a0here he looked round him and began to whisper\u2014\"is\u00a0a tall, fine build of a man, and this was more of a dwarf.\"\u00a0Utterson attempted to protest. \"O, sir,\" cried Poole, \"do you\u00a0think I do not know my master after twenty years? Do you think I\u00a0do not know where his head comes to in the cabinet door, where I\u00a0saw him every morning of my life? No, Sir, that thing in the mask\u00a0was never Dr. Jekyll\u2014God knows what it was, but it was never\u00a0Dr. Jekyll; and it is the belief of my heart that there was\u00a0murder done.\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Poole,\" replied the lawyer, \"if you say that, it will become my\u00a0duty to make certain. Much as I desire to spare your master's\u00a0feelings, much as I am puzzled by this note which seems to prove\u00a0him to be still alive, I shall consider it my duty to break in\u00a0that door.\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Ah Mr. Utterson, that's talking!\" cried the butler.<\/p>\r\n
\"And now comes the second question,\" resumed Utterson: \"Who is\u00a0going to do it?\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Why, you and me,\" was the undaunted reply.<\/p>\r\n
\"That's very well said,\" returned the lawyer; \"and whatever comes\u00a0of it, I shall make it my business to see you are no loser.\"<\/p>\r\n
\"There is an axe in the theatre,\" continued Poole; \"and you might\u00a0take the kitchen poker for yourself.\"<\/p>\r\n
The lawyer took that rude but weighty instrument into his hand,\u00a0and balanced it. \"Do you know, Poole,\" he said, looking up, \"that\u00a0you and I are about to place ourselves in a position of some\u00a0peril?\"<\/p>\r\n
\"You may say so, sir, indeed,\" returned the butler.<\/p>\r\n
\"It is well, then, that we should be frank,\" said the other. \"We\u00a0both think more than we have said; let us make a clean breast.\u00a0This masked figure that you saw, did you recognise it?\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Well, sir, it went so quick, and the creature was so doubled up,\u00a0that I could hardly swear to that,\" was the answer. \"But if you\u00a0mean, was it Mr. Hyde?\u2014why, yes, I think it was! You see, it\u00a0was much of the same bigness; and it had the same quick, light\u00a0way with it; and then who else could have got in by the\u00a0laboratory door? You have not forgot, sir that at the time of the\u00a0murder he had still the key with him? But that's not all. I don't\u00a0know, Mr. Utterson, if ever you met this Mr. Hyde?\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Yes,\" said the lawyer, \"I once spoke with him.\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Then you must know as well as the rest of us that there was\u00a0something queer about that gentleman\u2014something that gave a man\u00a0a turn\u2014I don't know rightly how to say it, sir, beyond this:\u00a0that you felt it in your marrow kind of cold and thin.\"<\/p>\r\n
\"I own I felt something of what you describe,\" said Mr. Utterson.<\/p>\r\n
\"Quite so, sir,\" returned Poole. \"Well, when\u00a0that masked thing like a monkey jumped from among the chemicals\u00a0and whipped into the cabinet, it went down my spine like ice. Oh,\u00a0I know it's not evidence, Mr. Utterson. I'm book-learned enough\u00a0for that; but a man has his feelings, and I give you my\u00a0Bible-word it was Mr. Hyde!\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Ay, ay,\" said the lawyer. \"My fears incline to the same point.\u00a0Evil, I fear, founded\u2014evil was sure to come\u2014of that\u00a0connection. Ay, truly, I believe you; I believe poor Harry is\u00a0killed; and I believe his murderer (for what purpose, God alone\u00a0can tell) is still lurking in his victim's room. Well, let our\u00a0name be vengeance. Call Bradshaw.\"<\/p>\r\n
The footman came at the summons, very white and nervous.<\/p>\r\n\"Pull yourself together, Bradshaw,\" said the lawyer. \"This\u00a0suspense, I know, is telling upon all of you; but it is now our\u00a0intention to make an end of it. Poole, here, and I are going to\u00a0force our way into the cabinet. If all is well, my shoulders are\u00a0broad enough to bear the blame. Meanwhile, lest anything should\u00a0really be amiss, or any malefactor seek to escape by the back,\u00a0you and the boy must go round the corner with a pair of good\u00a0sticks and take your post at the laboratory door. We give you ten\u00a0minutes to get to your stations.\"\r\n
As Bradshaw left, the lawyer looked at his watch. \"And now,\u00a0Poole, let us get to ours,\"\u00a0he said; and taking the poker under his arm, led the way into the\u00a0yard. The scud had banked over the moon, and it was now quite\u00a0dark. The wind, which only broke in puffs and draughts into that\u00a0deep well of building, tossed the light of the candle to and fro\u00a0about their steps, until they came into the shelter of the\u00a0theatre, where they sat down silently to wait. London hummed\u00a0solemnly all around; but nearer at hand, the stillness was only\u00a0broken by the sounds of a footfall moving to and fro along the\u00a0cabinet floor.<\/p>\r\n
