The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde - Chapter 08 to 09

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde by
Robert Louis Stephenson, Chapters eight and nine. Chapter eight, The
Last Night. Mister Rotterson was sitting by his fireside one
evening after dinner when he was surprised to receive a

(00:22):
visit from Paul. Bless me, Paul, what brings you here?
He cried, and then, taking a second look at him,
what ails you? He added? Is the doctor ill? Mister
Utterson said the man. There is something wrong. Take a seat,
and here is a glass of wine for you, said

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the lawyer. Now take your time and tell me plainly
what you want. You know the doctor's ways, sir, replied Paul.
And how he shuts himself up. Well, he's shot up
again in the cabinet. And I don't like it, Sir.
I wish I am may die if I like it.
Mister Utterson, Sir, I'm afraid now, my good man, said

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the lawyer, be explicit. What are you afraid of? I've
been afraid for about a week, returned Paul, doggedly, disregarding
the question. And I can bear it no more. The
man's appearance amply bore out his words. His manner was
altered for the worse, and except for the moment when

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he'd first announced his terror, he had not once looked
the lawyer in the face. Even now he sat, with
the glass of wine untasted on his knee and his
eyes directed to a corner of the floor. I can
bear it no more, he repeated, Come, said the lawyer.
I see you have some good reason, Paul. I see

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there is something seriously amiss. Try to tell me what
it is. I think there's been foul play, said Paul.
Foul play, cried the lawyer, A good deal frightened and
rather inclined to be irritated in consequence. What foul play?
What does the man mean? I daren't say, sir, was

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the answer. But will you come along with me and
see for yourself? Mister Uttereson's only answer was to rise
and get his hat and greatcoat. But he observed with
wonder the greatness of the relief that appeared upon the
butler's face, and perhaps with no less that the wine
was still untasted when he set it down to follow

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It was a wild, cold, seasonable night of March, with
a pale moon lying on her back, as though the
wind had tilted her and a flying rack of the
most diaphanous and lawny texture. The wind made talking difficult
and flecked the blood into the face. It seemed to

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have swept the streets unusually bare of passengers. Besides, for
mister Utterson thought he had never seen that part of
London so deserted. He could have wished it otherwise. Never
in his life had he been conscious of so sharp
a wish to see and touch his fellow creatures. For

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struggle as he might, there was borne in upon his
mind a crushing anticipation of calamity. The square, when they
got there, was all full of wind and dust, and
the thin trees in the garden were lashing themselves against
the railing Paul, who had kept all the way apace

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or two a head, now pulled up in the middle
of the pavement, and in spite of the biting weather,
took off his hat and mopped his brow with the
red pocket handkerchief. But for all the hurry of his coming,
these were not the dews of exertion that he wiped away,
but the moisture of some strangling anguish. For his face

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was white, and his voice when he spoke harsh and broken. Well, sir,
he said, here we are, and God grant there be
nothing wrong, Amen, Paul, said the lawyer. Thereupon the servant
knocked in a very guarded manner. The door was opened

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on the chain, and a voice asked from within, is
that you Paul? It's all right, said Paul. Opened the
door the hall. When they entered it was brightly lighted up.
The fire was built high, and about the hearth the
whole of the servants, men and women, stood huddled together

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like a flock of sheep. At the sight of mister Utterson,
the housemaid broke into hysterical whimpering, and the cook, crying out,
bless God, it's mister Utterson, ran forward as if to
take him in her ms. What what are you all here,
said the lawyer. Peevishly, very irregular, very unseemly. Your master

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would be far from pleased. They're all afraid, said Paul.
Blank silence followed, no one protesting. Only the maid lifted
up her voice and now wept loudly. Hold your tongue,
Paul said to her, with a ferocity of accent that
testified to his own jangled nerves. And indeed, when the

