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-CHAPTER I THE STRANGE MAN'S ARRIVAL

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The stranger came early in February, one wintry day, through a biting wind and a

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driving snow, the last snowfall of the year, over the down, walking from

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Bramblehurst railway station, and carrying

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a little black portmanteau in his thickly gloved hand.

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He was wrapped up from head to foot, and the brim of his soft felt hat hid every

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inch of his face but the shiny tip of his nose; the snow had piled itself against his

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shoulders and chest, and added a white crest to the burden he carried.

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He staggered into the "Coach and Horses" more dead than alive, and flung his

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portmanteau down.

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"A fire," he cried, "in the name of human charity!

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A room and a fire!"

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He stamped and shook the snow from off himself in the bar, and followed Mrs. Hall

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into her guest parlour to strike his bargain.

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And with that much introduction, that and a couple of sovereigns flung upon the table,

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he took up his quarters in the inn.

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Mrs. Hall lit the fire and left him there while she went to prepare him a meal with

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her own hands.

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A guest to stop at Iping in the wintertime was an unheard-of piece of luck, let alone

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a guest who was no "haggler," and she was resolved to show herself worthy of her good

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fortune.

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As soon as the bacon was well under way, and Millie, her lymphatic aid, had been

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brisked up a bit by a few deftly chosen expressions of contempt, she carried the

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cloth, plates, and glasses into the parlour

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and began to lay them with the utmost eclat.

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Although the fire was burning up briskly, she was surprised to see that her visitor

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still wore his hat and coat, standing with his back to her and staring out of the

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window at the falling snow in the yard.

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His gloved hands were clasped behind him, and he seemed to be lost in thought.

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She noticed that the melting snow that still sprinkled his shoulders dripped upon

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her carpet.

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"Can I take your hat and coat, sir?" she said, "and give them a good dry in the

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kitchen?" "No," he said without turning.

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She was not sure she had heard him, and was about to repeat her question.

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He turned his head and looked at her over his shoulder.

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"I prefer to keep them on," he said with emphasis, and she noticed that he wore big

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blue spectacles with sidelights, and had a bush side-whisker over his coat-collar that

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completely hid his cheeks and face.

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"Very well, sir," she said. "As you like.

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In a bit the room will be warmer."

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He made no answer, and had turned his face away from her again, and Mrs. Hall, feeling

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that her conversational advances were ill- timed, laid the rest of the table things in

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a quick staccato and whisked out of the room.

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When she returned he was still standing there, like a man of stone, his back

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hunched, his collar turned up, his dripping hat-brim turned down, hiding his face and

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ears completely.

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She put down the eggs and bacon with considerable emphasis, and called rather

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than said to him, "Your lunch is served, sir."

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"Thank you," he said at the same time, and did not stir until she was closing the

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door. Then he swung round and approached the

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table with a certain eager quickness.

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As she went behind the bar to the kitchen she heard a sound repeated at regular

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intervals.

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Chirk, chirk, chirk, it went, the sound of a spoon being rapidly whisked round a

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basin. "That girl!" she said.

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"There!

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I clean forgot it. It's her being so long!"

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And while she herself finished mixing the mustard, she gave Millie a few verbal stabs

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for her excessive slowness.

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She had cooked the ham and eggs, laid the table, and done everything, while Millie

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(help indeed!) had only succeeded in delaying the mustard.

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And him a new guest and wanting to stay!

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Then she filled the mustard pot, and, putting it with a certain stateliness upon

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a gold and black tea-tray, carried it into the parlour.

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She rapped and entered promptly.

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As she did so her visitor moved quickly, so that she got but a glimpse of a white

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object disappearing behind the table. It would seem he was picking something from

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the floor.

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She rapped down the mustard pot on the table, and then she noticed the overcoat

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and hat had been taken off and put over a chair in front of the fire, and a pair of

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wet boots threatened rust to her steel fender.

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She went to these things resolutely. "I suppose I may have them to dry now," she

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said in a voice that brooked no denial.

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"Leave the hat," said her visitor, in a muffled voice, and turning she saw he had

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raised his head and was sitting and looking at her.

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For a moment she stood gaping at him, too surprised to speak.

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He held a white cloth--it was a serviette he had brought with him--over the lower

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part of his face, so that his mouth and jaws were completely hidden, and that was

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the reason of his muffled voice.

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But it was not that which startled Mrs. Hall.

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It was the fact that all his forehead above his blue glasses was covered by a white

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bandage, and that another covered his ears, leaving not a scrap of his face exposed

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excepting only his pink, peaked nose.

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It was bright, pink, and shiny just as it had been at first.

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He wore a dark-brown velvet jacket with a high, black, linen-lined collar turned up

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about his neck.

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The thick black hair, escaping as it could below and between the cross bandages,

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projected in curious tails and horns, giving him the strangest appearance

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conceivable.

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This muffled and bandaged head was so unlike what she had anticipated, that for a

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moment she was rigid.

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He did not remove the serviette, but remained holding it, as she saw now, with a

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brown gloved hand, and regarding her with his inscrutable blue glasses.

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"Leave the hat," he said, speaking very distinctly through the white cloth.

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Her nerves began to recover from the shock they had received.

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She placed the hat on the chair again by the fire.

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"I didn't know, sir," she began, "that--" and she stopped embarrassed.

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"Thank you," he said drily, glancing from her to the door and then at her again.

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"I'll have them nicely dried, sir, at once," she said, and carried his clothes

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out of the room.

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She glanced at his white-swathed head and blue goggles again as she was going out of

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the door; but his napkin was still in front of his face.

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She shivered a little as she closed the door behind her, and her face was eloquent

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of her surprise and perplexity. "I never," she whispered.

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"There!"

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She went quite softly to the kitchen, and was too preoccupied to ask Millie what she

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was messing about with now, when she got there.

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The visitor sat and listened to her retreating feet.

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He glanced inquiringly at the window before he removed his serviette, and resumed his

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meal.

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He took a mouthful, glanced suspiciously at the window, took another mouthful, then

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rose and, taking the serviette in his hand, walked across the room and pulled the blind

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down to the top of the white muslin that obscured the lower panes.

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This left the room in a twilight. This done, he returned with an easier air

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to the table and his meal.

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"The poor soul's had an accident or an op'ration or somethin'," said Mrs. Hall.

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"What a turn them bandages did give me, to be sure!"

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She put on some more coal, unfolded the clothes-horse, and extended the traveller's

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coat upon this. "And they goggles!

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Why, he looked more like a divin' helmet than a human man!"

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She hung his muffler on a corner of the horse.

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"And holding that handkerchief over his mouth all the time.

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Talkin' through it! ...

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Perhaps his mouth was hurt too--maybe."

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She turned round, as one who suddenly remembers.

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"Bless my soul alive!" she said, going off at a tangent; "ain't you done them taters

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yet, Millie?"

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When Mrs. Hall went to clear away the stranger's lunch, her idea that his mouth

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must also have been cut or disfigured in the accident she supposed him to have

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suffered, was confirmed, for he was smoking

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a pipe, and all the time that she was in the room he never loosened the silk muffler

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he had wrapped round the lower part of his face to put the mouthpiece to his lips.

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Yet it was not forgetfulness, for she saw he glanced at it as it smouldered out.

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He sat in the corner with his back to the window-blind and spoke now, having eaten

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and drunk and being comfortably warmed through, with less aggressive brevity than

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before.

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The reflection of the fire lent a kind of red animation to his big spectacles they

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had lacked hitherto.

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"I have some luggage," he said, "at Bramblehurst station," and he asked her how

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he could have it sent. He bowed his bandaged head quite politely

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in acknowledgment of her explanation.

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"To-morrow?" he said. "There is no speedier delivery?" and seemed

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quite disappointed when she answered, "No." Was she quite sure?

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No man with a trap who would go over?

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Mrs. Hall, nothing loath, answered his questions and developed a conversation.

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"It's a steep road by the down, sir," she said in answer to the question about a

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trap; and then, snatching at an opening, said, "It was there a carriage was

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upsettled, a year ago and more.

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A gentleman killed, besides his coachman. Accidents, sir, happen in a moment, don't

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they?" But the visitor was not to be drawn so

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easily.

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"They do," he said through his muffler, eyeing her quietly through his impenetrable

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glasses. "But they take long enough to get well,

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don't they?

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... There was my sister's son, Tom, jest cut

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his arm with a scythe, tumbled on it in the 'ayfield, and, bless me! he was three

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months tied up sir.

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You'd hardly believe it. It's regular given me a dread of a scythe,

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sir." "I can quite understand that," said the

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visitor.

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"He was afraid, one time, that he'd have to have an op'ration--he was that bad, sir."

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The visitor laughed abruptly, a bark of a laugh that he seemed to bite and kill in

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his mouth.

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"Was he?" he said. "He was, sir.

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And no laughing matter to them as had the doing for him, as I had--my sister being

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took up with her little ones so much.

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There was bandages to do, sir, and bandages to undo.

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So that if I may make so bold as to say it, sir--"

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"Will you get me some matches?" said the visitor, quite abruptly.

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"My pipe is out." Mrs. Hall was pulled up suddenly.

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It was certainly rude of him, after telling him all she had done.

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She gasped at him for a moment, and remembered the two sovereigns.

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She went for the matches.

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"Thanks," he said concisely, as she put them down, and turned his shoulder upon her

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and stared out of the window again. It was altogether too discouraging.

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Evidently he was sensitive on the topic of operations and bandages.

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She did not "make so bold as to say," however, after all.

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But his snubbing way had irritated her, and Millie had a hot time of it that afternoon.

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The visitor remained in the parlour until four o'clock, without giving the ghost of

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an excuse for an intrusion.

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For the most part he was quite still during that time; it would seem he sat in the

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growing darkness smoking in the firelight-- perhaps dozing.

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Once or twice a curious listener might have heard him at the coals, and for the space

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of five minutes he was audible pacing the room.

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He seemed to be talking to himself.

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Then the armchair creaked as he sat down again.

0:11:41.540,0:11:44.940
CHAPTER II MR. TEDDY HENFREY'S FIRST IMPRESSIONS

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At four o'clock, when it was fairly dark and Mrs. Hall was screwing up her courage

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to go in and ask her visitor if he would take some tea, Teddy Henfrey, the clock-

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jobber, came into the bar.

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"My sakes! Mrs. Hall," said he, "but this is terrible

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weather for thin boots!" The snow outside was falling faster.

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Mrs. Hall agreed, and then noticed he had his bag with him.

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"Now you're here, Mr. Teddy," said she, "I'd be glad if you'd give th' old clock in

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the parlour a bit of a look.

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'Tis going, and it strikes well and hearty; but the hour-hand won't do nuthin' but

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point at six." And leading the way, she went across to the

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parlour door and rapped and entered.

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Her visitor, she saw as she opened the door, was seated in the armchair before the

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fire, dozing it would seem, with his bandaged head drooping on one side.

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The only light in the room was the red glow from the fire--which lit his eyes like

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adverse railway signals, but left his downcast face in darkness--and the scanty

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vestiges of the day that came in through the open door.

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Everything was ruddy, shadowy, and indistinct to her, the more so since she

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had just been lighting the bar lamp, and her eyes were dazzled.

0:12:56.770,0:13:01.330
But for a second it seemed to her that the man she looked at had an enormous mouth

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wide open--a vast and incredible mouth that swallowed the whole of the lower portion of

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his face.

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It was the sensation of a moment: the white-bound head, the monstrous goggle

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eyes, and this huge yawn below it. Then he stirred, started up in his chair,

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put up his hand.

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She opened the door wide, so that the room was lighter, and she saw him more clearly,

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with the muffler held up to his face just as she had seen him hold the serviette

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before.

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The shadows, she fancied, had tricked her. "Would you mind, sir, this man a-coming to

0:13:36.460,0:13:41.180
look at the clock, sir?" she said, recovering from the momentary shock.

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"Look at the clock?" he said, staring round in a drowsy manner, and speaking over his

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hand, and then, getting more fully awake, "certainly."

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Mrs. Hall went away to get a lamp, and he rose and stretched himself.

0:13:55.980,0:14:00.890
Then came the light, and Mr. Teddy Henfrey, entering, was confronted by this bandaged

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person.

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He was, he says, "taken aback." "Good afternoon," said the stranger,

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regarding him--as Mr. Henfrey says, with a vivid sense of the dark spectacles--"like a

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lobster."

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"I hope," said Mr. Henfrey, "that it's no intrusion."

0:14:20.290,0:14:22.100
"None whatever," said the stranger.

0:14:22.100,0:14:26.830
"Though, I understand," he said turning to Mrs. Hall, "that this room is really to be

0:14:26.830,0:14:31.340
mine for my own private use." "I thought, sir," said Mrs. Hall, "you'd

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prefer the clock--"

0:14:32.350,0:14:37.570
"Certainly," said the stranger, "certainly- -but, as a rule, I like to be alone and

0:14:37.570,0:14:39.710
undisturbed.

0:14:39.710,0:14:43.510
"But I'm really glad to have the clock seen to," he said, seeing a certain hesitation

0:14:43.510,0:14:47.410
in Mr. Henfrey's manner. "Very glad."

0:14:47.410,0:14:51.590
Mr. Henfrey had intended to apologise and withdraw, but this anticipation reassured

0:14:51.590,0:14:53.000
him.

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The stranger turned round with his back to the fireplace and put his hands behind his

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back.

0:14:56.500,0:15:03.580
"And presently," he said, "when the clock- mending is over, I think I should like to

0:15:03.580,0:15:08.800
have some tea. But not till the clock-mending is over."

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Mrs. Hall was about to leave the room--she made no conversational advances this time,

0:15:13.240,0:15:17.430
because she did not want to be snubbed in front of Mr. Henfrey--when her visitor

0:15:17.430,0:15:21.760
asked her if she had made any arrangements about his boxes at Bramblehurst.

0:15:21.760,0:15:25.160
She told him she had mentioned the matter to the postman, and that the carrier could

0:15:25.160,0:15:27.840
bring them over on the morrow.

0:15:27.840,0:15:31.610
"You are certain that is the earliest?" he said.

0:15:31.610,0:15:33.940
She was certain, with a marked coldness.

0:15:33.940,0:15:40.380
"I should explain," he added, "what I was really too cold and fatigued to do before,

0:15:40.380,0:15:46.120
that I am an experimental investigator." "Indeed, sir," said Mrs. Hall, much

0:15:46.120,0:15:47.390
impressed.

0:15:47.390,0:15:51.700
"And my baggage contains apparatus and appliances."

0:15:51.700,0:15:55.020
"Very useful things indeed they are, sir," said Mrs. Hall.

0:15:55.020,0:15:57.640
"And I'm very naturally anxious to get on with my inquiries."

0:15:57.640,0:16:01.600
"Of course, sir."

0:16:01.600,0:16:05.080
"My reason for coming to Iping," he proceeded, with a certain deliberation of

0:16:05.080,0:16:11.470
manner, "was ... a desire for solitude. I do not wish to be disturbed in my work.

0:16:11.470,0:16:14.310
In addition to my work, an accident--"

0:16:14.310,0:16:17.770
"I thought as much," said Mrs. Hall to herself.

0:16:17.770,0:16:20.740
"--necessitates a certain retirement.

0:16:20.740,0:16:25.300
My eyes--are sometimes so weak and painful that I have to shut myself up in the dark

0:16:25.300,0:16:28.420
for hours together. Lock myself up.

0:16:28.420,0:16:31.520
Sometimes--now and then.

0:16:31.520,0:16:36.120
Not at present, certainly. At such times the slightest disturbance,

0:16:36.120,0:16:41.820
the entry of a stranger into the room, is a source of excruciating annoyance to me--it

0:16:41.820,0:16:46.130
is well these things should be understood."

0:16:46.130,0:16:50.320
"Certainly, sir," said Mrs. Hall. "And if I might make so bold as to ask--"

0:16:50.320,0:16:54.670
"That I think, is all," said the stranger, with that quietly irresistible air of

0:16:54.670,0:16:57.830
finality he could assume at will.

0:16:57.830,0:17:00.800
Mrs. Hall reserved her question and sympathy for a better occasion.

0:17:00.800,0:17:07.770
After Mrs. Hall had left the room, he remained standing in front of the fire,

0:17:07.770,0:17:12.770
glaring, so Mr. Henfrey puts it, at the clock-mending.

0:17:12.770,0:17:16.959
Mr. Henfrey not only took off the hands of the clock, and the face, but extracted the

0:17:16.959,0:17:22.719
works; and he tried to work in as slow and quiet and unassuming a manner as possible.

0:17:22.719,0:17:26.430
He worked with the lamp close to him, and the green shade threw a brilliant light

0:17:26.430,0:17:30.020
upon his hands, and upon the frame and wheels, and left the rest of the room

0:17:30.020,0:17:31.930
shadowy.

0:17:31.930,0:17:35.800
When he looked up, coloured patches swam in his eyes.

0:17:35.800,0:17:40.440
Being constitutionally of a curious nature, he had removed the works--a quite

0:17:40.440,0:17:45.820
unnecessary proceeding--with the idea of delaying his departure and perhaps falling

0:17:45.820,0:17:47.190
into conversation with the stranger.

0:17:47.190,0:17:53.250
But the stranger stood there, perfectly silent and still.

0:17:53.250,0:17:56.690
So still, it got on Henfrey's nerves.

0:17:56.690,0:18:00.810
He felt alone in the room and looked up, and there, grey and dim, was the bandaged

0:18:00.810,0:18:05.470
head and huge blue lenses staring fixedly, with a mist of green spots drifting in

0:18:05.470,0:18:07.400
front of them.

0:18:07.400,0:18:12.680
It was so uncanny to Henfrey that for a minute they remained staring blankly at one

0:18:12.680,0:18:16.010
another. Then Henfrey looked down again.

0:18:16.010,0:18:17.120
Very uncomfortable position!

0:18:17.120,0:18:20.810
One would like to say something. Should he remark that the weather was very

0:18:20.810,0:18:25.500
cold for the time of year? He looked up as if to take aim with that

0:18:25.500,0:18:26.570
introductory shot.

0:18:26.570,0:18:31.610
"The weather--" he began. "Why don't you finish and go?" said the

0:18:31.610,0:18:35.230
rigid figure, evidently in a state of painfully suppressed rage.

0:18:35.230,0:18:38.140
"All you've got to do is to fix the hour- hand on its axle.

0:18:38.140,0:18:44.980
You're simply humbugging--" "Certainly, sir--one minute more.

0:18:44.980,0:18:49.070
I overlooked--" and Mr. Henfrey finished and went.

0:18:49.070,0:18:50.910
But he went feeling excessively annoyed.

0:18:50.910,0:18:53.990
"Damn it!" said Mr. Henfrey to himself, trudging down the village through the

0:18:53.990,0:18:58.160
thawing snow; "a man must do a clock at times, sure-ly."

0:18:58.160,0:19:02.440
And again "Can't a man look at you?--Ugly!"

0:19:02.440,0:19:07.209
And yet again, "Seemingly not. If the police was wanting you you couldn't

0:19:07.209,0:19:08.560
be more wropped and bandaged."

0:19:08.560,0:19:15.170
At Gleeson's corner he saw Hall, who had recently married the stranger's hostess at

0:19:15.170,0:19:19.920
the "Coach and Horses," and who now drove the Iping conveyance, when occasional

0:19:19.920,0:19:21.770
people required it, to Sidderbridge

0:19:21.770,0:19:26.090
Junction, coming towards him on his return from that place.

0:19:26.090,0:19:29.910
Hall had evidently been "stopping a bit" at Sidderbridge, to judge by his driving.

0:19:29.910,0:19:33.660
"'Ow do, Teddy?" he said, passing.

0:19:33.660,0:19:38.270
"You got a rum un up home!" said Teddy. Hall very sociably pulled up.

0:19:38.270,0:19:42.240
"What's that?" he asked. "Rum-looking customer stopping at the

0:19:42.240,0:19:43.459
'Coach and Horses,'" said Teddy.

0:19:43.459,0:19:47.420
"My sakes!" And he proceeded to give Hall a vivid

0:19:47.420,0:19:53.080
description of his grotesque guest. "Looks a bit like a disguise, don't it?

0:19:53.080,0:19:57.010
I'd like to see a man's face if I had him stopping in my place," said Henfrey.

0:19:57.010,0:20:00.610
"But women are that trustful--where strangers are concerned.

0:20:00.610,0:20:04.620
He's took your rooms and he ain't even given a name, Hall."

0:20:04.620,0:20:08.480
"You don't say so!" said Hall, who was a man of sluggish apprehension.

0:20:08.480,0:20:09.579
"Yes," said Teddy.

0:20:09.579,0:20:12.810
"By the week. Whatever he is, you can't get rid of him

0:20:12.810,0:20:15.220
under the week. And he's got a lot of luggage coming to-

0:20:15.220,0:20:16.700
morrow, so he says.

0:20:16.700,0:20:21.190
Let's hope it won't be stones in boxes, Hall."

0:20:21.190,0:20:24.780
He told Hall how his aunt at Hastings had been swindled by a stranger with empty

0:20:24.780,0:20:26.430
portmanteaux.

0:20:26.430,0:20:31.160
Altogether he left Hall vaguely suspicious. "Get up, old girl," said Hall.

0:20:31.160,0:20:35.300
"I s'pose I must see 'bout this." Teddy trudged on his way with his mind

0:20:35.300,0:20:39.010
considerably relieved.

0:20:39.010,0:20:43.230
Instead of "seeing 'bout it," however, Hall on his return was severely rated by his

0:20:43.230,0:20:47.930
wife on the length of time he had spent in Sidderbridge, and his mild inquiries were

0:20:47.930,0:20:51.329
answered snappishly and in a manner not to the point.

0:20:51.329,0:20:55.630
But the seed of suspicion Teddy had sown germinated in the mind of Mr. Hall in spite

0:20:55.630,0:20:57.540
of these discouragements.

0:20:57.540,0:21:01.770
"You wim' don't know everything," said Mr. Hall, resolved to ascertain more about the

0:21:01.770,0:21:04.459
personality of his guest at the earliest possible opportunity.

0:21:04.459,0:21:10.200
And after the stranger had gone to bed, which he did about half-past nine, Mr. Hall

0:21:10.200,0:21:14.750
went very aggressively into the parlour and looked very hard at his wife's furniture,

0:21:14.750,0:21:16.190
just to show that the stranger wasn't

0:21:16.190,0:21:21.240
master there, and scrutinised closely and a little contemptuously a sheet of

0:21:21.240,0:21:25.590
mathematical computations the stranger had left.

0:21:25.590,0:21:29.680
When retiring for the night he instructed Mrs. Hall to look very closely at the

0:21:29.680,0:21:34.209
stranger's luggage when it came next day. "You mind you own business, Hall," said

0:21:34.209,0:21:38.200
Mrs. Hall, "and I'll mind mine."

0:21:38.200,0:21:42.900
She was all the more inclined to snap at Hall because the stranger was undoubtedly

0:21:42.900,0:21:47.620
an unusually strange sort of stranger, and she was by no means assured about him in

0:21:47.620,0:21:49.740
her own mind.

0:21:49.740,0:21:53.800
In the middle of the night she woke up dreaming of huge white heads like turnips,

0:21:53.800,0:21:58.270
that came trailing after her, at the end of interminable necks, and with vast black

0:21:58.270,0:21:59.260
eyes.

0:21:59.260,0:22:06.970
But being a sensible woman, she subdued her terrors and turned over and went to sleep

0:22:06.970,0:22:10.400
again.

0:22:10.400,0:22:11.400
>

0:22:11.400,0:22:24.070
-CHAPTER III THE THOUSAND AND ONE BOTTLES

0:22:24.070,0:22:28.000
So it was that on the twenty-ninth day of February, at the beginning of the thaw,

0:22:28.000,0:22:33.160
this singular person fell out of infinity into Iping village.

0:22:33.160,0:22:37.909
Next day his luggage arrived through the slush--and very remarkable luggage it was.

0:22:37.909,0:22:43.089
There were a couple of trunks indeed, such as a rational man might need, but in

0:22:43.089,0:22:48.430
addition there were a box of books--big, fat books, of which some were just in an

0:22:48.430,0:22:51.299
incomprehensible handwriting--and a dozen

0:22:51.299,0:22:55.740
or more crates, boxes, and cases, containing objects packed in straw, as it

0:22:55.740,0:23:02.829
seemed to Hall, tugging with a casual curiosity at the straw--glass bottles.

0:23:02.829,0:23:07.689
The stranger, muffled in hat, coat, gloves, and wrapper, came out impatiently to meet

0:23:07.689,0:23:12.119
Fearenside's cart, while Hall was having a word or so of gossip preparatory to helping

0:23:12.119,0:23:12.910
being them in.

0:23:12.910,0:23:18.960
Out he came, not noticing Fearenside's dog, who was sniffing in a dilettante spirit at

0:23:18.960,0:23:21.420
Hall's legs. "Come along with those boxes," he said.

0:23:21.420,0:23:23.890
"I've been waiting long enough."

0:23:23.890,0:23:28.260
And he came down the steps towards the tail of the cart as if to lay hands on the

0:23:28.260,0:23:30.930
smaller crate.

0:23:30.930,0:23:35.180
No sooner had Fearenside's dog caught sight of him, however, than it began to bristle

0:23:35.180,0:23:39.930
and growl savagely, and when he rushed down the steps it gave an undecided hop, and

0:23:39.930,0:23:41.170
then sprang straight at his hand.

0:23:41.170,0:23:47.049
"Whup!" cried Hall, jumping back, for he was no hero with dogs, and Fearenside

0:23:47.049,0:23:49.220
howled, "Lie down!" and snatched his whip.

0:23:49.220,0:23:55.699
They saw the dog's teeth had slipped the hand, heard a kick, saw the dog execute a

0:23:55.699,0:24:00.059
flanking jump and get home on the stranger's leg, and heard the rip of his

0:24:00.059,0:24:00.960
trousering.

0:24:00.960,0:24:05.670
Then the finer end of Fearenside's whip reached his property, and the dog, yelping

0:24:05.670,0:24:08.119
with dismay, retreated under the wheels of the waggon.

0:24:08.119,0:24:11.750
It was all the business of a swift half- minute.

0:24:11.750,0:24:15.180
No one spoke, everyone shouted.

0:24:15.180,0:24:19.460
The stranger glanced swiftly at his torn glove and at his leg, made as if he would

0:24:19.460,0:24:24.490
stoop to the latter, then turned and rushed swiftly up the steps into the inn.

0:24:24.490,0:24:28.800
They heard him go headlong across the passage and up the uncarpeted stairs to his

0:24:28.800,0:24:29.740
bedroom.

0:24:29.740,0:24:33.270
"You brute, you!" said Fearenside, climbing off the waggon with his whip in his hand,

0:24:33.270,0:24:35.580
while the dog watched him through the wheel.

0:24:35.580,0:24:37.150
"Come here," said Fearenside--"You'd better."

0:24:37.150,0:24:42.499
Hall had stood gaping. "He wuz bit," said Hall.

0:24:42.499,0:24:46.990
"I'd better go and see to en," and he trotted after the stranger.