\"So it will walk all day, sir,\" whispered Poole; \"ay, and the\u00a0better part of the night. Only when a new sample comes from the\u00a0chemist, there's a bit of a break. Ah, it's an ill conscience\u00a0that's such an enemy to rest! Ah, sir, there's blood foully shed\u00a0in every step of it! But hark again, a little closer\u2014put your\u00a0heart in your ears, Mr. Utterson, and tell me, is that the\u00a0doctor's foot?\"<\/p>\r\n
The steps fell lightly and oddly, with a certain swing, for all\u00a0they went so slowly; it was different indeed from the heavy\u00a0creaking tread of Henry Jekyll. Utterson sighed. \"Is there never\u00a0anything else?\" he asked.<\/p>\r\n
Poole nodded. \"Once,\" he said. \"Once I heard it weeping!\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Weeping? how that?\" said the lawyer, conscious of a sudden chill\u00a0of horror.<\/p>\r\n
\"Weeping like a woman or a lost soul,\" said\u00a0the butler. \"I came away with that upon my heart, that I could\u00a0have wept too.\"<\/p>\r\n
But now the ten minutes drew to an end. Poole disinterred the axe\u00a0from under a stack of packing straw; the candle was set upon the\u00a0nearest table to light them to the attack; and they drew near\u00a0with bated breath to where that patient foot was still going up\u00a0and down, up and down, in the quiet of the night.<\/p>\r\n
\"Jekyll,\" cried Utterson, with a loud voice, \"I demand to see\u00a0you.\" He paused a moment, but there came no reply. \"I give you\u00a0fair warning, our suspicions are aroused, and I must and shall\u00a0see you,\" he resumed; \"if not by fair means, then by foul! if not\u00a0of your consent, then by brute force!\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Utterson,\" said the voice, \"for God's sake, have mercy!\"<\/p>\r\n\"Ah, that's not Jekyll's voice\u2014it's Hyde's!\" cried Utterson.\r\n\r\n\"Down with the door, Poole!\"\r\n
Poole swung the axe over his shoulder; the blow shook the\u00a0building, and the red baize door leaped against the lock and\u00a0hinges. A dismal screech, as of mere animal terror, rang from the\u00a0cabinet. Up went the axe again, and again the panels crashed and\u00a0the frame bounded; four times the blow fell; but the wood was\u00a0tough and the fittings were of excellent workmanship; and it was\u00a0not until the fifth, that the lock burst in sunder and the wreck\u00a0of the door fell inwards on the carpet.<\/p>\r\n
The besiegers, appalled by their own riot and the stillness that\u00a0had succeeded, stood back a little and peered in. There lay the\u00a0cabinet before their eyes in the quiet lamplight, a good fire\u00a0glowing and chattering on the hearth, the kettle singing its thin\u00a0strain, a drawer or two open, papers neatly set forth on the\u00a0business-table, and nearer the fire, the things laid out for tea:\u00a0the quietest room, you would have said, and, but for the glazed\u00a0presses full of chemicals, the most commonplace that night in\u00a0London.<\/p>\r\n
Right in the midst there lay the body of a man sorely contorted\u00a0and still twitching. They drew near on tiptoe, turned it on its\u00a0back and beheld the face of Edward Hyde. He was dressed in\u00a0clothes far too large for him, clothes of the doctor's bigness;\u00a0the cords of his face still moved with a semblance of life, but\u00a0life was quite gone; and by the crushed phial in the hand and the\u00a0strong smell of kernels that hung upon the air, Utterson knew\u00a0that he was looking on the body of a self-destroyer.<\/p>\r\n
\"We have come too late,\" he said sternly, \"whether to save or\u00a0punish. Hyde is gone to his account; and it only remains for us\u00a0to find the body of your master.\"<\/p>\r\n
The far greater proportion of the building was occupied by the\u00a0theatre, which filled almost the whole ground story and was\u00a0lighted from above, and by the cabinet, which formed an upper\u00a0story at one end and looked upon the\u00a0court. A corridor joined the theatre to the door on the\u00a0by-street; and with this the cabinet communicated separately by a\u00a0second flight of stairs. There were besides a few dark closets\u00a0and a spacious cellar. All these they now thoroughly examined.\u00a0Each closet needed but a glance, for all were empty, and all, by\u00a0the dust that fell from their doors, had stood long unopened. The\u00a0cellar, indeed, was filled with crazy lumber, mostly dating from\u00a0the times of the surgeon who was Jekyll's predecessor; but even\u00a0as they opened the door they were advertised of the uselessness\u00a0of further search, by the fall of a perfect mat of cobweb which\u00a0had for years sealed up the entrance. Nowhere was there any trace\u00a0of Henry Jekyll, dead or alive.<\/p>\r\n
Poole stamped on the flags of the corridor. \"He must be buried\u00a0here,\" he said, hearkening to the sound.<\/p>\r\n
\"Or he may have fled,\" said Utterson, and he turned to examine\u00a0the door in the by-street. It was locked; and lying near by on\u00a0the flags, they found the key, already stained with rust.<\/p>\r\n
\"This does not look like use,\" observed the lawyer.<\/p>\r\n