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girl had so suddenly raised the note of her lamentation.
They had all started and turned towards the inner door
with faces of dreadful expectation. And now continued the butler,
addressing the knife boy, reach me a candle and we'll
get this through hands at once. And then he begged

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mister Utterson to follow him, and led the way to
the garden. Now, sir, said he you come as gently
as you can. I want you to hear, and I
don't want you to be heard and see here, sir,
if by any chance he was to ask you in,
don't go. Mister Rottereson's nerves at this unlooked for termination

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gave a jerk that nearly threw him from his balance,
But he recollected his courage and followed the butler into
the laboratory building and through the surgical theater with its
lumber of crates and bottles, to the foot of the stair.
Here Paul motioned him to stand on one side and listen,

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while he himself, setting down the candle and making a
great and obvious call on his resolution, mounted the steps
and knocked with a somewhat uncertain hand on the red
baize of the cabinet door. Mister Utterson, Sir, asking to
see you, he called, and even as he did so,

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once more violently signed to the lawyer to give ear
A voice answered from within. Tell him I cannot see
any one, it answered, complainingly. Thank you, sir, said Paul,
with a note of something like triumph in his voice,
and taking up his candle, he led mister Utterson back

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across the yard and into the great kitchen, where the
fire was out and the beatles were leaping on the floor. Sir,
he said, looking mister Utterson in the eyes, was that
my master's voice? It seems much changed, replied the lawyer,
very pale, but giving look for look changed. Well, yes,

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I think so, said the butler. Have I been twenty
years in this man's house be deceived about his voice? No, Sir,
Master's made away with. He was made away with eight
days ago when we heard him cry out upon the
name of God. And who's in there instead of him?
And why it stays there is a thing that cries

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to heaven, mister Utterson. This is a very strange tale, Paul.
This is rather a wild tale, my man, said mister Utterson,
biting his finger. Suppose it were as you suppose supposing
Doctor Jekyll to have been well murdered, what could induce

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the murderer to stay? That won't hold water. It doesn't
commend itself to reason. Well, mister Utterson, you are a
hard man to satisfy. But I'll do it. Yet, said Paul.
All this last week. You must know him or it,
or whatever it is that lives in that cabinet has

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been crying night and day for some sort of medicine
and cannot get it to his mind. It was sometimes
his way the masters, that is, to write his orders
on a sheet of paper and throw it on the stair.
We've had nothing else this week back, nothing but papers
and a closed door, and the very meals left there

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to be smuggled in when no one was looking. Well, sir.
Every day, ay and twice and thrice in the same day.
There have been orders and complaints, and I've been sent
flying to all the wholesale chemists in town. Every time
I brought the stuff back there would be another paper
telling me to return it because it was not pure,

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and another order to a different firm. This drug is wanted,
bitter bad, sir. Whatever for have you any of these papers?
Asked mister Utterson. Paul felt to his pocket and handed
out a crumpled note, which the lawyer, bending nearer to
the candle, carefully examined its contents. Ran Thus Doctor Jekyl

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presents his compliments to Messrs More. He assures them that
their last sample is impure and quite useless for his
present purpose. In the year eighteen something, Doctor j purchased
a somewhat large quantity from Messrs m. He now begs
them to search with the most sedulous care, and should

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any of the same quality be left to forward it
to him at once, expense is no consideration. The importance
of this to Doctor j can hardly be exaggerated. So
far the letter had run composedly enough, but here, with
a sudden splotter of the pen, the writer's emotion had
broken loose. For God's sake, he had added, find me

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some of the old This is a strange note, said
mister Utterson, and then sharply, how do you come to
have it open? The man at Maw's was made angry, sir,
and he threw it back to me like so much dirt,
returned Paul, this is unquestionably the doctor's hand. Do you

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know resumed the lawyer. I thought it looked like it,
said the servant, rather sulkily, and then with another voice.
But what matters, hand of right, he said, I've seen him,
seen him, repeated mister Utterson. Well that's it, said Paul.

