第17章
`Well, sir, it went so quick, and the creature was so doubled up, that I could hardly swear to that,' was the answer. `But if you mean, was it Mr Hyde? - why, yes, I think it was! You see, it was much of the same bigness;and it had the same quick light way with it; and then who else could have got in by the laboratory door? You have not forgot, sir, that at the time of the murder he had still the key with him? But that's not all. I don't know, Mr Utterson, if ever you met this Mr Hyde?'
`Yes,' said the lawyer, `I once spoke with him.'
`Then you must know, as well as the rest of us, that there was something queer about that gentleman - something that gave a man a turn - I don't know rightly how to say it, sir, beyond this: that you felt in your marrow - kind of cold and thin.'
`I own I felt something of what you describe,' said Mr Utterson.
`Quite so, sir,' returned Poole. `Well, when that masked thing like a monkey jumped up from among the chemicals and whipped into the cabinet, it went down my spine like ice. O, I know it's not evidence, Mr Utterson;I'm book-learned enough for that; but a man had his feelings; and I give you my bible-word it was Mr Hyde!'
`Ay, ay,' said the lawyer. `My fears incline to the same point. Evil, I fear, founded - evil was sure to come - of that connection. Ay, truly, I believe you; I believe poor Harry is killed; and I believe his murderer (for what purpose, God alone can tell) is still lurking in his victim's room. Well, let our name be vengeance. Call Bradshaw.'
The footman came at the summons, very white and nervous.
`Pull yourself together, Bradshaw,' said the lawyer. `This suspense, I know, is telling upon all of you; but it is now our intention to make an end of it. Poole, here, and I are going to force our way into the cabinet.
If all is well, my shoulders are broad enough to bear the blame. Meanwhile, lest anything should really be amiss, or any male-factor seek to escape by the back, you and the boy must go round the comer with a pair of good sticks, and take your post at the laboratory door. We give you ten minutes, to get to your stations.'
As Bradshaw left, the lawyer looked at his watch. `And now, Poole, let us get to ours,' he said; and taking the poker under his arm, he led the way into the yard. The scud had banked over the moon, and it was now quite dark. The wind, which only broke in puffs and draughts into that deep well of building, tossed the light of the candle to and fro about their steps, until they came into the shelter of the theatre, where they sat down silently to wait. London hummed solemnly all around; but nearer at hand, the stillness was only broken by the sound of a footfall moving to and fro along the cabinet floor.
`So it will walk all day, sir,' whispered Poole; `ay, and the better part of the night. Only when a new sample comes from the chemist, there's a bit of a break. Ah, it's an ill conscience that's such an enemy to rest!
Ah, sir, there's blood foully shed in every step of it! But hark again, a little closer - put your heart in your ears Mr Utterson, and tell me, is that the doctor's foot?'
The steps fell lightly and oddly, with a certain swing, for all they went so slowly; it was different indeed from the heavy creaking tread of Henry Jekyll. Utterson sighed. `Is there never anything else?' he asked.
Poole nodded. `Once,' he said. `Once I heard it weeping!'
`Weeping? how that?' said the lawyer, conscious of a sudden chill of horror.
`Weeping like a woman or a lost soul,' said the butler. `I came away with that upon my heart, that I could have wept too.'
But now the ten minutes drew to an end. Poole disinterred the axe from under a stack of packing straw; the candle was set upon the nearest table to light them to the attack; and they drew near with bated breath to where the patient foot was still going up and down, up and down in the quiet of the night.
`Jekyll,' cried Utterson, with a loud voice, `I demand to see you.'
He paused a moment, but there came no reply.
`I give you fair warning, our suspicions are aroused, and I must and shall see you,' he resumed; `if not by fair means, then by foul - if not of your consent, then by brute force!'
`Utterson,' said the voice, `for God's sake, have mercy!'
`Ah, that's not Jekyll's voice it's Hyde's!' cried Utterson. `Down with the door, Poole!'
Poole swung the axe over his shoulder; the blow shook the building, and the red baize door leaped against the lock and hinges. A dismal screech, as of mere animal tenor, rang from the cabinet. Up went the axe again, and again the panels crashed and the frame bounded; four times the blow fell; but the wood was tough and the fittings were of excellent workmanship;and it was not until the fifth that the lock burst in sunder, and the wreck of the door fell inwards on the carpet.
The besiegers, appalled by their own riot and the stillness that had succeeded, stood back a little and peered in. There lay the cabinet before their eyes in the quiet lamplight, a good fire glowing and chattering on the hearth, the kettle singing its thin strain, a drawer or two open, papers neatly set forth on the business table, and nearer the fire, the things laid out for tea; the quietest room, you would have said, and, but for the glazed presses full of chemicals, the most commonplace that night in London.
Right in the midst there lay the body of a man sorely contorted and still twitching. They drew near on tiptoe, turned it on its back, and beheld the face of Edward Hyde. He was dressed in clothes far too large for him, clothes of the doctor's bigness; the cords of his face still moved with a semblance of life, but life was quite gone; and by the crushed phial in the hand and the strong smell of kernels that hung upon the air, Utterson knew that he was looking on the body of a self-destroyer.
`We have come too late,' he said sternly, `whether to save or punish.