They mounted the stair in silence, and still with an occasional
awestruck glance at the dead body, proceeded more thoroughly to examine
the contents of the cabinet. At one table, there were traces of
chemical work, various measured heaps of some white salt being laid on
glass saucers, as though for an experiment in which the unhappy man had
been prevented.
That is the same drug that I was always bringing him, said Poole; and
even as he spoke, the kettle with a startling noise boiled over.
This brought them to the fireside, where the easy-chair was drawn
cosily up, and the tea things stood ready to the sitter s elbow, the
very sugar in the cup. There were several books on a shelf; one lay
beside the tea things open, and Utterson was amazed to find it a copy
of a pious work, for which Jekyll had several times expressed a great
esteem, annotated, in his own hand with startling blasphemies.
Next, in the course of their review of the chamber, the searchers came
to the cheval-glass, into whose depths they looked with an involuntary
horror. But it was so turned as to show them nothing but the rosy glow
playing on the roof, the fire sparkling in a hundred repetitions along
the glazed front of the presses, and their own pale and fearful
countenances stooping to look in.
This glass has seen some strange things, sir, whispered Poole.
And surely none stranger than itself, echoed the lawyer in the same
tones. For what did Jekyll he caught himself up at the word with a
start, and then conquering the weakness what could Jekyll want with
it? he said.
You may say that! said Poole.
Next they turned to the business table. On the desk, among the neat
array of papers, a large envelope was uppermost, and bore, in the
doctor s hand, the name of Mr. Utterson. The lawyer unsealed it, and
several enclosures fell to the floor. The first was a will, drawn in
the same eccentric terms as the one which he had returned six months
before, to serve as a testament in case of death and as a deed of gift
41