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It was this way. I came suddenly into the theater
from the garden. It seems he'd slipped out to look
for this drug or whatever it is for The cabinet
door was open, and there he was at the far
end of the room, digging among the crates. He looked
up when I came in, gave a kind of cry,

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and whipped up stairs into the cabinet. It was but
for one minute that I saw him, But the hare
stood upon my head like quills. Sir, If that was
my master, why had he a mask upon his face?
If it was my master, why did he cry out
like a rat and run from me? I have served

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him long enough. And then the man paused and passed
his hand over his face. These are all very strange circumstances,
said mister Utterson. But I think I begin to see daylight.
Your master, Paul is plainly seized with one of those
maladies that both torture and transformed the sufferer. Hence for

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aught I know the alteration of his voice, hence the mask,
and his avoidance of his friends, hence his eagerness to
find this drug by me, of which the poor soul
retains some hope of ultimate recovery. God grants that he
be not deceived. There is my explanation. It is sad enough,

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Paul I, and appalling to consider, but it is plain
and natural, hangs together well and delivers us from all
exorbitant alarms. Sir, said the butler, turning to a sort
of mottled pallor. That thing was not my master, and

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there's the truth my master here. He looked around him
and began to whisper. Is a tall, fine build of
a man, and this was more of a dwarf. Utterson
attempted to protest. Oh, sir, cried Paul. Do you think
I do not know my master? After twenty years? Do

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you think I do not know where his head comes
to in the cabinet door where I saw him every
morning of my life? No, Sir, that thing in the
mask was never Doctor Jekyll. God knows what it was,
but it was never Dr Jekyll, and it is the
belief of my heart that there was murder done, Paul

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replied the lawyer. If you say that, it will become
my duty to make certain Much as I desire to
spare your master's feelings, much as I am puzzled by
this note, which seems to prove him to be still alive,
I shall consider it my duty to break in that door. Ah,

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mister Utterson, that's talking, cried the butler. And now comes
the second question, resumed Utterson. Who is going to do it?
Why you and me, sir, was the undaunted reply. That
is very well, said, returned the lawyer. And whatever comes
of it, I shall make it my business to see

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you are no loser. There is an axe in the theater,
continued Paul, and you might take the kitchen poker for yourself.
The lawyer took that rude but weighty instrument into his
hand and balanced it. Do you know, Paul, he said,
looking up, that you and I are about to place

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ourselves in a position of some peril. You may say so, sir, Indeed,
returned the butler. It is well then that we should be, Frank,
said the other. We both think more than we have said.
Let us make a clean breast, this masked figure that
you saw, did you recognize it? Well, sir, it went

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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 mister 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. Then who else could have got in by

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the laboratory door. You've not forgot, sir, that at the
time of the murder he still had the key with him.
But that's not all I don't know, mister Utterson. If
you ever met this mister 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.

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I don't know rightly how to say it, sir, beyond
this that you felt it in your marrow, kind of
cold and thin. I own I felt something of what
you describe, said mister Utterson. Quite so, sir, returned Paul. Well,
when that masked thing like a monkey jumped from among

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the chemicals and whipped into the cabinet, it went down
my spine like ice. Oh. I know it's not evidence,
mister Utterson. I'm book learned enough for that. But a
man has his feelings, and I give you my Bible
word it was mister Hyde. Aye, Aye, said the lawyer.
My fears inclined to the same point. Evil, I fear founded.

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Evil was sure to come of that conviction. 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,

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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. Paul 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

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anything should really be a miss or any malefactor seek
to escape by the back, you and the boy must
go round the corner 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, paul let

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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 drafts into that deep well of building, tossed the
light of the candle to and fro about their steps,

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until they came into the shelter of the theater, where
they sat down silently to wait. London honned 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,

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whispered paul 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 into your ears, mister Utterson,

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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 Jekyl. Utterson sighed, Is there never
anything else? He asked. Paul nodded once, he said, Once

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I heard it weeping, weeping? How's that at, 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.