0:24:46.990,0:24:52.889
He met Mrs. Hall in the passage. "Carrier's darg," he said "bit en."

0:24:52.889,0:24:56.080
He went straight upstairs, and the stranger's door being ajar, he pushed it

0:24:56.080,0:25:00.370
open and was entering without any ceremony, being of a naturally sympathetic turn of

0:25:00.370,0:25:02.440
mind.

0:25:02.440,0:25:04.450
The blind was down and the room dim.

0:25:04.450,0:25:09.630
He caught a glimpse of a most singular thing, what seemed a handless arm waving

0:25:09.630,0:25:14.859
towards him, and a face of three huge indeterminate spots on white, very like the

0:25:14.859,0:25:17.260
face of a pale pansy.

0:25:17.260,0:25:20.690
Then he was struck violently in the chest, hurled back, and the door slammed in his

0:25:20.690,0:25:24.620
face and locked. It was so rapid that it gave him no time to

0:25:24.620,0:25:25.169
observe.

0:25:25.169,0:25:30.139
A waving of indecipherable shapes, a blow, and a concussion.

0:25:30.139,0:25:36.430
There he stood on the dark little landing, wondering what it might be that he had

0:25:36.430,0:25:37.559
seen.

0:25:37.559,0:25:40.710
A couple of minutes after, he rejoined the little group that had formed outside the

0:25:40.710,0:25:42.160
"Coach and Horses."

0:25:42.160,0:25:46.210
There was Fearenside telling about it all over again for the second time; there was

0:25:46.210,0:25:50.020
Mrs. Hall saying his dog didn't have no business to bite her guests; there was

0:25:50.020,0:25:52.059
Huxter, the general dealer from over the

0:25:52.059,0:25:58.480
road, interrogative; and Sandy Wadgers from the forge, judicial; besides women and

0:25:58.480,0:26:03.609
children, all of them saying fatuities: "Wouldn't let en bite me, I knows";

0:26:03.609,0:26:08.449
"'Tasn't right have such dargs"; "Whad 'e bite 'n for, than?" and so forth.

0:26:08.449,0:26:13.550
Mr. Hall, staring at them from the steps and listening, found it incredible that he

0:26:13.550,0:26:17.550
had seen anything so very remarkable happen upstairs.

0:26:17.550,0:26:21.910
Besides, his vocabulary was altogether too limited to express his impressions.

0:26:21.910,0:26:26.160
"He don't want no help, he says," he said in answer to his wife's inquiry.

0:26:26.160,0:26:27.880
"We'd better be a-takin' of his luggage in."

0:26:27.880,0:26:32.650
"He ought to have it cauterised at once," said Mr. Huxter; "especially if it's at all

0:26:32.650,0:26:33.680
inflamed."

0:26:33.680,0:26:36.920
"I'd shoot en, that's what I'd do," said a lady in the group.

0:26:36.920,0:26:39.690
Suddenly the dog began growling again.

0:26:39.690,0:26:43.150
"Come along," cried an angry voice in the doorway, and there stood the muffled

0:26:43.150,0:26:46.740
stranger with his collar turned up, and his hat-brim bent down.

0:26:46.740,0:26:49.850
"The sooner you get those things in the better I'll be pleased."

0:26:49.850,0:26:56.720
It is stated by an anonymous bystander that his trousers and gloves had been changed.

0:26:56.720,0:26:58.250
"Was you hurt, sir?" said Fearenside.

0:26:58.250,0:27:01.680
"I'm rare sorry the darg--" "Not a bit," said the stranger.

0:27:01.680,0:27:05.200
"Never broke the skin. Hurry up with those things."

0:27:05.200,0:27:10.540
He then swore to himself, so Mr. Hall asserts.

0:27:10.540,0:27:14.150
Directly the first crate was, in accordance with his directions, carried into the

0:27:14.150,0:27:18.760
parlour, the stranger flung himself upon it with extraordinary eagerness, and began to

0:27:18.760,0:27:23.640
unpack it, scattering the straw with an utter disregard of Mrs. Hall's carpet.

0:27:23.640,0:27:29.100
And from it he began to produce bottles-- little fat bottles containing powders,

0:27:29.100,0:27:32.990
small and slender bottles containing coloured and white fluids, fluted blue

0:27:32.990,0:27:35.880
bottles labeled Poison, bottles with round

0:27:35.880,0:27:41.290
bodies and slender necks, large green-glass bottles, large white-glass bottles, bottles

0:27:41.290,0:27:45.380
with glass stoppers and frosted labels, bottles with fine corks, bottles with

0:27:45.380,0:27:47.680
bungs, bottles with wooden caps, wine

0:27:47.680,0:27:53.280
bottles, salad-oil bottles--putting them in rows on the chiffonnier, on the mantel, on

0:27:53.280,0:27:57.840
the table under the window, round the floor, on the bookshelf--everywhere.

0:27:57.840,0:28:01.900
The chemist's shop in Bramblehurst could not boast half so many.

0:28:01.900,0:28:03.300
Quite a sight it was.

0:28:03.300,0:28:08.080
Crate after crate yielded bottles, until all six were empty and the table high with

0:28:08.080,0:28:12.170
straw; the only things that came out of these crates besides the bottles were a

0:28:12.170,0:28:16.790
number of test-tubes and a carefully packed balance.

0:28:16.790,0:28:20.250
And directly the crates were unpacked, the stranger went to the window and set to

0:28:20.250,0:28:24.400
work, not troubling in the least about the litter of straw, the fire which had gone

0:28:24.400,0:28:27.270
out, the box of books outside, nor for the

0:28:27.270,0:28:31.170
trunks and other luggage that had gone upstairs.

0:28:31.170,0:28:35.250
When Mrs. Hall took his dinner in to him, he was already so absorbed in his work,

0:28:35.250,0:28:39.800
pouring little drops out of the bottles into test-tubes, that he did not hear her

0:28:39.800,0:28:41.420
until she had swept away the bulk of the

0:28:41.420,0:28:45.400
straw and put the tray on the table, with some little emphasis perhaps, seeing the

0:28:45.400,0:28:49.820
state that the floor was in. Then he half turned his head and

0:28:49.820,0:28:51.950
immediately turned it away again.

0:28:51.950,0:28:56.580
But she saw he had removed his glasses; they were beside him on the table, and it

0:28:56.580,0:29:00.270
seemed to her that his eye sockets were extraordinarily hollow.

0:29:00.270,0:29:04.520
He put on his spectacles again, and then turned and faced her.

0:29:04.520,0:29:08.950
She was about to complain of the straw on the floor when he anticipated her.

0:29:08.950,0:29:13.140
"I wish you wouldn't come in without knocking," he said in the tone of abnormal

0:29:13.140,0:29:15.640
exasperation that seemed so characteristic of him.

0:29:15.640,0:29:18.110
"I knocked, but seemingly--"

0:29:18.110,0:29:21.950
"Perhaps you did. But in my investigations--my really very

0:29:21.950,0:29:27.900
urgent and necessary investigations--the slightest disturbance, the jar of a door--I

0:29:27.900,0:29:29.820
must ask you--"

0:29:29.820,0:29:32.500
"Certainly, sir. You can turn the lock if you're like that,

0:29:32.500,0:29:35.140
you know. Any time."

0:29:35.140,0:29:37.230
"A very good idea," said the stranger.

0:29:37.230,0:29:41.740
"This stror, sir, if I might make so bold as to remark--"

0:29:41.740,0:29:44.230
"Don't. If the straw makes trouble put it down in

0:29:44.230,0:29:46.180
the bill."

0:29:46.180,0:29:51.300
And he mumbled at her--words suspiciously like curses.

0:29:51.300,0:29:55.560
He was so odd, standing there, so aggressive and explosive, bottle in one

0:29:55.560,0:29:59.360
hand and test-tube in the other, that Mrs. Hall was quite alarmed.

0:29:59.360,0:30:01.670
But she was a resolute woman.

0:30:01.670,0:30:05.640
"In which case, I should like to know, sir, what you consider--"

0:30:05.640,0:30:08.060
"A shilling--put down a shilling. Surely a shilling's enough?"

0:30:08.060,0:30:12.870
"So be it," said Mrs. Hall, taking up the table-cloth and beginning to spread it over

0:30:12.870,0:30:16.720
the table. "If you're satisfied, of course--"

0:30:16.720,0:30:21.450
He turned and sat down, with his coat- collar toward her.

0:30:21.450,0:30:25.860
All the afternoon he worked with the door locked and, as Mrs. Hall testifies, for the

0:30:25.860,0:30:28.010
most part in silence.

0:30:28.010,0:30:31.990
But once there was a concussion and a sound of bottles ringing together as though the

0:30:31.990,0:30:36.950
table had been hit, and the smash of a bottle flung violently down, and then a

0:30:36.950,0:30:40.490
rapid pacing athwart the room.

0:30:40.490,0:30:44.809
Fearing "something was the matter," she went to the door and listened, not caring

0:30:44.809,0:30:48.260
to knock. "I can't go on," he was raving.

0:30:48.260,0:30:49.580
"I can't go on.

0:30:49.580,0:30:52.640
Three hundred thousand, four hundred thousand!

0:30:52.640,0:30:55.410
The huge multitude! Cheated!

0:30:55.410,0:30:56.560
All my life it may take me!

0:30:56.560,0:30:57.570
... Patience!

0:30:57.570,0:30:58.450
Patience indeed! ...

0:30:58.450,0:31:02.620
Fool! fool!"

0:31:02.620,0:31:06.310
There was a noise of hobnails on the bricks in the bar, and Mrs. Hall had very

0:31:06.310,0:31:09.730
reluctantly to leave the rest of his soliloquy.

0:31:09.730,0:31:13.710
When she returned the room was silent again, save for the faint crepitation of

0:31:13.710,0:31:16.820
his chair and the occasional clink of a bottle.

0:31:16.820,0:31:22.580
It was all over; the stranger had resumed work.

0:31:22.580,0:31:26.390
When she took in his tea she saw broken glass in the corner of the room under the

0:31:26.390,0:31:30.860
concave mirror, and a golden stain that had been carelessly wiped.

0:31:30.860,0:31:32.950
She called attention to it.

0:31:32.950,0:31:35.640
"Put it down in the bill," snapped her visitor.

0:31:35.640,0:31:36.920
"For God's sake don't worry me.

0:31:36.920,0:31:41.970
If there's damage done, put it down in the bill," and he went on ticking a list in the

0:31:41.970,0:31:46.830
exercise book before him. "I'll tell you something," said Fearenside,

0:31:46.830,0:31:48.410
mysteriously.

0:31:48.410,0:31:52.800
It was late in the afternoon, and they were in the little beer-shop of Iping Hanger.

0:31:52.800,0:31:57.090
"Well?" said Teddy Henfrey. "This chap you're speaking of, what my dog

0:31:57.090,0:31:57.770
bit.

0:31:57.770,0:32:00.540
Well--he's black. Leastways, his legs are.

0:32:00.540,0:32:03.950
I seed through the tear of his trousers and the tear of his glove.

0:32:03.950,0:32:06.520
You'd have expected a sort of pinky to show, wouldn't you?

0:32:06.520,0:32:08.780
Well--there wasn't none. Just blackness.

0:32:08.780,0:32:10.160
I tell you, he's as black as my hat."

0:32:10.160,0:32:15.080
"My sakes!" said Henfrey. "It's a rummy case altogether.

0:32:15.080,0:32:19.970
Why, his nose is as pink as paint!" "That's true," said Fearenside.

0:32:19.970,0:32:20.620
"I knows that.

0:32:20.620,0:32:24.190
And I tell 'ee what I'm thinking. That marn's a piebald, Teddy.

0:32:24.190,0:32:27.500
Black here and white there--in patches. And he's ashamed of it.

0:32:27.500,0:32:30.890
He's a kind of half-breed, and the colour's come off patchy instead of mixing.

0:32:30.890,0:32:34.730
I've heard of such things before. And it's the common way with horses, as any

0:32:34.730,0:32:39.180
one can see."

0:32:39.180,0:32:44.800
CHAPTER IV MR. CUSS INTERVIEWS THE STRANGER

0:32:44.800,0:32:48.990
I have told the circumstances of the stranger's arrival in Iping with a certain

0:32:48.990,0:32:52.900
fulness of detail, in order that the curious impression he created may be

0:32:52.900,0:32:54.910
understood by the reader.

0:32:54.910,0:32:58.840
But excepting two odd incidents, the circumstances of his stay until the

0:32:58.840,0:33:02.580
extraordinary day of the club festival may be passed over very cursorily.

0:33:02.580,0:33:07.840
There were a number of skirmishes with Mrs. Hall on matters of domestic discipline, but

0:33:07.840,0:33:12.580
in every case until late April, when the first signs of penury began, he over-rode

0:33:12.580,0:33:16.890
her by the easy expedient of an extra payment.

0:33:16.890,0:33:21.650
Hall did not like him, and whenever he dared he talked of the advisability of

0:33:21.650,0:33:25.700
getting rid of him; but he showed his dislike chiefly by concealing it

0:33:25.700,0:33:30.710
ostentatiously, and avoiding his visitor as much as possible.

0:33:30.710,0:33:34.770
"Wait till the summer," said Mrs. Hall sagely, "when the artisks are beginning to

0:33:34.770,0:33:35.560
come.

0:33:35.560,0:33:38.960
Then we'll see. He may be a bit overbearing, but bills

0:33:38.960,0:33:45.100
settled punctual is bills settled punctual, whatever you'd like to say."

0:33:45.100,0:33:49.270
The stranger did not go to church, and indeed made no difference between Sunday

0:33:49.270,0:33:55.170
and the irreligious days, even in costume. He worked, as Mrs. Hall thought, very

0:33:55.170,0:33:55.950
fitfully.

0:33:55.950,0:33:58.770
Some days he would come down early and be continuously busy.

0:33:58.770,0:34:03.260
On others he would rise late, pace his room, fretting audibly for hours together,

0:34:03.260,0:34:06.650
smoke, sleep in the armchair by the fire.

0:34:06.650,0:34:09.060
Communication with the world beyond the village he had none.

0:34:09.060,0:34:14.330
His temper continued very uncertain; for the most part his manner was that of a man

0:34:14.330,0:34:19.210
suffering under almost unendurable provocation, and once or twice things were

0:34:19.210,0:34:23.540
snapped, torn, crushed, or broken in spasmodic gusts of violence.

0:34:23.540,0:34:26.920
He seemed under a chronic irritation of the greatest intensity.

0:34:26.920,0:34:33.010
His habit of talking to himself in a low voice grew steadily upon him, but though

0:34:33.010,0:34:37.510
Mrs. Hall listened conscientiously she could make neither head nor tail of what

0:34:37.510,0:34:38.880
she heard.

0:34:38.880,0:34:44.080
He rarely went abroad by daylight, but at twilight he would go out muffled up

0:34:44.080,0:34:48.710
invisibly, whether the weather were cold or not, and he chose the loneliest paths and

0:34:48.710,0:34:51.880
those most overshadowed by trees and banks.

0:34:51.880,0:34:55.980
His goggling spectacles and ghastly bandaged face under the penthouse of his

0:34:55.980,0:34:59.830
hat, came with a disagreeable suddenness out of the darkness upon one or two home-

0:34:59.830,0:35:02.410
going labourers, and Teddy Henfrey,

0:35:02.410,0:35:06.130
tumbling out of the "Scarlet Coat" one night, at half-past nine, was scared

0:35:06.130,0:35:11.140
shamefully by the stranger's skull-like head (he was walking hat in hand) lit by

0:35:11.140,0:35:14.690
the sudden light of the opened inn door.

0:35:14.690,0:35:19.080
Such children as saw him at nightfall dreamt of bogies, and it seemed doubtful

0:35:19.080,0:35:23.460
whether he disliked boys more than they disliked him, or the reverse; but there was

0:35:23.460,0:35:27.080
certainly a vivid enough dislike on either side.

0:35:27.080,0:35:32.020
It was inevitable that a person of so remarkable an appearance and bearing should

0:35:32.020,0:35:35.730
form a frequent topic in such a village as Iping.

0:35:35.730,0:35:39.270
Opinion was greatly divided about his occupation.

0:35:39.270,0:35:41.720
Mrs. Hall was sensitive on the point.

0:35:41.720,0:35:45.480
When questioned, she explained very carefully that he was an "experimental

0:35:45.480,0:35:50.500
investigator," going gingerly over the syllables as one who dreads pitfalls.

0:35:50.500,0:35:54.560
When asked what an experimental investigator was, she would say with a

0:35:54.560,0:35:59.030
touch of superiority that most educated people knew such things as that, and would

0:35:59.030,0:36:00.730
thus explain that he "discovered things."

0:36:00.730,0:36:06.660
Her visitor had had an accident, she said, which temporarily discoloured his face and

0:36:06.660,0:36:10.780
hands, and being of a sensitive disposition, he was averse to any public

0:36:10.780,0:36:14.340
notice of the fact.

0:36:14.340,0:36:18.250
Out of her hearing there was a view largely entertained that he was a criminal trying

0:36:18.250,0:36:22.200
to escape from justice by wrapping himself up so as to conceal himself altogether from

0:36:22.200,0:36:24.160
the eye of the police.

0:36:24.160,0:36:27.710
This idea sprang from the brain of Mr. Teddy Henfrey.

0:36:27.710,0:36:31.929
No crime of any magnitude dating from the middle or end of February was known to have

0:36:31.929,0:36:32.650
occurred.

0:36:32.650,0:36:36.560
Elaborated in the imagination of Mr. Gould, the probationary assistant in the National

0:36:36.560,0:36:41.760
School, this theory took the form that the stranger was an Anarchist in disguise,

0:36:41.760,0:36:44.280
preparing explosives, and he resolved to

0:36:44.280,0:36:48.090
undertake such detective operations as his time permitted.

0:36:48.090,0:36:51.660
These consisted for the most part in looking very hard at the stranger whenever

0:36:51.660,0:36:56.110
they met, or in asking people who had never seen the stranger, leading questions about

0:36:56.110,0:36:56.540
him.

0:36:56.540,0:37:00.590
But he detected nothing.

0:37:00.590,0:37:04.400
Another school of opinion followed Mr. Fearenside, and either accepted the piebald

0:37:04.400,0:37:08.860
view or some modification of it; as, for instance, Silas Durgan, who was heard to

0:37:08.860,0:37:10.790
assert that "if he choses to show enself at

0:37:10.790,0:37:15.690
fairs he'd make his fortune in no time," and being a bit of a theologian, compared

0:37:15.690,0:37:18.780
the stranger to the man with the one talent.

0:37:18.780,0:37:22.190
Yet another view explained the entire matter by regarding the stranger as a

0:37:22.190,0:37:25.390
harmless lunatic. That had the advantage of accounting for

0:37:25.390,0:37:28.580
everything straight away.

0:37:28.580,0:37:32.120
Between these main groups there were waverers and compromisers.

0:37:32.120,0:37:36.250
Sussex folk have few superstitions, and it was only after the events of early April

0:37:36.250,0:37:41.480
that the thought of the supernatural was first whispered in the village.

0:37:41.480,0:37:45.929
Even then it was only credited among the women folk.

0:37:45.929,0:37:50.010
But whatever they thought of him, people in Iping, on the whole, agreed in disliking

0:37:50.010,0:37:50.929
him.

0:37:50.929,0:37:55.810
His irritability, though it might have been comprehensible to an urban brain-worker,

0:37:55.810,0:37:59.770
was an amazing thing to these quiet Sussex villagers.

0:37:59.770,0:38:04.160
The frantic gesticulations they surprised now and then, the headlong pace after

0:38:04.160,0:38:08.940
nightfall that swept him upon them round quiet corners, the inhuman bludgeoning of

0:38:08.940,0:38:11.650
all tentative advances of curiosity, the

0:38:11.650,0:38:15.420
taste for twilight that led to the closing of doors, the pulling down of blinds, the

0:38:15.420,0:38:19.850
extinction of candles and lamps--who could agree with such goings on?

0:38:19.850,0:38:25.230
They drew aside as he passed down the village, and when he had gone by, young

0:38:25.230,0:38:29.410
humourists would up with coat-collars and down with hat-brims, and go pacing

0:38:29.410,0:38:32.940
nervously after him in imitation of his occult bearing.

0:38:32.940,0:38:37.260
There was a song popular at that time called "The Bogey Man".

0:38:37.260,0:38:41.220
Miss Statchell sang it at the schoolroom concert (in aid of the church lamps), and

0:38:41.220,0:38:45.049
thereafter whenever one or two of the villagers were gathered together and the

0:38:45.049,0:38:47.170
stranger appeared, a bar or so of this

0:38:47.170,0:38:52.440
tune, more or less sharp or flat, was whistled in the midst of them.

0:38:52.440,0:38:56.790
Also belated little children would call "Bogey Man!" after him, and make off

0:38:56.790,0:38:57.790
tremulously elated.

0:38:57.790,0:39:04.679
Cuss, the general practitioner, was devoured by curiosity.

0:39:04.679,0:39:08.489
The bandages excited his professional interest, the report of the thousand and

0:39:08.489,0:39:12.049
one bottles aroused his jealous regard.

0:39:12.049,0:39:16.020
All through April and May he coveted an opportunity of talking to the stranger, and

0:39:16.020,0:39:20.459
at last, towards Whitsuntide, he could stand it no longer, but hit upon the

0:39:20.459,0:39:24.060
subscription-list for a village nurse as an excuse.

0:39:24.060,0:39:28.859
He was surprised to find that Mr. Hall did not know his guest's name.

0:39:28.859,0:39:33.469
"He give a name," said Mrs. Hall--an assertion which was quite unfounded--"but I

0:39:33.469,0:39:37.229
didn't rightly hear it." She thought it seemed so silly not to know

0:39:37.229,0:39:40.770
the man's name.

0:39:40.770,0:39:43.650
Cuss rapped at the parlour door and entered.

0:39:43.650,0:39:47.310
There was a fairly audible imprecation from within.

0:39:47.310,0:39:51.610
"Pardon my intrusion," said Cuss, and then the door closed and cut Mrs. Hall off from

0:39:51.610,0:39:55.060
the rest of the conversation.

0:39:55.060,0:39:59.410
She could hear the murmur of voices for the next ten minutes, then a cry of surprise,

0:39:59.410,0:40:04.410
a stirring of feet, a chair flung aside, a bark of laughter, quick steps to the door,

0:40:04.410,0:40:08.820
and Cuss appeared, his face white, his eyes staring over his shoulder.

0:40:08.820,0:40:13.750
He left the door open behind him, and without looking at her strode across the

0:40:13.750,0:40:18.250
hall and went down the steps, and she heard his feet hurrying along the road.

0:40:18.250,0:40:21.200
He carried his hat in his hand.

0:40:21.200,0:40:24.820
She stood behind the door, looking at the open door of the parlour.

0:40:24.820,0:40:28.329
Then she heard the stranger laughing quietly, and then his footsteps came across

0:40:28.329,0:40:29.900
the room.

0:40:29.900,0:40:34.040
She could not see his face where she stood. The parlour door slammed, and the place was

0:40:34.040,0:40:38.800
silent again. Cuss went straight up the village to

0:40:38.800,0:40:40.329
Bunting the vicar.

0:40:40.329,0:40:42.850
"Am I mad?" Cuss began abruptly, as he entered the

0:40:42.850,0:40:45.770
shabby little study. "Do I look like an insane person?"

0:40:45.770,0:40:50.980
"What's happened?" said the vicar, putting the ammonite on the loose sheets of his

0:40:50.980,0:40:55.530
forth-coming sermon. "That chap at the inn--"

0:40:55.530,0:40:56.990
"Well?"

0:40:56.990,0:41:01.170
"Give me something to drink," said Cuss, and he sat down.

0:41:01.170,0:41:05.030
When his nerves had been steadied by a glass of cheap sherry--the only drink the

0:41:05.030,0:41:10.209
good vicar had available--he told him of the interview he had just had.

0:41:10.209,0:41:15.270
"Went in," he gasped, "and began to demand a subscription for that Nurse Fund.

0:41:15.270,0:41:18.720
He'd stuck his hands in his pockets as I came in, and he sat down lumpily in his

0:41:18.720,0:41:20.190
chair.

0:41:20.190,0:41:22.930
Sniffed. I told him I'd heard he took an interest in

0:41:22.930,0:41:25.660
scientific things. He said yes.

0:41:25.660,0:41:26.650
Sniffed again.

0:41:26.650,0:41:30.180
Kept on sniffing all the time; evidently recently caught an infernal cold.

0:41:30.180,0:41:35.180
No wonder, wrapped up like that! I developed the nurse idea, and all the

0:41:35.180,0:41:36.250
while kept my eyes open.

0:41:36.250,0:41:42.240
Bottles--chemicals--everywhere. Balance, test-tubes in stands, and a smell

0:41:42.240,0:41:46.690
of--evening primrose. Would he subscribe?

0:41:46.690,0:41:48.020
Said he'd consider it.

0:41:48.020,0:41:51.630
Asked him, point-blank, was he researching. Said he was.

0:41:51.630,0:41:53.910
A long research? Got quite cross.

0:41:53.910,0:41:57.690
'A damnable long research,' said he, blowing the cork out, so to speak.

0:41:57.690,0:42:00.840
'Oh,' said I. And out came the grievance.

0:42:00.840,0:42:04.370
The man was just on the boil, and my question boiled him over.

0:42:04.370,0:42:08.760
He had been given a prescription, most valuable prescription--what for he wouldn't

0:42:08.760,0:42:09.950
say.

0:42:09.950,0:42:11.630
Was it medical? 'Damn you!

0:42:11.630,0:42:15.329
What are you fishing after?' I apologised.

0:42:15.329,0:42:17.170
Dignified sniff and cough.

0:42:17.170,0:42:19.480
He resumed. He'd read it.

0:42:19.480,0:42:23.320
Five ingredients. Put it down; turned his head.

0:42:23.320,0:42:25.449
Draught of air from window lifted the paper.

0:42:25.449,0:42:28.770
Swish, rustle. He was working in a room with an open

0:42:28.770,0:42:29.880
fireplace, he said.

0:42:29.880,0:42:33.140
Saw a flicker, and there was the prescription burning and lifting

0:42:33.140,0:42:36.650
chimneyward. Rushed towards it just as it whisked up the

0:42:36.650,0:42:38.480
chimney.

0:42:38.480,0:42:44.570
So! Just at that point, to illustrate his story, out came his arm."

0:42:44.570,0:42:48.060
"Well?" "No hand--just an empty sleeve.

0:42:48.060,0:42:49.050
Lord!

0:42:49.050,0:42:54.360
I thought, that's a deformity! Got a cork arm, I suppose, and has taken it

0:42:54.360,0:42:57.390
off. Then, I thought, there's something odd in

0:42:57.390,0:42:58.020
that.

0:42:58.020,0:43:01.949
What the devil keeps that sleeve up and open, if there's nothing in it?

0:43:01.949,0:43:06.010
There was nothing in it, I tell you. Nothing down it, right down to the joint.

0:43:06.010,0:43:10.230
I could see right down it to the elbow, and there was a glimmer of light shining

0:43:10.230,0:43:12.840
through a tear of the cloth. 'Good God!'