\"Use!\" echoed Poole. \"Do you not see, sir, it is broken? much as\u00a0if a man had stamped on it.\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Ay,\" continued Utterson, \"and the fractures, too, are rusty.\"\u00a0The two men looked at each other with a scare. \"This is beyond\u00a0me,\u00a0Poole,\" said the lawyer. \"Let us go back to the cabinet.\"<\/p>\r\n
They mounted the stair in silence, and still with an occasional\u00a0awe-struck glance at the dead body, proceeded more thoroughly to\u00a0examine the contents of the cabinet. At one table, there were\u00a0traces of chemical work, various measured heaps of some white\u00a0salt being laid on glass saucers, as though for an experiment in\u00a0which the unhappy man had been prevented.<\/p>\r\n
\"That is the same drug that I was always bringing him,\" said\u00a0Poole; and even as he spoke, the kettle with a startling noise\u00a0boiled over.<\/p>\r\n
This brought them to the fireside, where the easy-chair was drawn\u00a0cosily up, and the tea-things stood ready to the sitter's elbow,\u00a0the very sugar in the cup. There were several books on a shelf;\u00a0one lay beside the tea-things open, and Utterson was amazed to\u00a0find it a copy of a pious work, for which Jekyll had several\u00a0times expressed a great esteem, annotated, in his own hand, with\u00a0startling blasphemies.<\/p>\r\n
Next, in the course of their review of the chamber, the searchers\u00a0came to the cheval glass, into whose depths they looked with an\u00a0involuntary horror. But it was so turned as to show them nothing\u00a0but the rosy glow playing on the roof, the fire sparkling in a\u00a0hundred repetitions along the glazed front of the presses, and\u00a0their own pale and fearful countenances stooping to look in.<\/p>\r\n
\"This glass have seen some strange things, sir,\" whispered Poole.<\/p>\r\n
\"And surely none stranger than itself,\" echoed the lawyer in the\u00a0same tones. \"For what did Jekyll\"\u2014he caught himself up at the\u00a0word with a start, and then conquering the weakness\u2014\"what\u00a0could Jekyll want with it?\" he said.<\/p>\r\n
\"You may say that!\" said Poole. Next they turned to the\u00a0business-table. On the desk among the neat array of papers, a\u00a0large envelope was uppermost, and bore, in the doctor's hand, the\u00a0name of Mr. Utterson. The lawyer unsealed it, and several\u00a0enclosures fell to the floor. The first was a will, drawn in the\u00a0same eccentric terms as the one which he had returned six months\u00a0before, to serve as a testament in case of death and as a deed of\u00a0gift in case of disappearance; but, in place of the name of\u00a0Edward Hyde, the lawyer, with indescribable amazement, read the\u00a0name of Gabriel John Utterson. He looked at Poole, and then back\u00a0at the paper, and last of all at the dead malefactor stretched\u00a0upon the carpet.<\/p>\r\n
\"My head goes round,\" he said. \"He has been all these days in\u00a0possession; he had no cause to like me; he must have raged to see\u00a0himself displaced; and he has not destroyed this document.\"<\/p>\r\n
He caught up the next paper; it was a brief note in the doctor's\u00a0hand and dated at the top.<\/p>\r\n
\"O Poole!\" the lawyer cried, \"he was alive and here this day. He\u00a0cannot have been disposed of in so short a space, he must be\u00a0still alive, he must have fled! And then, why fled? and how? and\u00a0in that case, can we venture to declare this suicide? Oh, we must\u00a0be careful. I foresee that we may yet involve your master in some\u00a0dire catastrophe.\"<\/p>\r\n
\"Why don't you read it, sir?\" asked Poole.<\/p>\r\n
\"Because I fear,\" replied the lawyer solemnly. \"God grant I have\u00a0no cause for it!\" And with that he brought the paper to his eyes\u00a0and read as follows:<\/p>\r\n\"MY DEAR UTTERSON,\u2014When this shall fall into your hands, I\u00a0shall have disappeared, under what circumstances I have not the\u00a0penetration to foresee, but my instinct and all the circumstances\u00a0of my nameless situation tell me that the end is sure and must be\u00a0early. Go then, and first read the narrative which Lanyon warned\u00a0me he was to place in your hands; and if you care to hear more,\u00a0turn to the confession of\r\n\r\n\"Your unworthy and unhappy friend,\u00a0HENRY JEKYLL.\"\r\n\r\n\"There was a third enclosure?\" asked Utterson.\r\n
\"Here, sir,\" said Poole, and gave into his hands a considerable\u00a0packet sealed in several places.<\/p>\r\n
The lawyer put it in his pocket. \"I would say nothing of this\u00a0paper. If your master has fled or is dead, we may at least save\u00a0his credit. It is now ten; I must go home and read these\u00a0documents in quiet; but I shall be back before midnight, when we\u00a0shall send for the police.\"<\/p>\r\n
They went out, locking the door of the theatre behind them; and\u00a0Utterson, once more leaving the servants gathered about the fire\u00a0in the hall, trudged back to his office to read the two\u00a0narratives in which this mystery was now to be explained.<\/p>","rendered":"
MR. UTTERSON was sitting by his fireside one evening after\u00a0dinner, when he was surprised to receive a visit from Poole.<\/p>\n
“Bless me, Poole, what brings you here?” he cried; and then\u00a0taking a second look at him, “What ails you?” he added; “is the\u00a0doctor ill?”<\/p>\n