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Paul disinterred the axe from under a sack 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 that patient foot was still going up and down,
up and down in the quiet of the night. Jekyll

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cried Otterson 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,

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then by brute For Utterson said the voice, for God's sake,
have mercy. Ah, that's not Jekal's voice. It's hide, cried Utterson.
Down with the door, Paul. Paul swung the axe over
his shoulder. The blow shook the building, and the red

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baized door leaped against the lock and hinges. A dismal
screech as of mere animal terror, rang from the cabinet.
Up went the axe, again and again. The panels crashed,
and the flame bounded four times. The blow fell, but
the wood was tough, and the fittings were of excellent workmanship,

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and it was not until the fifth that the lock
burst insunder, 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,

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in the quiet lamp light, 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,

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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

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was dressed in clothes far too large for him, clothes
of the doctor's bigness. The cords of his face still
moved with the semblance of life, but life was quite gone.
And by the crushed file in the hand, and the
strong smell of kernels that hung upon the air, Utterson

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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 Hyde is gone to his account,
and it only remains for us to find the body
of your master. The far greater proportion of the building

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was occupied by the theater, which filled almost the whole
ground story and was lighted from above, and by the cabinet,
which formed an upper story at one end and looked
upon the court. A corridor joined the theater to the
door on the by street, and with this the cabinet,
communicated separately by a second flight of stairs there were

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besides a few dark closets and a spacious cellar. All
these they now thoroughly examined. Each closet needed but a glance,
for all were empty, and all, by the dust that
fell from their doors, had stood long unopened. The cellar, indeed,
was filled with crazy lumber, mostly dating from the times

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of the surgeon who was Jackal's predecessor. But even as
they opened the door, they were advertised of the uselessness
of further search by the fall of a perfect mat
of cobweb, which had for years sealed up the entrance.
Nowhere was there any trace of Henry Jekyll, dead or alive.

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Paul stamped on the flags of the corridor. He must
be buried here, he said, hearkening to the sound. Or
he may have fled, said Utterson, and he turned to
examine the door in the by street. It was locked,
and lying near by on the flags, they found the
key already stained with rust. This does not look use,

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observed the lawyer, Use, echoed Paul. Do you not see, sir,
It is broken, much as if a man had stamped
on it, ay, continued Utterson. And the fractures, too are rusty.
The two men looked at each other with a scare.
This is beyond me, Paul, said the lawyer. Let us

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go back to the cabinet. They mounted the stairs in silence, and,
still with an occasional awe struck glance at the dead body,
proceeded more thoroughly to examine the contents of the cabinet.
At one table, there were traces of chemical work, various
measured heaps of some white salt being laid on glass saucers,

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as though for an experiment in which the unhappy man
had been prevented. That is the same drug that I
was always bringing him, said Paul, And even as he
spoke the kettle with the startling noise boiled over. This
brought them to the fireside, where the easy chair was
drawn cozily up, and the tea things stood ready to

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the sitter's elbow, the very sugar in the cop There
were several books on a shelf. One lay beside the
tea things, open, and Otterson was amazed to find it
a copy of a pious work for which Jekyl had
several times expressed a great esteem, annotated in his own
hand with startling blasphemies. Next in the course of their

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review of the chamber, the searchers came to the cheval glass,
into whose depth they looked with an involuntary horror. But
it was so turned as to show them nothing but
the rosy glow playing on the roof, the fire sparkling
in a hundred repetitions along the glazed front of the presses,

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and their own pale and fearful countenances, stooping to look
in this glass, have seen some strange things, sir, whispered Paul.
And surely none stranger than itself, echoed the lawyer in
the same tones. For what did Jekyl? He caught himself

(27:18):
up at the word with a start, and then conquering
the weakness, What could Jekyl want with it? He said?
You may say that, said Paul. Next they turned to
the business table on the desk. Among the neat array
of papers, a large envelope was uppermost, and bore in

