my shoulders are broad enough to bear the blame. Meanwhile, lest anything
.
1668 / ROBERT Louis STEVENSON
should really be amiss, 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, Poole, let us
get to ours,' he said; and taking the poker under his arm, led the way into the
yard. The scud4 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 sounds 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 that
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 terror, 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 suc
ceeded, 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.
