Трек 11_01

Chapter Eleven

The Disappearance

One glance at that face told Utterson that Hyde was dead. He was astonished to see that the man was dressed in clothes that were far too big for him; and, by the blue glass bottle that the man held in his hand, and the sharp smell that hung still upon the air, he knew that he was looking on the body of a self-destroyer.

«We have come too late,» he said slowly, «either to save or punish. It only remains for us to find the body of your master.»

The greater part of the building was occupied by the laboratory, and by the study, which formed a separate room at one end and looked down upon the court. A passage joined the laboratory to the door on the side street. There were, besides, a few large cupboards and a cellar. All these they now searched. Nowhere was there a trace of Henry Jekyll, dead or alive.

Poole stamped a foot down hard on the stones of the passage.

«He must be buried here,» he said, «though I see no signs of the stones having been lifted.

«Or he may have gone out that way,» said Utterson, and turned to examine the door into the side street. It was locked, and lying near by upon the ground they found the key, broken and stained with rust.

«It looks as if a man has stamped on it,» said Poole.

The lawyer raised a hand to his head.

«This is beyond me, Poole,» he said. «Let us go back to the laboratory.»

They entered the laboratory once more and, with an occasional glance at the dead body, began to look more carefully about the place. At one table there were traces of chemical work; various measured heaps of some white salt, made it look as though the man had been interrupted in the middle of an experiment.

«Sir, that’s the same drug that I was always bringing him,» said Poole, pointing, and then his glance went to the long mirror that Utterson had noticed before.

«That glass has seen some strange things, sir,» whispered Poole.

«And none stranger than itself,» echoed the lawyer. «What on earth could Jekyll have wanted with it?»

«I don’t know, sir,» answered Poole, «but I’ve often wondered.»

Next they turned to the business table. On it lay a large envelope, and Utterson gave a start when he saw his own name written upon it in the doctor’s hand. He opened it, and some papers fell to the floor. The first was a will, drawn up in the same strange terms as the one he had returned six months before, to serve in case of the disappearance of Henry Jekyll; but in place of the name of Edward Hyde, the lawyer, in great astonishment, read his own. He looked at Poole, and then back at the papers, and last of all at the dead man stretched out upon the carpet.

«My head is going round,» he said. «That man has been shut in here for days, and he has not destroyed this will.»

He looked at the next paper. It was a brief note in the doctor’s hand and dated at the top.

«Poole!» he cried. «He was alive and here this day. But where has he gone? Can we be sure that Hyde took his own life? We must be careful, or we may yet drag your master into some serious trouble.»

«Sir, why don’t you read what he says?» asked Poole, looking very worried.

Utterson looked at the paper, and read as follows:

My dear Utterson,

When this falls into your hands, I shall have disappeared. There is no other way for it. Go then, and first read the narrative which Lanyon warned me he was about to place in your hands; and if you care to hear more, turn to the confession of-

Your unworthy and unhappy friend,

Henry Jekyll.

«There was this, too, sir,» said Poole, and handed Utterson a second envelope sealed in several places.

The lawyer put it in his pocket. «I would say nothing of this to anyone,» he said seriously. «If your master has run away, or is dead, we may at least save his good name. It is now ten o’clock. I must go home and read these documents in quiet-but I shall be back before midnight, when we shall send for the police.»

They went out, and locked the door of the laboratory behind them. Utterson left the servants gathered once more about the fire in the hall, and walked back to his office to read the two narratives in which the mystery was to be explained.