“10th December, 18—.
“Dear Lanyon,—You are one of my oldest friends; and although we may have differed at times on scientific questions, I cannot remember, at least on my side, any break in our affection. There was never a day when, if you had said to me, `Jekyll, my life, my honour, my reason, depend upon you,’ I would not have sacrificed my left hand to help you. Lanyon my life, my honour, my reason, are all at your mercy; if you fail me to-night, I am lost. You might suppose, after this preface, that I am going to ask you for something dishonourable to grant. Judge for yourself.
“I want you to postpone4 all other engagements for to-night—ay, even if you were summoned to the bedside of an emperor; to take a cab, unless your carriage should be actually at the door; and with this letter in your hand for consultation5, to drive straight to my house. Poole, my butler, has his orders; you will find him waiting your arrival with a locksmith. The door of my cabinet is then to be forced: and you are to go in alone; to open the glazed6 press (letter E) on the left hand, breaking the lock if it be shut; and to draw out, with all its contents as they stand, the fourth drawer from the top or (which is the same thing) the third from the bottom. In my extreme distress7 of mind, I have a morbid8 fear of misdirecting you; but even if I am in error, you may know the right drawer by its contents: some powders, a phial and a paper book. This drawer I beg of you to carry back with you to Cavendish Square exactly as it stands.
“That is the first part of the service: now for the second. You should be back, if you set out at once on the receipt of this, long before midnight; but I will leave you that amount of margin9, not only in the fear of one of those obstacles that can neither be prevented nor foreseen, but because an hour when your servants are in bed is to be preferred for what will then remain to do. At midnight, then, I have to ask you to be alone in your consulting room, to admit with your own hand into the house a man who will present himself in my name, and to place in his hands the drawer that you will have brought with you from my cabinet. Then you will have played your part and earned my gratitude10 completely. Five minutes afterwards, if you insist upon an explanation, you will have understood that these arrangements are of capital importance; and that by the neglect of one of them, fantastic as they must appear, you might have charged your conscience with my death or the shipwreck11 of my reason.
“Confident as I am that you will not trifle with this appeal, my heart sinks and my hand trembles at the bare thought of such a possibility. Think of me at this hour, in a strange place, labouring under a blackness of distress that no fancy can exaggerate, and yet well aware that, if you will but punctually serve me, my troubles will roll away like a story that is told. Serve me, my dear Lanyon and save
“Your friend,
“H.J.
“P.S.—I had already sealed this up when a fresh terror struck upon my soul. It is possible that the post-office may fail me, and this letter not come into your hands until to-morrow morning. In that case, dear Lanyon, do my errand when it shall be most convenient for you in the course of the day; and once more expect my messenger at midnight. It may then already be too late; and if that night passes without event, you will know that you have seen the last of Henry Jekyll.”
Upon the reading of this letter, I made sure my colleague was insane; but till that was proved beyond the possibility of doubt, I felt bound to do as he requested. The less I understood of this farrago, the less I was in a position to judge of its importance; and an appeal so worded could not be set aside without a grave responsibility. I rose accordingly from table, got into a hansom, and drove straight to Jekyll’s house. The butler was awaiting my arrival; he had received by the same post as mine a registered letter of instruction, and had sent at once for a locksmith and a carpenter. The tradesmen came while we were yet speaking; and we moved in a body to old Dr. Denman’s surgical12 theatre, from which (as you are doubtless aware) Jekyll’s private cabinet is most conveniently entered. The door was very strong, the lock excellent; the carpenter avowed13 he would have great trouble and have to do much damage, if force were to be used; and the locksmith was near despair. But this last was a handy fellow, and after two hour’s work, the door stood open. The press marked E was unlocked; and I took out the drawer, had it filled up with straw and tied in a sheet, and returned with it to Cavendish Square.
Here I proceeded to examine its contents. The powders were neatly14 enough made up, but not with the nicety of the dispensing15 chemist; so that it was plain they were of Jekyll’s private manufacture: and when I opened one of the wrappers I found what seemed to me a simple crystalline salt of a white colour. The phial, to which I next turned my attention, might have been about half full of a blood-red liquor, which was highly pungent16 to the sense of smell and seemed to me to contain phosphorus and some volatile17 ether. At the other ingredients I could make no guess. The book was an ordinary version book and contained little but a series of dates. These covered a period of many years, but I observed that the entries ceased nearly a year ago and quite abruptly18. 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 exclamation19, “total failure!!!” All this, though it whetted20 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 sanity21, 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 dealing22 with a case of cerebral23 disease; and though I dismissed my servants to bed, I loaded an old revolver, that I might be found in some posture24 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 crouching25 against the pillars of the portico26.