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the doctor's hand the name of mister Utterson. The lawyer
unsealed it, and several enclosures fell to the floor. The
first was a will drawn in the same eccentric terms
as the one which he had returned six months before
to serve as a testament in case of death, and

(28:00):
as a deed of gift in case of disappearance. But
in place of the name of Edward Hyde, the lawyer,
with indescribable amazement, read the name of Gabriel John Utterson.
He looked at Paul, and then back at the paper,
and last of all at the dead malefactor stretched upon

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the carpet. My head goes round, he said. He has
been all these days in possession. He had no cause
to like me. He must have raged to see himself displaced,
And he has not destroyed this document. He caught up
the next paper. It was a brief note in the

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doctor's hand and dated at the top. Oh, Paul, the
lawyer cried, He was alive, and here this day he
cannot have been disposed of in so short a space.
He must be still alive. He must have fled, And
then why fled? And how? And in that case can

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we venture to declare this suicide? Oh, we must be careful.
I foresee that we may yet involve your master in
some dire catastrophe. Why don't you read it, sir, said Paul,
because I fear replied the lawyer. Solemnly, God grant that
I have no cause for it. And with that he

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brought the paper to his eyes and read as follows,
my dear Utterson. When this shall fall into your hands,
I shall have disappeared. Under what circumstances I have not
the penetration to foresee. But my instinct and all the
circumstances of my nameless situation tell me that the end

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is sure and must be early. Go then, and first
read the narrative which Lanyon warned me he was to
place in your hands, And if you care to hear more,
turned to the confession of your unworthy and unhappy friend,
Henry Jekyl. There was a third enclosure, asked Utterson. Here, sir,

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said Paul, and gave into his hands a considerable packet
sealed in several places. The lawyer put it into his pocket.
I would say nothing of this paper. If your master
has fled or is dead, we may at least save
his credit. It is now ten I must go home

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and read these documents in quiet, but I shall be
back before midnight, when we shall send for the police.
They went out, locking the door of the theater behind them,
and Utterson, once more leaving. The servants gathered about the
fire in the hall, trudged back to his office to

(30:56):
read the two narratives in which this mystery was now
to be explained. Chapter nine, Doctor Lanion's Narrative. On the
ninth of January, now four days ago, I received by

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the evening delivery a registered envelope addressed in the hand
of my colleague and old school companion, Henry Jekyl. I
was a good deal surprised by this, for we were,
by no means in the habit of correspondence. I had
seen the man, dined with him, indeed the night before,

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and I could imagine nothing in our intercourse that should
justify the formality of registration. The contents increased my wonder,
for this is how the letter ran tenth of December
eighteen something. Dear Lanion, you are one of my oldest friends,

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and although we may have differed at times on scientific questions,
I cannot remember, at least on my side, any break
in our affection. There was never a day when if
you had said to me Jackyll, my life, my honor,
my reason depend on you, I would not have sacrificed

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my fortune or my left hand to help you Lanyon.
My life, my honor, my reason are all at your mercy.
If you fail me to night, I am lost. You
might suppose, after this preface that I am going to

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ask you for something dishonorable to grant judge for yourself.
I want you to postpone all other engagements for tonight.
I even if you were summoned to the bedside of
an emperor, to take a cab, unless your carriage should
be actually at the door, and with this letter in

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your hand for consultation, to drive straight to my house. Paul,
my butler has his orders. You will find him waiting
your arrival with a locksmith. The door of my cabinet
is then to be forced, and you are to go
in alone, to open the glazed press letter E on

(33:25):
the left hand, breaking the lock if it be shot,
and to draw out with all its contents as they stand,
the fourth draw from the top, or which is the
same thing, the third from the bottom. In my extreme
distress of mind, I have a morbid fear of misdirecting you.

