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 and the wreck of the door fell inwards on the carpet.
The besiegers, appalled by their own riot and the stillness that had
succeeded, 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.
Right in the middle there lay the body of a man sorely contorted and
still twitching. They drew near on tiptoe, turned it on his back and
beheld the face of Edward Hyde. He was dressed in clothes far too large
39