“Are you come from Dr. Jekyll?” I asked.
He told me “yes” by a constrained27 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 remarkable28 combination of great muscular activity and great apparent debility of constitution, and—last but not least—with the odd, subjective29 disturbance30 caused by his neighbourhood. This bore some resemblance to incipient31 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 deeper in the nature of man, and to turn on some nobler hinge than the principle of hatred32.
This person (who had thus, from the first moment of his entrance, struck in me what I can only describe as a disgustful curiosity) was dressed in a fashion that would have made an ordinary person laughable; his clothes, that is to say, although they were of rich and sober fabric34, were enormously too large for him in every measurement—the trousers hanging on his legs and rolled up to keep them from the ground, the waist of the coat below his haunches, and the collar sprawling35 wide upon his shoulders. Strange to relate, this ludicrous accoutrement was far from moving me to laughter. Rather, as there was something abnormal and misbegotten in the very essence of the creature that now faced me—something seizing, surprising and revolting—this fresh disparity seemed but to fit in with and to reinforce it; so that to my interest in the man’s nature and character, there was added a curiosity as to his origin, his life, his fortune and status in the world.
These observations, though they have taken so great a space to be set down in, were yet the work of a few seconds. My visitor was, indeed, on fire with sombre excitement.
“Have you got it?” he cried. “Have you got it?” And so lively was his impatience36 that he even laid his hand upon my arm and sought to shake me.
I put him back, conscious at his touch of a certain icy pang37 along my blood. “Come, sir,” said I. “You forget that I have not yet the pleasure of your acquaintance. Be seated, if you please.” And I showed him an example, and sat down myself in my customary seat and with as fair an imitation of my ordinary manner to a patient, as the lateness of the hour, the nature of my preoccupations, and the horror I had of my visitor, would suffer me to muster38.
“I beg your pardon, Dr. Lanyon,” he replied civilly enough. “What you say is very well founded; and my impatience has shown its heels to my politeness. I come here at the instance of your colleague, Dr. Henry Jekyll, on a piece of business of some moment; and I understood...” He paused and put his hand to his throat, and I could see, in spite of his collected manner, that he was wrestling against the approaches of the hysteria—“I understood, a drawer...”
But here I took pity on my visitor’s suspense39, and some perhaps on my own growing curiosity.
“There it is, sir,” said I, pointing to the drawer, where it lay on the floor behind a table and still covered with the sheet.
He sprang to it, and then paused, and laid his hand upon his heart: I could hear his teeth grate with the convulsive action of his jaws40; and his face was so ghastly to see that I grew alarmed both for his life and reason.
“Compose yourself,” said I.
He turned a dreadful smile to me, and as if with the decision of despair, plucked away the sheet. At sight of the contents, he uttered one loud sob33 of such immense relief that I sat petrified41. And the next moment, in a voice that was already fairly well under control, “Have you a graduated glass?” he asked.
I rose from my place with something of an effort and gave him what he asked.
He thanked me with a smiling nod, measured out a few minims of the red tincture and added one of the powders. The mixture, which was at first of a reddish hue42, began, in proportion as the crystals melted, to brighten in colour, to effervesce43 audibly, and to throw off small fumes44 of vapour. Suddenly and at the same moment, the ebullition ceased and the compound changed to a dark purple, which faded again more slowly to a watery45 green. My visitor, who had watched these metamorphoses with a keen eye, smiled, set down the glass upon the table, and then turned and looked upon me with an air of scrutiny46.
“And now,” said he, “to settle what remains47. Will you be wise? will you be guided? will you suffer me to take this glass in my hand and to go forth48 from your house without further parley49? or has the greed of curiosity too much command of you? Think before you answer, for it shall be done as you decide. As you decide, you shall be left as you were before, and neither richer nor wiser, unless the sense of service rendered to a man in mortal distress may be counted as a kind of riches of the soul. Or, if you shall so prefer to choose, a new province of knowledge and new avenues to fame and power shall be laid open to you, here, in this room, upon the instant; and your sight shall be blasted by a prodigy50 to stagger the unbelief of Satan.”