0:43:12.840,0:43:14.410
I said.

0:43:14.410,0:43:17.570
Then he stopped. Stared at me with those black goggles of

0:43:17.570,0:43:20.940
his, and then at his sleeve." "Well?"

0:43:20.940,0:43:22.250
"That's all.

0:43:22.250,0:43:29.280
He never said a word; just glared, and put his sleeve back in his pocket quickly.

0:43:29.280,0:43:33.620
'I was saying,' said he, 'that there was the prescription burning, wasn't I?'

0:43:33.620,0:43:35.320
Interrogative cough.

0:43:35.320,0:43:43.110
'How the devil,' said I, 'can you move an empty sleeve like that?'

0:43:43.110,0:43:47.150
'Empty sleeve?' 'Yes,' said I, 'an empty sleeve.'

0:43:47.150,0:43:49.199
"'It's an empty sleeve, is it?

0:43:49.199,0:43:53.630
You saw it was an empty sleeve?' He stood up right away.

0:43:53.630,0:43:56.709
I stood up too. He came towards me in three very slow

0:43:56.709,0:43:58.890
steps, and stood quite close.

0:43:58.890,0:44:03.430
Sniffed venomously. I didn't flinch, though I'm hanged if that

0:44:03.430,0:44:07.190
bandaged knob of his, and those blinkers, aren't enough to unnerve any one, coming

0:44:07.190,0:44:09.300
quietly up to you.

0:44:09.300,0:44:11.770
"'You said it was an empty sleeve?' he said.

0:44:11.770,0:44:15.650
'Certainly,' I said. At staring and saying nothing a barefaced

0:44:15.650,0:44:17.709
man, unspectacled, starts scratch.

0:44:17.709,0:44:23.780
Then very quietly he pulled his sleeve out of his pocket again, and raised his arm

0:44:23.780,0:44:26.850
towards me as though he would show it to me again.

0:44:26.850,0:44:30.000
He did it very, very slowly.

0:44:30.000,0:44:33.770
I looked at it. Seemed an age.

0:44:33.770,0:44:36.480
'Well?' said I, clearing my throat, 'there's nothing in it.'

0:44:36.480,0:44:38.750
"Had to say something.

0:44:38.750,0:44:42.400
I was beginning to feel frightened. I could see right down it.

0:44:42.400,0:44:47.640
He extended it straight towards me, slowly, slowly--just like that--until the cuff was

0:44:47.640,0:44:49.120
six inches from my face.

0:44:49.120,0:44:53.150
Queer thing to see an empty sleeve come at you like that!

0:44:53.150,0:44:56.720
And then--" "Well?"

0:44:56.720,0:45:03.410
"Something--exactly like a finger and thumb it felt--nipped my nose."

0:45:03.410,0:45:04.750
Bunting began to laugh.

0:45:04.750,0:45:08.870
"There wasn't anything there!" said Cuss, his voice running up into a shriek at the

0:45:08.870,0:45:09.360
"there."

0:45:09.360,0:45:13.440
"It's all very well for you to laugh, but I tell you I was so startled, I hit his cuff

0:45:13.440,0:45:18.860
hard, and turned around, and cut out of the room--I left him--"

0:45:18.860,0:45:20.350
Cuss stopped.

0:45:20.350,0:45:23.410
There was no mistaking the sincerity of his panic.

0:45:23.410,0:45:27.440
He turned round in a helpless way and took a second glass of the excellent vicar's

0:45:27.440,0:45:29.890
very inferior sherry.

0:45:29.890,0:45:35.320
"When I hit his cuff," said Cuss, "I tell you, it felt exactly like hitting an arm.

0:45:35.320,0:45:40.410
And there wasn't an arm! There wasn't the ghost of an arm!"

0:45:40.410,0:45:43.310
Mr. Bunting thought it over.

0:45:43.310,0:45:49.829
He looked suspiciously at Cuss. "It's a most remarkable story," he said.

0:45:49.829,0:45:51.600
He looked very wise and grave indeed.

0:45:51.600,0:45:58.170
"It's really," said Mr. Bunting with judicial emphasis, "a most remarkable

0:45:58.170,0:46:03.174
story."

0:46:03.174,0:46:04.174
>

0:46:04.174,0:46:17.294
-CHAPTER V THE BURGLARY AT THE VICARAGE

0:46:17.294,0:46:20.604
The facts of the burglary at the vicarage came to us chiefly through the medium of

0:46:20.604,0:46:22.604
the vicar and his wife.

0:46:22.604,0:46:26.884
It occurred in the small hours of Whit Monday, the day devoted in Iping to the

0:46:26.884,0:46:28.854
Club festivities.

0:46:28.854,0:46:33.354
Mrs. Bunting, it seems, woke up suddenly in the stillness that comes before the dawn,

0:46:33.354,0:46:38.204
with the strong impression that the door of their bedroom had opened and closed.

0:46:38.204,0:46:42.373
She did not arouse her husband at first, but sat up in bed listening.

0:46:42.373,0:46:46.193
She then distinctly heard the pad, pad, pad of bare feet coming out of the adjoining

0:46:46.193,0:46:49.824
dressing-room and walking along the passage towards the staircase.

0:46:49.824,0:46:55.663
As soon as she felt assured of this, she aroused the Rev. Mr. Bunting as quietly as

0:46:55.663,0:46:56.384
possible.

0:46:56.384,0:47:00.233
He did not strike a light, but putting on his spectacles, her dressing-gown and his

0:47:00.233,0:47:03.954
bath slippers, he went out on the landing to listen.

0:47:03.954,0:47:08.344
He heard quite distinctly a fumbling going on at his study desk down-stairs, and then

0:47:08.344,0:47:11.583
a violent sneeze.

0:47:11.583,0:47:15.514
At that he returned to his bedroom, armed himself with the most obvious weapon, the

0:47:15.514,0:47:18.884
poker, and descended the staircase as noiselessly as possible.

0:47:18.884,0:47:22.893
Mrs. Bunting came out on the landing.

0:47:22.893,0:47:26.323
The hour was about four, and the ultimate darkness of the night was past.

0:47:26.323,0:47:31.003
There was a faint shimmer of light in the hall, but the study doorway yawned

0:47:31.003,0:47:33.213
impenetrably black.

0:47:33.213,0:47:36.283
Everything was still except the faint creaking of the stairs under Mr. Bunting's

0:47:36.283,0:47:39.173
tread, and the slight movements in the study.

0:47:39.173,0:47:44.083
Then something snapped, the drawer was opened, and there was a rustle of papers.

0:47:44.083,0:47:47.433
Then came an imprecation, and a match was struck and the study was flooded with

0:47:47.433,0:47:49.283
yellow light.

0:47:49.283,0:47:52.533
Mr. Bunting was now in the hall, and through the crack of the door he could see

0:47:52.533,0:47:56.183
the desk and the open drawer and a candle burning on the desk.

0:47:56.183,0:47:57.543
But the robber he could not see.

0:47:57.543,0:48:04.704
He stood there in the hall undecided what to do, and Mrs. Bunting, her face white and

0:48:04.704,0:48:08.344
intent, crept slowly downstairs after him.

0:48:08.344,0:48:12.614
One thing kept Mr. Bunting's courage; the persuasion that this burglar was a resident

0:48:12.614,0:48:13.084
in the village.

0:48:13.084,0:48:18.114
They heard the chink of money, and realised that the robber had found the housekeeping

0:48:18.114,0:48:22.754
reserve of gold--two pounds ten in half sovereigns altogether.

0:48:22.754,0:48:26.034
At that sound Mr. Bunting was nerved to abrupt action.

0:48:26.034,0:48:30.364
Gripping the poker firmly, he rushed into the room, closely followed by Mrs. Bunting.

0:48:30.364,0:48:35.743
"Surrender!" cried Mr. Bunting, fiercely, and then stooped amazed.

0:48:35.743,0:48:37.413
Apparently the room was perfectly empty.

0:48:37.413,0:48:42.844
Yet their conviction that they had, that very moment, heard somebody moving in the

0:48:42.844,0:48:44.344
room had amounted to a certainty.

0:48:44.344,0:48:48.684
For half a minute, perhaps, they stood gaping, then Mrs. Bunting went across the

0:48:48.684,0:48:52.243
room and looked behind the screen, while Mr. Bunting, by a kindred impulse, peered

0:48:52.243,0:48:53.374
under the desk.

0:48:53.374,0:48:56.984
Then Mrs. Bunting turned back the window- curtains, and Mr. Bunting looked up the

0:48:56.984,0:48:59.053
chimney and probed it with the poker.

0:48:59.053,0:49:03.663
Then Mrs. Bunting scrutinised the waste- paper basket and Mr. Bunting opened the lid

0:49:03.663,0:49:07.484
of the coal-scuttle. Then they came to a stop and stood with

0:49:07.484,0:49:09.404
eyes interrogating each other.

0:49:09.404,0:49:14.753
"I could have sworn--" said Mr. Bunting. "The candle!" said Mr. Bunting.

0:49:14.753,0:49:18.314
"Who lit the candle?" "The drawer!" said Mrs. Bunting.

0:49:18.314,0:49:20.854
"And the money's gone!"

0:49:20.854,0:49:26.464
She went hastily to the doorway. "Of all the strange occurrences--"

0:49:26.464,0:49:30.684
There was a violent sneeze in the passage. They rushed out, and as they did so the

0:49:30.684,0:49:31.473
kitchen door slammed.

0:49:31.473,0:49:35.363
"Bring the candle," said Mr. Bunting, and led the way.

0:49:35.363,0:49:39.124
They both heard a sound of bolts being hastily shot back.

0:49:39.124,0:49:42.613
As he opened the kitchen door he saw through the scullery that the back door was

0:49:42.613,0:49:46.553
just opening, and the faint light of early dawn displayed the dark masses of the

0:49:46.553,0:49:48.594
garden beyond.

0:49:48.594,0:49:50.214
He is certain that nothing went out of the door.

0:49:50.214,0:49:55.473
It opened, stood open for a moment, and then closed with a slam.

0:49:55.473,0:49:58.654
As it did so, the candle Mrs. Bunting was carrying from the study flickered and

0:49:58.654,0:50:01.684
flared. It was a minute or more before they entered

0:50:01.684,0:50:02.053
the kitchen.

0:50:02.053,0:50:08.424
The place was empty. They refastened the back door, examined the

0:50:08.424,0:50:13.654
kitchen, pantry, and scullery thoroughly, and at last went down into the cellar.

0:50:13.654,0:50:17.824
There was not a soul to be found in the house, search as they would.

0:50:17.824,0:50:23.094
Daylight found the vicar and his wife, a quaintly-costumed little couple, still

0:50:23.094,0:50:29.374
marvelling about on their own ground floor by the unnecessary light of a guttering

0:50:29.374,0:50:30.814
candle.

0:50:30.814,0:50:34.304
CHAPTER VI THE FURNITURE THAT WENT MAD

0:50:34.304,0:50:41.114
Now it happened that in the early hours of Whit Monday, before Millie was hunted out

0:50:41.114,0:50:45.814
for the day, Mr. Hall and Mrs. Hall both rose and went noiselessly down into the

0:50:45.814,0:50:46.664
cellar.

0:50:46.664,0:50:50.784
Their business there was of a private nature, and had something to do with the

0:50:50.784,0:50:53.594
specific gravity of their beer.

0:50:53.594,0:50:56.514
They had hardly entered the cellar when Mrs. Hall found she had forgotten to bring

0:50:56.514,0:51:00.404
down a bottle of sarsaparilla from their joint-room.

0:51:00.404,0:51:04.614
As she was the expert and principal operator in this affair, Hall very properly

0:51:04.614,0:51:08.644
went upstairs for it. On the landing he was surprised to see that

0:51:08.644,0:51:10.714
the stranger's door was ajar.

0:51:10.714,0:51:15.814
He went on into his own room and found the bottle as he had been directed.

0:51:15.814,0:51:18.914
But returning with the bottle, he noticed that the bolts of the front door had been

0:51:18.914,0:51:22.774
shot back, that the door was in fact simply on the latch.

0:51:22.774,0:51:25.564
And with a flash of inspiration he connected this with the stranger's room

0:51:25.564,0:51:29.114
upstairs and the suggestions of Mr. Teddy Henfrey.

0:51:29.114,0:51:33.564
He distinctly remembered holding the candle while Mrs. Hall shot these bolts overnight.

0:51:33.564,0:51:38.304
At the sight he stopped, gaping, then with the bottle still in his hand went upstairs

0:51:38.304,0:51:39.334
again.

0:51:39.334,0:51:42.584
He rapped at the stranger's door. There was no answer.

0:51:42.584,0:51:46.974
He rapped again; then pushed the door wide open and entered.

0:51:46.974,0:51:48.974
It was as he expected.

0:51:48.974,0:51:51.694
The bed, the room also, was empty.

0:51:51.694,0:51:57.424
And what was stranger, even to his heavy intelligence, on the bedroom chair and

0:51:57.424,0:52:01.504
along the rail of the bed were scattered the garments, the only garments so far as

0:52:01.504,0:52:04.854
he knew, and the bandages of their guest.

0:52:04.854,0:52:08.594
His big slouch hat even was cocked jauntily over the bed-post.

0:52:08.594,0:52:13.294
As Hall stood there he heard his wife's voice coming out of the depth of the

0:52:13.294,0:52:17.574
cellar, with that rapid telescoping of the syllables and interrogative cocking up of

0:52:17.574,0:52:19.774
the final words to a high note, by which

0:52:19.774,0:52:24.444
the West Sussex villager is wont to indicate a brisk impatience.

0:52:24.444,0:52:27.754
"George! You gart whad a wand?"

0:52:27.754,0:52:30.174
At that he turned and hurried down to her.

0:52:30.174,0:52:33.514
"Janny," he said, over the rail of the cellar steps, "'tas the truth what Henfrey

0:52:33.514,0:52:35.084
sez. 'E's not in uz room, 'e en't.

0:52:35.084,0:52:36.664
And the front door's onbolted."

0:52:36.664,0:52:42.724
At first Mrs. Hall did not understand, and as soon as she did she resolved to see the

0:52:42.724,0:52:46.904
empty room for herself. Hall, still holding the bottle, went first.

0:52:46.904,0:52:49.634
"If 'e en't there," he said, "'is close are.

0:52:49.634,0:52:51.714
And what's 'e doin' 'ithout 'is close, then?

0:52:51.714,0:52:55.474
'Tas a most curious business."

0:52:55.474,0:52:59.424
As they came up the cellar steps they both, it was afterwards ascertained, fancied they

0:52:59.424,0:53:03.384
heard the front door open and shut, but seeing it closed and nothing there, neither

0:53:03.384,0:53:05.944
said a word to the other about it at the time.

0:53:05.944,0:53:10.224
Mrs. Hall passed her husband in the passage and ran on first upstairs.

0:53:10.224,0:53:13.134
Someone sneezed on the staircase.

0:53:13.134,0:53:17.534
Hall, following six steps behind, thought that he heard her sneeze.

0:53:17.534,0:53:21.354
She, going on first, was under the impression that Hall was sneezing.

0:53:21.354,0:53:23.444
She flung open the door and stood regarding the room.

0:53:23.444,0:53:27.254
"Of all the curious!" she said.

0:53:27.254,0:53:30.984
She heard a sniff close behind her head as it seemed, and turning, was surprised to

0:53:30.984,0:53:34.534
see Hall a dozen feet off on the topmost stair.

0:53:34.534,0:53:36.994
But in another moment he was beside her.

0:53:36.994,0:53:40.264
She bent forward and put her hand on the pillow and then under the clothes.

0:53:40.264,0:53:45.164
"Cold," she said. "He's been up this hour or more."

0:53:45.164,0:53:48.414
As she did so, a most extraordinary thing happened.

0:53:48.414,0:53:52.304
The bed-clothes gathered themselves together, leapt up suddenly into a sort of

0:53:52.304,0:53:54.504
peak, and then jumped headlong over the bottom rail.

0:53:54.504,0:53:59.634
It was exactly as if a hand had clutched them in the centre and flung them aside.

0:53:59.634,0:54:03.054
Immediately after, the stranger's hat hopped off the bed-post, described a

0:54:03.054,0:54:06.554
whirling flight in the air through the better part of a circle, and then dashed

0:54:06.554,0:54:07.984
straight at Mrs. Hall's face.

0:54:07.984,0:54:13.324
Then as swiftly came the sponge from the washstand; and then the chair, flinging the

0:54:13.324,0:54:17.634
stranger's coat and trousers carelessly aside, and laughing drily in a voice

0:54:17.634,0:54:19.944
singularly like the stranger's, turned

0:54:19.944,0:54:24.604
itself up with its four legs at Mrs. Hall, seemed to take aim at her for a moment, and

0:54:24.604,0:54:26.634
charged at her.

0:54:26.634,0:54:31.164
She screamed and turned, and then the chair legs came gently but firmly against her

0:54:31.164,0:54:34.014
back and impelled her and Hall out of the room.

0:54:34.014,0:54:37.864
The door slammed violently and was locked.

0:54:37.864,0:54:42.023
The chair and bed seemed to be executing a dance of triumph for a moment, and then

0:54:42.023,0:54:45.693
abruptly everything was still.

0:54:45.693,0:54:49.344
Mrs. Hall was left almost in a fainting condition in Mr. Hall's arms on the

0:54:49.344,0:54:50.664
landing.

0:54:50.664,0:54:54.763
It was with the greatest difficulty that Mr. Hall and Millie, who had been roused by

0:54:54.763,0:54:58.904
her scream of alarm, succeeded in getting her downstairs, and applying the

0:54:58.904,0:55:02.863
restoratives customary in such cases.

0:55:02.863,0:55:06.024
"'Tas sperits," said Mrs. Hall. "I know 'tas sperits.

0:55:06.024,0:55:10.714
I've read in papers of en. Tables and chairs leaping and dancing..."

0:55:10.714,0:55:12.193
"Take a drop more, Janny," said Hall.

0:55:12.193,0:55:15.573
"'Twill steady ye." "Lock him out," said Mrs. Hall.

0:55:15.573,0:55:19.294
"Don't let him come in again. I half guessed--I might ha' known.

0:55:19.294,0:55:22.794
With them goggling eyes and bandaged head, and never going to church of a Sunday.

0:55:22.794,0:55:26.084
And all they bottles--more'n it's right for any one to have.

0:55:26.084,0:55:27.784
He's put the sperits into the furniture....

0:55:27.784,0:55:31.904
My good old furniture! 'Twas in that very chair my poor dear

0:55:31.904,0:55:34.544
mother used to sit when I was a little girl.

0:55:34.544,0:55:38.024
To think it should rise up against me now!"

0:55:38.024,0:55:43.883
"Just a drop more, Janny," said Hall. "Your nerves is all upset."

0:55:43.883,0:55:47.813
They sent Millie across the street through the golden five o'clock sunshine to rouse

0:55:47.813,0:55:50.794
up Mr. Sandy Wadgers, the blacksmith.

0:55:50.794,0:55:54.943
Mr. Hall's compliments and the furniture upstairs was behaving most extraordinary.

0:55:54.943,0:55:58.714
Would Mr. Wadgers come round? He was a knowing man, was Mr. Wadgers, and

0:55:58.714,0:56:00.724
very resourceful.

0:56:00.724,0:56:05.534
He took quite a grave view of the case. "Arm darmed if thet ent witchcraft," was

0:56:05.534,0:56:12.544
the view of Mr. Sandy Wadgers. "You warnt horseshoes for such gentry as

0:56:12.544,0:56:12.584
he."

0:56:12.584,0:56:16.623
He came round greatly concerned. They wanted him to lead the way upstairs to

0:56:16.623,0:56:19.214
the room, but he didn't seem to be in any hurry.

0:56:19.214,0:56:22.443
He preferred to talk in the passage.

0:56:22.443,0:56:26.363
Over the way Huxter's apprentice came out and began taking down the shutters of the

0:56:26.363,0:56:30.693
tobacco window. He was called over to join the discussion.

0:56:30.693,0:56:34.563
Mr. Huxter naturally followed over in the course of a few minutes.

0:56:34.563,0:56:38.854
The Anglo-Saxon genius for parliamentary government asserted itself; there was a

0:56:38.854,0:56:41.003
great deal of talk and no decisive action.

0:56:41.003,0:56:45.123
"Let's have the facts first," insisted Mr. Sandy Wadgers.

0:56:45.123,0:56:49.693
"Let's be sure we'd be acting perfectly right in bustin' that there door open.

0:56:49.693,0:56:53.373
A door onbust is always open to bustin', but ye can't onbust a door once you've

0:56:53.373,0:56:55.984
busted en."

0:56:55.984,0:56:59.794
And suddenly and most wonderfully the door of the room upstairs opened of its own

0:56:59.794,0:57:04.423
accord, and as they looked up in amazement, they saw descending the stairs the muffled

0:57:04.423,0:57:06.863
figure of the stranger staring more blackly

0:57:06.863,0:57:12.613
and blankly than ever with those unreasonably large blue glass eyes of his.

0:57:12.613,0:57:17.024
He came down stiffly and slowly, staring all the time; he walked across the passage

0:57:17.024,0:57:20.394
staring, then stopped.

0:57:20.394,0:57:24.113
"Look there!" he said, and their eyes followed the direction of his gloved finger

0:57:24.113,0:57:28.013
and saw a bottle of sarsaparilla hard by the cellar door.

0:57:28.013,0:57:32.313
Then he entered the parlour, and suddenly, swiftly, viciously, slammed the door in

0:57:32.313,0:57:37.714
their faces. Not a word was spoken until the last echoes

0:57:37.714,0:57:39.883
of the slam had died away.

0:57:39.883,0:57:44.763
They stared at one another. "Well, if that don't lick everything!" said

0:57:44.763,0:57:47.253
Mr. Wadgers, and left the alternative unsaid.

0:57:47.253,0:57:51.974
"I'd go in and ask'n 'bout it," said Wadgers, to Mr. Hall.

0:57:51.974,0:57:57.753
"I'd d'mand an explanation." It took some time to bring the landlady's

0:57:57.753,0:57:59.743
husband up to that pitch.

0:57:59.743,0:58:03.604
At last he rapped, opened the door, and got as far as, "Excuse me--"

0:58:03.604,0:58:10.253
"Go to the devil!" said the stranger in a tremendous voice, and "Shut that door after

0:58:10.253,0:58:11.214
you."

0:58:11.214,0:58:16.344
So that brief interview terminated.

0:58:16.344,0:58:21.813
CHAPTER VII THE UNVEILING OF THE STRANGER

0:58:21.813,0:58:25.154
The stranger went into the little parlour of the "Coach and Horses" about half-past

0:58:25.154,0:58:30.404
five in the morning, and there he remained until near midday, the blinds down, the

0:58:30.404,0:58:34.813
door shut, and none, after Hall's repulse, venturing near him.

0:58:34.813,0:58:38.263
All that time he must have fasted.

0:58:38.263,0:58:42.894
Thrice he rang his bell, the third time furiously and continuously, but no one

0:58:42.894,0:58:46.453
answered him. "Him and his 'go to the devil' indeed!"

0:58:46.453,0:58:48.834
said Mrs. Hall.

0:58:48.834,0:58:52.443
Presently came an imperfect rumour of the burglary at the vicarage, and two and two

0:58:52.443,0:58:53.813
were put together.

0:58:53.813,0:58:58.483
Hall, assisted by Wadgers, went off to find Mr. Shuckleforth, the magistrate, and take

0:58:58.483,0:59:02.493
his advice. No one ventured upstairs.

0:59:02.493,0:59:05.253
How the stranger occupied himself is unknown.

0:59:05.253,0:59:09.013
Now and then he would stride violently up and down, and twice came an outburst of

0:59:09.013,0:59:13.693
curses, a tearing of paper, and a violent smashing of bottles.

0:59:13.693,0:59:17.724
The little group of scared but curious people increased.

0:59:17.724,0:59:21.313
Mrs. Huxter came over; some gay young fellows resplendent in black ready-made

0:59:21.313,0:59:26.383
jackets and pique paper ties--for it was Whit Monday--joined the group with confused

0:59:26.383,0:59:28.024
interrogations.

0:59:28.024,0:59:31.803
Young Archie Harker distinguished himself by going up the yard and trying to peep

0:59:31.803,0:59:33.953
under the window-blinds.

0:59:33.953,0:59:37.813
He could see nothing, but gave reason for supposing that he did, and others of the

0:59:37.813,0:59:41.633
Iping youth presently joined him.

0:59:41.633,0:59:45.964
It was the finest of all possible Whit Mondays, and down the village street stood

0:59:45.964,0:59:50.503
a row of nearly a dozen booths, a shooting gallery, and on the grass by the forge were

0:59:50.503,0:59:52.883
three yellow and chocolate waggons and some

0:59:52.883,0:59:57.503
picturesque strangers of both sexes putting up a cocoanut shy.

0:59:57.503,1:00:02.724
The gentlemen wore blue jerseys, the ladies white aprons and quite fashionable hats

1:00:02.724,1:00:04.293
with heavy plumes.

1:00:04.293,1:00:09.003
Wodger, of the "Purple Fawn," and Mr. Jaggers, the cobbler, who also sold old

1:00:09.003,1:00:12.883
second-hand ordinary bicycles, were stretching a string of union-jacks and

1:00:12.883,1:00:14.623
royal ensigns (which had originally

1:00:14.623,1:00:19.543
celebrated the first Victorian Jubilee) across the road.

1:00:19.543,1:00:24.144
And inside, in the artificial darkness of the parlour, into which only one thin jet

1:00:24.144,1:00:29.053
of sunlight penetrated, the stranger, hungry we must suppose, and fearful, hidden

1:00:29.053,1:00:32.113
in his uncomfortable hot wrappings, pored

1:00:32.113,1:00:36.253
through his dark glasses upon his paper or chinked his dirty little bottles, and

1:00:36.253,1:00:41.644
occasionally swore savagely at the boys, audible if invisible, outside the windows.

1:00:41.644,1:00:45.443
In the corner by the fireplace lay the fragments of half a dozen smashed bottles,

1:00:45.443,1:00:49.253
and a pungent twang of chlorine tainted the air.

1:00:49.253,1:00:52.784
So much we know from what was heard at the time and from what was subsequently seen in

1:00:52.784,1:00:53.003
the room.

1:00:53.003,1:00:59.293
About noon he suddenly opened his parlour door and stood glaring fixedly at the three

1:00:59.293,1:01:04.243
or four people in the bar. "Mrs. Hall," he said.

1:01:04.243,1:01:06.293
Somebody went sheepishly and called for Mrs. Hall.

1:01:06.293,1:01:12.404
Mrs. Hall appeared after an interval, a little short of breath, but all the fiercer

1:01:12.404,1:01:13.293
for that.

1:01:13.293,1:01:16.813
Hall was still out. She had deliberated over this scene, and

1:01:16.813,1:01:19.613
she came holding a little tray with an unsettled bill upon it.

1:01:19.613,1:01:24.993
"Is it your bill you're wanting, sir?" she said.

1:01:24.993,1:01:28.323
"Why wasn't my breakfast laid? Why haven't you prepared my meals and

1:01:28.323,1:01:29.173
answered my bell?

