'I suppose, Lanyon,' I said, 'you and I must be the two oldest friends that Henry Jekyll has?'

'I wish the friends were younger,' he chuckled. 'But I suppose we are. And what of that? I see little of him now.'

'Indeed?'

I must say this was not something I knew, but a little thought revealed to me that I had not seen the two men together in quite some time. I continued, 'I thought you had a bond of common interest.'

'We had,' was the reply. 'But it is more than ten years since Henry Jekyll became too fanciful for me. He began to go wrong, wrong in mind; and though of course I continue to take an interest in him for old sake's sake, as they say, I see and I have seen devilish little of the man. Such unscientific balderdash,' added the doctor, flushing suddenly purple, 'would have estranged Damon and Pythias.'

I must admit that Doctor Lanyon's attitude had taken me by surprise and I had felt my heart speed its beat as I thought that I might learn of some indiscretion of Doctor Jekyll's which might reveal the reason for his current situation. I was sorely disappointed to learn that it was solely a matter of scientific dispute and burst out, 'It is nothing worse than that?'