by Robert Louis Stevenson
Part Eleven
"Dr. Lanyon's Narrative"
On the ninth of January, now four days ago, I received by the
evening
delivery a registered envelope, addressed in the hand of my
colleague
and old school companion, Henry Jekyll. 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; and I could
imagine nothing in our intercourse that should justify formality
of
registration. The contents increased my wonder; for this is how
the
letter ran:
"10th December, 18--.
"Dear Lanyon,--You are one of my oldest friends; 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, `Jekyll, my life, my honour, my
reason,
depend upon you,' I would not have sacrificed my left hand to help
you.
Lanyon my life, my honour, 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 ask you for something dishonourable to grant. Judge
for
yourself.
"I want you to postpone all other engagements for
to-night--ay, 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
your hand for consultation, to drive straight to my house. Poole,
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 the left
hand,
breaking the lock if it be shut; and to draw out, with all its
contents
as they stand, the fourth drawer 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; but even if I am in error, you
may
know the right drawer by its contents: some powders, a phial and a
paper book. This drawer I beg of you to carry back with you to
Cavendish
Square exactly as it stands.
"That is the first part of the service: 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
preferred for what will then remain to do. At midnight, then, I
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 drawer that you will have brought with you from
my
cabinet. Then you will have played your part and earned my
gratitude
completely. Five minutes afterwards, 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 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, labouring 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 Lanyon and save
"Your friend,
"H.J.
"P.S.--I had already sealed this up when a fresh terror
struck upon 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,
dear
Lanyon, 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
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
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 to
Jekyll'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 a locksmith and a carpenter. The tradesmen came while
we
were yet speaking; and we moved in a body to old Dr. Denman's
surgical
theatre, from which (as you are doubtless aware) Jekyll'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. But this last was a handy fellow, and after two hour's
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, but not with the nicety of the dispensing chemist; so
that it
was plain they were of Jekyll's private manufacture: and when I
opened
one of the wrappers I found what seemed to me a simple crystalline
salt
of a white colour. The phial, to which I next turned my attention,
might have been about half full of a blood-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, 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 and followed by several
marks
of exclamation, "total failure!!!" All this, though it
whetted my
curiosity, told me little that was definite. Here were a phial of
some
salt, and the record of a series of experiments that had led (like
too
many of Jekyll's investigations) to 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 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-defence.
Twelve o'clock had scarce rung out over London, ere 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 Dr. Jekyll?" I asked.
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