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But even if I am in error, you may know
the right drawer by its contents, some powders, a file
and a paper book. The drawer I beg of you
to carry back with you to cabinet to square exactly
as it stands. This is the first part of the service.

(34:07):
Now for the second, you should be back if you
set out at once on the receipt of this long
before midnight. But I will leave you that amount of margin,
not only in the fear of one of those obstacles
that can neither be prevented nor foreseen, but because an
hour when your servants are in bed is to be

(34:29):
preferred for what will then remain to do at midnight?
Then I will have to ask you to be alone
in your consulting room, to admit with your own hand
into the house a man who will present himself in
my name, and to place in his hands the draw
that you will have brought with you from my cabinet.

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Then you will have played your part and earned my
gratitude completely. Five minutes afterward wards, if you insist upon
an explanation, you will have understood that these arrangements are
of capital importance, and that by the neglect of one
of them, fantastic as they must appear, you might have

(35:15):
charged your conscience with my death or the shipwreck of
my reason. Confident as I am, that you will not
trifle with this appeal. My heart sinks and my hand
trembles at the bare thought of such a possibility. Think
of me at this hour, in a strange place, laboring

(35:37):
under a blackness of distress that no fancy can exaggerate,
and yet well aware that if you will but punctually
serve me, my troubles will roll away like a story
that is told. Serve me, my dear Lanion, and save
your friend H. J. P S. I had already sealed

(36:01):
this up when a fresh terror struck my soul. It
is possible that the post office may fail me and
this letter not come into your hands until to morrow morning.
In that case, ded'elanion, do my errand when it shall
be most convenient for you in the course of the day,
and once more expect my messenger at midnight. It may

(36:23):
then already be too late, And if that night passes
without event, you will know that you have seen the
last of Henry Jekyll. Upon the reading of this letter,
I made sure my colleague was insane, But till that
was proved beyond the possibility of doubt, I felt bound

(36:44):
to do as he requested. The less I understood of
this farrago, the less I was in a position to
judge of its importance, and an appeal so worded could
not be set aside without a grave responsibility. I rose
accordingly from table, got into a hansom, and drove straight

(37:06):
to Jeckal's house. The butler was awaiting my arrival. He
had received by the same post as mine a registered
letter of instruction, and had sent at once for the
locksmith and a carpenter. The tradesmen came while we were
yet speaking, and we moved in a body toward Doctor

(37:26):
Denman's surgical theater, from which, as you are doubtless aware,
Jackal's private cabinet is most conveniently entered. The door was
very strong, the lock excellent. The carpenter avowed he would
have great trouble and have to do much damage if
force were to be used, and the locksmith was near despair.

(37:50):
But this last was a handy fellow, and after two
hours work the door stood open. The press marked e
was unlocked, and I took out the drawer, had it
filled up with straw and tied in a sheet, and
returned with it to Cavendish Square. Here I proceeded to
examine its contents. The powders were neatly enough made up,

(38:14):
but not with the nicety of the dispensing chemist, so
that it was plain they were of Jekyl's private manufacture.
And when I opened one of the wrappers, I found
what seemed to me a simple crystalline salt of a
white color. The file to which I next turned my
attention might have been about half full of a blood

(38:37):
red liquor, which was highly pungent to the sense of smell,
and seemed to me to contain phosphorus and some volatile ether.
At the other ingredients I could make no guess. The
book was an ordinary version book, and contained little but
a series of dates. These covered a period of many years,

(39:01):
but I observed that the entries ceased nearly a year ago,
and quite abruptly. Here and there a brief remark was
appended to a date, usually no more than a single
word double, occurring perhaps six times in a total of
several hundred entries, and once very early in the list,

(39:23):
and followed by several marks of exclamation total failure. All this,
though it whetted my curiosity, told me little that was definite.
There were a file of some tincture, a paper of
some salt, and the record of a series of experiments
that had led, like too many of Jekyl's investigations, to

(39:47):
no end of practical usefulness. How could the presence of
these articles in my house affect either the honour, the
sanity or the life of my flighty colleague. If his
messenger could go to one place, why could he not
go to another? And, even granting some impediment, why was

(40:09):
this gentleman to be received by me in secret? The
more I reflected, the more convinced I grew that I
was dealing with a case of cerebral disease. And though
I dismissed my servants to bed, I loaded an old
revolver that I might be found in some posture of
self defense. Twelve o'clock had scarce rung out over London ere.