“Mr. Utterson,” said the man, “there is something wrong.”<\/p>\n
“Take a seat, and here is a glass of wine for you,” said the\u00a0lawyer. “Now, take your time, and tell me plainly what you want.”<\/p>\n
“You know the doctor’s ways, sir,” replied Poole, “and how he\u00a0shuts himself up. Well, he’s shut up again in the cabinet; and I\u00a0don’t like it, sir\u2014I wish I may die if I like it. Mr. Utterson,\u00a0sir, I’m afraid.”<\/p>\n
“Now, my good man,” said the lawyer, “be explicit. What are you\u00a0afraid of?”<\/p>\n
“I’ve been afraid for about a week,” returned Poole, doggedly\u00a0disregarding the question, “and I can bear it no more.”<\/p>\n
The man’s appearance amply bore out his\u00a0words; his manner was altered for the worse; and except for the\u00a0moment when he had first announced his terror, he had not once\u00a0looked the lawyer in the face. Even now, he sat with the glass of\u00a0wine untasted on his knee, and his eyes directed to a corner of\u00a0the floor. “I can bear it no more,” he repeated.<\/p>\n
“Come,” said the lawyer, “I see you have some good reason, Poole;\u00a0I see there is something seriously amiss. Try to tell me what it\u00a0is.”<\/p>\n
“I think there’s been foul play,” said Poole, hoarsely.<\/p>\n
“Foul play!” cried the lawyer, a good deal frightened and rather\u00a0inclined to be irritated in consequence. “What foul play? What\u00a0does the man mean?”<\/p>\n
“I daren’t say, sir,” was the answer; “but will you come along\u00a0with me and see for yourself?”<\/p>\n
Mr. Utterson’s only answer was to rise and get his hat and\u00a0great-coat; but he observed with wonder the greatness of the\u00a0relief that appeared upon the butler’s face, and perhaps with no\u00a0less, that the wine was still untasted when he set it down to\u00a0follow.<\/p>\n
It was a wild, cold, seasonable night of March, with a pale moon,\u00a0lying on her back as though the wind had tilted her, and a flying\u00a0wrack of the most diaphanous and lawny texture. The wind made\u00a0talking difficult, and flecked the blood into the face. It seemed\u00a0to have swept the\u00a0streets unusually bare of passengers, besides; for Mr. Utterson\u00a0thought he had never seen that part of London so deserted. He\u00a0could have wished it otherwise; never in his life had he been\u00a0conscious of so sharp a wish to see and touch his\u00a0fellow-creatures; for struggle as he might, there was borne in\u00a0upon his mind a crushing anticipation of calamity. The square,\u00a0when they got there, was all full of wind and dust, and the thin\u00a0trees in the garden were lashing themselves along the railing.\u00a0Poole, who had kept all the way a pace or two ahead, now pulled\u00a0up in the middle of the pavement, and in spite of the biting\u00a0weather, took off his hat and mopped his brow with a red\u00a0pocket-handkerchief. But for all the hurry of his coming, these\u00a0were not the dews of exertion that he wiped away, but the\u00a0moisture of some strangling anguish; for his face was white and\u00a0his voice, when he spoke, harsh and broken.<\/p>\n
“Well, sir,” he said, “here we are, and God grant there be\u00a0nothing wrong.”<\/p>\n
“Amen, Poole,” said the lawyer.<\/p>\n
Thereupon the servant knocked in a very guarded manner; the door\u00a0was opened on the chain; and a voice asked from within, “Is that\u00a0you, Poole?”<\/p>\n
“It’s all right,” said Poole. “Open the door.” The hall, when\u00a0they entered it, was brightly lighted up; the fire was built\u00a0high; and about the hearth the whole of the servants, men and\u00a0women, stood huddled together like a flock of sheep. At the sight\u00a0of Mr. Utterson, the housemaid broke into hysterical whimpering;\u00a0and the cook, crying out, “Bless God! it’s Mr. Utterson,” ran\u00a0forward as if to take him in her arms.<\/p>\n
“What, what? Are you all here?” said the lawyer peevishly. “Very\u00a0irregular, very unseemly; your master would be far from pleased.”<\/p>\n
“They’re all afraid,” said Poole.<\/p>\n
Blank silence followed, no one protesting; only the maid lifted\u00a0up her voice and now wept loudly.<\/p>\n
“Hold your tongue!” Poole said to her, with a ferocity of accent\u00a0that testified to his own jangled nerves; and indeed, when the\u00a0girl had so suddenly raised the note of her lamentation, they had\u00a0all started and turned toward the inner door with faces of\u00a0dreadful expectation. “And now,” continued the butler, addressing\u00a0the knife-boy, “reach me a candle, and we’ll get this through\u00a0hands at once.” And then he begged Mr. Utterson to follow him,\u00a0and led the way to the back-garden.<\/p>\n
“Now, sir,” said he, “you come as gently as you can. I want you\u00a0to hear, and I don’t want you to be heard. And see here, sir, if\u00a0by any chance he was to ask you in, don’t go.”<\/p>\n