1:01:29.173,1:01:33.743
Do you think I live without eating?" "Why isn't my bill paid?" said Mrs. Hall.

1:01:33.743,1:01:37.803
"That's what I want to know." "I told you three days ago I was awaiting

1:01:37.803,1:01:39.233
a remittance--"

1:01:39.233,1:01:43.203
"I told you two days ago I wasn't going to await no remittances.

1:01:43.203,1:01:46.953
You can't grumble if your breakfast waits a bit, if my bill's been waiting these five

1:01:46.953,1:01:49.303
days, can you?"

1:01:49.303,1:01:56.034
The stranger swore briefly but vividly. "Nar, nar!" from the bar.

1:01:56.034,1:02:00.724
"And I'd thank you kindly, sir, if you'd keep your swearing to yourself, sir," said

1:02:00.724,1:02:02.664
Mrs. Hall.

1:02:02.664,1:02:06.703
The stranger stood looking more like an angry diving-helmet than ever.

1:02:06.703,1:02:10.914
It was universally felt in the bar that Mrs. Hall had the better of him.

1:02:10.914,1:02:13.414
His next words showed as much.

1:02:13.414,1:02:18.094
"Look here, my good woman--" he began. "Don't 'good woman' me," said Mrs. Hall.

1:02:18.094,1:02:24.383
"I've told you my remittance hasn't come." "Remittance indeed!" said Mrs. Hall.

1:02:24.383,1:02:26.733
"Still, I daresay in my pocket--"

1:02:26.733,1:02:30.334
"You told me three days ago that you hadn't anything but a sovereign's worth of silver

1:02:30.334,1:02:34.293
upon you." "Well, I've found some more--"

1:02:34.293,1:02:36.633
"'Ul-lo!" from the bar.

1:02:36.633,1:02:41.243
"I wonder where you found it," said Mrs. Hall.

1:02:41.243,1:02:43.363
That seemed to annoy the stranger very much.

1:02:43.363,1:02:44.753
He stamped his foot.

1:02:44.753,1:02:49.344
"What do you mean?" he said. "That I wonder where you found it," said

1:02:49.344,1:02:50.144
Mrs. Hall.

1:02:50.144,1:02:53.584
"And before I take any bills or get any breakfasts, or do any such things

1:02:53.584,1:02:57.404
whatsoever, you got to tell me one or two things I don't understand, and what nobody

1:02:57.404,1:03:00.904
don't understand, and what everybody is very anxious to understand.

1:03:00.904,1:03:04.813
I want to know what you been doing t'my chair upstairs, and I want to know how 'tis

1:03:04.813,1:03:06.784
your room was empty, and how you got in again.

1:03:06.784,1:03:10.954
Them as stops in this house comes in by the doors--that's the rule of the house, and

1:03:10.954,1:03:14.314
that you didn't do, and what I want to know is how you did come in.

1:03:14.314,1:03:17.013
And I want to know--"

1:03:17.013,1:03:21.224
Suddenly the stranger raised his gloved hands clenched, stamped his foot, and said,

1:03:21.224,1:03:26.864
"Stop!" with such extraordinary violence that he silenced her instantly.

1:03:26.864,1:03:31.184
"You don't understand," he said, "who I am or what I am.

1:03:31.184,1:03:32.244
I'll show you. By Heaven!

1:03:32.244,1:03:33.444
I'll show you."

1:03:33.444,1:03:37.874
Then he put his open palm over his face and withdrew it.

1:03:37.874,1:03:40.854
The centre of his face became a black cavity.

1:03:40.854,1:03:42.234
"Here," he said.

1:03:42.234,1:03:46.164
He stepped forward and handed Mrs. Hall something which she, staring at his

1:03:46.164,1:03:50.434
metamorphosed face, accepted automatically.

1:03:50.434,1:03:54.844
Then, when she saw what it was, she screamed loudly, dropped it, and staggered

1:03:54.844,1:03:58.914
back. The nose--it was the stranger's nose! pink

1:03:58.914,1:04:03.474
and shining--rolled on the floor.

1:04:03.474,1:04:07.104
Then he removed his spectacles, and everyone in the bar gasped.

1:04:07.104,1:04:11.454
He took off his hat, and with a violent gesture tore at his whiskers and bandages.

1:04:11.454,1:04:13.674
For a moment they resisted him.

1:04:13.674,1:04:18.224
A flash of horrible anticipation passed through the bar.

1:04:18.224,1:04:22.684
"Oh, my Gard!" said some one. Then off they came.

1:04:22.684,1:04:27.054
It was worse than anything.

1:04:27.054,1:04:31.164
Mrs. Hall, standing open-mouthed and horror-struck, shrieked at what she saw,

1:04:31.164,1:04:35.224
and made for the door of the house. Everyone began to move.

1:04:35.224,1:04:39.844
They were prepared for scars, disfigurements, tangible horrors, but

1:04:39.844,1:04:40.954
nothing!

1:04:40.954,1:04:45.624
The bandages and false hair flew across the passage into the bar, making a hobbledehoy

1:04:45.624,1:04:49.854
jump to avoid them. Everyone tumbled on everyone else down the

1:04:49.854,1:04:50.304
steps.

1:04:50.304,1:04:55.214
For the man who stood there shouting some incoherent explanation, was a solid

1:04:55.214,1:05:01.504
gesticulating figure up to the coat-collar of him, and then--nothingness, no visible

1:05:01.504,1:05:04.684
thing at all!

1:05:04.684,1:05:08.684
People down the village heard shouts and shrieks, and looking up the street saw the

1:05:08.684,1:05:12.734
"Coach and Horses" violently firing out its humanity.

1:05:12.734,1:05:17.854
They saw Mrs. Hall fall down and Mr. Teddy Henfrey jump to avoid tumbling over her,

1:05:17.854,1:05:21.244
and then they heard the frightful screams of Millie, who, emerging suddenly from the

1:05:21.244,1:05:23.364
kitchen at the noise of the tumult, had

1:05:23.364,1:05:27.334
come upon the headless stranger from behind.

1:05:27.334,1:05:30.474
These increased suddenly.

1:05:30.474,1:05:34.944
Forthwith everyone all down the street, the sweetstuff seller, cocoanut shy proprietor

1:05:34.944,1:05:39.944
and his assistant, the swing man, little boys and girls, rustic dandies, smart

1:05:39.944,1:05:42.554
wenches, smocked elders and aproned

1:05:42.554,1:05:47.544
gipsies--began running towards the inn, and in a miraculously short space of time a

1:05:47.544,1:05:53.194
crowd of perhaps forty people, and rapidly increasing, swayed and hooted and inquired

1:05:53.194,1:05:58.194
and exclaimed and suggested, in front of Mrs. Hall's establishment.

1:05:58.194,1:06:01.874
Everyone seemed eager to talk at once, and the result was Babel.

1:06:01.874,1:06:06.214
A small group supported Mrs. Hall, who was picked up in a state of collapse.

1:06:06.214,1:06:09.624
There was a conference, and the incredible evidence of a vociferous eye-witness.

1:06:09.624,1:06:11.524
"O Bogey!"

1:06:11.524,1:06:15.654
"What's he been doin', then?" "Ain't hurt the girl, 'as 'e?"

1:06:15.654,1:06:18.764
"Run at en with a knife, I believe." "No 'ed, I tell ye.

1:06:18.764,1:06:20.374
I don't mean no manner of speaking.

1:06:20.374,1:06:23.954
I mean marn 'ithout a 'ed!" "Narnsense!

1:06:23.954,1:06:29.534
'tis some conjuring trick." "Fetched off 'is wrapping, 'e did--"

1:06:29.534,1:06:33.584
In its struggles to see in through the open door, the crowd formed itself into a

1:06:33.584,1:06:38.094
straggling wedge, with the more adventurous apex nearest the inn.

1:06:38.094,1:06:41.764
"He stood for a moment, I heerd the gal scream, and he turned.

1:06:41.764,1:06:44.364
I saw her skirts whisk, and he went after her.

1:06:44.364,1:06:45.294
Didn't take ten seconds.

1:06:45.294,1:06:48.864
Back he comes with a knife in uz hand and a loaf; stood just as if he was staring.

1:06:48.864,1:06:51.254
Not a moment ago. Went in that there door.

1:06:51.254,1:06:54.494
I tell 'e, 'e ain't gart no 'ed at all.

1:06:54.494,1:06:57.934
You just missed en--"

1:06:57.934,1:07:02.344
There was a disturbance behind, and the speaker stopped to step aside for a little

1:07:02.344,1:07:06.684
procession that was marching very resolutely towards the house; first Mr.

1:07:06.684,1:07:09.864
Hall, very red and determined, then Mr.

1:07:09.864,1:07:14.684
Bobby Jaffers, the village constable, and then the wary Mr. Wadgers.

1:07:14.684,1:07:20.434
They had come now armed with a warrant. People shouted conflicting information of

1:07:20.434,1:07:21.534
the recent circumstances.

1:07:21.534,1:07:28.794
"'Ed or no 'ed," said Jaffers, "I got to 'rest en, and 'rest en I will."

1:07:28.794,1:07:32.444
Mr. Hall marched up the steps, marched straight to the door of the parlour and

1:07:32.444,1:07:34.004
flung it open.

1:07:34.004,1:07:39.724
"Constable," he said, "do your duty." Jaffers marched in.

1:07:39.724,1:07:41.444
Hall next, Wadgers last.

1:07:41.444,1:07:45.674
They saw in the dim light the headless figure facing them, with a gnawed crust of

1:07:45.674,1:07:48.474
bread in one gloved hand and a chunk of cheese in the other.

1:07:48.474,1:07:51.774
"That's him!" said Hall.

1:07:51.774,1:07:55.874
"What the devil's this?" came in a tone of angry expostulation from above the collar

1:07:55.874,1:07:59.504
of the figure. "You're a damned rum customer, mister,"

1:07:59.504,1:08:00.744
said Mr. Jaffers.

1:08:00.744,1:08:05.134
"But 'ed or no 'ed, the warrant says 'body,' and duty's duty--"

1:08:05.134,1:08:08.804
"Keep off!" said the figure, starting back.

1:08:08.804,1:08:11.924
Abruptly he whipped down the bread and cheese, and Mr. Hall just grasped the knife

1:08:11.924,1:08:16.094
on the table in time to save it. Off came the stranger's left glove and was

1:08:16.094,1:08:17.934
slapped in Jaffers' face.

1:08:17.934,1:08:22.044
In another moment Jaffers, cutting short some statement concerning a warrant, had

1:08:22.044,1:08:25.784
gripped him by the handless wrist and caught his invisible throat.

1:08:25.784,1:08:29.234
He got a sounding kick on the shin that made him shout, but he kept his grip.

1:08:29.234,1:08:33.674
Hall sent the knife sliding along the table to Wadgers, who acted as goal-keeper for

1:08:33.674,1:08:37.784
the offensive, so to speak, and then stepped forward as Jaffers and the stranger

1:08:37.784,1:08:41.384
swayed and staggered towards him, clutching and hitting in.

1:08:41.384,1:08:45.834
A chair stood in the way, and went aside with a crash as they came down together.

1:08:45.834,1:08:50.214
"Get the feet," said Jaffers between his teeth.

1:08:50.214,1:08:54.254
Mr. Hall, endeavouring to act on instructions, received a sounding kick in

1:08:54.254,1:08:59.234
the ribs that disposed of him for a moment, and Mr. Wadgers, seeing the decapitated

1:08:59.234,1:09:01.164
stranger had rolled over and got the upper

1:09:01.164,1:09:05.594
side of Jaffers, retreated towards the door, knife in hand, and so collided with

1:09:05.594,1:09:09.974
Mr. Huxter and the Sidderbridge carter coming to the rescue of law and order.

1:09:09.974,1:09:14.644
At the same moment down came three or four bottles from the chiffonnier and shot a web

1:09:14.644,1:09:17.844
of pungency into the air of the room.

1:09:17.844,1:09:21.674
"I'll surrender," cried the stranger, though he had Jaffers down, and in another

1:09:21.674,1:09:26.844
moment he stood up panting, a strange figure, headless and handless--for he had

1:09:26.844,1:09:29.754
pulled off his right glove now as well as his left.

1:09:29.754,1:09:31.644
"It's no good," he said, as if sobbing for breath.

1:09:31.644,1:09:36.554
It was the strangest thing in the world to hear that voice coming as if out of empty

1:09:36.554,1:09:40.704
space, but the Sussex peasants are perhaps the most matter-of-fact people under the

1:09:40.704,1:09:41.994
sun.

1:09:41.994,1:09:45.334
Jaffers got up also and produced a pair of handcuffs.

1:09:45.334,1:09:46.864
Then he stared.

1:09:46.864,1:09:53.464
"I say!" said Jaffers, brought up short by a dim realization of the incongruity of the

1:09:53.464,1:09:56.484
whole business, "Darn it! Can't use 'em as I can see."

1:09:56.484,1:10:01.884
The stranger ran his arm down his waistcoat, and as if by a miracle the

1:10:01.884,1:10:05.414
buttons to which his empty sleeve pointed became undone.

1:10:05.414,1:10:08.334
Then he said something about his shin, and stooped down.

1:10:08.334,1:10:12.014
He seemed to be fumbling with his shoes and socks.

1:10:12.014,1:10:16.234
"Why!" said Huxter, suddenly, "that's not a man at all.

1:10:16.234,1:10:18.264
It's just empty clothes. Look!

1:10:18.264,1:10:20.524
You can see down his collar and the linings of his clothes.

1:10:20.524,1:10:23.354
I could put my arm--"

1:10:23.354,1:10:26.874
He extended his hand; it seemed to meet something in mid-air, and he drew it back

1:10:26.874,1:10:28.044
with a sharp exclamation.

1:10:28.044,1:10:33.494
"I wish you'd keep your fingers out of my eye," said the aerial voice, in a tone of

1:10:33.494,1:10:35.364
savage expostulation.

1:10:35.364,1:10:40.294
"The fact is, I'm all here--head, hands, legs, and all the rest of it, but it

1:10:40.294,1:10:44.774
happens I'm invisible. It's a confounded nuisance, but I am.

1:10:44.774,1:10:48.424
That's no reason why I should be poked to pieces by every stupid bumpkin in Iping, is

1:10:48.424,1:10:51.314
it?"

1:10:51.314,1:10:55.954
The suit of clothes, now all unbuttoned and hanging loosely upon its unseen supports,

1:10:55.954,1:10:59.394
stood up, arms akimbo.

1:10:59.394,1:11:02.184
Several other of the men folks had now entered the room, so that it was closely

1:11:02.184,1:11:07.354
crowded. "Invisible, eh?" said Huxter, ignoring the

1:11:07.354,1:11:08.544
stranger's abuse.

1:11:08.544,1:11:13.054
"Who ever heard the likes of that?" "It's strange, perhaps, but it's not a

1:11:13.054,1:11:15.594
crime. Why am I assaulted by a policeman in this

1:11:15.594,1:11:16.894
fashion?"

1:11:16.894,1:11:18.994
"Ah! that's a different matter," said Jaffers.

1:11:18.994,1:11:23.324
"No doubt you are a bit difficult to see in this light, but I got a warrant and it's

1:11:23.324,1:11:24.814
all correct.

1:11:24.814,1:11:27.704
What I'm after ain't no invisibility,--it's burglary.

1:11:27.704,1:11:31.254
There's a house been broke into and money took."

1:11:31.254,1:11:31.924
"Well?"

1:11:31.924,1:11:36.514
"And circumstances certainly point--" "Stuff and nonsense!" said the Invisible

1:11:36.514,1:11:39.174
Man. "I hope so, sir; but I've got my

1:11:39.174,1:11:40.704
instructions."

1:11:40.704,1:11:43.514
"Well," said the stranger, "I'll come. I'll come.

1:11:43.514,1:11:48.304
But no handcuffs." "It's the regular thing," said Jaffers.

1:11:48.304,1:11:51.054
"No handcuffs," stipulated the stranger.

1:11:51.054,1:11:56.384
"Pardon me," said Jaffers. Abruptly the figure sat down, and before

1:11:56.384,1:12:00.104
any one could realise was was being done, the slippers, socks, and trousers had been

1:12:00.104,1:12:01.834
kicked off under the table.

1:12:01.834,1:12:04.544
Then he sprang up again and flung off his coat.

1:12:04.544,1:12:08.064
"Here, stop that," said Jaffers, suddenly realising what was happening.

1:12:08.064,1:12:12.354
He gripped at the waistcoat; it struggled, and the shirt slipped out of it and left it

1:12:12.354,1:12:16.134
limply and empty in his hand. "Hold him!" said Jaffers, loudly.

1:12:16.134,1:12:17.634
"Once he gets the things off--"

1:12:17.634,1:12:21.754
"Hold him!" cried everyone, and there was a rush at the fluttering white shirt which

1:12:21.754,1:12:25.014
was now all that was visible of the stranger.

1:12:25.014,1:12:28.534
The shirt-sleeve planted a shrewd blow in Hall's face that stopped his open-armed

1:12:28.534,1:12:32.924
advance, and sent him backward into old Toothsome the sexton, and in another moment

1:12:32.924,1:12:34.534
the garment was lifted up and became

1:12:34.534,1:12:38.734
convulsed and vacantly flapping about the arms, even as a shirt that is being thrust

1:12:38.734,1:12:40.484
over a man's head.

1:12:40.484,1:12:44.504
Jaffers clutched at it, and only helped to pull it off; he was struck in the mouth out

1:12:44.504,1:12:48.664
of the air, and incontinently threw his truncheon and smote Teddy Henfrey savagely

1:12:48.664,1:12:50.794
upon the crown of his head.

1:12:50.794,1:12:54.134
"Look out!" said everybody, fencing at random and hitting at nothing.

1:12:54.134,1:12:55.444
"Hold him! Shut the door!

1:12:55.444,1:12:56.564
Don't let him loose!

1:12:56.564,1:12:59.324
I got something! Here he is!"

1:12:59.324,1:13:01.984
A perfect Babel of noises they made.

1:13:01.984,1:13:06.604
Everybody, it seemed, was being hit all at once, and Sandy Wadgers, knowing as ever

1:13:06.604,1:13:10.794
and his wits sharpened by a frightful blow in the nose, reopened the door and led the

1:13:10.794,1:13:12.144
rout.

1:13:12.144,1:13:15.904
The others, following incontinently, were jammed for a moment in the corner by the

1:13:15.904,1:13:18.404
doorway. The hitting continued.

1:13:18.404,1:13:23.124
Phipps, the Unitarian, had a front tooth broken, and Henfrey was injured in the

1:13:23.124,1:13:24.984
cartilage of his ear.

1:13:24.984,1:13:27.804
Jaffers was struck under the jaw, and, turning, caught at something that

1:13:27.804,1:13:32.404
intervened between him and Huxter in the melee, and prevented their coming together.

1:13:32.404,1:13:36.074
He felt a muscular chest, and in another moment the whole mass of struggling,

1:13:36.074,1:13:40.264
excited men shot out into the crowded hall.

1:13:40.264,1:13:44.224
"I got him!" shouted Jaffers, choking and reeling through them all, and wrestling

1:13:44.224,1:13:48.274
with purple face and swelling veins against his unseen enemy.

1:13:48.274,1:13:52.024
Men staggered right and left as the extraordinary conflict swayed swiftly

1:13:52.024,1:13:56.504
towards the house door, and went spinning down the half-dozen steps of the inn.

1:13:56.504,1:14:00.374
Jaffers cried in a strangled voice--holding tight, nevertheless, and making play with

1:14:00.374,1:14:05.154
his knee--spun around, and fell heavily undermost with his head on the gravel.

1:14:05.154,1:14:08.734
Only then did his fingers relax.

1:14:08.734,1:14:10.624
There were excited cries of "Hold him!"

1:14:10.624,1:14:14.414
"Invisible!" and so forth, and a young fellow, a stranger in the place whose name

1:14:14.414,1:14:19.514
did not come to light, rushed in at once, caught something, missed his hold, and fell

1:14:19.514,1:14:20.874
over the constable's prostrate body.

1:14:20.874,1:14:26.244
Half-way across the road a woman screamed as something pushed by her; a dog, kicked

1:14:26.244,1:14:30.814
apparently, yelped and ran howling into Huxter's yard, and with that the transit of

1:14:30.814,1:14:33.054
the Invisible Man was accomplished.

1:14:33.054,1:14:37.924
For a space people stood amazed and gesticulating, and then came panic, and

1:14:37.924,1:14:40.964
scattered them abroad through the village as a gust scatters dead leaves.

1:14:40.964,1:14:48.364
But Jaffers lay quite still, face upward and knees bent, at the foot of the steps of

1:14:48.364,1:14:52.780
the inn.

1:14:52.780,1:14:53.780
>

1:14:53.780,1:15:04.470
-CHAPTER VIII IN TRANSIT

1:15:04.470,1:15:09.579
The eighth chapter is exceedingly brief, and relates that Gibbons, the amateur

1:15:09.579,1:15:14.210
naturalist of the district, while lying out on the spacious open downs without a soul

1:15:14.210,1:15:16.059
within a couple of miles of him, as he

1:15:16.059,1:15:21.310
thought, and almost dozing, heard close to him the sound as of a man coughing,

1:15:21.310,1:15:28.580
sneezing, and then swearing savagely to himself; and looking, beheld nothing.

1:15:28.580,1:15:30.670
Yet the voice was indisputable.

1:15:30.670,1:15:34.679
It continued to swear with that breadth and variety that distinguishes the swearing of

1:15:34.679,1:15:35.529
a cultivated man.

1:15:35.529,1:15:41.249
It grew to a climax, diminished again, and died away in the distance, going as it

1:15:41.249,1:15:43.830
seemed to him in the direction of Adderdean.

1:15:43.830,1:15:48.109
It lifted to a spasmodic sneeze and ended.

1:15:48.109,1:15:51.109
Gibbons had heard nothing of the morning's occurrences, but the phenomenon was so

1:15:51.109,1:15:55.769
striking and disturbing that his philosophical tranquillity vanished; he got

1:15:55.769,1:15:57.509
up hastily, and hurried down the steepness

1:15:57.509,1:16:05.010
of the hill towards the village, as fast as he could go.

1:16:05.010,1:16:10.430
CHAPTER IX MR. THOMAS MARVEL

1:16:10.430,1:16:15.620
You must picture Mr. Thomas Marvel as a person of copious, flexible visage, a nose

1:16:15.620,1:16:21.040
of cylindrical protrusion, a liquorish, ample, fluctuating mouth, and a beard of

1:16:21.040,1:16:22.270
bristling eccentricity.

1:16:22.270,1:16:29.070
His figure inclined to embonpoint; his short limbs accentuated this inclination.

1:16:29.070,1:16:33.470
He wore a furry silk hat, and the frequent substitution of twine and shoe-laces for

1:16:33.470,1:16:41.020
buttons, apparent at critical points of his costume, marked a man essentially bachelor.

1:16:41.020,1:16:44.760
Mr. Thomas Marvel was sitting with his feet in a ditch by the roadside over the down

1:16:44.760,1:16:48.520
towards Adderdean, about a mile and a half out of Iping.

1:16:48.520,1:16:54.260
His feet, save for socks of irregular open- work, were bare, his big toes were broad,

1:16:54.260,1:16:57.759
and pricked like the ears of a watchful dog.

1:16:57.759,1:17:02.480
In a leisurely manner--he did everything in a leisurely manner--he was contemplating

1:17:02.480,1:17:04.620
trying on a pair of boots.

1:17:04.620,1:17:08.810
They were the soundest boots he had come across for a long time, but too large for

1:17:08.810,1:17:13.090
him; whereas the ones he had were, in dry weather, a very comfortable fit, but too

1:17:13.090,1:17:15.099
thin-soled for damp.

1:17:15.099,1:17:19.799
Mr. Thomas Marvel hated roomy shoes, but then he hated damp.

1:17:19.799,1:17:24.010
He had never properly thought out which he hated most, and it was a pleasant day, and

1:17:24.010,1:17:25.799
there was nothing better to do.

1:17:25.799,1:17:29.879
So he put the four shoes in a graceful group on the turf and looked at them.

1:17:29.879,1:17:34.469
And seeing them there among the grass and springing agrimony, it suddenly occurred to

1:17:34.469,1:17:38.129
him that both pairs were exceedingly ugly to see.

1:17:38.129,1:17:41.510
He was not at all startled by a voice behind him.

1:17:41.510,1:17:45.570
"They're boots, anyhow," said the Voice.

1:17:45.570,1:17:49.200
"They are--charity boots," said Mr. Thomas Marvel, with his head on one side regarding

1:17:49.200,1:17:52.919
them distastefully; "and which is the ugliest pair in the whole blessed universe,

1:17:52.919,1:17:54.730
I'm darned if I know!"

1:17:54.730,1:17:59.939
"H'm," said the Voice. "I've worn worse--in fact, I've worn none.

1:17:59.939,1:18:02.859
But none so owdacious ugly--if you'll allow the expression.

1:18:02.859,1:18:05.739
I've been cadging boots--in particular--for days.

1:18:05.739,1:18:08.730
Because I was sick of them. They're sound enough, of course.

1:18:08.730,1:18:11.570
But a gentleman on tramp sees such a thundering lot of his boots.

1:18:11.570,1:18:15.279
And if you'll believe me, I've raised nothing in the whole blessed country, try

1:18:15.279,1:18:16.650
as I would, but them.

1:18:16.650,1:18:19.239
Look at 'em! And a good country for boots, too, in a

1:18:19.239,1:18:20.779
general way. But it's just my promiscuous luck.

1:18:20.779,1:18:24.070
I've got my boots in this country ten years or more.

1:18:24.070,1:18:28.059
And then they treat you like this." "It's a beast of a country," said the

1:18:28.059,1:18:28.439
Voice.

1:18:28.439,1:18:32.620
"And pigs for people." "Ain't it?" said Mr. Thomas Marvel.

1:18:32.620,1:18:33.749
"Lord! But them boots!

1:18:33.749,1:18:35.960
It beats it."

1:18:35.960,1:18:39.150
He turned his head over his shoulder to the right, to look at the boots of his

1:18:39.150,1:18:43.909
interlocutor with a view to comparisons, and lo! where the boots of his interlocutor

1:18:43.909,1:18:46.909
should have been were neither legs nor boots.

1:18:46.909,1:18:50.629
He was irradiated by the dawn of a great amazement.

1:18:50.629,1:18:54.650
"Where are yer?" said Mr. Thomas Marvel over his shoulder and coming on all fours.

1:18:54.650,1:18:59.320
He saw a stretch of empty downs with the wind swaying the remote green-pointed furze

1:18:59.320,1:19:00.699
bushes.

1:19:00.699,1:19:03.999
"Am I drunk?" said Mr. Marvel. "Have I had visions?

1:19:03.999,1:19:06.189
Was I talking to myself? What the--"

1:19:06.189,1:19:10.049
"Don't be alarmed," said a Voice.

1:19:10.049,1:19:14.130
"None of your ventriloquising me," said Mr. Thomas Marvel, rising sharply to his feet.

1:19:14.130,1:19:17.230
"Where are yer? Alarmed, indeed!"

