nd surely none stranger than itself," echoed the lawyer in the same
tones. "For what did Jekyll"--he caught himself up at the word with a
start, and then conquering the weakness: "what could Jekyll want with
it?" he said.

"You may say that!" said Poole.

Next they turned to the business-table. On the desk, among the neat
array of papers, a large envelope was uppermost, and bore, in the
doctor's hand, the name of Mr. Utterson. The lawyer unsealed it, and
several enclosures fell to the floor. The first was a will, drawn in the
same eccentric terms as the one which he had returned six months before,
to serve as a testament in case of death and as a deed of gift in case
of disappearance; but, in place of the name of Edward Hyde, the lawyer,
with indescribable amazement, read the name of Gabriel John Utterson. He
looked at Poole, and then back at the paper, and last of all at the dead
malefactor stretched upon the carpet.

"My head goes round," he said. "He has been all these days in
possession; he had no cause to like me; he must have raged to see
himself displaced; and he has not destroyed this document."

He caught up the next paper; it was a brief note in the doctor's hand,
and dated at the top. "O Poole!" the lawyer cried, "he was alive and
here this day. He cannot have been disposed of in so short a space, he
must be still alive, he must have fled! And then, why fled? and how?
and in that case, can we venture to declare this suicide? Oh, we must be
careful. I foresee that we may yet involve your master in some dire
catastrophe."

"Why don't you read it, sir?" asked Poole.

"Because I fear," replied the lawyer solemnly. "God grant I have no
cause for it!" and with that he brought the paper to his eyes and read
as follows:

"My dear Utterson,--When this shall fall into your hands, I shall
have disappeared, under what circumstances I have not the penetration
to foresee, but my instinct and all the circumstances of my nameless
situation tell me that the end is sure, and must be early. Go then,
and first read the narrative which Lanyon warned me he was to place
in your hands; and if you care to hear more, turn to the confession
of Your unworthy and unhappy friend,

"HENRY JEKYLL."

"There was a third enclosure?" asked Utterson.

"Here sir," said Poole, and gave into his hands a considerable packet
sealed in several places.

The lawyer put it in his pocket. "I would say nothing of thi