cions are aroused, and I must and shall see you," he resumed; "if
not by fair means, then by foul--if not of your consent, then by brute
force!"

"Utterson," said the voice, "for God's sake have mercy!"

"Ah, that's not Jekyll's voice--it's Hyde's!" cried Utterson. "Down with
the door, Poole."

Poole swung the axe over his shoulder; the blow shook the building, and
the red baize door leaped against the lock and hinges. A dismal screech,
as of mere animal terror, rang from the cabinet. Up went the axe again,
and again the panels crashed and the frame bounded; four times the blow
fell; but the wood was tough and the fittings were of excellent
workmanship; and it was not until the fifth, that the lock burst in
sunder and the wreck of the door fell inwards on the carpet.

The besiegers, appalled by their own riot and the stillness that had
succeeded, stood back a little and peered in. There lay the cabinet
before their eyes in the quiet lamplight, a good fire glowing and
chattering on the hearth, the kettle singing its thin strain, a drawer
or two open, papers neatly set forth on the business-table, and, nearer
the fire, the things laid out for tea: the quietest room, you would have
said, and, but for the glazed presses full of chemicals, the most
commonplace that night in London.

Right in the midst there lay the body of a man sorely contorted, and
still twitching. They drew near on tiptoe, turned it on its back, and
beheld the face of Edward Hyde. He was dressed in clothes far too large
for him, clothes of the doctor's bigness; the cords of his face still
moved with a semblance of life, but life was quite gone; and by the
crushed phial in the hand and the strong smell of kernels that hung upon
the air, Utterson knew that he was looking on the body of a
self-destroyer.

"We have come too late," he said sternly, "whether to save or punish.
Hyde is gone to his account; and it only remains for us to find the body
of your master."

The far greater proportion of the building was occupied by the theatre,
which filled almost the whole ground story and was lighted from above,
and by the cabinet, which formed an upper story at one end and looked
upon the court. A corridor joined the theatre to the door on the
by-street; and with this, the cabinet communicated separately by a
second flight of stairs. There were besides a few dark closets and a
spacious cellar. All these they now thoroughly examined. Each closet
needed but a