(40:35):
The knocker sounded very gently on the door. I went
myself at the summons and found a small man crouching
against the pillars of the portico. Are you come from,
doctor Jekyll? I asked. He told me yes by a
constrained gesture, And when I had bidden him enter, he

(40:56):
did not obey me. Without a searching backward glance into
the darkness of the square. There was a policeman not
far off, advancing with his bulls. I open, and at
the sight I thought my visitor started and made greater haste.
These particulars struck me, I confess disagreeably, And as I

(41:19):
followed him into the bright light of the consulting room,
I kept my hand ready on my weapon. Here at
last I had a chance of clearly seeing him. I
had never set eyes on him before, so much was certain.
He was small, As I have said, I was struck
besides with the shocking expression of his face, with his

(41:42):
remarkable combination of great muscular activity and great apparent debility
of constitution, And last but not least, with the odd
subjective disturbance caused by his neighborhood. This bore resemblance to
incipient rigor, and was accompanied by a marked sinking of

(42:05):
the pulse. At the time I set it down to
some idiosyncratic personal distaste, and merely wondered at the acuteness
of the symptoms. But I have since had reason to
believe the cause to lie much deeper in the nature
of man, and to turn on some nobler hinge than

(42:27):
the principle of hatred. This person who had thus from
the first moment of his entrance struck in me what
I can only describe as a disgustful curiosity. Was dressed
in a fashion that would have made an ordinary person laughable.
His clothes, that is to say, although they were of

(42:49):
rich and sober fabric, were enormously too large for him
in every measurement, the trousers hanging on his legs and
rolled up to keep them from the ground, the waist
of the coat below his haunches, and the collar sprawling
wide over his shoulders. Strange to relate this ludicrous accouterment

(43:12):
was far from moving me to laughter. Rather, as there
was something abnormal and misbegotten in the very essence of
the creature that now faced me, something seizing, surprising, and revolting.
This fresh disparity seemed but to fit in with and
to reinforce it, so that to my interest in the

(43:35):
man's nature and character, there was added a curiosity as
to his origin, his life, his fortune, and status in
the world. These observations, though they have taken so great
a space to be set down, were yet the work
of a few seconds. My visitor was indeed on fire

(43:58):
with somber excitement. Have you got it? He cried, have
you got it? And so lively was his impatience that
he even laid his hand upon my arm and sought
to shake me. I put him back, conscious at his
touch of a certain icy pang along my blood. Come, sir,

(44:19):
said I, ye, forget that I have not yet the
pleasure of your acquaintance. Be seated, if you please. And
I showed him an example, and sat down myself in
my customary seat, and with as fair an imitation of
my ordinary manner to a patient as the lateness of
the house, the nature of my preoccupations, and the horror

(44:43):
I had of my visitor would suffer me to muster.
I beg your pardon, doctor Lanyon, He replied, civilly enough.
What you say is very well founded, and my impatience
has shown its heels to my politeness. From here, at
the instance of your colleague, doctor Henry Jackal, on a

(45:03):
piece of business of some moment, and I understood. He
paused and put his hand to his throat, and I
could see, in spite of his collected manner, that he
was wrestling against the approaches of the hysteria. I understood
a draw. But here I took pity on my visitor's suspense,

