Holmes had clapped a pair of handcuffs on him. “Edward Hyde, you are under arrest for the murder of Sir Danvers Carew. It will give me great pleasure to deliver you to Scotland Yard.”
Hyde snarled like a dog, then threw back his head and laughed. “Nicely played, Mr. Holmes. It will be my great pleasure to see you prove your case in court.”
“And I will be sorry when you are hanged, Mr. Hyde.”
“Wait, where’s Prendick?” asked Catherine. “Did he get out? Is he still in there?”
MARY: I was worried you were going to run back in after him!
CATHERINE: Certainly not. I mean, I did think about it for a moment. Because unlike him, I don’t leave people to die.
“I have no idea,” said Holmes. “In the confusion of the fire, he could have run toward the back of the building and escaped out the window.”
“Prendick always was a coward,” said Hyde. “A coward and a mediocre scientist who lacked imagination. It was foolish of Moreau to teach him as much as he did.”
“That’s probably the only thing on which we will ever agree,” said Catherine.
“Isn’t that him?” asked Beatrice.
A dark shape was running across the road toward them. “Don’t leave me! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!” Renfield waved his hands frantically.
“All right, you won’t die,” said Holmes. “Just come with us—quietly, mind—and we’ll take you safely home again.”
“To my flies?” asked Renfield, rubbing his hands together.
“Yes, to your flies,” said Mary. “Big fat juicy ones. You just need to come with us.”
“Since I am inconveniently out of handcuffs,” added Holmes.
“Oh, I’ll go with you so nicely! I’ll be good, you’ll see!” Renfield smiled anxiously. He can’t be trusted, Mary thought. And yet they would have to trust him, for now. Certainly he was more deeply involved in this case—with the Société des Alchimistes, if not the murders—than they had thought. How had her father, or rather Hyde, convinced him to confess to murders he had not committed? And why Renfield in the first place? What was his connection with the society, and with Hyde? But this was no time for questions.
With a crash, the roof of the warehouse fell in. They could see burning pieces of it falling into the second floor, where Beatrice had been held captive. The street was no longer dark. Now, light from the fire flickered across the cobblestones, illuminating the London night. Even in the alley, they could feel its heat and hear its roar, as though it were speaking with the voice of the dead Beast Men.
“We need to move,” said Holmes. “Both for Watson’s sake, and because I need to let the authorities know there’s a fire. It could spread through this entire area.”
“We found it!” Diana’s voice came out of the darkness. She emerged, followed by Charlie, into the light of the conflagration. “There’s a steamboat by the docks, and the captain is willing to take us upriver. He swore at us proper for waking him up, and said he wouldn’t take us for love or money. But I told him you had lots of money, so I hope you do. He says he won’t fire up the boiler until he sees it.”
“He can take us to the Royal Hospital! Surely they’ll have the facilities to treat even such a wound,” said Mary. If only they could get Watson to a hospital quickly. . . .
“Dr. Watson will not live that long, not if he loses more blood,” said Beatrice. “We must cauterize the wound.”
“How?” asked Catherine. “There’s our fire to heat metal, but it’s too dangerous to approach. You can feel how hot it’s burning, even from here.” As she spoke, the second floor broke through and fell into the first. By the time the fire burned out, the building would be a skeleton.
“I can do it.” Beatrice rolled back her sleeves. “Mary, remove those bandages. They must be changed anyway—they are soaked through with blood.”
“A chemical burn. How clever of you, Miss Rappaccini,” said Hyde.
Beatrice looked at him scornfully. “You would have made me a murderer,” she said. Mary had not realized she could sound so contemptuous.
MARY: And I’ve never heard you sound like that since.
DIANA: Oh no, our Beatrice is always so polite!
MARY: Unlike some.
Mary removed the bandages as quickly as she could, trying not to think about how deep those gashes must be, what all that blood meant. When the shoulder was bare, although crusted with blood, Beatrice touched it—carefully, carefully, with the tips of her fingers. Where she touched, the dried blood bubbled away and the skin burned. But it was clean, as though disinfected by fire. With more strips from her petticoat, Mary bandaged the shoulder again.
“Nicely done. You would make a good nurse, Miss Jekyll,” said Holmes. Mary flushed at the compliment, glad it was dark so Holmes could not see. “Now, I must get Watson to the hospital. Charlie, can you find the nearest fire station and alert the Fire Brigade?”
“Of course we can,” said Diana. “If you turn left, and left again, there’s a road down to the docks. The boat is named Hesperus—it’s painted on the side.”
“No! You stay right here—,” said Mary, but it was already too late. Charlie and Diana had melted away into the darkness. “Damn and double damn!”
“Well, Miss Prim and Proper is cursing,” said Catherine. “That, I never thought I would hear!”
“You’re going to hear it a lot more if she keeps behaving like that,” said Mary.
DIANA: And I have! You know, it would do you good to curse a little more. . . .
MARY: Don’t you have something productive to do? Like, I don’t know, drink poison?
“I’ll lift Watson, if someone can help me on the other side,” said Holmes.
“That will not be necessary,” said Justine. “I am recovered from the ether now. I can carry him myself.”
What a strange procession they made! Catherine walked in front, since she was the only one who could see in the dark, wearing Holmes’s frock coat over her nakedness. The moon shone brightly onto the street down to the water, but the warehouses in this area were old, the streets badly maintained. It was easy to trip over uneven stones or bits of refuse. Behind Catherine, Justine carried Watson as easily as she would carry a large pillow. Behind her walked Holmes, with Hyde at his side in handcuffs, and Beatrice next to him. He had been warned that if he tried to escape, either Catherine would bite him or Beatrice would breathe on him. He did not seem to relish either option. Then came Mary with Alice, and finally Renfield in the rear, afraid to be left behind in the darkness.
CHAPTER XVII
A Boat on the Thames