'It's all right,' said Poole. 'Open 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 like a flock of sheep. At the sight of Mr. Utterson, the house
maid broke into hysterical whimpering; and the cook, crying out 'Bless God!
1. Of fine linen. 'Wrack': i.e., rack, a mass of high clouds driven by the wind.
.
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE / 1665
it's Mr. Utterson,' ran forward as if to take him in her arms.
'What, what? Are you all here?' said the lawyer peevishly. 'Very irregular,
very unseemly; your master would be far from pleased.' 'They're all afraid,' said Poole.
Blank silence followed, no one protesting; only the maid lifted up her voice
and now wept loudly.
'Hold your tongue!' Poole said to her, with a ferocity of accent that testified
to his own jangled nerves; and indeed, when the 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 hands2
at once.' And then he begged Mr. Utterson to follow him, and led the way to
the back garden. 'Now, sir,' said he, 'you come as gently as you can. I want you to hear, and
1 don't want you to be heard. And see here, sir, if by any chance he was to ask
you in, don't go.' Mr. Utterson's nerves, at this unlooked-for termination, 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 theatre, with
its lumber3 of crates and bottles, to the foot of the stair. Here Poole motioned
him to stand on one side and listen; 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.
'Mr. Utterson, sir, asking to see you,' he called; and even as he did so, once
more violently signed to the lawyer to give ear.
A voice answered from within: 'Tell him I cannot see anyone,' it said
complainingly. 'Thank you, sir,' said Poole, with a note of something like triumph in his
voice; and taking up his candle, he led Mr. Utterson back across the yard and
into the great kitchen, where the fire was out and the beetles were leaping on
the floor.
'Sir,' he said, looking Mr. 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, I think so,' said the butler. 'Have I been twenty years
in this man's house, to 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 to Heaven, Mr. Utterson!'
'This is a very strange tale, Poole; this is rather a wild tale, my man,' said
Mr. Utterson, biting his finger. 'Suppose it were as you suppose, supposing
Dr. Jekyll to have been?well, murdered, what could induce the murderer to
stay? That won't hold water; it doesn't commend itself to reason.'
'Well, Mr. Utterson, you are a hard man to satisfy, but I'll do it yet,' said
Poole. 'All this last week (you must know) him, or it, or whatever it is that
lives in that cabinet, has been crying night and day for some sort of medicine
and cannot get it to his mind. It was sometimes his way?the master's, that
