hose in authority really believed
I had that day attempted to kill myself, I found no fault with their
wish to put me in restraint; but I did object to having this done by
Jekyll-Hyde. Though a straitjacket should always be adjusted by the
physician in charge, I knew that as a matter of fact the disagreeable
duty was invariably assigned to the attendants. Consequently
Jekyll-Hyde's eagerness to assume an obligation he usually shirked gave
me the feeling that his motives were spiteful. For that reason I
preferred to entrust myself to the uncertain mercies of a regular
attendant; and I said so, but in vain. "If you will keep your mouth
shut, I'll be able to do this job quicker," said Jekyll-Hyde.

"I'll shut my mouth as soon as you get out of this room and not
before," I remarked. Nor did I. My abusive language was, of course,
interlarded with the inevitable epithets. The more I talked, the more
vindictive he became. He said nothing, but, unhappily for me, he
expressed his pent-up feelings in something more effectual than words.
After he had laced the jacket, and drawn my arms across my chest so
snugly that I could not move them a fraction of an inch, I asked him to
loosen the strait-jacket enough to enable me at least to take a full
breath. I also requested him to give me a chance to adjust my fingers,
which had been caught in an unnatural and uncomfortable position.

"If you will keep still a minute, I will," said Jekyll-Hyde. I obeyed,
and willingly too, for I did not care to suffer more than was
necessary. Instead of loosening the appliance as agreed, this doctor,
now livid with rage, drew the cords in such a way that I found myself
more securely and cruelly held than before. This breach of faith threw
me into a frenzy. Though it was because his continued presence served
to increase my excitement that Jekyll-Hyde at last withdrew, it will be
observed that he did not do so until he had satisfied an unmanly desire
which an apparently lurking hatred had engendered. The attendants soon
withdrew and locked me up for the night.

No incidents of my life have ever impressed themselves more indelibly
on my memory than those of my first night in a strait-jacket. Within
one hour of the time I was placed in it I was suffering pain as intense
as any I ever endured, and before the night had passed it had become
almost unbearable. My right hand was so held that the tip of one of my
fingers was all but cut by the nail of another, a