“Sir,” said I, affecting a coolness that I was far from truly possessing, “you speak enigmas51, and you will perhaps not wonder that I hear you with no very strong impression of belief. But I have gone too far in the way of inexplicable52 services to pause before I see the end.”
“It is well,” replied my visitor. “Lanyon, you remember your vows53: what follows is under the seal of our profession. And now, you who have so long been bound to the most narrow and material views, you who have denied the virtue54 of transcendental medicine, you who have derided55 your superiors—behold!”
He put the glass to his lips and drank at one gulp56. A cry followed; he reeled, staggered, clutched at the table and held on, staring with injected eyes, gasping57 with open mouth; and as I looked there came, I thought, a change—he seemed to swell—his face became suddenly black and the features seemed to melt and alter—and the next moment, I had sprung to my feet and leaped back against the wall, my arms raised to shield me from that prodigy, my mind submerged in terror.
“O God!” I screamed, and “O God!” again and again; for there before my eyes—pale and shaken, and half fainting, and groping before him with his hands, like a man restored from death—there stood Henry Jekyll!
What he told me in the next hour, I cannot bring my mind to set on paper. I saw what I saw, I heard what I heard, and my soul sickened at it; and yet now when that sight has faded from my eyes, I ask myself if I believe it, and I cannot answer. My life is shaken to its roots; sleep has left me; the deadliest terror sits by me at all hours of the day and night; and I feel that my days are numbered, and that I must die; and yet I shall die incredulous. As for the moral turpitude58 that man unveiled to me, even with tears of penitence59, I can not, even in memory, dwell on it without a start of horror. I will say but one thing, Utterson, and that (if you can bring your mind to credit it) will be more than enough. The creature who crept into my house that night was, on Jekyll’s own confession60, known by the name of Hyde and hunted for in every corner of the land as the murderer of Carew.
HASTIE LANYON
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1
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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2
justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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3
registration
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| n.登记，注册，挂号 | |
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4
postpone
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| v.延期，推迟 | |
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5
consultation
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| n.咨询；商量；商议；会议 | |
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6
glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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7
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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8
morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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9
margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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10
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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11
shipwreck
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| n.船舶失事，海难 | |
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12
surgical
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| adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的 | |
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13
avowed
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| adj.公开声明的，承认的v.公开声明，承认( avow的过去式和过去分词) | |
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14
neatly
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| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
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15
dispensing
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| v.分配( dispense的现在分词 )；施与；配（药） | |
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16
pungent
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| adj.（气味、味道）刺激性的，辛辣的；尖锐的 | |
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17
volatile
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| adj.反复无常的，挥发性的，稍纵即逝的，脾气火爆的；n.挥发性物质 | |
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18
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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19
exclamation
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| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
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20
whetted
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| v.（在石头上）磨（刀、斧等）( whet的过去式和过去分词 )；引起，刺激（食欲、欲望、兴趣等） | |
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21
sanity
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| n.心智健全，神智正常，判断正确 | |
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22
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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23
cerebral
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| adj.脑的，大脑的；有智力的，理智型的 | |
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24
posture
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| n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势 | |
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25
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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26
portico
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| n.柱廊，门廊 | |
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27
constrained
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| adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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28
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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29
subjective
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| a.主观(上)的，个人的 | |
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30
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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31
incipient
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| adj.起初的，发端的，初期的 | |
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32
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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33
sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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34
fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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35
sprawling
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| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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36
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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37
pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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38
muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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39
suspense
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| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
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40
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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41
petrified
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| adj.惊呆的；目瞪口呆的v.使吓呆，使惊呆；变僵硬；使石化(petrify的过去式和过去分词) | |
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42
hue
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| n.色度；色调；样子 | |
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43
effervesce
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| v.冒泡，热情洋溢 | |
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44
fumes
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| n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体 | |
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45
watery
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| adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的 | |
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46
scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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47
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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48
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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49
parley
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| n.谈判 | |
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50
prodigy
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| n.惊人的事物，奇迹，神童，天才，预兆 | |
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51
enigmas
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| n.难于理解的问题、人、物、情况等，奥秘( enigma的名词复数 ) | |
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52
inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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53
vows
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| 誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿 | |
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54
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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55
derided
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| v.取笑，嘲笑( deride的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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56
gulp
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| vt.吞咽，大口地吸（气）；vi.哽住；n.吞咽 | |
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57
gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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58
turpitude
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| n.可耻；邪恶 | |
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59
penitence
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| n.忏悔，赎罪；悔过 | |
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60
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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