READ STUDY GUIDE: Chapters 4–5 |
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Chapter 4:
The Carew Murder Case
The Carew Murder Case
| Nearly a year later, in the month of October, 18—, London was |
| startled by a crime of singular ferocity and rendered all the more |
| notable by the high position of the victim. The details were few |
| and startling. A maid servant living alone in a house not far |
| from the river, had gone upstairs to bed about eleven. Although a |
| fog rolled over the city in the small hours, the early part of the |
| night was cloudless, and the lane, which the maid's window |
| overlooked, was brilliantly lit by the full moon. It seems she |
| was romantically given, for she sat down upon her box, which stood |
| immediately under the window, and fell into a dream of musing. |
| Never (she used to say, with streaming tears, when she narrated |
| that experience), never had she felt more at peace with all men |
| or thought more kindly of the world. And as she so sat she became |
| aware of an aged beautiful gentleman with white hair, drawing near |
| along the lane; and advancing to meet him, another and very small |
| gentleman, to whom at first she paid less attention. When they |
| had come within speech (which was just under the maid's eyes) the |
| older man bowed and accosted the other with a very pretty manner |
| of politeness. It did not seem as if the subject of his address |
| were of great importance; indeed, from his pointing, it some times |
| appeared as if he were only inquiring his way; but the moon shone |
| on his face as he spoke, and the girl was pleased to watch it, it |
| seemed to breathe such an innocent and old-world kindness of |
| disposition, yet with something high too, as of a well-founded |
| self-content. Presently her eye wandered to the other, and she |
| was surprised to recognise in him a certain Mr. Hyde, who had once |
| visited her master and for whom she had conceived a dislike. He |
| had in his hand a heavy cane, with which he was trifling; but he |
| answered never a word, and seemed to listen with an ill-contained |
| impatience. And then all of a sudden he broke out in a great |
| flame of anger, stamping with his foot, brandishing the cane, and |
| carrying on (as the maid described it) like a madman. The old |
| gentleman took a step back, with the air of one very much |
| surprised and a trifle hurt; and at that Mr. Hyde broke out of all |
| bounds and clubbed him to the earth. And next moment, with |
| ape-like fury, he was trampling his victim under foot and hailing |
| down a storm of blows, under which the bones were audibly |
| shattered and the body jumped upon the roadway. At the horror of |
| these sights and sounds, the maid fainted. |
| It was two o'clock when she came to herself and called for the |
| police. The murderer was gone long ago; but there lay his victim |
| in the middle of the lane, incredibly mangled. The stick with |
| which the deed had been done, although it was of some rare and |
| very tough and heavy wood, had broken in the middle under the |
| stress of this insensate cruelty; and one splintered half had |
| rolled in the neighbouring gutter—the other, without doubt, had |
| been carried away by the murderer. A purse and gold watch were |
| found upon the victim: but no cards or papers, except a sealed and |
| stamped envelope, which he had been probably carrying to the post, |
| and which bore the name and address of Mr. Utterson. |
| This was brought to the lawyer the next morning, before he was |
| out of bed; and he had no sooner seen it and been told the |
| circumstances, than he shot out a solemn lip. "I shall say |
| nothing till I have seen the body," said he; "this may be very |
| serious. Have the kindness to wait while I dress." And with the |
| same grave countenance he hurried through his breakfast and drove |
| to the police station, whither the body had been carried. As soon |
| as he came into the cell, he nodded. |
| "Yes," said he, "I recognise him. I am sorry to say that this |
| is Sir Danvers Carew." |
| "Good God, sir," exclaimed the officer, "is it possible?" And |
| the next moment his eye lighted up with professional ambition. |
| "This will make a deal of noise," he said. "And perhaps you can |
| help us to the man." And he briefly narrated what the maid had |
| seen, and showed the broken stick. |
| Mr. Utterson had already quailed at the name of Hyde; but when |
| the stick was laid before him, he could doubt no longer; broken |
| and battered as it was, he recognized it for one that he had |
| himself presented many years before to Henry Jekyll. |
"Is this Mr. Hyde a person of small stature?" he inquired.