1:19:17.230,1:19:20.530
"Don't be alarmed," repeated the Voice.

1:19:20.530,1:19:23.750
"You'll be alarmed in a minute, you silly fool," said Mr. Thomas Marvel.

1:19:23.750,1:19:26.940
"Where are yer? Lemme get my mark on yer...

1:19:26.940,1:19:32.200
"Are yer buried?" said Mr. Thomas Marvel, after an interval.

1:19:32.200,1:19:35.790
There was no answer. Mr. Thomas Marvel stood bootless and

1:19:35.790,1:19:38.310
amazed, his jacket nearly thrown off.

1:19:38.310,1:19:43.730
"Peewit," said a peewit, very remote. "Peewit, indeed!" said Mr. Thomas Marvel.

1:19:43.730,1:19:45.950
"This ain't no time for foolery."

1:19:45.950,1:19:49.970
The down was desolate, east and west, north and south; the road with its shallow

1:19:49.970,1:19:54.540
ditches and white bordering stakes, ran smooth and empty north and south, and, save

1:19:54.540,1:19:56.670
for that peewit, the blue sky was empty too.

1:19:56.670,1:20:01.330
"So help me," said Mr. Thomas Marvel, shuffling his coat on to his shoulders

1:20:01.330,1:20:01.730
again.

1:20:01.730,1:20:04.420
"It's the drink! I might ha' known."

1:20:04.420,1:20:07.480
"It's not the drink," said the Voice. "You keep your nerves steady."

1:20:07.480,1:20:12.890
"Ow!" said Mr. Marvel, and his face grew white amidst its patches.

1:20:12.890,1:20:16.690
"It's the drink!" his lips repeated noiselessly.

1:20:16.690,1:20:19.430
He remained staring about him, rotating slowly backwards.

1:20:19.430,1:20:23.660
"I could have swore I heard a voice," he whispered.

1:20:23.660,1:20:24.340
"Of course you did."

1:20:24.340,1:20:29.210
"It's there again," said Mr. Marvel, closing his eyes and clasping his hand on

1:20:29.210,1:20:31.340
his brow with a tragic gesture.

1:20:31.340,1:20:35.680
He was suddenly taken by the collar and shaken violently, and left more dazed than

1:20:35.680,1:20:38.680
ever. "Don't be a fool," said the Voice.

1:20:38.680,1:20:44.460
"I'm--off--my--blooming--chump," said Mr. Marvel.

1:20:44.460,1:20:46.930
"It's no good. It's fretting about them blarsted boots.

1:20:46.930,1:20:49.560
I'm off my blessed blooming chump.

1:20:49.560,1:20:53.450
Or it's spirits." "Neither one thing nor the other," said the

1:20:53.450,1:20:54.970
Voice. "Listen!"

1:20:54.970,1:20:57.310
"Chump," said Mr. Marvel.

1:20:57.310,1:21:02.200
"One minute," said the Voice, penetratingly, tremulous with self-control.

1:21:02.200,1:21:05.650
"Well?" said Mr. Thomas Marvel, with a strange feeling of having been dug in the

1:21:05.650,1:21:08.600
chest by a finger.

1:21:08.600,1:21:12.860
"You think I'm just imagination? Just imagination?"

1:21:12.860,1:21:17.780
"What else can you be?" said Mr. Thomas Marvel, rubbing the back of his neck.

1:21:17.780,1:21:20.390
"Very well," said the Voice, in a tone of relief.

1:21:20.390,1:21:23.900
"Then I'm going to throw flints at you till you think differently."

1:21:23.900,1:21:25.060
"But where are yer?"

1:21:25.060,1:21:30.560
The Voice made no answer. Whizz came a flint, apparently out of the

1:21:30.560,1:21:33.360
air, and missed Mr. Marvel's shoulder by a hair's-breadth.

1:21:33.360,1:21:38.310
Mr. Marvel, turning, saw a flint jerk up into the air, trace a complicated path,

1:21:38.310,1:21:42.680
hang for a moment, and then fling at his feet with almost invisible rapidity.

1:21:42.680,1:21:44.690
He was too amazed to dodge.

1:21:44.690,1:21:48.250
Whizz it came, and ricochetted from a bare toe into the ditch.

1:21:48.250,1:21:51.520
Mr. Thomas Marvel jumped a foot and howled aloud.

1:21:51.520,1:21:55.490
Then he started to run, tripped over an unseen obstacle, and came head over heels

1:21:55.490,1:21:56.430
into a sitting position.

1:21:56.430,1:22:01.940
"Now," said the Voice, as a third stone curved upward and hung in the air above the

1:22:01.940,1:22:05.860
tramp. "Am I imagination?"

1:22:05.860,1:22:09.530
Mr. Marvel by way of reply struggled to his feet, and was immediately rolled over

1:22:09.530,1:22:13.090
again. He lay quiet for a moment.

1:22:13.090,1:22:19.400
"If you struggle any more," said the Voice, "I shall throw the flint at your head."

1:22:19.400,1:22:23.510
"It's a fair do," said Mr. Thomas Marvel, sitting up, taking his wounded toe in hand

1:22:23.510,1:22:25.160
and fixing his eye on the third missile.

1:22:25.160,1:22:29.030
"I don't understand it. Stones flinging themselves.

1:22:29.030,1:22:31.600
Stones talking. Put yourself down.

1:22:31.600,1:22:32.020
Rot away.

1:22:32.020,1:22:36.020
I'm done." The third flint fell.

1:22:36.020,1:22:39.210
"It's very simple," said the Voice. "I'm an invisible man."

1:22:39.210,1:22:44.780
"Tell us something I don't know," said Mr. Marvel, gasping with pain.

1:22:44.780,1:22:47.760
"Where you've hid--how you do it--I don't know.

1:22:47.760,1:22:48.620
I'm beat."

1:22:48.620,1:22:51.760
"That's all," said the Voice. "I'm invisible.

1:22:51.760,1:22:55.960
That's what I want you to understand." "Anyone could see that.

1:22:55.960,1:22:58.900
There is no need for you to be so confounded impatient, mister.

1:22:58.900,1:23:01.230
Now then. Give us a notion.

1:23:01.230,1:23:03.870
How are you hid?"

1:23:03.870,1:23:06.250
"I'm invisible. That's the great point.

1:23:06.250,1:23:08.450
And what I want you to understand is this-- "

1:23:08.450,1:23:11.700
"But whereabouts?" interrupted Mr. Marvel.

1:23:11.700,1:23:14.010
"Here! Six yards in front of you."

1:23:14.010,1:23:15.940
"Oh, come! I ain't blind.

1:23:15.940,1:23:17.830
You'll be telling me next you're just thin air.

1:23:17.830,1:23:22.730
I'm not one of your ignorant tramps--" "Yes, I am--thin air.

1:23:22.730,1:23:24.960
You're looking through me."

1:23:24.960,1:23:27.220
"What! Ain't there any stuff to you.

1:23:27.220,1:23:30.179
Vox et--what is it?--jabber. Is it that?"

1:23:30.179,1:23:36.740
"I am just a human being--solid, needing food and drink, needing covering too--But

1:23:36.740,1:23:39.190
I'm invisible. You see?

1:23:39.190,1:23:40.020
Invisible.

1:23:40.020,1:23:43.410
Simple idea. Invisible."

1:23:43.410,1:23:45.970
"What, real like?" "Yes, real."

1:23:45.970,1:23:50.370
"Let's have a hand of you," said Marvel, "if you are real.

1:23:50.370,1:23:55.770
It won't be so darn out-of-the-way like, then--Lord!" he said, "how you made me

1:23:55.770,1:23:58.870
jump!--gripping me like that!"

1:23:58.870,1:24:02.780
He felt the hand that had closed round his wrist with his disengaged fingers, and his

1:24:02.780,1:24:06.960
fingers went timorously up the arm, patted a muscular chest, and explored a bearded

1:24:06.960,1:24:08.230
face.

1:24:08.230,1:24:12.680
Marvel's face was astonishment. "I'm dashed!" he said.

1:24:12.680,1:24:17.340
"If this don't beat cock-fighting! Most remarkable!--And there I can see a

1:24:17.340,1:24:18.840
rabbit clean through you, 'arf a mile away!

1:24:18.840,1:24:24.230
Not a bit of you visible--except--" He scrutinised the apparently empty space

1:24:24.230,1:24:28.020
keenly. "You 'aven't been eatin' bread and cheese?"

1:24:28.020,1:24:30.180
he asked, holding the invisible arm.

1:24:30.180,1:24:34.380
"You're quite right, and it's not quite assimilated into the system."

1:24:34.380,1:24:38.610
"Ah!" said Mr. Marvel. "Sort of ghostly, though."

1:24:38.610,1:24:42.530
"Of course, all this isn't half so wonderful as you think."

1:24:42.530,1:24:46.640
"It's quite wonderful enough for my modest wants," said Mr. Thomas Marvel.

1:24:46.640,1:24:48.150
"Howjer manage it!

1:24:48.150,1:24:51.930
How the dooce is it done?" "It's too long a story.

1:24:51.930,1:24:55.110
And besides--" "I tell you, the whole business fairly

1:24:55.110,1:24:57.710
beats me," said Mr. Marvel.

1:24:57.710,1:25:01.420
"What I want to say at present is this: I need help.

1:25:01.420,1:25:03.900
I have come to that--I came upon you suddenly.

1:25:03.900,1:25:06.900
I was wandering, mad with rage, naked, impotent.

1:25:06.900,1:25:10.180
I could have murdered. And I saw you--"

1:25:10.180,1:25:13.030
"Lord!" said Mr. Marvel.

1:25:13.030,1:25:17.410
"I came up behind you--hesitated--went on-- "

1:25:17.410,1:25:20.730
Mr. Marvel's expression was eloquent. "--then stopped.

1:25:20.730,1:25:24.559
'Here,' I said, 'is an outcast like myself.

1:25:24.559,1:25:29.100
This is the man for me.' So I turned back and came to you--you.

1:25:29.100,1:25:32.170
And--" "Lord!" said Mr. Marvel.

1:25:32.170,1:25:33.800
"But I'm all in a tizzy.

1:25:33.800,1:25:39.530
May I ask--How is it? And what you may be requiring in the way of

1:25:39.530,1:25:42.830
help?--Invisible!" "I want you to help me get clothes--and

1:25:42.830,1:25:45.900
shelter--and then, with other things.

1:25:45.900,1:25:49.590
I've left them long enough. If you won't--well!

1:25:49.590,1:25:54.260
But you will--must." "Look here," said Mr. Marvel.

1:25:54.260,1:25:55.600
"I'm too flabbergasted.

1:25:55.600,1:25:57.740
Don't knock me about any more. And leave me go.

1:25:57.740,1:26:01.570
I must get steady a bit. And you've pretty near broken my toe.

1:26:01.570,1:26:03.680
It's all so unreasonable.

1:26:03.680,1:26:07.500
Empty downs, empty sky. Nothing visible for miles except the bosom

1:26:07.500,1:26:09.660
of Nature. And then comes a voice.

1:26:09.660,1:26:10.960
A voice out of heaven!

1:26:10.960,1:26:14.900
And stones! And a fist--Lord!"

1:26:14.900,1:26:19.610
"Pull yourself together," said the Voice, "for you have to do the job I've chosen for

1:26:19.610,1:26:20.550
you."

1:26:20.550,1:26:23.140
Mr. Marvel blew out his cheeks, and his eyes were round.

1:26:23.140,1:26:26.390
"I've chosen you," said the Voice.

1:26:26.390,1:26:30.650
"You are the only man except some of those fools down there, who knows there is such a

1:26:30.650,1:26:34.390
thing as an invisible man. You have to be my helper.

1:26:34.390,1:26:37.150
Help me--and I will do great things for you.

1:26:37.150,1:26:41.390
An invisible man is a man of power." He stopped for a moment to sneeze

1:26:41.390,1:26:42.160
violently.

1:26:42.160,1:26:49.090
"But if you betray me," he said, "if you fail to do as I direct you--" He paused and

1:26:49.090,1:26:54.320
tapped Mr. Marvel's shoulder smartly. Mr. Marvel gave a yelp of terror at the

1:26:54.320,1:26:54.720
touch.

1:26:54.720,1:26:59.570
"I don't want to betray you," said Mr. Marvel, edging away from the direction of

1:26:59.570,1:27:01.200
the fingers. "Don't you go a-thinking that, whatever you

1:27:01.200,1:27:01.720
do.

1:27:01.720,1:27:05.410
All I want to do is to help you--just tell me what I got to do.

1:27:05.410,1:27:08.240
(Lord!) Whatever you want done, that I'm most

1:27:08.240,1:27:11.450
willing to do."

1:27:11.450,1:27:17.510
CHAPTER X MR. MARVEL'S VISIT TO IPING

1:27:17.510,1:27:22.690
After the first gusty panic had spent itself Iping became argumentative.

1:27:22.690,1:27:28.070
Scepticism suddenly reared its head--rather nervous scepticism, not at all assured of

1:27:28.070,1:27:30.390
its back, but scepticism nevertheless.

1:27:30.390,1:27:36.250
It is so much easier not to believe in an invisible man; and those who had actually

1:27:36.250,1:27:40.809
seen him dissolve into air, or felt the strength of his arm, could be counted on

1:27:40.809,1:27:42.030
the fingers of two hands.

1:27:42.030,1:27:46.360
And of these witnesses Mr. Wadgers was presently missing, having retired

1:27:46.360,1:27:50.330
impregnably behind the bolts and bars of his own house, and Jaffers was lying

1:27:50.330,1:27:53.309
stunned in the parlour of the "Coach and Horses."

1:27:53.309,1:27:57.950
Great and strange ideas transcending experience often have less effect upon men

1:27:57.950,1:28:01.800
and women than smaller, more tangible considerations.

1:28:01.800,1:28:06.080
Iping was gay with bunting, and everybody was in gala dress.

1:28:06.080,1:28:09.950
Whit Monday had been looked forward to for a month or more.

1:28:09.950,1:28:14.030
By the afternoon even those who believed in the Unseen were beginning to resume their

1:28:14.030,1:28:18.400
little amusements in a tentative fashion, on the supposition that he had quite gone

1:28:18.400,1:28:21.880
away, and with the sceptics he was already a jest.

1:28:21.880,1:28:27.990
But people, sceptics and believers alike, were remarkably sociable all that day.

1:28:27.990,1:28:31.590
Haysman's meadow was gay with a tent, in which Mrs. Bunting and other ladies were

1:28:31.590,1:28:36.340
preparing tea, while, without, the Sunday- school children ran races and played games

1:28:36.340,1:28:41.270
under the noisy guidance of the curate and the Misses Cuss and Sackbut.

1:28:41.270,1:28:45.250
No doubt there was a slight uneasiness in the air, but people for the most part had

1:28:45.250,1:28:49.179
the sense to conceal whatever imaginative qualms they experienced.

1:28:49.179,1:28:53.090
On the village green an inclined strong [word missing?], down which, clinging the

1:28:53.090,1:28:57.080
while to a pulley-swung handle, one could be hurled violently against a sack at the

1:28:57.080,1:28:59.820
other end, came in for considerable favour

1:28:59.820,1:29:03.830
among the adolescent, as also did the swings and the cocoanut shies.

1:29:03.830,1:29:08.140
There was also promenading, and the steam organ attached to a small roundabout filled

1:29:08.140,1:29:12.900
the air with a pungent flavour of oil and with equally pungent music.

1:29:12.900,1:29:16.720
Members of the club, who had attended church in the morning, were splendid in

1:29:16.720,1:29:20.489
badges of pink and green, and some of the gayer-minded had also adorned their bowler

1:29:20.489,1:29:24.080
hats with brilliant-coloured favours of ribbon.

1:29:24.080,1:29:28.210
Old Fletcher, whose conceptions of holiday- making were severe, was visible through the

1:29:28.210,1:29:32.250
jasmine about his window or through the open door (whichever way you chose to

1:29:32.250,1:29:34.300
look), poised delicately on a plank

1:29:34.300,1:29:40.070
supported on two chairs, and whitewashing the ceiling of his front room.

1:29:40.070,1:29:44.179
About four o'clock a stranger entered the village from the direction of the downs.

1:29:44.179,1:29:48.510
He was a short, stout person in an extraordinarily shabby top hat, and he

1:29:48.510,1:29:53.119
appeared to be very much out of breath. His cheeks were alternately limp and

1:29:53.119,1:29:54.570
tightly puffed.

1:29:54.570,1:29:58.530
His mottled face was apprehensive, and he moved with a sort of reluctant alacrity.

1:29:58.530,1:30:04.750
He turned the corner of the church, and directed his way to the "Coach and Horses."

1:30:04.750,1:30:08.920
Among others old Fletcher remembers seeing him, and indeed the old gentleman was so

1:30:08.920,1:30:12.809
struck by his peculiar agitation that he inadvertently allowed a quantity of

1:30:12.809,1:30:17.260
whitewash to run down the brush into the sleeve of his coat while regarding him.

1:30:17.260,1:30:22.140
This stranger, to the perceptions of the proprietor of the cocoanut shy, appeared to

1:30:22.140,1:30:26.869
be talking to himself, and Mr. Huxter remarked the same thing.

1:30:26.869,1:30:30.929
He stopped at the foot of the "Coach and Horses" steps, and, according to Mr.

1:30:30.929,1:30:34.640
Huxter, appeared to undergo a severe internal struggle before he could induce

1:30:34.640,1:30:36.450
himself to enter the house.

1:30:36.450,1:30:40.590
Finally he marched up the steps, and was seen by Mr. Huxter to turn to the left and

1:30:40.590,1:30:43.820
open the door of the parlour.

1:30:43.820,1:30:47.500
Mr. Huxter heard voices from within the room and from the bar apprising the man of

1:30:47.500,1:30:48.640
his error.

1:30:48.640,1:30:54.799
"That room's private!" said Hall, and the stranger shut the door clumsily and went

1:30:54.799,1:30:56.360
into the bar.

1:30:56.360,1:30:59.369
In the course of a few minutes he reappeared, wiping his lips with the back

1:30:59.369,1:31:03.299
of his hand with an air of quiet satisfaction that somehow impressed Mr.

1:31:03.299,1:31:05.420
Huxter as assumed.

1:31:05.420,1:31:09.040
He stood looking about him for some moments, and then Mr. Huxter saw him walk

1:31:09.040,1:31:13.390
in an oddly furtive manner towards the gates of the yard, upon which the parlour

1:31:13.390,1:31:14.570
window opened.

1:31:14.570,1:31:19.150
The stranger, after some hesitation, leant against one of the gate-posts, produced a

1:31:19.150,1:31:23.960
short clay pipe, and prepared to fill it. His fingers trembled while doing so.

1:31:23.960,1:31:29.590
He lit it clumsily, and folding his arms began to smoke in a languid attitude, an

1:31:29.590,1:31:35.260
attitude which his occasional glances up the yard altogether belied.

1:31:35.260,1:31:39.570
All this Mr. Huxter saw over the canisters of the tobacco window, and the singularity

1:31:39.570,1:31:44.450
of the man's behaviour prompted him to maintain his observation.

1:31:44.450,1:31:48.940
Presently the stranger stood up abruptly and put his pipe in his pocket.

1:31:48.940,1:31:51.489
Then he vanished into the yard.

1:31:51.489,1:31:56.030
Forthwith Mr. Huxter, conceiving he was witness of some petty larceny, leapt round

1:31:56.030,1:31:59.390
his counter and ran out into the road to intercept the thief.

1:31:59.390,1:32:03.869
As he did so, Mr. Marvel reappeared, his hat askew, a big bundle in a blue table-

1:32:03.869,1:32:08.339
cloth in one hand, and three books tied together--as it proved afterwards with the

1:32:08.339,1:32:11.660
Vicar's braces--in the other.

1:32:11.660,1:32:15.940
Directly he saw Huxter he gave a sort of gasp, and turning sharply to the left,

1:32:15.940,1:32:19.700
began to run. "Stop, thief!" cried Huxter, and set off

1:32:19.700,1:32:20.670
after him.

1:32:20.670,1:32:23.730
Mr. Huxter's sensations were vivid but brief.

1:32:23.730,1:32:27.550
He saw the man just before him and spurting briskly for the church corner and the hill

1:32:27.550,1:32:28.480
road.

1:32:28.480,1:32:32.640
He saw the village flags and festivities beyond, and a face or so turned towards

1:32:32.640,1:32:35.450
him. He bawled, "Stop!" again.

1:32:35.450,1:32:39.339
He had hardly gone ten strides before his shin was caught in some mysterious fashion,

1:32:39.339,1:32:43.700
and he was no longer running, but flying with inconceivable rapidity through the

1:32:43.700,1:32:44.120
air.

1:32:44.120,1:32:47.829
He saw the ground suddenly close to his face.

1:32:47.829,1:32:51.839
The world seemed to splash into a million whirling specks of light, and subsequent

1:32:51.839,1:32:59.618
proceedings interested him no more.

1:32:59.618,1:33:00.618
>

1:33:00.618,1:33:08.908
-CHAPTER XI IN THE "COACH AND HORSES"

1:33:08.908,1:33:16.618
Now in order clearly to understand what had happened in the inn, it is necessary to go

1:33:16.618,1:33:20.758
back to the moment when Mr. Marvel first came into view of Mr. Huxter's window.

1:33:20.758,1:33:24.918
At that precise moment Mr. Cuss and Mr. Bunting were in the parlour.

1:33:24.918,1:33:28.978
They were seriously investigating the strange occurrences of the morning, and

1:33:28.978,1:33:33.708
were, with Mr. Hall's permission, making a thorough examination of the Invisible Man's

1:33:33.708,1:33:35.318
belongings.

1:33:35.318,1:33:39.488
Jaffers had partially recovered from his fall and had gone home in the charge of his

1:33:39.488,1:33:41.298
sympathetic friends.

1:33:41.298,1:33:45.668
The stranger's scattered garments had been removed by Mrs. Hall and the room tidied

1:33:45.668,1:33:46.558
up.

1:33:46.558,1:33:51.028
And on the table under the window where the stranger had been wont to work, Cuss had

1:33:51.028,1:33:55.468
hit almost at once on three big books in manuscript labelled "Diary."

1:33:55.468,1:34:00.168
"Diary!" said Cuss, putting the three books on the table.

1:34:00.168,1:34:03.428
"Now, at any rate, we shall learn something."

1:34:03.428,1:34:06.118
The Vicar stood with his hands on the table.

1:34:06.118,1:34:10.718
"Diary," repeated Cuss, sitting down, putting two volumes to support the third,

1:34:10.718,1:34:12.818
and opening it.

1:34:12.818,1:34:17.008
"H'm--no name on the fly-leaf. Bother!--cypher.

1:34:17.008,1:34:21.978
And figures." The vicar came round to look over his

1:34:21.978,1:34:22.428
shoulder.

1:34:22.428,1:34:25.108
Cuss turned the pages over with a face suddenly disappointed.

1:34:25.108,1:34:28.538
"I'm--dear me! It's all cypher, Bunting."

1:34:28.538,1:34:31.788
"There are no diagrams?" asked Mr. Bunting.

1:34:31.788,1:34:37.038
"No illustrations throwing light--" "See for yourself," said Mr. Cuss.

1:34:37.038,1:34:41.058
"Some of it's mathematical and some of it's Russian or some such language (to judge by

1:34:41.058,1:34:43.458
the letters), and some of it's Greek.

1:34:43.458,1:34:45.178
Now the Greek I thought you--"

1:34:45.178,1:34:49.288
"Of course," said Mr. Bunting, taking out and wiping his spectacles and feeling

1:34:49.288,1:34:55.777
suddenly very uncomfortable--for he had no Greek left in his mind worth talking about;

1:34:55.777,1:34:58.158
"yes--the Greek, of course, may furnish a clue."

1:34:58.158,1:35:02.858
"I'll find you a place." "I'd rather glance through the volumes

1:35:02.858,1:35:05.618
first," said Mr. Bunting, still wiping.

1:35:05.618,1:35:11.027
"A general impression first, Cuss, and then, you know, we can go looking for

1:35:11.027,1:35:11.417
clues."

1:35:11.417,1:35:17.037
He coughed, put on his glasses, arranged them fastidiously, coughed again, and

1:35:17.037,1:35:21.447
wished something would happen to avert the seemingly inevitable exposure.

1:35:21.447,1:35:24.967
Then he took the volume Cuss handed him in a leisurely manner.

1:35:24.967,1:35:29.037
And then something did happen. The door opened suddenly.

1:35:29.037,1:35:34.137
Both gentlemen started violently, looked round, and were relieved to see a

1:35:34.137,1:35:37.807
sporadically rosy face beneath a furry silk hat.

1:35:37.807,1:35:40.467
"Tap?" asked the face, and stood staring.

1:35:40.467,1:35:46.958
"No," said both gentlemen at once. "Over the other side, my man," said Mr.

1:35:46.958,1:35:51.027
Bunting. And "Please shut that door," said Mr. Cuss,

1:35:51.027,1:35:52.958
irritably.

1:35:52.958,1:35:57.117
"All right," said the intruder, as it seemed in a low voice curiously different

1:35:57.117,1:36:02.007
from the huskiness of its first inquiry. "Right you are," said the intruder in the

1:36:02.007,1:36:03.298
former voice.

1:36:03.298,1:36:08.887
"Stand clear!" and he vanished and closed the door.

1:36:08.887,1:36:11.378
"A sailor, I should judge," said Mr. Bunting.

1:36:11.378,1:36:13.327
"Amusing fellows, they are.

1:36:13.327,1:36:16.867
Stand clear! indeed. A nautical term, referring to his getting

1:36:16.867,1:36:21.387
back out of the room, I suppose." "I daresay so," said Cuss.

1:36:21.387,1:36:22.817
"My nerves are all loose to-day.

1:36:22.817,1:36:27.018
It quite made me jump--the door opening like that."

1:36:27.018,1:36:32.807
Mr. Bunting smiled as if he had not jumped. "And now," he said with a sigh, "these

1:36:32.807,1:36:34.298
books."

1:36:34.298,1:36:40.417
Someone sniffed as he did so. "One thing is indisputable," said Bunting,

1:36:40.417,1:36:42.677
drawing up a chair next to that of Cuss.

1:36:42.677,1:36:48.878
"There certainly have been very strange things happen in Iping during the last few

1:36:48.878,1:36:52.817
days--very strange. I cannot of course believe in this absurd

1:36:52.817,1:36:54.107
invisibility story--"

1:36:54.107,1:37:00.497
"It's incredible," said Cuss--"incredible. But the fact remains that I saw--I

1:37:00.497,1:37:06.077
certainly saw right down his sleeve--" "But did you--are you sure?

1:37:06.077,1:37:10.988
Suppose a mirror, for instance-- hallucinations are so easily produced.

1:37:10.988,1:37:13.537
I don't know if you have ever seen a really good conjuror--"

1:37:13.537,1:37:17.107
"I won't argue again," said Cuss.

1:37:17.107,1:37:22.348
"We've thrashed that out, Bunting. And just now there's these books--Ah!

1:37:22.348,1:37:29.028
here's some of what I take to be Greek! Greek letters certainly."