Mr. Utterson’s nerves, at this unlooked-for termination, gave a\u00a0jerk that nearly threw him from his balance; but he re-collected\u00a0his courage\u00a0and followed the butler into the laboratory building and through\u00a0the surgical theatre, with its lumber of crates and bottles, to\u00a0the foot of the stair. Here Poole motioned him to stand on one\u00a0side and listen; while he himself, setting down the candle and\u00a0making a great and obvious call on his resolution, mounted the\u00a0steps and knocked with a somewhat uncertain hand on the red baize\u00a0of the cabinet door.<\/p>\n
“Mr. Utterson, sir, asking to see you,” he called; and even as he\u00a0did so, once more violently signed to the lawyer to give ear.<\/p>\n
A voice answered from within: “Tell him I cannot see any one,” it\u00a0said complainingly.<\/p>\n
“Thank you, sir,” said Poole, with a note of something like\u00a0triumph in his voice; and taking up his candle, he led Mr.\u00a0Utterson back across the yard and into the great kitchen, where\u00a0the fire was out and the beetles were leaping on the floor.<\/p>\n
“Sir,” he said, looking Mr. Utterson in the eyes, “was that my\u00a0master’s voice?”<\/p>\n
“It seems much changed,” replied the lawyer, very pale, but\u00a0giving look for look.<\/p>\n
“Changed? Well, yes, I think so,” said the butler. “Have I been\u00a0twenty years in this man’s house, to be deceived about his voice?\u00a0No, sir; master’s made away with; he was made, away with eight\u00a0days ago, when we heard him cry out upon the name of God; and\u00a0who’s in there instead of him, and why it stays there, is a thing\u00a0that cries to Heaven, Mr. Utterson!”<\/p>\n
“This is a very strange tale, Poole; this is rather a wild tale,\u00a0my man,” said Mr. Utterson, biting his finger. “Suppose it were\u00a0as you suppose, supposing Dr. Jekyll to have been\u2014well,\u00a0murdered, what could induce the murderer to stay? That won’t hold\u00a0water; it doesn’t commend itself to reason.”<\/p>\n
“Well, Mr. Utterson, you are a hard man to satisfy, but I’ll do\u00a0it yet,” said Poole. “All this last week (you must know) him, or\u00a0it, or whatever it is that lives in that cabinet, has been crying\u00a0night and day for some sort of medicine and cannot get it to his\u00a0mind. It was sometimes his way\u2014the master’s, that is\u2014to\u00a0write his orders on a sheet of paper and throw it on the stair.\u00a0We’ve had nothing else this week back; nothing but papers, and a\u00a0closed door, and the very meals left there to be smuggled in when\u00a0nobody was looking. Well, sir, every day, ay, and twice and\u00a0thrice in the same day, there have been orders and complaints,\u00a0and I have been sent flying to all the wholesale chemists in\u00a0town. Every time I brought the stuff back, there would be another\u00a0paper telling me to return it, because it was not pure, and\u00a0another order to a different firm. This drug is wanted bitter\u00a0bad, sir, whatever for.”<\/p>\n
“Have you any of these papers?” asked Mr. Utterson.<\/p>\n
Poole felt in his pocket and handed out a crumpled note, which\u00a0the lawyer, bending nearer\u00a0to the candle, carefully examined. Its contents ran thus: “Dr.\u00a0Jekyll presents his compliments to Messrs. Maw. He assures them\u00a0that their last sample is impure and quite useless for his\u00a0present purpose. In the year 18\u2014, Dr. J. purchased a somewhat\u00a0large quantity from Messrs. M. He now begs them to search with\u00a0the most sedulous care, and should any of the same quality be\u00a0left, to forward it to him at once. Expense is no consideration.\u00a0The importance of this to Dr. J. can hardly be exaggerated.” So\u00a0far the letter had run composedly enough, but here with a sudden\u00a0splutter of the pen, the writer’s emotion had broken loose. “For\u00a0God’s sake,” he had added, “find me some of the old.”<\/p>\n
“This is a strange note,” said Mr. Utterson; and then sharply,<\/p>\n
“How do you come to have it open?”<\/p>\n
“The man at Maw’s was main angry, sir, and he threw it back to me\u00a0like so much dirt,” returned Poole.<\/p>\n
“This is unquestionably the doctor’s hand, do you know?” resumed\u00a0the lawyer.<\/p>\n
“I thought it looked like it,” said the servant rather sulkily;\u00a0and then, with another voice, “But what matters hand-of-write?”\u00a0he said. “I’ve seen him!”<\/p>\n
“Seen him?” repeated Mr. Utterson. “Well?”<\/p>\n
“That’s it!” said Poole. “It was this way. I came suddenly into\u00a0the theatre from the\u00a0garden. It seems he had slipped out to look for this drug or\u00a0whatever it is; for the cabinet door was open, and there he was\u00a0at the far end of the room digging among the crates. He looked up\u00a0when I came in, gave a kind of cry, and whipped up-stairs into\u00a0the cabinet. It was but for one minute that I saw him, but the\u00a0hair stood upon my head like quills. Sir, if that was my master,\u00a0why had he a mask upon his face? If it was my master, why did he\u00a0cry out like a rat, and run from me? I have served him long\u00a0enough. And then\u2026” The man paused and passed his hand over his\u00a0face.<\/p>\n
