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.
He told me yes by a constrained gesture; and when I had bidden him
enter, he did not obey me without a searching backward glance into the
darkness of the square. There was a policeman not far off, advancing
with his bull s eye open; and at the sight, I thought my visitor
started and made greater haste.
These particulars struck me, I confess, disagreeably; and as I followed
him into the bright light of the consulting room, I kept my hand ready
on my weapon. Here, at last, I had a chance of clearly seeing him. I
had never set eyes on him before, so much was certain. He was small, as
I have said; I was struck besides with the shocking expression of his
face, with his remarkable combination of great muscular activity and
great apparent debility of constitution, and last but not least with
the odd, subjective disturbance caused by his neighbourhood. This bore
some resemblance to incipient rigour, and was accompanied by a marked
sinking of the pulse. At the time, I set it down to some idiosyncratic,
personal distaste, and merely wondered at the acuteness of the
symptoms; but I have since had reason to believe the cause to lie much
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