1:37:29.028,1:37:31.038
He pointed to the middle of the page.

1:37:31.038,1:37:35.538
Mr. Bunting flushed slightly and brought his face nearer, apparently finding some

1:37:35.538,1:37:40.338
difficulty with his glasses. Suddenly he became aware of a strange

1:37:40.338,1:37:42.688
feeling at the nape of his neck.

1:37:42.688,1:37:46.658
He tried to raise his head, and encountered an immovable resistance.

1:37:46.658,1:37:51.178
The feeling was a curious pressure, the grip of a heavy, firm hand, and it bore his

1:37:51.178,1:37:54.228
chin irresistibly to the table.

1:37:54.228,1:38:00.228
"Don't move, little men," whispered a voice, "or I'll brain you both!"

1:38:00.228,1:38:05.838
He looked into the face of Cuss, close to his own, and each saw a horrified

1:38:05.838,1:38:09.438
reflection of his own sickly astonishment.

1:38:09.438,1:38:13.778
"I'm sorry to handle you so roughly," said the Voice, "but it's unavoidable."

1:38:13.778,1:38:20.528
"Since when did you learn to pry into an investigator's private memoranda," said the

1:38:20.528,1:38:25.488
Voice; and two chins struck the table simultaneously, and two sets of teeth

1:38:25.488,1:38:26.838
rattled.

1:38:26.838,1:38:32.778
"Since when did you learn to invade the private rooms of a man in misfortune?" and

1:38:32.778,1:38:38.798
the concussion was repeated. "Where have they put my clothes?"

1:38:38.798,1:38:40.148
"Listen," said the Voice.

1:38:40.148,1:38:44.088
"The windows are fastened and I've taken the key out of the door.

1:38:44.088,1:38:51.208
I am a fairly strong man, and I have the poker handy--besides being invisible.

1:38:51.208,1:38:54.888
There's not the slightest doubt that I could kill you both and get away quite

1:38:54.888,1:38:59.728
easily if I wanted to--do you understand? Very well.

1:38:59.728,1:39:06.418
If I let you go will you promise not to try any nonsense and do what I tell you?"

1:39:06.418,1:39:11.178
The vicar and the doctor looked at one another, and the doctor pulled a face.

1:39:11.178,1:39:13.708
"Yes," said Mr. Bunting, and the doctor repeated it.

1:39:13.708,1:39:18.978
Then the pressure on the necks relaxed, and the doctor and the vicar sat up, both very

1:39:18.978,1:39:21.968
red in the face and wriggling their heads.

1:39:21.968,1:39:25.658
"Please keep sitting where you are," said the Invisible Man.

1:39:25.658,1:39:29.648
"Here's the poker, you see."

1:39:29.648,1:39:33.738
"When I came into this room," continued the Invisible Man, after presenting the poker

1:39:33.738,1:39:37.918
to the tip of the nose of each of his visitors, "I did not expect to find it

1:39:37.918,1:39:40.468
occupied, and I expected to find, in

1:39:40.468,1:39:44.708
addition to my books of memoranda, an outfit of clothing.

1:39:44.708,1:39:46.808
Where is it? No--don't rise.

1:39:46.808,1:39:48.628
I can see it's gone.

1:39:48.628,1:39:52.808
Now, just at present, though the days are quite warm enough for an invisible man to

1:39:52.808,1:39:56.238
run about stark, the evenings are quite chilly.

1:39:56.238,1:40:05.198
I want clothing--and other accommodation; and I must also have those three books."

1:40:05.198,1:40:09.518
CHAPTER XII THE INVISIBLE MAN LOSES HIS TEMPER

1:40:09.518,1:40:16.518
It is unavoidable that at this point the narrative should break off again, for a

1:40:16.518,1:40:20.418
certain very painful reason that will presently be apparent.

1:40:20.418,1:40:23.818
While these things were going on in the parlour, and while Mr. Huxter was watching

1:40:23.818,1:40:29.418
Mr. Marvel smoking his pipe against the gate, not a dozen yards away were Mr. Hall

1:40:29.418,1:40:34.548
and Teddy Henfrey discussing in a state of cloudy puzzlement the one Iping topic.

1:40:34.548,1:40:40.448
Suddenly there came a violent thud against the door of the parlour, a sharp cry, and

1:40:40.448,1:40:41.818
then--silence.

1:40:41.818,1:40:49.698
"Hul-lo!" said Teddy Henfrey. "Hul-lo!" from the Tap.

1:40:49.698,1:40:52.768
Mr. Hall took things in slowly but surely.

1:40:52.768,1:40:56.708
"That ain't right," he said, and came round from behind the bar towards the parlour

1:40:56.708,1:41:00.188
door. He and Teddy approached the door together,

1:41:00.188,1:41:02.518
with intent faces.

1:41:02.518,1:41:07.148
Their eyes considered. "Summat wrong," said Hall, and Henfrey

1:41:07.148,1:41:08.718
nodded agreement.

1:41:08.718,1:41:12.248
Whiffs of an unpleasant chemical odour met them, and there was a muffled sound of

1:41:12.248,1:41:18.238
conversation, very rapid and subdued. "You all right thur?" asked Hall, rapping.

1:41:18.238,1:41:24.858
The muttered conversation ceased abruptly, for a moment silence, then the conversation

1:41:24.858,1:41:30.198
was resumed, in hissing whispers, then a sharp cry of "No! no, you don't!"

1:41:30.198,1:41:35.657
There came a sudden motion and the oversetting of a chair, a brief struggle.

1:41:35.657,1:41:41.557
Silence again. "What the dooce?" exclaimed Henfrey, sotto

1:41:41.557,1:41:42.367
voce.

1:41:42.367,1:41:48.108
"You--all--right thur?" asked Mr. Hall, sharply, again.

1:41:48.108,1:41:55.307
The Vicar's voice answered with a curious jerking intonation: "Quite ri-right.

1:41:55.307,1:41:57.677
Please don't--interrupt."

1:41:57.677,1:42:04.788
"Odd!" said Mr. Henfrey. "Odd!" said Mr. Hall.

1:42:04.788,1:42:08.927
"Says, 'Don't interrupt,'" said Henfrey. "I heerd'n," said Hall.

1:42:08.927,1:42:12.718
"And a sniff," said Henfrey.

1:42:12.718,1:42:17.617
They remained listening. The conversation was rapid and subdued.

1:42:17.617,1:42:23.307
"I can't," said Mr. Bunting, his voice rising; "I tell you, sir, I will not."

1:42:23.307,1:42:25.608
"What was that?" asked Henfrey.

1:42:25.608,1:42:31.798
"Says he wi' nart," said Hall. "Warn't speaking to us, wuz he?"

1:42:31.798,1:42:36.457
"Disgraceful!" said Mr. Bunting, within. "'Disgraceful,'" said Mr. Henfrey.

1:42:36.457,1:42:38.158
"I heard it--distinct."

1:42:38.158,1:42:44.517
"Who's that speaking now?" asked Henfrey. "Mr. Cuss, I s'pose," said Hall.

1:42:44.517,1:42:49.168
"Can you hear--anything?" Silence.

1:42:49.168,1:42:51.457
The sounds within indistinct and perplexing.

1:42:51.457,1:42:57.778
"Sounds like throwing the table-cloth about," said Hall.

1:42:57.778,1:42:59.947
Mrs. Hall appeared behind the bar.

1:42:59.947,1:43:02.528
Hall made gestures of silence and invitation.

1:43:02.528,1:43:09.108
This aroused Mrs. Hall's wifely opposition. "What yer listenin' there for, Hall?" she

1:43:09.108,1:43:09.517
asked.

1:43:09.517,1:43:13.257
"Ain't you nothin' better to do--busy day like this?"

1:43:13.257,1:43:18.168
Hall tried to convey everything by grimaces and dumb show, but Mrs. Hall was obdurate.

1:43:18.168,1:43:19.848
She raised her voice.

1:43:19.848,1:43:24.778
So Hall and Henfrey, rather crestfallen, tiptoed back to the bar, gesticulating to

1:43:24.778,1:43:29.207
explain to her. At first she refused to see anything in

1:43:29.207,1:43:30.677
what they had heard at all.

1:43:30.677,1:43:35.338
Then she insisted on Hall keeping silence, while Henfrey told her his story.

1:43:35.338,1:43:39.088
She was inclined to think the whole business nonsense--perhaps they were just

1:43:39.088,1:43:40.867
moving the furniture about.

1:43:40.867,1:43:44.858
"I heerd'n say 'disgraceful'; that I did," said Hall.

1:43:44.858,1:43:51.427
"I heerd that, Mrs. Hall," said Henfrey. "Like as not--" began Mrs. Hall.

1:43:51.427,1:43:53.057
"Hsh!" said Mr. Teddy Henfrey.

1:43:53.057,1:43:58.207
"Didn't I hear the window?" "What window?" asked Mrs. Hall.

1:43:58.207,1:44:04.338
"Parlour window," said Henfrey. Everyone stood listening intently.

1:44:04.338,1:44:08.137
Mrs. Hall's eyes, directed straight before her, saw without seeing the brilliant

1:44:08.137,1:44:13.197
oblong of the inn door, the road white and vivid, and Huxter's shop-front blistering

1:44:13.197,1:44:14.887
in the June sun.

1:44:14.887,1:44:20.108
Abruptly Huxter's door opened and Huxter appeared, eyes staring with excitement,

1:44:20.108,1:44:24.457
arms gesticulating. "Yap!" cried Huxter.

1:44:24.457,1:44:28.767
"Stop thief!" and he ran obliquely across the oblong towards the yard gates, and

1:44:28.767,1:44:31.507
vanished.

1:44:31.507,1:44:34.497
Simultaneously came a tumult from the parlour, and a sound of windows being

1:44:34.497,1:44:35.728
closed.

1:44:35.728,1:44:40.858
Hall, Henfrey, and the human contents of the tap rushed out at once pell-mell into

1:44:40.858,1:44:41.348
the street.

1:44:41.348,1:44:46.197
They saw someone whisk round the corner towards the road, and Mr. Huxter executing

1:44:46.197,1:44:50.038
a complicated leap in the air that ended on his face and shoulder.

1:44:50.038,1:44:55.327
Down the street people were standing astonished or running towards them.

1:44:55.327,1:44:57.228
Mr. Huxter was stunned.

1:44:57.228,1:45:01.487
Henfrey stopped to discover this, but Hall and the two labourers from the Tap rushed

1:45:01.487,1:45:06.968
at once to the corner, shouting incoherent things, and saw Mr. Marvel vanishing by the

1:45:06.968,1:45:08.367
corner of the church wall.

1:45:08.367,1:45:11.968
They appear to have jumped to the impossible conclusion that this was the

1:45:11.968,1:45:17.547
Invisible Man suddenly become visible, and set off at once along the lane in pursuit.

1:45:17.547,1:45:21.517
But Hall had hardly run a dozen yards before he gave a loud shout of astonishment

1:45:21.517,1:45:25.307
and went flying headlong sideways, clutching one of the labourers and bringing

1:45:25.307,1:45:27.117
him to the ground.

1:45:27.117,1:45:31.108
He had been charged just as one charges a man at football.

1:45:31.108,1:45:35.497
The second labourer came round in a circle, stared, and conceiving that Hall had

1:45:35.497,1:45:39.877
tumbled over of his own accord, turned to resume the pursuit, only to be tripped by

1:45:39.877,1:45:42.158
the ankle just as Huxter had been.

1:45:42.158,1:45:46.647
Then, as the first labourer struggled to his feet, he was kicked sideways by a blow

1:45:46.647,1:45:49.697
that might have felled an ox.

1:45:49.697,1:45:53.177
As he went down, the rush from the direction of the village green came round

1:45:53.177,1:45:54.577
the corner.

1:45:54.577,1:46:00.127
The first to appear was the proprietor of the cocoanut shy, a burly man in a blue

1:46:00.127,1:46:00.858
jersey.

1:46:00.858,1:46:04.538
He was astonished to see the lane empty save for three men sprawling absurdly on

1:46:04.538,1:46:05.158
the ground.

1:46:05.158,1:46:09.707
And then something happened to his rear- most foot, and he went headlong and rolled

1:46:09.707,1:46:14.067
sideways just in time to graze the feet of his brother and partner, following

1:46:14.067,1:46:15.197
headlong.

1:46:15.197,1:46:20.117
The two were then kicked, knelt on, fallen over, and cursed by quite a number of over-

1:46:20.117,1:46:22.918
hasty people.

1:46:22.918,1:46:27.707
Now when Hall and Henfrey and the labourers ran out of the house, Mrs. Hall, who had

1:46:27.707,1:46:32.848
been disciplined by years of experience, remained in the bar next the till.

1:46:32.848,1:46:36.788
And suddenly the parlour door was opened, and Mr. Cuss appeared, and without glancing

1:46:36.788,1:46:40.538
at her rushed at once down the steps toward the corner.

1:46:40.538,1:46:41.687
"Hold him!" he cried.

1:46:41.687,1:46:47.547
"Don't let him drop that parcel." He knew nothing of the existence of Marvel.

1:46:47.547,1:46:52.538
For the Invisible Man had handed over the books and bundle in the yard.

1:46:52.538,1:46:56.788
The face of Mr. Cuss was angry and resolute, but his costume was defective, a

1:46:56.788,1:47:01.257
sort of limp white kilt that could only have passed muster in Greece.

1:47:01.257,1:47:02.797
"Hold him!" he bawled.

1:47:02.797,1:47:08.547
"He's got my trousers! And every stitch of the Vicar's clothes!"

1:47:08.547,1:47:12.687
"'Tend to him in a minute!" he cried to Henfrey as he passed the prostrate Huxter,

1:47:12.687,1:47:16.908
and, coming round the corner to join the tumult, was promptly knocked off his feet

1:47:16.908,1:47:19.627
into an indecorous sprawl.

1:47:19.627,1:47:22.357
Somebody in full flight trod heavily on his finger.

1:47:22.357,1:47:28.107
He yelled, struggled to regain his feet, was knocked against and thrown on all fours

1:47:28.107,1:47:34.158
again, and became aware that he was involved not in a capture, but a rout.

1:47:34.158,1:47:36.297
Everyone was running back to the village.

1:47:36.297,1:47:39.797
He rose again and was hit severely behind the ear.

1:47:39.797,1:47:43.767
He staggered and set off back to the "Coach and Horses" forthwith, leaping over the

1:47:43.767,1:47:48.547
deserted Huxter, who was now sitting up, on his way.

1:47:48.547,1:47:52.617
Behind him as he was halfway up the inn steps he heard a sudden yell of rage,

1:47:52.617,1:47:56.767
rising sharply out of the confusion of cries, and a sounding smack in someone's

1:47:56.767,1:47:57.927
face.

1:47:57.927,1:48:02.437
He recognised the voice as that of the Invisible Man, and the note was that of a

1:48:02.437,1:48:09.218
man suddenly infuriated by a painful blow. In another moment Mr. Cuss was back in the

1:48:09.218,1:48:09.797
parlour.

1:48:09.797,1:48:12.228
"He's coming back, Bunting!" he said, rushing in.

1:48:12.228,1:48:15.278
"Save yourself!"

1:48:15.278,1:48:19.007
Mr. Bunting was standing in the window engaged in an attempt to clothe himself in

1:48:19.007,1:48:21.598
the hearth-rug and a West Surrey Gazette.

1:48:21.598,1:48:26.237
"Who's coming?" he said, so startled that his costume narrowly escaped

1:48:26.237,1:48:29.707
disintegration. "Invisible Man," said Cuss, and rushed on

1:48:29.707,1:48:30.707
to the window.

1:48:30.707,1:48:33.918
"We'd better clear out from here! He's fighting mad!

1:48:33.918,1:48:39.098
Mad!" In another moment he was out in the yard.

1:48:39.098,1:48:42.827
"Good heavens!" said Mr. Bunting, hesitating between two horrible

1:48:42.827,1:48:44.288
alternatives.

1:48:44.288,1:48:48.137
He heard a frightful struggle in the passage of the inn, and his decision was

1:48:48.137,1:48:49.397
made.

1:48:49.397,1:48:54.377
He clambered out of the window, adjusted his costume hastily, and fled up the

1:48:54.377,1:48:57.357
village as fast as his fat little legs would carry him.

1:48:57.357,1:49:03.117
From the moment when the Invisible Man screamed with rage and Mr. Bunting made his

1:49:03.117,1:49:07.728
memorable flight up the village, it became impossible to give a consecutive account of

1:49:07.728,1:49:09.468
affairs in Iping.

1:49:09.468,1:49:13.478
Possibly the Invisible Man's original intention was simply to cover Marvel's

1:49:13.478,1:49:15.598
retreat with the clothes and books.

1:49:15.598,1:49:20.838
But his temper, at no time very good, seems to have gone completely at some chance

1:49:20.838,1:49:25.737
blow, and forthwith he set to smiting and overthrowing, for the mere satisfaction of

1:49:25.737,1:49:27.778
hurting.

1:49:27.778,1:49:32.797
You must figure the street full of running figures, of doors slamming and fights for

1:49:32.797,1:49:34.397
hiding-places.

1:49:34.397,1:49:38.177
You must figure the tumult suddenly striking on the unstable equilibrium of old

1:49:38.177,1:49:42.338
Fletcher's planks and two chairs--with cataclysmic results.

1:49:42.338,1:49:46.647
You must figure an appalled couple caught dismally in a swing.

1:49:46.647,1:49:51.047
And then the whole tumultuous rush has passed and the Iping street with its gauds

1:49:51.047,1:49:57.028
and flags is deserted save for the still raging unseen, and littered with cocoanuts,

1:49:57.028,1:49:59.177
overthrown canvas screens, and the

1:49:59.177,1:50:02.968
scattered stock in trade of a sweetstuff stall.

1:50:02.968,1:50:07.177
Everywhere there is a sound of closing shutters and shoving bolts, and the only

1:50:07.177,1:50:12.947
visible humanity is an occasional flitting eye under a raised eyebrow in the corner of

1:50:12.947,1:50:15.738
a window pane.

1:50:15.738,1:50:20.018
The Invisible Man amused himself for a little while by breaking all the windows in

1:50:20.018,1:50:24.278
the "Coach and Horses," and then he thrust a street lamp through the parlour window of

1:50:24.278,1:50:25.748
Mrs. Gribble.

1:50:25.748,1:50:30.158
He it must have been who cut the telegraph wire to Adderdean just beyond Higgins'

1:50:30.158,1:50:32.498
cottage on the Adderdean road.

1:50:32.498,1:50:37.778
And after that, as his peculiar qualities allowed, he passed out of human perceptions

1:50:37.778,1:50:43.068
altogether, and he was neither heard, seen, nor felt in Iping any more.

1:50:43.068,1:50:46.758
He vanished absolutely.

1:50:46.758,1:50:51.568
But it was the best part of two hours before any human being ventured out again

1:50:51.568,1:50:58.272
into the desolation of Iping street.

1:50:58.272,1:50:59.272
>

1:50:59.272,1:51:12.102
-CHAPTER XIII MR. MARVEL DISCUSSES HIS RESIGNATION

1:51:12.102,1:51:15.932
When the dusk was gathering and Iping was just beginning to peep timorously forth

1:51:15.932,1:51:20.772
again upon the shattered wreckage of its Bank Holiday, a short, thick-set man in a

1:51:20.772,1:51:23.312
shabby silk hat was marching painfully

1:51:23.312,1:51:27.412
through the twilight behind the beechwoods on the road to Bramblehurst.

1:51:27.412,1:51:32.412
He carried three books bound together by some sort of ornamental elastic ligature,

1:51:32.412,1:51:36.372
and a bundle wrapped in a blue table-cloth.

1:51:36.372,1:51:41.412
His rubicund face expressed consternation and fatigue; he appeared to be in a

1:51:41.412,1:51:44.472
spasmodic sort of hurry.

1:51:44.472,1:51:49.202
He was accompanied by a voice other than his own, and ever and again he winced under

1:51:49.202,1:51:51.761
the touch of unseen hands.

1:51:51.761,1:51:56.562
"If you give me the slip again," said the Voice, "if you attempt to give me the slip

1:51:56.562,1:52:00.052
again--" "Lord!" said Mr. Marvel.

1:52:00.052,1:52:03.622
"That shoulder's a mass of bruises as it is."

1:52:03.622,1:52:06.132
"On my honour," said the Voice, "I will kill you."

1:52:06.132,1:52:12.841
"I didn't try to give you the slip," said Marvel, in a voice that was not far remote

1:52:12.841,1:52:15.521
from tears. "I swear I didn't.

1:52:15.521,1:52:17.451
I didn't know the blessed turning, that was all!

1:52:17.451,1:52:19.942
How the devil was I to know the blessed turning?

1:52:19.942,1:52:22.381
As it is, I've been knocked about--"

1:52:22.381,1:52:27.241
"You'll get knocked about a great deal more if you don't mind," said the Voice, and Mr.

1:52:27.241,1:52:32.042
Marvel abruptly became silent. He blew out his cheeks, and his eyes were

1:52:32.042,1:52:32.951
eloquent of despair.

1:52:32.951,1:52:39.951
"It's bad enough to let these floundering yokels explode my little secret, without

1:52:39.951,1:52:44.161
your cutting off with my books. It's lucky for some of them they cut and

1:52:44.161,1:52:46.101
ran when they did!

1:52:46.101,1:52:49.781
Here am I ... No one knew I was invisible!

1:52:49.781,1:52:54.991
And now what am I to do?" "What am I to do?" asked Marvel, sotto

1:52:54.991,1:52:55.481
voce.

1:52:55.481,1:52:59.271
"It's all about. It will be in the papers!

1:52:59.271,1:53:04.631
Everybody will be looking for me; everyone on their guard--" The Voice broke off into

1:53:04.631,1:53:07.591
vivid curses and ceased.

1:53:07.591,1:53:12.222
The despair of Mr. Marvel's face deepened, and his pace slackened.

1:53:12.222,1:53:17.591
"Go on!" said the Voice. Mr. Marvel's face assumed a greyish tint

1:53:17.591,1:53:19.731
between the ruddier patches.

1:53:19.731,1:53:25.871
"Don't drop those books, stupid," said the Voice, sharply--overtaking him.

1:53:25.871,1:53:29.371
"The fact is," said the Voice, "I shall have to make use of you....

1:53:29.371,1:53:31.172
You're a poor tool, but I must."

1:53:31.172,1:53:36.961
"I'm a miserable tool," said Marvel. "You are," said the Voice.

1:53:36.961,1:53:41.731
"I'm the worst possible tool you could have," said Marvel.

1:53:41.731,1:53:46.491
"I'm not strong," he said after a discouraging silence.

1:53:46.491,1:53:53.502
"I'm not over strong," he repeated. "No?"

1:53:53.502,1:53:55.282
"And my heart's weak.

1:53:55.282,1:53:58.351
That little business--I pulled it through, of course--but bless you!

1:53:58.351,1:54:02.472
I could have dropped." "Well?"

1:54:02.472,1:54:07.222
"I haven't the nerve and strength for the sort of thing you want."

1:54:07.222,1:54:10.752
"I'll stimulate you." "I wish you wouldn't.

1:54:10.752,1:54:13.052
I wouldn't like to mess up your plans, you know.

1:54:13.052,1:54:20.412
But I might--out of sheer funk and misery." "You'd better not," said the Voice, with

1:54:20.412,1:54:21.112
quiet emphasis.

1:54:21.112,1:54:28.112
"I wish I was dead," said Marvel. "It ain't justice," he said; "you must

1:54:28.112,1:54:31.442
admit.... It seems to me I've a perfect right--"

1:54:31.442,1:54:34.601
"Get on!" said the Voice.

1:54:34.601,1:54:38.502
Mr. Marvel mended his pace, and for a time they went in silence again.

1:54:38.502,1:54:45.112
"It's devilish hard," said Mr. Marvel. This was quite ineffectual.

1:54:45.112,1:54:45.952
He tried another tack.

1:54:45.952,1:54:53.752
"What do I make by it?" he began again in a tone of unendurable wrong.

1:54:53.752,1:54:58.091
"Oh! shut up!" said the Voice, with sudden amazing vigour.

1:54:58.091,1:54:59.621
"I'll see to you all right.

1:54:59.621,1:55:02.131
You do what you're told. You'll do it all right.

1:55:02.131,1:55:03.862
You're a fool and all that, but you'll do-- "

1:55:03.862,1:55:08.282
"I tell you, sir, I'm not the man for it.

1:55:08.282,1:55:12.841
Respectfully--but it is so--" "If you don't shut up I shall twist your

1:55:12.841,1:55:18.911
wrist again," said the Invisible Man. "I want to think."

1:55:18.911,1:55:22.462
Presently two oblongs of yellow light appeared through the trees, and the square

1:55:22.462,1:55:25.412
tower of a church loomed through the gloaming.

1:55:25.412,1:55:30.922
"I shall keep my hand on your shoulder," said the Voice, "all through the village.

1:55:30.922,1:55:35.762
Go straight through and try no foolery. It will be the worse for you if you do."

1:55:35.762,1:55:42.412
"I know that," sighed Mr. Marvel, "I know all that."

1:55:42.412,1:55:47.032
The unhappy-looking figure in the obsolete silk hat passed up the street of the little

1:55:47.032,1:55:51.752
village with his burdens, and vanished into the gathering darkness beyond the lights of

1:55:51.752,1:55:55.552
the windows.

1:55:55.552,1:56:01.622
CHAPTER XIV AT PORT STOWE

1:56:01.622,1:56:06.842
Ten o'clock the next morning found Mr. Marvel, unshaven, dirty, and travel-

1:56:06.842,1:56:11.222
stained, sitting with the books beside him and his hands deep in his pockets, looking

1:56:11.222,1:56:14.112
very weary, nervous, and uncomfortable, and

1:56:14.112,1:56:17.652
inflating his cheeks at infrequent intervals, on the bench outside a little

1:56:17.652,1:56:23.132
inn on the outskirts of Port Stowe. Beside him were the books, but now they

1:56:23.132,1:56:25.062
were tied with string.

1:56:25.062,1:56:28.842
The bundle had been abandoned in the pine- woods beyond Bramblehurst, in accordance

1:56:28.842,1:56:33.122
with a change in the plans of the Invisible Man.

1:56:33.122,1:56:37.682
Mr. Marvel sat on the bench, and although no one took the slightest notice of him,

1:56:37.682,1:56:39.462
his agitation remained at fever heat.

1:56:39.462,1:56:44.452
His hands would go ever and again to his various pockets with a curious nervous

1:56:44.452,1:56:44.892
fumbling.

1:56:44.892,1:56:50.892
When he had been sitting for the best part of an hour, however, an elderly mariner,

1:56:50.892,1:56:54.152
carrying a newspaper, came out of the inn and sat down beside him.

1:56:54.152,1:56:58.102
"Pleasant day," said the mariner.

1:56:58.102,1:57:01.702
Mr. Marvel glanced about him with something very like terror.

1:57:01.702,1:57:06.412
"Very," he said. "Just seasonable weather for the time of

1:57:06.412,1:57:09.292
year," said the mariner, taking no denial.