“These are all very strange circumstances,” said Mr. Utterson,\u00a0“but I think I begin to see daylight. Your master, Poole, is\u00a0plainly seized with one of those maladies that both torture and\u00a0deform the sufferer; hence, for aught I know, the alteration of\u00a0his voice; hence the mask and the avoidance of his friends; hence\u00a0his eagerness to find this drug, by means of which the poor soul\u00a0retains some hope of ultimate recovery\u2014God grant that he be\u00a0not deceived! There is my explanation; it is sad enough, Poole,\u00a0ay, and appalling to consider; but it is plain and natural, hangs\u00a0well together, and delivers us from all exorbitant alarms.”<\/p>\n
“Sir,” said the butler, turning to a sort of mottled pallor,\u00a0“that thing was not my master, and there’s the truth. My master”\u00a0here he looked round him and began to whisper\u2014”is\u00a0a tall, fine build of a man, and this was more of a dwarf.”\u00a0Utterson attempted to protest. “O, sir,” cried Poole, “do you\u00a0think I do not know my master after twenty years? Do you think I\u00a0do not know where his head comes to in the cabinet door, where I\u00a0saw him every morning of my life? No, Sir, that thing in the mask\u00a0was never Dr. Jekyll\u2014God knows what it was, but it was never\u00a0Dr. Jekyll; and it is the belief of my heart that there was\u00a0murder done.”<\/p>\n
“Poole,” replied the lawyer, “if you say that, it will become my\u00a0duty to make certain. Much as I desire to spare your master’s\u00a0feelings, much as I am puzzled by this note which seems to prove\u00a0him to be still alive, I shall consider it my duty to break in\u00a0that door.”<\/p>\n
“Ah Mr. Utterson, that’s talking!” cried the butler.<\/p>\n
“And now comes the second question,” resumed Utterson: “Who is\u00a0going to do it?”<\/p>\n
“Why, you and me,” was the undaunted reply.<\/p>\n
“That’s very well said,” returned the lawyer; “and whatever comes\u00a0of it, I shall make it my business to see you are no loser.”<\/p>\n
“There is an axe in the theatre,” continued Poole; “and you might\u00a0take the kitchen poker for yourself.”<\/p>\n
The lawyer took that rude but weighty instrument into his hand,\u00a0and balanced it. “Do you know, Poole,” he said, looking up, “that\u00a0you and I are about to place ourselves in a position of some\u00a0peril?”<\/p>\n
“You may say so, sir, indeed,” returned the butler.<\/p>\n
“It is well, then, that we should be frank,” said the other. “We\u00a0both think more than we have said; let us make a clean breast.\u00a0This masked figure that you saw, did you recognise it?”<\/p>\n
“Well, sir, it went so quick, and the creature was so doubled up,\u00a0that I could hardly swear to that,” was the answer. “But if you\u00a0mean, was it Mr. Hyde?\u2014why, yes, I think it was! You see, it\u00a0was much of the same bigness; and it had the same quick, light\u00a0way with it; and then who else could have got in by the\u00a0laboratory door? You have not forgot, sir that at the time of the\u00a0murder he had still the key with him? But that’s not all. I don’t\u00a0know, Mr. Utterson, if ever you met this Mr. Hyde?”<\/p>\n
“Yes,” said the lawyer, “I once spoke with him.”<\/p>\n
“Then you must know as well as the rest of us that there was\u00a0something queer about that gentleman\u2014something that gave a man\u00a0a turn\u2014I don’t know rightly how to say it, sir, beyond this:\u00a0that you felt it in your marrow kind of cold and thin.”<\/p>\n
“I own I felt something of what you describe,” said Mr. Utterson.<\/p>\n
“Quite so, sir,” returned Poole. “Well, when\u00a0that masked thing like a monkey jumped from among the chemicals\u00a0and whipped into the cabinet, it went down my spine like ice. Oh,\u00a0I know it’s not evidence, Mr. Utterson. I’m book-learned enough\u00a0for that; but a man has his feelings, and I give you my\u00a0Bible-word it was Mr. Hyde!”<\/p>\n
“Ay, ay,” said the lawyer. “My fears incline to the same point.\u00a0Evil, I fear, founded\u2014evil was sure to come\u2014of that\u00a0connection. Ay, truly, I believe you; I believe poor Harry is\u00a0killed; and I believe his murderer (for what purpose, God alone\u00a0can tell) is still lurking in his victim’s room. Well, let our\u00a0name be vengeance. Call Bradshaw.”<\/p>\n
The footman came at the summons, very white and nervous.<\/p>\n
“Pull yourself together, Bradshaw,” said the lawyer. “This\u00a0suspense, I know, is telling upon all of you; but it is now our\u00a0intention to make an end of it. Poole, here, and I are going to\u00a0force our way into the cabinet. If all is well, my shoulders are\u00a0broad enough to bear the blame. Meanwhile, lest anything should\u00a0really be amiss, or any malefactor seek to escape by the back,\u00a0you and the boy must go round the corner with a pair of good\u00a0sticks and take your post at the laboratory door. We give you ten\u00a0minutes to get to your stations.”<\/p>\n
As Bradshaw left, the lawyer looked at his watch. “And now,\u00a0Poole, let us get to ours,”\u00a0he said; and taking the poker under his arm, led the way into the\u00a0yard. The scud had banked over the moon, and it was now quite\u00a0dark. The wind, which only broke in puffs and draughts into that\u00a0deep well of building, tossed the light of the candle to and fro\u00a0about their steps, until they came into the shelter of the\u00a0theatre, where they sat down silently to wait. London hummed\u00a0solemnly all around; but nearer at hand, the stillness was only\u00a0broken by the sounds of a footfall moving to and fro along the\u00a0cabinet floor.<\/p>\n