| "Particularly small and particularly wicked-looking, is what |
| the maid calls him," said the officer. |
| Mr. Utterson reflected; and then, raising his head, "If you |
| will come with me in my cab," he said, "I think I can take you to |
| his house." |
| It was by this time about nine in the morning, and the first |
| fog of the season. A great chocolate-coloured pall lowered over |
| heaven, but the wind was continually charging and routing these |
| embattled vapours; so that as the cab crawled from street to |
| street, Mr. Utterson beheld a marvelous number of degrees and hues |
| of twilight; for here it would be dark like the back-end of |
| evening; and there would be a glow of a rich, lurid brown, like |
| the light of some strange conflagration; and here, for a moment, |
| the fog would be quite broken up, and a haggard shaft of daylight |
| would glance in between the swirling wreaths. The dismal quarter |
| of Soho seen under these changing glimpses, with its muddy ways, |
| and slatternly passengers, and its lamps, which had never been |
| extinguished or had been kindled afresh to combat this mournful |
| reinvasion of darkness, seemed, in the lawyer's eyes, like a |
| district of some city in a nightmare. The thoughts of his mind, |
| besides, were of the gloomiest dye; and when he glanced at the |
| companion of his drive, he was conscious of some touch of that |
| terror of the law and the law's officers, which may at times |
| assail the most honest. |
| As the cab drew up before the address indicated, the fog |
| lifted a little and showed him a dingy street, a gin palace, a low |
| French eating house, a shop for the retail of penny numbers and |
| twopenny salads, many ragged children huddled in the doorways, and |
| many women of many different nationalities passing out, key in |
| hand, to have a morning glass; and the next moment the fog settled |
| down again upon that part, as brown as umber, and cut him off from |
| his blackguardly surroundings. This was the home of Henry |
| Jekyll's favourite; of a man who was heir to a quarter of a |
| million sterling. |
| An ivory-faced and silvery-haired old woman opened the door. |
| She had an evil face, smoothed by hypocrisy: but her manners were |
| excellent. Yes, she said, this was Mr. Hyde's, but he was not at |
| home; he had been in that night very late, but he had gone away |
| again in less than an hour; there was nothing strange in that; his |
| habits were very irregular, and he was often absent; for instance, |
| it was nearly two months since she had seen him till yesterday. |
| "Very well, then, we wish to see his rooms," said the lawyer; |
| and when the woman began to declare it was impossible, "I had |
| better tell you who this person is," he added. "This is Inspector |
| Newcomen of Scotland Yard." |
| A flash of odious joy appeared upon the woman's face. "Ah!" |
| said she, "he is in trouble! What has he done?" |
| Mr. Utterson and the inspector exchanged glances. "He don't |
| seem a very popular character," observed the latter. "And now, my |
| good woman, just let me and this gentleman have a look about us." |
| In the whole extent of the house, which but for the old woman |
| remained otherwise empty, Mr. Hyde had only used a couple of |
| rooms; but these were furnished with luxury and good taste. A |
| closet was filled with wine; the plate was of silver, the napery |
| elegant; a good picture hung upon the walls, a gift (as Utterson |
| supposed) from Henry Jekyll, who was much of a connoisseur; and |
| the carpets were of many plies and agreeable in colour. At this |
| moment, however, the rooms bore every mark of having been recently |
| and hurriedly ransacked; clothes lay about the floor, with their |
| pockets inside out; lock-fast drawers stood open; and on the |
| hearth there lay a pile of grey ashes, as though many papers had |
| been burned. From these embers the inspector disinterred the butt |
| end of a green cheque book, which had resisted the action of the |
| fire; the other half of the stick was found behind the door; and |
| as this clinched his suspicions, the officer declared himself |
| delighted. A visit to the bank, where several thousand pounds |
| were found to be lying to the murderer's credit, completed his |
| gratification. |
| "You may depend upon it, sir," he told Mr. Utterson: "I have |
| him in my hand. He must have lost his head, or he never would |
| have left the stick or, above all, burned the cheque book. Why, |
| money's life to the man. We have nothing to do but wait for him |
| at the bank, and get out the handbills." |
| This last, however, was not so easy of accomplishment; for Mr. |
| Hyde had numbered few familiars—even the master of the servant |
| maid had only seen him twice; his family could nowhere be traced; |
| he had never been photographed; and the few who could describe him |
| differed widely, as common observers will. Only on one point were |
| they agreed; and that was the haunting sense of unexpressed |
| deformity with which the fugitive impressed his beholders. |
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