know my master after twenty years? Do you think I do not know where his
.
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE / 1667
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 Dr. 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.' 'Poole,' 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, Mr. 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,' was the undaunted reply. 'That's very well said,' returned the lawyer; 'and whatever comes of it, I
shall make it my business to see you are no loser.'
'There is an axe in the theatre,' continued Poole; 'and you might take the
kitchen poker for yourself.' The lawyer took that rude but weighty instrument into his hand, and bal
anced it. 'Do you know, Poole,' he said, looking up, 'that you and I are about
to place 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 recognise it?'
'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 it 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 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 has 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,