“So it will walk all day, sir,” whispered Poole; “ay, and the\u00a0better part of the night. Only when a new sample comes from the\u00a0chemist, there’s a bit of a break. Ah, it’s an ill conscience\u00a0that’s such an enemy to rest! Ah, sir, there’s blood foully shed\u00a0in every step of it! But hark again, a little closer\u2014put your\u00a0heart in your ears, Mr. Utterson, and tell me, is that the\u00a0doctor’s foot?”<\/p>\n
The steps fell lightly and oddly, with a certain swing, for all\u00a0they went so slowly; it was different indeed from the heavy\u00a0creaking tread of Henry Jekyll. Utterson sighed. “Is there never\u00a0anything else?” he asked.<\/p>\n
Poole nodded. “Once,” he said. “Once I heard it weeping!”<\/p>\n
“Weeping? how that?” said the lawyer, conscious of a sudden chill\u00a0of horror.<\/p>\n
“Weeping like a woman or a lost soul,” said\u00a0the butler. “I came away with that upon my heart, that I could\u00a0have wept too.”<\/p>\n
But now the ten minutes drew to an end. Poole disinterred the axe\u00a0from under a stack of packing straw; the candle was set upon the\u00a0nearest table to light them to the attack; and they drew near\u00a0with bated breath to where that patient foot was still going up\u00a0and down, up and down, in the quiet of the night.<\/p>\n
“Jekyll,” cried Utterson, with a loud voice, “I demand to see\u00a0you.” He paused a moment, but there came no reply. “I give you\u00a0fair warning, our suspicions are aroused, and I must and shall\u00a0see you,” he resumed; “if not by fair means, then by foul! if not\u00a0of your consent, then by brute force!”<\/p>\n
“Utterson,” said the voice, “for God’s sake, have mercy!”<\/p>\n
“Ah, that’s not Jekyll’s voice\u2014it’s Hyde’s!” cried Utterson.<\/p>\n
“Down with the door, Poole!”<\/p>\n
Poole swung the axe over his shoulder; the blow shook the\u00a0building, and the red baize door leaped against the lock and\u00a0hinges. A dismal screech, as of mere animal terror, rang from the\u00a0cabinet. Up went the axe again, and again the panels crashed and\u00a0the frame bounded; four times the blow fell; but the wood was\u00a0tough and the fittings were of excellent workmanship; and it was\u00a0not until the fifth, that the lock burst in sunder and the wreck\u00a0of the door fell inwards on the carpet.<\/p>\n
The besiegers, appalled by their own riot and the stillness that\u00a0had succeeded, stood back a little and peered in. There lay the\u00a0cabinet before their eyes in the quiet lamplight, a good fire\u00a0glowing and chattering on the hearth, the kettle singing its thin\u00a0strain, a drawer or two open, papers neatly set forth on the\u00a0business-table, and nearer the fire, the things laid out for tea:\u00a0the quietest room, you would have said, and, but for the glazed\u00a0presses full of chemicals, the most commonplace that night in\u00a0London.<\/p>\n
Right in the midst there lay the body of a man sorely contorted\u00a0and still twitching. They drew near on tiptoe, turned it on its\u00a0back and beheld the face of Edward Hyde. He was dressed in\u00a0clothes far too large for him, clothes of the doctor’s bigness;\u00a0the cords of his face still moved with a semblance of life, but\u00a0life was quite gone; and by the crushed phial in the hand and the\u00a0strong smell of kernels that hung upon the air, Utterson knew\u00a0that he was looking on the body of a self-destroyer.<\/p>\n
“We have come too late,” he said sternly, “whether to save or\u00a0punish. Hyde is gone to his account; and it only remains for us\u00a0to find the body of your master.”<\/p>\n
The far greater proportion of the building was occupied by the\u00a0theatre, which filled almost the whole ground story and was\u00a0lighted from above, and by the cabinet, which formed an upper\u00a0story at one end and looked upon the\u00a0court. A corridor joined the theatre to the door on the\u00a0by-street; and with this the cabinet communicated separately by a\u00a0second flight of stairs. There were besides a few dark closets\u00a0and a spacious cellar. All these they now thoroughly examined.\u00a0Each closet needed but a glance, for all were empty, and all, by\u00a0the dust that fell from their doors, had stood long unopened. The\u00a0cellar, indeed, was filled with crazy lumber, mostly dating from\u00a0the times of the surgeon who was Jekyll’s predecessor; but even\u00a0as they opened the door they were advertised of the uselessness\u00a0of further search, by the fall of a perfect mat of cobweb which\u00a0had for years sealed up the entrance. Nowhere was there any trace\u00a0of Henry Jekyll, dead or alive.<\/p>\n
Poole stamped on the flags of the corridor. “He must be buried\u00a0here,” he said, hearkening to the sound.<\/p>\n
“Or he may have fled,” said Utterson, and he turned to examine\u00a0the door in the by-street. It was locked; and lying near by on\u00a0the flags, they found the key, already stained with rust.<\/p>\n
“This does not look like use,” observed the lawyer.<\/p>\n
“Use!” echoed Poole. “Do you not see, sir, it is broken? much as\u00a0if a man had stamped on it.”<\/p>\n