1:57:09.292,1:57:15.022
"Quite," said Mr. Marvel. The mariner produced a toothpick, and

1:57:15.022,1:57:18.612
(saving his regard) was engrossed thereby for some minutes.

1:57:18.612,1:57:22.832
His eyes meanwhile were at liberty to examine Mr. Marvel's dusty figure, and the

1:57:22.832,1:57:23.762
books beside him.

1:57:23.762,1:57:28.142
As he had approached Mr. Marvel he had heard a sound like the dropping of coins

1:57:28.142,1:57:29.802
into a pocket.

1:57:29.802,1:57:34.642
He was struck by the contrast of Mr. Marvel's appearance with this suggestion of

1:57:34.642,1:57:36.462
opulence.

1:57:36.462,1:57:40.022
Thence his mind wandered back again to a topic that had taken a curiously firm hold

1:57:40.022,1:57:44.822
of his imagination. "Books?" he said suddenly, noisily

1:57:44.822,1:57:46.632
finishing with the toothpick.

1:57:46.632,1:57:50.392
Mr. Marvel started and looked at them. "Oh, yes," he said.

1:57:50.392,1:57:54.522
"Yes, they're books." "There's some extra-ordinary things in

1:57:54.522,1:57:56.042
books," said the mariner.

1:57:56.042,1:58:01.862
"I believe you," said Mr. Marvel. "And some extra-ordinary things out of

1:58:01.862,1:58:06.612
'em," said the mariner. "True likewise," said Mr. Marvel.

1:58:06.612,1:58:08.892
He eyed his interlocutor, and then glanced about him.

1:58:08.892,1:58:16.212
"There's some extra-ordinary things in newspapers, for example," said the mariner.

1:58:16.212,1:58:16.362
"There are."

1:58:16.362,1:58:22.712
"In this newspaper," said the mariner. "Ah!" said Mr. Marvel.

1:58:22.712,1:58:27.892
"There's a story," said the mariner, fixing Mr. Marvel with an eye that was firm and

1:58:27.892,1:58:34.902
deliberate; "there's a story about an Invisible Man, for instance."

1:58:34.902,1:58:38.182
Mr. Marvel pulled his mouth askew and scratched his cheek and felt his ears

1:58:38.182,1:58:42.782
glowing. "What will they be writing next?" he asked

1:58:42.782,1:58:43.712
faintly.

1:58:43.712,1:58:48.192
"Ostria, or America?" "Neither," said the mariner.

1:58:48.192,1:58:54.272
"Here." "Lord!" said Mr. Marvel, starting.

1:58:54.272,1:58:59.452
"When I say here," said the mariner, to Mr. Marvel's intense relief, "I don't of course

1:58:59.452,1:59:04.412
mean here in this place, I mean hereabouts."

1:59:04.412,1:59:06.922
"An Invisible Man!" said Mr. Marvel.

1:59:06.922,1:59:11.312
"And what's he been up to?" "Everything," said the mariner, controlling

1:59:11.312,1:59:13.842
Marvel with his eye, and then amplifying, "every--blessed--thing."

1:59:13.842,1:59:19.592
"I ain't seen a paper these four days," said Marvel.

1:59:19.592,1:59:23.102
"Iping's the place he started at," said the mariner.

1:59:23.102,1:59:27.582
"In-deed!" said Mr. Marvel.

1:59:27.582,1:59:30.182
"He started there. And where he came from, nobody don't seem

1:59:30.182,1:59:34.491
to know. Here it is: 'Pe-culiar Story from Iping.'

1:59:34.491,1:59:41.282
And it says in this paper that the evidence is extra-ordinary strong--extra-ordinary."

1:59:41.282,1:59:45.862
"Lord!" said Mr. Marvel. "But then, it's an extra-ordinary story.

1:59:45.862,1:59:50.332
There is a clergyman and a medical gent witnesses--saw 'im all right and proper--or

1:59:50.332,1:59:51.952
leastways didn't see 'im.

1:59:51.952,1:59:56.532
He was staying, it says, at the 'Coach an' Horses,' and no one don't seem to have been

1:59:56.532,2:00:01.732
aware of his misfortune, it says, aware of his misfortune, until in an Altercation in

2:00:01.732,2:00:05.142
the inn, it says, his bandages on his head was torn off.

2:00:05.142,2:00:09.042
It was then ob-served that his head was invisible.

2:00:09.042,2:00:14.722
Attempts were At Once made to secure him, but casting off his garments, it says, he

2:00:14.722,2:00:19.862
succeeded in escaping, but not until after a desperate struggle, in which he had

2:00:19.862,2:00:22.832
inflicted serious injuries, it says, on our

2:00:22.832,2:00:27.302
worthy and able constable, Mr. J. A. Jaffers.

2:00:27.302,2:00:31.772
Pretty straight story, eh? Names and everything."

2:00:31.772,2:00:36.482
"Lord!" said Mr. Marvel, looking nervously about him, trying to count the money in his

2:00:36.482,2:00:42.262
pockets by his unaided sense of touch, and full of a strange and novel idea.

2:00:42.262,2:00:44.912
"It sounds most astonishing."

2:00:44.912,2:00:48.482
"Don't it? Extra-ordinary, I call it.

2:00:48.482,2:00:53.072
Never heard tell of Invisible Men before, I haven't, but nowadays one hears such a lot

2:00:53.072,2:00:55.262
of extra-ordinary things--that--"

2:00:55.262,2:01:01.662
"That all he did?" asked Marvel, trying to seem at his ease.

2:01:01.662,2:01:09.362
"It's enough, ain't it?" said the mariner. "Didn't go Back by any chance?" asked

2:01:09.362,2:01:10.672
Marvel.

2:01:10.672,2:01:14.512
"Just escaped and that's all, eh?" "All!" said the mariner.

2:01:14.512,2:01:19.332
"Why!--ain't it enough?" "Quite enough," said Marvel.

2:01:19.332,2:01:21.112
"I should think it was enough," said the mariner.

2:01:21.112,2:01:24.232
"I should think it was enough."

2:01:24.232,2:01:29.922
"He didn't have any pals--it don't say he had any pals, does it?" asked Mr. Marvel,

2:01:29.922,2:01:34.232
anxious. "Ain't one of a sort enough for you?" asked

2:01:34.232,2:01:35.332
the mariner.

2:01:35.332,2:01:38.952
"No, thank Heaven, as one might say, he didn't."

2:01:38.952,2:01:41.072
He nodded his head slowly.

2:01:41.072,2:01:45.922
"It makes me regular uncomfortable, the bare thought of that chap running about the

2:01:45.922,2:01:46.792
country!

2:01:46.792,2:01:52.551
He is at present At Large, and from certain evidence it is supposed that he has--taken-

2:01:52.551,2:01:58.862
-took, I suppose they mean--the road to Port Stowe.

2:01:58.862,2:02:00.992
You see we're right in it!

2:02:00.992,2:02:05.252
None of your American wonders, this time. And just think of the things he might do!

2:02:05.252,2:02:10.072
Where'd you be, if he took a drop over and above, and had a fancy to go for you?

2:02:10.072,2:02:13.022
Suppose he wants to rob--who can prevent him?

2:02:13.022,2:02:17.772
He can trespass, he can burgle, he could walk through a cordon of policemen as easy

2:02:17.772,2:02:20.482
as me or you could give the slip to a blind man!

2:02:20.482,2:02:21.512
Easier!

2:02:21.512,2:02:25.592
For these here blind chaps hear uncommon sharp, I'm told.

2:02:25.592,2:02:31.202
And wherever there was liquor he fancied--" "He's got a tremenjous advantage,

2:02:31.202,2:02:33.702
certainly," said Mr. Marvel.

2:02:33.702,2:02:37.942
"And--well..." "You're right," said the mariner.

2:02:37.942,2:02:40.582
"He has."

2:02:40.582,2:02:45.132
All this time Mr. Marvel had been glancing about him intently, listening for faint

2:02:45.132,2:02:49.562
footfalls, trying to detect imperceptible movements.

2:02:49.562,2:02:52.792
He seemed on the point of some great resolution.

2:02:52.792,2:02:56.502
He coughed behind his hand.

2:02:56.502,2:03:02.432
He looked about him again, listened, bent towards the mariner, and lowered his voice:

2:03:02.432,2:03:08.452
"The fact of it is--I happen--to know just a thing or two about this Invisible Man.

2:03:08.452,2:03:09.672
From private sources."

2:03:09.672,2:03:14.962
"Oh!" said the mariner, interested. "You?"

2:03:14.962,2:03:18.111
"Yes," said Mr. Marvel. "Me."

2:03:18.111,2:03:20.372
"Indeed!" said the mariner.

2:03:20.372,2:03:24.282
"And may I ask--" "You'll be astonished," said Mr. Marvel

2:03:24.282,2:03:26.632
behind his hand. "It's tremenjous."

2:03:26.632,2:03:30.111
"Indeed!" said the mariner.

2:03:30.111,2:03:34.682
"The fact is," began Mr. Marvel eagerly in a confidential undertone.

2:03:34.682,2:03:36.872
Suddenly his expression changed marvellously.

2:03:36.872,2:03:38.732
"Ow!" he said.

2:03:38.732,2:03:43.172
He rose stiffly in his seat. His face was eloquent of physical

2:03:43.172,2:03:45.992
suffering. "Wow!" he said.

2:03:45.992,2:03:51.412
"What's up?" said the mariner, concerned.

2:03:51.412,2:03:54.742
"Toothache," said Mr. Marvel, and put his hand to his ear.

2:03:54.742,2:03:58.072
He caught hold of his books. "I must be getting on, I think," he said.

2:03:58.072,2:04:04.051
He edged in a curious way along the seat away from his interlocutor.

2:04:04.051,2:04:08.192
"But you was just a-going to tell me about this here Invisible Man!" protested the

2:04:08.192,2:04:09.602
mariner.

2:04:09.602,2:04:13.952
Mr. Marvel seemed to consult with himself. "Hoax," said a Voice.

2:04:13.952,2:04:19.502
"It's a hoax," said Mr. Marvel. "But it's in the paper," said the mariner.

2:04:19.502,2:04:22.282
"Hoax all the same," said Marvel.

2:04:22.282,2:04:27.022
"I know the chap that started the lie. There ain't no Invisible Man whatsoever--

2:04:27.022,2:04:31.692
Blimey." "But how 'bout this paper?

2:04:31.692,2:04:32.212
D'you mean to say--?"

2:04:32.212,2:04:39.402
"Not a word of it," said Marvel, stoutly. The mariner stared, paper in hand.

2:04:39.402,2:04:44.932
Mr. Marvel jerkily faced about. "Wait a bit," said the mariner, rising and

2:04:44.932,2:04:47.332
speaking slowly, "D'you mean to say--?"

2:04:47.332,2:04:53.082
"I do," said Mr. Marvel. "Then why did you let me go on and tell you

2:04:53.082,2:04:55.801
all this blarsted stuff, then? What d'yer mean by letting a man make a

2:04:55.801,2:04:56.872
fool of himself like that for?

2:04:56.872,2:05:01.111
Eh?" Mr. Marvel blew out his cheeks.

2:05:01.111,2:05:05.572
The mariner was suddenly very red indeed; he clenched his hands.

2:05:05.572,2:05:09.782
"I been talking here this ten minutes," he said; "and you, you little pot-bellied,

2:05:09.782,2:05:13.192
leathery-faced son of an old boot, couldn't have the elementary manners--"

2:05:13.192,2:05:20.022
"Don't you come bandying words with me," said Mr. Marvel.

2:05:20.022,2:05:23.082
"Bandying words! I'm a jolly good mind--"

2:05:23.082,2:05:27.832
"Come up," said a Voice, and Mr. Marvel was suddenly whirled about and started marching

2:05:27.832,2:05:33.342
off in a curious spasmodic manner. "You'd better move on," said the mariner.

2:05:33.342,2:05:35.801
"Who's moving on?" said Mr. Marvel.

2:05:35.801,2:05:40.622
He was receding obliquely with a curious hurrying gait, with occasional violent

2:05:40.622,2:05:44.102
jerks forward. Some way along the road he began a muttered

2:05:44.102,2:05:48.301
monologue, protests and recriminations.

2:05:48.301,2:05:53.301
"Silly devil!" said the mariner, legs wide apart, elbows akimbo, watching the receding

2:05:53.301,2:05:57.442
figure. "I'll show you, you silly ass--hoaxing me!

2:05:57.442,2:05:59.551
It's here--on the paper!"

2:05:59.551,2:06:05.642
Mr. Marvel retorted incoherently and, receding, was hidden by a bend in the road,

2:06:05.642,2:06:09.892
but the mariner still stood magnificent in the midst of the way, until the approach of

2:06:09.892,2:06:12.452
a butcher's cart dislodged him.

2:06:12.452,2:06:17.072
Then he turned himself towards Port Stowe. "Full of extra-ordinary asses," he said

2:06:17.072,2:06:21.372
softly to himself. "Just to take me down a bit--that was his

2:06:21.372,2:06:24.682
silly game--It's on the paper!"

2:06:24.682,2:06:28.421
And there was another extraordinary thing he was presently to hear, that had happened

2:06:28.421,2:06:29.551
quite close to him.

2:06:29.551,2:06:34.962
And that was a vision of a "fist full of money" (no less) travelling without visible

2:06:34.962,2:06:39.272
agency, along by the wall at the corner of St. Michael's Lane.

2:06:39.272,2:06:42.892
A brother mariner had seen this wonderful sight that very morning.

2:06:42.892,2:06:47.332
He had snatched at the money forthwith and had been knocked headlong, and when he had

2:06:47.332,2:06:49.512
got to his feet the butterfly money had vanished.

2:06:49.512,2:06:54.082
Our mariner was in the mood to believe anything, he declared, but that was a bit

2:06:54.082,2:06:58.382
too stiff. Afterwards, however, he began to think

2:06:58.382,2:06:58.882
things over.

2:06:58.882,2:07:03.022
The story of the flying money was true.

2:07:03.022,2:07:06.602
And all about that neighbourhood, even from the august London and Country Banking

2:07:06.602,2:07:11.801
Company, from the tills of shops and inns-- doors standing that sunny weather entirely

2:07:11.801,2:07:14.382
open--money had been quietly and

2:07:14.382,2:07:19.272
dexterously making off that day in handfuls and rouleaux, floating quietly along by

2:07:19.272,2:07:24.162
walls and shady places, dodging quickly from the approaching eyes of men.

2:07:24.162,2:07:29.152
And it had, though no man had traced it, invariably ended its mysterious flight in

2:07:29.152,2:07:33.752
the pocket of that agitated gentleman in the obsolete silk hat, sitting outside the

2:07:33.752,2:07:35.812
little inn on the outskirts of Port Stowe.

2:07:35.812,2:07:43.912
It was ten days after--and indeed only when the Burdock story was already old--that the

2:07:43.912,2:07:48.062
mariner collated these facts and began to understand how near he had been to the

2:07:48.062,2:07:49.486
wonderful Invisible Man.

2:07:49.486,2:07:50.486
>

2:07:50.486,2:08:01.236
-CHAPTER XV THE MAN WHO WAS RUNNING

2:08:01.236,2:08:05.866
In the early evening time Dr. Kemp was sitting in his study in the belvedere on

2:08:05.866,2:08:07.596
the hill overlooking Burdock.

2:08:07.596,2:08:12.775
It was a pleasant little room, with three windows--north, west, and south--and

2:08:12.775,2:08:16.775
bookshelves covered with books and scientific publications, and a broad

2:08:16.775,2:08:19.765
writing-table, and, under the north window,

2:08:19.765,2:08:24.666
a microscope, glass slips, minute instruments, some cultures, and scattered

2:08:24.666,2:08:26.996
bottles of reagents.

2:08:26.996,2:08:32.385
Dr. Kemp's solar lamp was lit, albeit the sky was still bright with the sunset light,

2:08:32.385,2:08:36.236
and his blinds were up because there was no offence of peering outsiders to require

2:08:36.236,2:08:38.475
them pulled down.

2:08:38.475,2:08:43.176
Dr. Kemp was a tall and slender young man, with flaxen hair and a moustache almost

2:08:43.176,2:08:48.626
white, and the work he was upon would earn him, he hoped, the fellowship of the Royal

2:08:48.626,2:08:52.626
Society, so highly did he think of it.

2:08:52.626,2:08:57.086
And his eye, presently wandering from his work, caught the sunset blazing at the back

2:08:57.086,2:09:00.296
of the hill that is over against his own.

2:09:00.296,2:09:04.936
For a minute perhaps he sat, pen in mouth, admiring the rich golden colour above the

2:09:04.936,2:09:10.236
crest, and then his attention was attracted by the little figure of a man, inky black,

2:09:10.236,2:09:12.846
running over the hill-brow towards him.

2:09:12.846,2:09:17.965
He was a shortish little man, and he wore a high hat, and he was running so fast that

2:09:17.965,2:09:23.885
his legs verily twinkled. "Another of those fools," said Dr. Kemp.

2:09:23.885,2:09:28.796
"Like that ass who ran into me this morning round a corner, with the ''Visible Man a-

2:09:28.796,2:09:33.165
coming, sir!' I can't imagine what possess people.

2:09:33.165,2:09:36.786
One might think we were in the thirteenth century."

2:09:36.786,2:09:40.656
He got up, went to the window, and stared at the dusky hillside, and the dark little

2:09:40.656,2:09:41.736
figure tearing down it.

2:09:41.736,2:09:47.215
"He seems in a confounded hurry," said Dr. Kemp, "but he doesn't seem to be getting

2:09:47.215,2:09:49.305
on. If his pockets were full of lead, he

2:09:49.305,2:09:51.975
couldn't run heavier."

2:09:51.975,2:09:56.536
"Spurted, sir," said Dr. Kemp. In another moment the higher of the villas

2:09:56.536,2:10:00.906
that had clambered up the hill from Burdock had occulted the running figure.

2:10:00.906,2:10:05.376
He was visible again for a moment, and again, and then again, three times between

2:10:05.376,2:10:10.466
the three detached houses that came next, and then the terrace hid him.

2:10:10.466,2:10:13.996
"Asses!" said Dr. Kemp, swinging round on his heel and walking back to his writing-

2:10:13.996,2:10:14.636
table.

2:10:14.636,2:10:20.236
But those who saw the fugitive nearer, and perceived the abject terror on his

2:10:20.236,2:10:25.406
perspiring face, being themselves in the open roadway, did not share in the doctor's

2:10:25.406,2:10:25.936
contempt.

2:10:25.936,2:10:31.606
By the man pounded, and as he ran he chinked like a well-filled purse that is

2:10:31.606,2:10:33.785
tossed to and fro.

2:10:33.785,2:10:38.005
He looked neither to the right nor the left, but his dilated eyes stared straight

2:10:38.005,2:10:42.626
downhill to where the lamps were being lit, and the people were crowded in the street.

2:10:42.626,2:10:47.606
And his ill-shaped mouth fell apart, and a glairy foam lay on his lips, and his breath

2:10:47.606,2:10:49.626
came hoarse and noisy.

2:10:49.626,2:10:54.276
All he passed stopped and began staring up the road and down, and interrogating one

2:10:54.276,2:10:58.686
another with an inkling of discomfort for the reason of his haste.

2:10:58.686,2:11:03.705
And then presently, far up the hill, a dog playing in the road yelped and ran under a

2:11:03.705,2:11:09.805
gate, and as they still wondered something- -a wind--a pad, pad, pad,--a sound like a

2:11:09.805,2:11:13.365
panting breathing, rushed by.

2:11:13.365,2:11:17.285
People screamed. People sprang off the pavement: It passed

2:11:17.285,2:11:20.106
in shouts, it passed by instinct down the hill.

2:11:20.106,2:11:24.055
They were shouting in the street before Marvel was halfway there.

2:11:24.055,2:11:29.886
They were bolting into houses and slamming the doors behind them, with the news.

2:11:29.886,2:11:32.386
He heard it and made one last desperate spurt.

2:11:32.386,2:11:37.835
Fear came striding by, rushed ahead of him, and in a moment had seized the town.

2:11:37.835,2:11:39.425
"The Invisible Man is coming!

2:11:39.425,2:11:43.845
The Invisible Man!"

2:11:43.845,2:11:48.656
CHAPTER XVI IN THE "JOLLY CRICKETERS"

2:11:48.656,2:11:52.186
The "Jolly Cricketers" is just at the bottom of the hill, where the tram-lines

2:11:52.186,2:11:53.625
begin.

2:11:53.625,2:11:57.145
The barman leant his fat red arms on the counter and talked of horses with an

2:11:57.145,2:12:03.085
anaemic cabman, while a black-bearded man in grey snapped up biscuit and cheese,

2:12:03.085,2:12:06.806
drank Burton, and conversed in American with a policeman off duty.

2:12:06.806,2:12:13.085
"What's the shouting about!" said the anaemic cabman, going off at a tangent,

2:12:13.085,2:12:17.875
trying to see up the hill over the dirty yellow blind in the low window of the inn.

2:12:17.875,2:12:19.256
Somebody ran by outside.

2:12:19.256,2:12:23.576
"Fire, perhaps," said the barman.

2:12:23.576,2:12:28.296
Footsteps approached, running heavily, the door was pushed open violently, and Marvel,

2:12:28.296,2:12:34.766
weeping and dishevelled, his hat gone, the neck of his coat torn open, rushed in, made

2:12:34.766,2:12:38.085
a convulsive turn, and attempted to shut the door.

2:12:38.085,2:12:43.136
It was held half open by a strap. "Coming!" he bawled, his voice shrieking

2:12:43.136,2:12:43.756
with terror.

2:12:43.756,2:12:46.256
"He's coming. The 'Visible Man!

2:12:46.256,2:12:47.606
After me! For Gawd's sake!

2:12:47.606,2:12:48.316
'Elp!

2:12:48.316,2:12:50.636
'Elp! 'Elp!"

2:12:50.636,2:12:53.016
"Shut the doors," said the policeman. "Who's coming?

2:12:53.016,2:12:54.715
What's the row?"

2:12:54.715,2:12:58.106
He went to the door, released the strap, and it slammed.

2:12:58.106,2:13:03.596
The American closed the other door. "Lemme go inside," said Marvel, staggering

2:13:03.596,2:13:06.516
and weeping, but still clutching the books.

2:13:06.516,2:13:08.826
"Lemme go inside. Lock me in--somewhere.

2:13:08.826,2:13:11.736
I tell you he's after me. I give him the slip.

2:13:11.736,2:13:12.935
He said he'd kill me and he will."

2:13:12.935,2:13:17.146
"You're safe," said the man with the black beard.

2:13:17.146,2:13:19.826
"The door's shut. What's it all about?"

2:13:19.826,2:13:24.275
"Lemme go inside," said Marvel, and shrieked aloud as a blow suddenly made the

2:13:24.275,2:13:28.226
fastened door shiver and was followed by a hurried rapping and a shouting outside.

2:13:28.226,2:13:32.935
"Hullo," cried the policeman, "who's there?"

2:13:32.935,2:13:37.266
Mr. Marvel began to make frantic dives at panels that looked like doors.

2:13:37.266,2:13:39.266
"He'll kill me--he's got a knife or something.

2:13:39.266,2:13:42.275
For Gawd's sake--!" "Here you are," said the barman.

2:13:42.275,2:13:43.456
"Come in here."

2:13:43.456,2:13:48.646
And he held up the flap of the bar. Mr. Marvel rushed behind the bar as the

2:13:48.646,2:13:52.696
summons outside was repeated. "Don't open the door," he screamed.

2:13:52.696,2:13:55.036
"Please don't open the door.

2:13:55.036,2:14:00.585
Where shall I hide?" "This, this Invisible Man, then?" asked the

2:14:00.585,2:14:02.875
man with the black beard, with one hand behind him.

2:14:02.875,2:14:07.125
"I guess it's about time we saw him."

2:14:07.125,2:14:10.756
The window of the inn was suddenly smashed in, and there was a screaming and running

2:14:10.756,2:14:12.745
to and fro in the street.

2:14:12.745,2:14:16.835
The policeman had been standing on the settee staring out, craning to see who was

2:14:16.835,2:14:20.046
at the door. He got down with raised eyebrows.

2:14:20.046,2:14:22.766
"It's that," he said.

2:14:22.766,2:14:26.426
The barman stood in front of the bar- parlour door which was now locked on Mr.

2:14:26.426,2:14:32.846
Marvel, stared at the smashed window, and came round to the two other men.

2:14:32.846,2:14:33.965
Everything was suddenly quiet.

2:14:33.965,2:14:40.346
"I wish I had my truncheon," said the policeman, going irresolutely to the door.

2:14:40.346,2:14:42.596
"Once we open, in he comes. There's no stopping him."

2:14:42.596,2:14:48.636
"Don't you be in too much hurry about that door," said the anaemic cabman, anxiously.

2:14:48.636,2:14:55.715
"Draw the bolts," said the man with the black beard, "and if he comes--" He showed

2:14:55.715,2:14:57.805
a revolver in his hand.

2:14:57.805,2:15:00.796
"That won't do," said the policeman; "that's murder."

2:15:00.796,2:15:04.506
"I know what country I'm in," said the man with the beard.

2:15:04.506,2:15:06.446
"I'm going to let off at his legs.

2:15:06.446,2:15:09.976
Draw the bolts." "Not with that blinking thing going off

2:15:09.976,2:15:14.185
behind me," said the barman, craning over the blind.

2:15:14.185,2:15:17.715
"Very well," said the man with the black beard, and stooping down, revolver ready,

2:15:17.715,2:15:21.226
drew them himself. Barman, cabman, and policeman faced about.

2:15:21.226,2:15:26.636
"Come in," said the bearded man in an undertone, standing back and facing the

2:15:26.636,2:15:32.175
unbolted doors with his pistol behind him. No one came in, the door remained closed.

2:15:32.175,2:15:37.925
Five minutes afterwards when a second cabman pushed his head in cautiously, they

2:15:37.925,2:15:41.976
were still waiting, and an anxious face peered out of the bar-parlour and supplied

2:15:41.976,2:15:44.846
information.

2:15:44.846,2:15:46.856
"Are all the doors of the house shut?" asked Marvel.

2:15:46.856,2:15:50.446
"He's going round--prowling round. He's as artful as the devil."

2:15:50.446,2:15:54.296
"Good Lord!" said the burly barman.

2:15:54.296,2:15:56.435
"There's the back! Just watch them doors!

2:15:56.435,2:16:00.085
I say--!" He looked about him helplessly.

2:16:00.085,2:16:03.875
The bar-parlour door slammed and they heard the key turn.

2:16:03.875,2:16:05.365
"There's the yard door and the private door.

2:16:05.365,2:16:07.905
The yard door--"

2:16:07.905,2:16:11.215
He rushed out of the bar. In a minute he reappeared with a carving-

2:16:11.215,2:16:15.615
knife in his hand. "The yard door was open!" he said, and his

2:16:15.615,2:16:17.136
fat underlip dropped.

2:16:17.136,2:16:20.416
"He may be in the house now!" said the first cabman.

2:16:20.416,2:16:23.496
"He's not in the kitchen," said the barman.

2:16:23.496,2:16:26.576
"There's two women there, and I've stabbed every inch of it with this little beef

2:16:26.576,2:16:28.586
slicer. And they don't think he's come in.

