第15章

Mr Utterson was sitting by his fireside one evening after dinner, when he was surprised to receive a visit from Poole.

`Bless me, Poole, what brings you here?' he cried; and then, taking a second look at him, `What ails you?' he added; `is the doctor ill?'

`Mr Utterson,' said the man, `there is something wrong.'

`Take a seat, and here is a glass of wine for you,' said the lawyer.

`Now, take your time, and tell me plainly what you want.'

`You know the doctor's ways, sir,' replied Poole, `and how he shuts himself up. Well, he's shut up again in the cabinet; and I don't like it, sir - I wish I may die if I like it. Mr Utterson, sir, I'm afraid.'

`Now, my good man,' said the lawyer, `be explicit. What are you afraid of?'

`I've been afraid for about a week,' returned Poole, doggedly disregarding the question, `and I can bear it no more.'

The man's appearance amply bore out his words; his manner was altered for the worse; and except for the moment when he had first announced his terror, he had not once looked the lawyer in the face. Even now, he sat with the glass of wine untasted on his knee, and his eyes directed to a corner of the floor. `I can bear it no more,' he repeated.

`Come,' said the lawyer, `I see you have some good reason, Poole; Isee there is something seriously amiss. Try to tell me what it is.'

`I think there's been foul play,' said Poole, hoarsely.

`Foul play!' cried the lawyer, a good deal frightened, and rather inclined to be irritated in consequence. `What foul play? What does the man mean?'

`I daren't say, sir,' was the answer; `but will you come along with me and see for yourself?'

Mr Utterson's only answer was to rise and get his hat and great coat;but he observed with wonder the greatness of the relief that appeared upon the butler's face, and perhaps with no less, that the wine was still untasted when he set it down to follow.

It was a wild, cold, seasonable night of March, with a pale moon, lying on her back as though the wind had tilted her, and a flying wrack of the most diaphanous and lawny texture. The wind made talking difficult, and flecked the blood into the face. It seemed to have swept the streets unusually bare of passengers, besides; for Mr Utterson thought he had never seen that part of London so deserted. He could have wished it otherwise; never in his life had he been conscious of so sharp a wish to see and touch his fellow-creatures; for, struggle as he might, there was borne in upon his mind a crushing anticipation of calamity. The square, when they got there, was all full of wind and dust, and the thin trees in the garden were lashing themselves along the railing. Poole, who had kept all the way a pace or two ahead, now pulled up in the middle of the pavement, and in spite of the biting weather, took off his hat and mopped his brow with a red pocket-handkerchief.

But for all the hurry of his coming, these were not the dews of exertion that he wiped away, but the moisture of some strangling anguish; for his face was white, and his voice, when he spoke, harsh and broken.

`Well, sir,' he said, `here we are, and God grant there be nothing wrong.'

`Amen, Poole,' said the lawyer.

Thereupon the servant knocked in a very guarded manner; the door was opened on the chain; and a voice asked from within, `Is that you, Poole?'

`It's all right,' said Poole. `Open the door.'

The hall, when they entered it, was brightly lighted up; the fire was built high; and about the hearth the whole of the servants, men and women, stood huddled together like a flock of sheep. At the sight of Mr Utterson, the housemaid broke into hysterical whimpering; and the cook, crying out, `Bless God! it's Mr Utterson,' ran forward as if to take him in her arms.

`What, what? Are you all here?' said the lawyer, peevishly. `Very irregular, very unseemly: your master would be far from pleased.'

`They're all afraid,' said Poole.

Blank silence followed, no one protesting; only the maid lifted up her voice and now wept loudly.

`Hold your tongue!' Poole said to her, with a ferocity of accent that testified to his own jangled nerves; and indeed when the girl had so suddenly raised the note of her lamentation, they had all started and turned towards the inner door with faces of dreadful expectation. `And now,' continued the butler, addressing the knife-boy, reach me a candle, and we'll get this through hands at once.' And then he begged Mr Utterson to follow him, and led the way to the back garden.

`Now, sir,' said he, `you come as gently as you can. I want you to hear, and I don't want you to be heard. And see here, sir, if by any chance he was to ask you in, don't go.'

Mr Utterson's nerves, at this unlooked-for termination, gave a jerk that nearly threw him from his balance; but he recollected his courage, and followed the butler into the laboratory building and through the surgical theatre, with its lumber of crates and bottles, to the foot of the stair.

Here Poole motioned him to stand on one side and listen; while he himself, setting down the candle and making a great and obvious call on his resolution, mounted the steps, and knocked with a somewhat uncertain hand on the red baize of the cabinet door.

`Mr Utterson, sir, asking to see you,' he called; and even as he did so, once more violently signed to the lawyer to give ear.

A voice answered from within: `Tell him I cannot see any one,' it said, complainingly.

`Thank you, sir,' said Poole, with a note of something like triumph in his voice; and taking up his candle, he led Mr Utterson back across the yard and into the great kitchen, where the fire was out and the beetles were leaping on the floor.

`Sir,' he said, looking Mr Utterson in the eyes, `was that my master's voice?'

`It seems much changed,' replied the lawyer, very pale, but giving look for look.