(45:26):
and some perhaps on my own growing curiosity. There it is, sir,
said I, pointing to the drawer, where it lay on
the floor behind a table and still covered with the sheet.
He sprang to it, and then paused and laid his
hand upon his heart. I could hear his teeth great

(45:47):
with the convulsive action of his jaws, and his face
was so ghastly to see that. I grew alarmed, both
for his life and reason. Compose yourself, said I. He
turned a dreadful smile to me, and, as if with
the decision of despair, plucked away the sheet. At sight

(46:12):
of the contents, he uttered one loud sob of such
immense relief that I sat petrified, And the next moment,
in a voice that was already fairly well under control,
have you a graduated glass, he asked. I rose from
my place with something of an effort, and gave him

(46:34):
what he asked. He thanked me with a smiling nod,
measured out a few minims of the red tincture, and
added one of the powders. The mixture, which was at
first of a reddish hue, began in proportion as the
crystals melted to brighten in color, to efferesse audibly, and

(46:57):
to throw off small fumes of vapor. Suddenly, and at
the same moment, the ebullition ceased, and the compound changed
to a dark purple, which faded again, more slowly to
a watery green. My visitor, who had watched those metamorphoses

(47:18):
with a keen eye, smiled, set down the glass upon
the table, and then turned and looked upon me with
an air of scrutiny, And now said he to settle
what remains? Will you be wise? Will you be guided?
Will you suffer me to take this glass in my

(47:40):
hand and to go forth from your house without further parley?
Or has the greed of curiosity too much command of you?
Think before you answer, for it shall be done as
you decide. As you decide, you shall be left as
you were before, and neither richer nor wiser, unless the

(48:02):
sense of service rendered to a man in mortal distress
may be counted as a kind of riches of the soul.
Or if you shall so prefer to choose, a new
province of knowledge and new avenues to fame and power,
shall be laid open to you here in this room,

(48:24):
upon this instant, and your sights shall be blasted by
a prodigy to stagger the unbelief of Satan, Sir, said I,
affecting a coolness that I was far from truly possessing.
You speak enigmas, and you will perhaps not wonder that

(48:45):
I hear you with no very strong impression of belief.
But I have gone too far in the way of
inexplicable services to pause before I see the end. It
is well, replied my visitor Lanyon. You remember your vows.

(49:06):
What follows is under the seal of our profession. And
now you who have so long been bound to the
most narrow and material views, you who have denied the
virtue of transcendental medicine, you who have derided your superiors. Behold,

(49:29):
He put the glass to his lips and drank at
one gulp. A cry followed. He reeled, staggered, clutched at
the table, and held on, staring with injected eyes, gasping
with open mouth. And as I looked, there came my

(49:50):
thought a change. He seemed to swell. His face became
suddenly black, and the features seemed to melt and alter.
And the next moment I had sprung to my feet,
and leaped back against the wall, my arm raised to
shield me from that prodigy. My mind submerged in terror.

(50:15):
Oh God, I screamed, and O God again and again.
For there before my eyes, pale and shaken, and half fainting,
and groping before him with his hands, like a man
restored from death, there stood Henry Jekyl. What he told

(50:38):
me in the next hour, I cannot bring my mind
to set on paper. I saw what I saw, I
heard what I heard, and my soul sickened at it.
And yet now, when that sight is faded from my eyes,

(50:58):
I ask myself if I believe it? And I cannot answer.
My life is shaken to its roots. Sleep has left me.
The deadliest terror sit by me at all hours of
the day and night. I feel that my days are numbered,

(51:18):
and that I must die. And yet I shall die incredulous.
As for the moral turpitude that man unveiled to me,
even with tears of penitence, I cannot, even in memory
dwell on it without a start of horror. I will
say but one thing, Utterson, and that if you can

(51:42):
bring your mind to credit, it will be more than enough.
The creature who crept into my house that night was
on Jekyll's own confession, known by the name of Hide,
and hunted for in every corner of the land as
the murderer of Carow. End of chapter nine