2:16:28.586,2:16:29.426
They haven't noticed--"

2:16:29.426,2:16:34.016
"Have you fastened it?" asked the first cabman.

2:16:34.016,2:16:38.486
"I'm out of frocks," said the barman. The man with the beard replaced his

2:16:38.486,2:16:39.516
revolver.

2:16:39.516,2:16:43.336
And even as he did so the flap of the bar was shut down and the bolt clicked, and

2:16:43.336,2:16:47.376
then with a tremendous thud the catch of the door snapped and the bar-parlour door

2:16:47.376,2:16:48.476
burst open.

2:16:48.476,2:16:52.706
They heard Marvel squeal like a caught leveret, and forthwith they were clambering

2:16:52.706,2:16:53.826
over the bar to his rescue.

2:16:53.826,2:16:59.626
The bearded man's revolver cracked and the looking-glass at the back of the parlour

2:16:59.626,2:17:02.946
starred and came smashing and tinkling down.

2:17:02.946,2:17:07.366
As the barman entered the room he saw Marvel, curiously crumpled up and

2:17:07.366,2:17:09.946
struggling against the door that led to the yard and kitchen.

2:17:09.946,2:17:14.036
The door flew open while the barman hesitated, and Marvel was dragged into the

2:17:14.036,2:17:17.246
kitchen. There was a scream and a clatter of pans.

2:17:17.246,2:17:21.296
Marvel, head down, and lugging back obstinately, was forced to the kitchen

2:17:21.296,2:17:24.246
door, and the bolts were drawn.

2:17:24.246,2:17:28.856
Then the policeman, who had been trying to pass the barman, rushed in, followed by one

2:17:28.856,2:17:33.496
of the cabmen, gripped the wrist of the invisible hand that collared Marvel, was

2:17:33.496,2:17:36.116
hit in the face and went reeling back.

2:17:36.116,2:17:41.436
The door opened, and Marvel made a frantic effort to obtain a lodgment behind it.

2:17:41.436,2:17:45.566
Then the cabman collared something. "I got him," said the cabman.

2:17:45.566,2:17:48.776
The barman's red hands came clawing at the unseen.

2:17:48.776,2:17:51.776
"Here he is!" said the barman.

2:17:51.776,2:17:55.686
Mr. Marvel, released, suddenly dropped to the ground and made an attempt to crawl

2:17:55.686,2:17:59.656
behind the legs of the fighting men. The struggle blundered round the edge of

2:17:59.656,2:18:00.876
the door.

2:18:00.876,2:18:04.706
The voice of the Invisible Man was heard for the first time, yelling out sharply, as

2:18:04.706,2:18:08.466
the policeman trod on his foot. Then he cried out passionately and his

2:18:08.466,2:18:11.086
fists flew round like flails.

2:18:11.086,2:18:15.326
The cabman suddenly whooped and doubled up, kicked under the diaphragm.

2:18:15.326,2:18:19.316
The door into the bar-parlour from the kitchen slammed and covered Mr. Marvel's

2:18:19.316,2:18:20.676
retreat.

2:18:20.676,2:18:26.526
The men in the kitchen found themselves clutching at and struggling with empty air.

2:18:26.526,2:18:28.846
"Where's he gone?" cried the man with the beard.

2:18:28.846,2:18:29.276
"Out?"

2:18:29.276,2:18:33.066
"This way," said the policeman, stepping into the yard and stopping.

2:18:33.066,2:18:36.736
A piece of tile whizzed by his head and smashed among the crockery on the kitchen

2:18:36.736,2:18:38.696
table.

2:18:38.696,2:18:42.686
"I'll show him," shouted the man with the black beard, and suddenly a steel barrel

2:18:42.686,2:18:46.406
shone over the policeman's shoulder, and five bullets had followed one another into

2:18:46.406,2:18:49.146
the twilight whence the missile had come.

2:18:49.146,2:18:53.926
As he fired, the man with the beard moved his hand in a horizontal curve, so that his

2:18:53.926,2:18:56.866
shots radiated out into the narrow yard like spokes from a wheel.

2:18:56.866,2:19:00.976
A silence followed.

2:19:00.976,2:19:03.646
"Five cartridges," said the man with the black beard.

2:19:03.646,2:19:06.196
"That's the best of all. Four aces and a joker.

2:19:06.196,2:19:14.036
Get a lantern, someone, and come and feel about for his body."

2:19:14.036,2:19:19.946
CHAPTER XVII DR. KEMP'S VISITOR

2:19:19.946,2:19:23.866
Dr. Kemp had continued writing in his study until the shots aroused him.

2:19:23.866,2:19:28.056
Crack, crack, crack, they came one after the other.

2:19:28.056,2:19:30.876
"Hullo!" said Dr. Kemp, putting his pen into his mouth again and listening.

2:19:30.876,2:19:35.336
"Who's letting off revolvers in Burdock? What are the asses at now?"

2:19:35.336,2:19:40.936
He went to the south window, threw it up, and leaning out stared down on the network

2:19:40.936,2:19:45.626
of windows, beaded gas-lamps and shops, with its black interstices of roof and yard

2:19:45.626,2:19:48.546
that made up the town at night.

2:19:48.546,2:19:52.786
"Looks like a crowd down the hill," he said, "by 'The Cricketers,'" and remained

2:19:52.786,2:19:54.116
watching.

2:19:54.116,2:19:58.886
Thence his eyes wandered over the town to far away where the ships' lights shone, and

2:19:58.886,2:20:03.746
the pier glowed--a little illuminated, facetted pavilion like a gem of yellow

2:20:03.746,2:20:04.136
light.

2:20:04.136,2:20:09.006
The moon in its first quarter hung over the westward hill, and the stars were clear and

2:20:09.006,2:20:09.866
almost tropically bright.

2:20:09.866,2:20:15.606
After five minutes, during which his mind had travelled into a remote speculation of

2:20:15.606,2:20:21.366
social conditions of the future, and lost itself at last over the time dimension, Dr.

2:20:21.366,2:20:23.526
Kemp roused himself with a sigh, pulled

2:20:23.526,2:20:27.396
down the window again, and returned to his writing desk.

2:20:27.396,2:20:31.636
It must have been about an hour after this that the front-door bell rang.

2:20:31.636,2:20:36.106
He had been writing slackly, and with intervals of abstraction, since the shots.

2:20:36.106,2:20:36.826
He sat listening.

2:20:36.826,2:20:42.206
He heard the servant answer the door, and waited for her feet on the staircase, but

2:20:42.206,2:20:47.596
she did not come. "Wonder what that was," said Dr. Kemp.

2:20:47.596,2:20:52.766
He tried to resume his work, failed, got up, went downstairs from his study to the

2:20:52.766,2:20:56.806
landing, rang, and called over the balustrade to the housemaid as she appeared

2:20:56.806,2:20:59.006
in the hall below.

2:20:59.006,2:21:04.406
"Was that a letter?" he asked. "Only a runaway ring, sir," she answered.

2:21:04.406,2:21:07.606
"I'm restless to-night," he said to himself.

2:21:07.606,2:21:10.836
He went back to his study, and this time attacked his work resolutely.

2:21:10.836,2:21:15.606
In a little while he was hard at work again, and the only sounds in the room were

2:21:15.606,2:21:19.676
the ticking of the clock and the subdued shrillness of his quill, hurrying in the

2:21:19.676,2:21:24.296
very centre of the circle of light his lampshade threw on his table.

2:21:24.296,2:21:28.566
It was two o'clock before Dr. Kemp had finished his work for the night.

2:21:28.566,2:21:30.776
He rose, yawned, and went downstairs to bed.

2:21:30.776,2:21:36.526
He had already removed his coat and vest, when he noticed that he was thirsty.

2:21:36.526,2:21:39.726
He took a candle and went down to the dining-room in search of a syphon and

2:21:39.726,2:21:42.156
whiskey.

2:21:42.156,2:21:46.486
Dr. Kemp's scientific pursuits have made him a very observant man, and as he

2:21:46.486,2:21:51.046
recrossed the hall, he noticed a dark spot on the linoleum near the mat at the foot of

2:21:51.046,2:21:53.046
the stairs.

2:21:53.046,2:21:56.586
He went on upstairs, and then it suddenly occurred to him to ask himself what the

2:21:56.586,2:22:01.456
spot on the linoleum might be. Apparently some subconscious element was at

2:22:01.456,2:22:02.546
work.

2:22:02.546,2:22:06.716
At any rate, he turned with his burden, went back to the hall, put down the syphon

2:22:06.716,2:22:11.316
and whiskey, and bending down, touched the spot.

2:22:11.316,2:22:17.426
Without any great surprise he found it had the stickiness and colour of drying blood.

2:22:17.426,2:22:21.176
He took up his burden again, and returned upstairs, looking about him and trying to

2:22:21.176,2:22:23.356
account for the blood-spot.

2:22:23.356,2:22:26.536
On the landing he saw something and stopped astonished.

2:22:26.536,2:22:29.326
The door-handle of his own room was blood- stained.

2:22:29.326,2:22:32.156
He looked at his own hand.

2:22:32.156,2:22:36.236
It was quite clean, and then he remembered that the door of his room had been open

2:22:36.236,2:22:40.226
when he came down from his study, and that consequently he had not touched the handle

2:22:40.226,2:22:41.476
at all.

2:22:41.476,2:22:45.556
He went straight into his room, his face quite calm--perhaps a trifle more resolute

2:22:45.556,2:22:49.176
than usual. His glance, wandering inquisitively, fell

2:22:49.176,2:22:50.946
on the bed.

2:22:50.946,2:22:54.956
On the counterpane was a mess of blood, and the sheet had been torn.

2:22:54.956,2:22:58.166
He had not noticed this before because he had walked straight to the dressing-table.

2:22:58.166,2:23:03.856
On the further side the bedclothes were depressed as if someone had been recently

2:23:03.856,2:23:05.306
sitting there.

2:23:05.306,2:23:10.606
Then he had an odd impression that he had heard a low voice say, "Good Heavens!--

2:23:10.606,2:23:12.646
Kemp!" But Dr. Kemp was no believer in voices.

2:23:12.646,2:23:17.546
He stood staring at the tumbled sheets.

2:23:17.546,2:23:21.466
Was that really a voice? He looked about again, but noticed nothing

2:23:21.466,2:23:23.846
further than the disordered and blood- stained bed.

2:23:23.846,2:23:30.906
Then he distinctly heard a movement across the room, near the wash-hand stand.

2:23:30.906,2:23:35.526
All men, however highly educated, retain some superstitious inklings.

2:23:35.526,2:23:38.496
The feeling that is called "eerie" came upon him.

2:23:38.496,2:23:42.616
He closed the door of the room, came forward to the dressing-table, and put down

2:23:42.616,2:23:44.706
his burdens.

2:23:44.706,2:23:48.436
Suddenly, with a start, he perceived a coiled and blood-stained bandage of linen

2:23:48.436,2:23:51.846
rag hanging in mid-air, between him and the wash-hand stand.

2:23:51.846,2:23:55.856
He stared at this in amazement.

2:23:55.856,2:24:01.676
It was an empty bandage, a bandage properly tied but quite empty.

2:24:01.676,2:24:05.786
He would have advanced to grasp it, but a touch arrested him, and a voice speaking

2:24:05.786,2:24:07.566
quite close to him.

2:24:07.566,2:24:12.516
"Kemp!" said the Voice. "Eh?" said Kemp, with his mouth open.

2:24:12.516,2:24:15.276
"Keep your nerve," said the Voice. "I'm an Invisible Man."

2:24:15.276,2:24:21.856
Kemp made no answer for a space, simply stared at the bandage.

2:24:21.856,2:24:26.836
"Invisible Man," he said. "I am an Invisible Man," repeated the

2:24:26.836,2:24:27.126
Voice.

2:24:27.126,2:24:33.626
The story he had been active to ridicule only that morning rushed through Kemp's

2:24:33.626,2:24:35.256
brain.

2:24:35.256,2:24:38.876
He does not appear to have been either very much frightened or very greatly surprised

2:24:38.876,2:24:41.576
at the moment. Realisation came later.

2:24:41.576,2:24:46.956
"I thought it was all a lie," he said.

2:24:46.956,2:24:51.036
The thought uppermost in his mind was the reiterated arguments of the morning.

2:24:51.036,2:24:56.025
"Have you a bandage on?" he asked. "Yes," said the Invisible Man.

2:24:56.025,2:24:59.266
"Oh!" said Kemp, and then roused himself.

2:24:59.266,2:25:02.195
"I say!" he said. "But this is nonsense.

2:25:02.195,2:25:03.435
It's some trick."

2:25:03.435,2:25:07.755
He stepped forward suddenly, and his hand, extended towards the bandage, met invisible

2:25:07.755,2:25:11.825
fingers. He recoiled at the touch and his colour

2:25:11.825,2:25:12.236
changed.

2:25:12.236,2:25:15.505
"Keep steady, Kemp, for God's sake! I want help badly.

2:25:15.505,2:25:18.795
Stop!" The hand gripped his arm.

2:25:18.795,2:25:20.005
He struck at it.

2:25:20.005,2:25:21.486
"Kemp!" cried the Voice. "Kemp!

2:25:21.486,2:25:26.755
Keep steady!" and the grip tightened. A frantic desire to free himself took

2:25:26.755,2:25:28.265
possession of Kemp.

2:25:28.265,2:25:31.696
The hand of the bandaged arm gripped his shoulder, and he was suddenly tripped and

2:25:31.696,2:25:33.986
flung backwards upon the bed.

2:25:33.986,2:25:37.405
He opened his mouth to shout, and the corner of the sheet was thrust between his

2:25:37.405,2:25:38.806
teeth.

2:25:38.806,2:25:43.436
The Invisible Man had him down grimly, but his arms were free and he struck and tried

2:25:43.436,2:25:45.655
to kick savagely.

2:25:45.655,2:25:49.255
"Listen to reason, will you?" said the Invisible Man, sticking to him in spite of

2:25:49.255,2:25:52.956
a pounding in the ribs. "By Heaven! you'll madden me in a minute!

2:25:52.956,2:25:57.745
"Lie still, you fool!" bawled the Invisible Man in Kemp's ear.

2:25:57.745,2:26:00.785
Kemp struggled for another moment and then lay still.

2:26:00.785,2:26:06.226
"If you shout, I'll smash your face," said the Invisible Man, relieving his mouth.

2:26:06.226,2:26:10.336
"I'm an Invisible Man. It's no foolishness, and no magic.

2:26:10.336,2:26:12.295
I really am an Invisible Man.

2:26:12.295,2:26:16.436
And I want your help. I don't want to hurt you, but if you behave

2:26:16.436,2:26:20.365
like a frantic rustic, I must. Don't you remember me, Kemp?

2:26:20.365,2:26:21.956
Griffin, of University College?"

2:26:21.956,2:26:26.395
"Let me get up," said Kemp. "I'll stop where I am.

2:26:26.395,2:26:31.206
And let me sit quiet for a minute." He sat up and felt his neck.

2:26:31.206,2:26:35.505
"I am Griffin, of University College, and I have made myself invisible.

2:26:35.505,2:26:41.436
I am just an ordinary man--a man you have known--made invisible."

2:26:41.436,2:26:43.696
"Griffin?" said Kemp.

2:26:43.696,2:26:47.745
"Griffin," answered the Voice. A younger student than you were, almost an

2:26:47.745,2:26:52.326
albino, six feet high, and broad, with a pink and white face and red eyes, who won

2:26:52.326,2:26:55.535
the medal for chemistry."

2:26:55.535,2:26:58.635
"I am confused," said Kemp. "My brain is rioting.

2:26:58.635,2:27:03.976
What has this to do with Griffin?" "I am Griffin."

2:27:03.976,2:27:04.245
Kemp thought.

2:27:04.245,2:27:09.106
"It's horrible," he said. "But what devilry must happen to make a man

2:27:09.106,2:27:11.885
invisible?" "It's no devilry.

2:27:11.885,2:27:14.745
It's a process, sane and intelligible enough--"

2:27:14.745,2:27:16.946
"It's horrible!" said Kemp. "How on earth--?"

2:27:16.946,2:27:19.836
"It's horrible enough.

2:27:19.836,2:27:23.436
But I'm wounded and in pain, and tired ... Great God!

2:27:23.436,2:27:26.236
Kemp, you are a man. Take it steady.

2:27:26.236,2:27:28.505
Give me some food and drink, and let me sit down here."

2:27:28.505,2:27:35.206
Kemp stared at the bandage as it moved across the room, then saw a basket chair

2:27:35.206,2:27:38.446
dragged across the floor and come to rest near the bed.

2:27:38.446,2:27:43.806
It creaked, and the seat was depressed the quarter of an inch or so.

2:27:43.806,2:27:49.836
He rubbed his eyes and felt his neck again. "This beats ghosts," he said, and laughed

2:27:49.836,2:27:50.476
stupidly.

2:27:50.476,2:27:53.456
"That's better. Thank Heaven, you're getting sensible!"

2:27:53.456,2:27:57.535
"Or silly," said Kemp, and knuckled his eyes.

2:27:57.535,2:27:58.356
"Give me some whiskey.

2:27:58.356,2:28:01.456
I'm near dead." "It didn't feel so.

2:28:01.456,2:28:04.025
Where are you? If I get up shall I run into you?

2:28:04.025,2:28:05.375
There! all right.

2:28:05.375,2:28:07.285
Whiskey? Here.

2:28:07.285,2:28:11.665
Where shall I give it to you?" The chair creaked and Kemp felt the glass

2:28:11.665,2:28:13.655
drawn away from him.

2:28:13.655,2:28:17.066
He let go by an effort; his instinct was all against it.

2:28:17.066,2:28:22.405
It came to rest poised twenty inches above the front edge of the seat of the chair.

2:28:22.405,2:28:24.615
He stared at it in infinite perplexity.

2:28:24.615,2:28:30.995
"This is--this must be--hypnotism. You have suggested you are invisible."

2:28:30.995,2:28:34.956
"Nonsense," said the Voice. "It's frantic."

2:28:34.956,2:28:36.346
"Listen to me."

2:28:36.346,2:28:40.495
"I demonstrated conclusively this morning," began Kemp, "that invisibility--"

2:28:40.495,2:28:44.696
"Never mind what you've demonstrated!--I'm starving," said the Voice, "and the night

2:28:44.696,2:28:47.716
is chilly to a man without clothes."

2:28:47.716,2:28:51.535
"Food?" said Kemp. The tumbler of whiskey tilted itself.

2:28:51.535,2:28:54.096
"Yes," said the Invisible Man rapping it down.

2:28:54.096,2:28:56.586
"Have you a dressing-gown?"

2:28:56.586,2:29:01.086
Kemp made some exclamation in an undertone. He walked to a wardrobe and produced a robe

2:29:01.086,2:29:04.476
of dingy scarlet. "This do?" he asked.

2:29:04.476,2:29:05.076
It was taken from him.

2:29:05.076,2:29:10.665
It hung limp for a moment in mid-air, fluttered weirdly, stood full and decorous

2:29:10.665,2:29:13.985
buttoning itself, and sat down in his chair.

2:29:13.985,2:29:17.785
"Drawers, socks, slippers would be a comfort," said the Unseen, curtly.

2:29:17.785,2:29:20.726
"And food." "Anything.

2:29:20.726,2:29:23.415
But this is the insanest thing I ever was in, in my life!"

2:29:23.415,2:29:28.635
He turned out his drawers for the articles, and then went downstairs to ransack his

2:29:28.635,2:29:29.106
larder.

2:29:29.106,2:29:33.485
He came back with some cold cutlets and bread, pulled up a light table, and placed

2:29:33.485,2:29:35.706
them before his guest.

2:29:35.706,2:29:40.905
"Never mind knives," said his visitor, and a cutlet hung in mid-air, with a sound of

2:29:40.905,2:29:44.405
gnawing. "Invisible!" said Kemp, and sat down on a

2:29:44.405,2:29:45.566
bedroom chair.

2:29:45.566,2:29:49.115
"I always like to get something about me before I eat," said the Invisible Man, with

2:29:49.115,2:29:51.735
a full mouth, eating greedily. "Queer fancy!"

2:29:51.735,2:29:55.875
"I suppose that wrist is all right," said Kemp.

2:29:55.875,2:30:00.706
"Trust me," said the Invisible Man. "Of all the strange and wonderful--"

2:30:00.706,2:30:01.745
"Exactly.

2:30:01.745,2:30:04.706
But it's odd I should blunder into your house to get my bandaging.

2:30:04.706,2:30:08.645
My first stroke of luck! Anyhow I meant to sleep in this house to-

2:30:08.645,2:30:08.985
night.

2:30:08.985,2:30:11.586
You must stand that! It's a filthy nuisance, my blood showing,

2:30:11.586,2:30:14.365
isn't it? Quite a clot over there.

2:30:14.365,2:30:16.306
Gets visible as it coagulates, I see.

2:30:16.306,2:30:20.956
It's only the living tissue I've changed, and only for as long as I'm alive....

2:30:20.956,2:30:26.985
I've been in the house three hours." "But how's it done?" began Kemp, in a tone

2:30:26.985,2:30:27.606
of exasperation.

2:30:27.606,2:30:30.336
"Confound it! The whole business--it's unreasonable from

2:30:30.336,2:30:33.836
beginning to end." "Quite reasonable," said the Invisible Man.

2:30:33.836,2:30:35.826
"Perfectly reasonable."

2:30:35.826,2:30:38.566
He reached over and secured the whiskey bottle.

2:30:38.566,2:30:40.995
Kemp stared at the devouring dressing gown.

2:30:40.995,2:30:44.125
A ray of candle-light penetrating a torn patch in the right shoulder, made a

2:30:44.125,2:30:49.476
triangle of light under the left ribs. "What were the shots?" he asked.

2:30:49.476,2:30:51.135
"How did the shooting begin?"

2:30:51.135,2:30:55.275
"There was a real fool of a man--a sort of confederate of mine--curse him!--who tried

2:30:55.275,2:30:58.346
to steal my money. Has done so."

2:30:58.346,2:31:00.125
"Is he invisible too?"

2:31:00.125,2:31:01.576
"No." "Well?"

2:31:01.576,2:31:04.865
"Can't I have some more to eat before I tell you all that?

2:31:04.865,2:31:05.556
I'm hungry--in pain.

2:31:05.556,2:31:09.795
And you want me to tell stories!" Kemp got up.

2:31:09.795,2:31:14.436
"You didn't do any shooting?" he asked. "Not me," said his visitor.

2:31:14.436,2:31:16.446
"Some fool I'd never seen fired at random.

2:31:16.446,2:31:19.696
A lot of them got scared. They all got scared at me.

2:31:19.696,2:31:22.135
Curse them!--I say--I want more to eat than this, Kemp."

2:31:22.135,2:31:26.135
"I'll see what there is to eat downstairs," said Kemp.

2:31:26.135,2:31:27.586
"Not much, I'm afraid."

2:31:27.586,2:31:32.625
After he had done eating, and he made a heavy meal, the Invisible Man demanded a

2:31:32.625,2:31:34.106
cigar.

2:31:34.106,2:31:37.826
He bit the end savagely before Kemp could find a knife, and cursed when the outer

2:31:37.826,2:31:39.265
leaf loosened.

2:31:39.265,2:31:43.316
It was strange to see him smoking; his mouth, and throat, pharynx and nares,

2:31:43.316,2:31:47.706
became visible as a sort of whirling smoke cast.

2:31:47.706,2:31:50.865
"This blessed gift of smoking!" he said, and puffed vigorously.

2:31:50.865,2:31:53.865
"I'm lucky to have fallen upon you, Kemp. You must help me.

2:31:53.865,2:31:55.816
Fancy tumbling on you just now!

2:31:55.816,2:31:58.245
I'm in a devilish scrape--I've been mad, I think.

2:31:58.245,2:32:01.176
The things I have been through! But we will do things yet.

2:32:01.176,2:32:02.515
Let me tell you--"

2:32:02.515,2:32:06.806
He helped himself to more whiskey and soda. Kemp got up, looked about him, and fetched

2:32:06.806,2:32:11.946
a glass from his spare room. "It's wild--but I suppose I may drink."

2:32:11.946,2:32:14.395
"You haven't changed much, Kemp, these dozen years.

2:32:14.395,2:32:17.596
You fair men don't. Cool and methodical--after the first

2:32:17.596,2:32:18.495
collapse.

2:32:18.495,2:32:20.956
I must tell you. We will work together!"

2:32:20.956,2:32:24.885
"But how was it all done?" said Kemp, "and how did you get like this?"

2:32:24.885,2:32:27.035
"For God's sake, let me smoke in peace for a little while!

2:32:27.035,2:32:32.535
And then I will begin to tell you." But the story was not told that night.

2:32:32.535,2:32:36.806
The Invisible Man's wrist was growing painful; he was feverish, exhausted, and

2:32:36.806,2:32:39.755
his mind came round to brood upon his chase down the hill and the struggle about the

2:32:39.755,2:32:40.905
inn.

2:32:40.905,2:32:46.076
He spoke in fragments of Marvel, he smoked faster, his voice grew angry.

2:32:46.076,2:32:47.426
Kemp tried to gather what he could.

2:32:47.426,2:32:52.135
"He was afraid of me, I could see that he was afraid of me," said the Invisible Man

2:32:52.135,2:32:55.436
many times over. "He meant to give me the slip--he was

2:32:55.436,2:32:56.865
always casting about!

2:32:56.865,2:32:59.375
What a fool I was! "The cur!

2:32:59.375,2:33:03.105
"I should have killed him!" "Where did you get the money?" asked Kemp,

2:33:03.105,2:33:04.545
abruptly.

2:33:04.545,2:33:09.816
The Invisible Man was silent for a space. "I can't tell you to-night," he said.

2:33:09.816,2:33:13.966
He groaned suddenly and leant forward, supporting his invisible head on invisible

2:33:13.966,2:33:15.135
hands.

2:33:15.135,2:33:19.105
"Kemp," he said, "I've had no sleep for near three days, except a couple of dozes

2:33:19.105,2:33:21.476
of an hour or so. I must sleep soon."

2:33:21.476,2:33:23.846
"Well, have my room--have this room."

2:33:23.846,2:33:25.735
"But how can I sleep? If I sleep--he will get away.

2:33:25.735,2:33:28.415
Ugh! What does it matter?"

2:33:28.415,2:33:31.096
"What's the shot wound?" asked Kemp, abruptly.

2:33:31.096,2:33:34.525
"Nothing--scratch and blood. Oh, God!

2:33:34.525,2:33:36.226
How I want sleep!"

2:33:36.226,2:33:39.365
"Why not?" The Invisible Man appeared to be regarding

2:33:39.365,2:33:40.535
Kemp.

2:33:40.535,2:33:43.936
"Because I've a particular objection to being caught by my fellow-men," he said

2:33:43.936,2:33:45.905
slowly. Kemp started.

2:33:45.905,2:33:50.525
"Fool that I am!" said the Invisible Man, striking the table smartly.

2:33:50.525,2:33:58.004
"I've put the idea into your head."

2:33:58.004,9:59:59.000
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