for him, clothes of the doctor s bigness; the cords of his face still
moved with a semblance of life, but life was quite gone; and by the
crushed phial in the hand and the strong smell of kernels that hung
upon the air, Utterson knew that he was looking on the body of a
self-destroyer.
We have come too late, he said sternly, whether to save or punish.
Hyde is gone to his account; and it only remains for us to find the
body of your master.
The far greater proportion of the building was occupied by the theatre,
which filled almost the whole ground storey and was lighted from above,
and by the cabinet, which formed an upper storey at one end and looked
upon the court. A corridor joined the theatre to the door on the
by-street; and with this the cabinet communicated separately by a
second flight of stairs. There were besides a few dark closets and a
spacious cellar. All these they now thoroughly examined. Each closet
needed but a glance, for all were empty, and all, by the dust that fell
from their doors, had stood long unopened. The cellar, indeed, was
filled with crazy lumber, mostly dating from the times of the surgeon
who was Jekyll s predecessor; but even as they opened the door they
were advertised of the uselessness of further search, by the fall of a
perfect mat of cobweb which had for years sealed up the entrance.
Nowhere was there any trace of Henry Jekyll, dead or alive.
Poole stamped on the flags of the corridor. He must be buried here,
he said, hearkening to the sound.
Or he may have fled, said Utterson, and he turned to examine the door
in the by-street. It was locked; and lying near by on the flags, they
found the key, already stained with rust.
This does not look like use, observed the lawyer.
Use! echoed Poole. Do you not see, sir, it is broken? much as if a
man had stamped on it.
Ay, continued Utterson, and the fractures, too, are rusty. The two
men looked at each other with a scare. This is beyond me, Poole, said
the lawyer. Let us go back to the cabinet.
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