“Ay,” continued Utterson, “and the fractures, too, are rusty.”\u00a0The two men looked at each other with a scare. “This is beyond\u00a0me,\u00a0Poole,” said the lawyer. “Let us go back to the cabinet.”<\/p>\n
They mounted the stair in silence, and still with an occasional\u00a0awe-struck glance at the dead body, proceeded more thoroughly to\u00a0examine the contents of the cabinet. At one table, there were\u00a0traces of chemical work, various measured heaps of some white\u00a0salt being laid on glass saucers, as though for an experiment in\u00a0which the unhappy man had been prevented.<\/p>\n
“That is the same drug that I was always bringing him,” said\u00a0Poole; and even as he spoke, the kettle with a startling noise\u00a0boiled over.<\/p>\n
This brought them to the fireside, where the easy-chair was drawn\u00a0cosily up, and the tea-things stood ready to the sitter’s elbow,\u00a0the very sugar in the cup. There were several books on a shelf;\u00a0one lay beside the tea-things open, and Utterson was amazed to\u00a0find it a copy of a pious work, for which Jekyll had several\u00a0times expressed a great esteem, annotated, in his own hand, with\u00a0startling blasphemies.<\/p>\n
Next, in the course of their review of the chamber, the searchers\u00a0came to the cheval glass, into whose depths they looked with an\u00a0involuntary horror. But it was so turned as to show them nothing\u00a0but the rosy glow playing on the roof, the fire sparkling in a\u00a0hundred repetitions along the glazed front of the presses, and\u00a0their own pale and fearful countenances stooping to look in.<\/p>\n
“This glass have seen some strange things, sir,” whispered Poole.<\/p>\n
“And surely none stranger than itself,” echoed the lawyer in the\u00a0same tones. “For what did Jekyll”\u2014he caught himself up at the\u00a0word with a start, and then conquering the weakness\u2014”what\u00a0could Jekyll want with it?” he said.<\/p>\n
“You may say that!” said Poole. Next they turned to the\u00a0business-table. On the desk among the neat array of papers, a\u00a0large envelope was uppermost, and bore, in the doctor’s hand, the\u00a0name of Mr. Utterson. The lawyer unsealed it, and several\u00a0enclosures fell to the floor. The first was a will, drawn in the\u00a0same eccentric terms as the one which he had returned six months\u00a0before, to serve as a testament in case of death and as a deed of\u00a0gift in case of disappearance; but, in place of the name of\u00a0Edward Hyde, the lawyer, with indescribable amazement, read the\u00a0name of Gabriel John Utterson. He looked at Poole, and then back\u00a0at the paper, and last of all at the dead malefactor stretched\u00a0upon the carpet.<\/p>\n
“My head goes round,” he said. “He has been all these days in\u00a0possession; he had no cause to like me; he must have raged to see\u00a0himself displaced; and he has not destroyed this document.”<\/p>\n
He caught up the next paper; it was a brief note in the doctor’s\u00a0hand and dated at the top.<\/p>\n
“O Poole!” the lawyer cried, “he was alive and here this day. He\u00a0cannot have been disposed of in so short a space, he must be\u00a0still alive, he must have fled! And then, why fled? and how? and\u00a0in that case, can we venture to declare this suicide? Oh, we must\u00a0be careful. I foresee that we may yet involve your master in some\u00a0dire catastrophe.”<\/p>\n
“Why don’t you read it, sir?” asked Poole.<\/p>\n
“Because I fear,” replied the lawyer solemnly. “God grant I have\u00a0no cause for it!” And with that he brought the paper to his eyes\u00a0and read as follows:<\/p>\n
“MY DEAR UTTERSON,\u2014When this shall fall into your hands, I\u00a0shall have disappeared, under what circumstances I have not the\u00a0penetration to foresee, but my instinct and all the circumstances\u00a0of my nameless situation tell me that the end is sure and must be\u00a0early. Go then, and first read the narrative which Lanyon warned\u00a0me he was to place in your hands; and if you care to hear more,\u00a0turn to the confession of<\/p>\n
“Your unworthy and unhappy friend,\u00a0HENRY JEKYLL.”<\/p>\n
“There was a third enclosure?” asked Utterson.<\/p>\n
“Here, sir,” said Poole, and gave into his hands a considerable\u00a0packet sealed in several places.<\/p>\n
The lawyer put it in his pocket. “I would say nothing of this\u00a0paper. If your master has fled or is dead, we may at least save\u00a0his credit. It is now ten; I must go home and read these\u00a0documents in quiet; but I shall be back before midnight, when we\u00a0shall send for the police.”<\/p>\n
They went out, locking the door of the theatre behind them; and\u00a0Utterson, once more leaving the servants gathered about the fire\u00a0in the hall, trudged back to his office to read the two\u00a0narratives in which this mystery was now to be explained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"menu_order":8,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-22","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/22\/revisions\/99"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/22\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/jekyllandhyde\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}