chapter9_page53-54

CHAPTER 9 Dr. Lanyon's Letter

Utterson puts the sealed packet in his pocket.

I am going to my office now.

Dr. Lanyon's letter is in my safe.

I must read it immediately, he tells Poole.

It is ten o 'clock now.

I will come back here before midnight.

We can call the police then."

Utterson thinks about Hyde and Dr. Jekyll on the way to his office.

Is it a suicide, or is Jekyll the killer of Hyde?

He asks himself.

In his office Utterson takes out Lanyon's sealed envelope from the safe.

He looks at Lanyon's words on it again.

Do not open before Jekyll's death or disappearance.

Well, Jekyll is gone, so I can look inside, he says to himself.

In the envelope there is a letter from Lanyon.

From the first sentence of the letter, Utterson learns that Jekyll sends a note to Lanyon.

He sends it on the day after his dinner party in January.

In the note, Jekyll is asking for help from Lanyon.

The note says,

Lanyon, please go to my laboratory tonight.

You must be very quick.

Poole will show you my study.

Break the study door open and go in.

Take out the top drawer from my desk.

Then take that drawer to your house.

I need some medicine.

It is in that drawer.

I will send a man to your house at midnight.

Give him that drawer with the items in it.

I am in big danger.

Only you can help me.

Without your help, I will be gone from this world forever.

Utterson continues reading Lanyon's letter.

It says that Lanyon goes to Jekyll's laboratory that night.

He enters Jekyll's study with Poole's help.

And he takes out the top drawer of his desk.

There is some white powder in the drawer.

It is like salt.

And there is a bottle of red liquid.

Lanyon brings the drawer to his house

and puts it on the floor beside the door.

It is nearly midnight.

He waits for Jekyll's man.

At midnight, there is a knock on Lanyon's door.

He opens it and sees a small strange man before him.

The man has a very scary, ugly face.

He is wearing expensive clothes,

but they are too big for him.

The man says he is a friend of Jekyll.

In fact, it is Mr. Hyde,

but Lanyon does not know him at that time.

Hyde's ugly hands are shaking.

He immediately picks up the drawer from the floor.

He takes out the powder and the bottle.

Then he asks Lanyon for a glass.

He pours the powder and the red liquid into the glass.

The liquid becomes blue.

He drinks all the liquid in one gulp.

Then his face and eyes begin to change.

He begins to swell and his body expands.

He is much heavier and taller now.

He suffers a lot of pain.

He makes strange sounds.

Lanyon watches all this in horror.

A few minutes later,

Dr. Jekyll is standing before him.

Lanyon cannot believe his eyes.

He has a shock and falls down the floor.

And Dr. Jekyll leaves him there.

Lanyon ends the letter saying that he will die soon.

I am very ill after that night.

I cannot get out of bed, he adds.

Now I know the man's name.

It is Hyde.

He is the murderer of Sir Dan Vercaro.

The police are still looking for him.

Utterson feels terrible after reading Lanyon's letter.

It is very difficult to believe the facts in it.

So this monstrous man is Dr. Jekyll.

His medicine makes him an evil man named Hyde.

And Hyde is a murderer, he thinks to himself.

Now he must open the sealed packet.

But he is afraid to learn any more horrifying facts.