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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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."

225
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"I hope," said Mr. Henfrey, "that it's no intrusion."

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"None whatever," said the stranger.

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"Though, I understand," he said turning to Mrs. Hall, "that this room is really to be

228
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mine for my own private use." "I thought, sir," said Mrs. Hall, "you'd

229
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prefer the clock--"

230
00:14:32,350 --> 00:14:37,570
"Certainly," said the stranger, "certainly- -but, as a rule, I like to be alone and

231
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undisturbed.

232
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"But I'm really glad to have the clock seen to," he said, seeing a certain hesitation

233
00:14:43,510 --> 00:14:47,410
in Mr. Henfrey's manner. "Very glad."

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Mr. Henfrey had intended to apologise and withdraw, but this anticipation reassured

235
00:14:51,590 --> 00:14:53,000
him.

236
00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:56,500
The stranger turned round with his back to the fireplace and put his hands behind his

237
00:14:56,500 --> 00:14:56,500
back.

238
00:14:56,500 --> 00:15:03,580
"And presently," he said, "when the clock- mending is over, I think I should like to

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00:15:03,580 --> 00:15:08,800
have some tea. But not till the clock-mending is over."

240
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Mrs. Hall was about to leave the room--she made no conversational advances this time,

241
00:15:13,240 --> 00:15:17,430
because she did not want to be snubbed in front of Mr. Henfrey--when her visitor

242
00:15:17,430 --> 00:15:21,760
asked her if she had made any arrangements about his boxes at Bramblehurst.

243
00:15:21,760 --> 00:15:25,160
She told him she had mentioned the matter to the postman, and that the carrier could

244
00:15:25,160 --> 00:15:27,840
bring them over on the morrow.

245
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"You are certain that is the earliest?" he said.

246
00:15:31,610 --> 00:15:33,940
She was certain, with a marked coldness.

247
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"I should explain," he added, "what I was really too cold and fatigued to do before,

248
00:15:40,380 --> 00:15:46,120
that I am an experimental investigator." "Indeed, sir," said Mrs. Hall, much

249
00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:47,390
impressed.

250
00:15:47,390 --> 00:15:51,700
"And my baggage contains apparatus and appliances."

251
00:15:51,700 --> 00:15:55,020
"Very useful things indeed they are, sir," said Mrs. Hall.

252
00:15:55,020 --> 00:15:57,640
"And I'm very naturally anxious to get on with my inquiries."

253
00:15:57,640 --> 00:16:01,600
"Of course, sir."

254
00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:05,080
"My reason for coming to Iping," he proceeded, with a certain deliberation of

255
00:16:05,080 --> 00:16:11,470
manner, "was ... a desire for solitude. I do not wish to be disturbed in my work.

256
00:16:11,470 --> 00:16:14,310
In addition to my work, an accident--"

257
00:16:14,310 --> 00:16:17,770
"I thought as much," said Mrs. Hall to herself.

258
00:16:17,770 --> 00:16:20,740
"--necessitates a certain retirement.

259
00:16:20,740 --> 00:16:25,300
My eyes--are sometimes so weak and painful that I have to shut myself up in the dark

260
00:16:25,300 --> 00:16:28,420
for hours together. Lock myself up.

261
00:16:28,420 --> 00:16:31,520
Sometimes--now and then.

262
00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:36,120
Not at present, certainly. At such times the slightest disturbance,

263
00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:41,820
the entry of a stranger into the room, is a source of excruciating annoyance to me--it

264
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is well these things should be understood."

265
00:16:46,130 --> 00:16:50,320
"Certainly, sir," said Mrs. Hall. "And if I might make so bold as to ask--"

266
00:16:50,320 --> 00:16:54,670
"That I think, is all," said the stranger, with that quietly irresistible air of

267
00:16:54,670 --> 00:16:57,830
finality he could assume at will.

268
00:16:57,830 --> 00:17:00,800
Mrs. Hall reserved her question and sympathy for a better occasion.

269
00:17:00,800 --> 00:17:07,770
After Mrs. Hall had left the room, he remained standing in front of the fire,

270
00:17:07,770 --> 00:17:12,770
glaring, so Mr. Henfrey puts it, at the clock-mending.

271
00:17:12,770 --> 00:17:16,959
Mr. Henfrey not only took off the hands of the clock, and the face, but extracted the

272
00:17:16,959 --> 00:17:22,719
works; and he tried to work in as slow and quiet and unassuming a manner as possible.

273
00:17:22,719 --> 00:17:26,430
He worked with the lamp close to him, and the green shade threw a brilliant light

274
00:17:26,430 --> 00:17:30,020
upon his hands, and upon the frame and wheels, and left the rest of the room

275
00:17:30,020 --> 00:17:31,930
shadowy.

276
00:17:31,930 --> 00:17:35,800
When he looked up, coloured patches swam in his eyes.

277
00:17:35,800 --> 00:17:40,440
Being constitutionally of a curious nature, he had removed the works--a quite

278
00:17:40,440 --> 00:17:45,820
unnecessary proceeding--with the idea of delaying his departure and perhaps falling

279
00:17:45,820 --> 00:17:47,190
into conversation with the stranger.

280
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But the stranger stood there, perfectly silent and still.

281
00:17:53,250 --> 00:17:56,690
So still, it got on Henfrey's nerves.

282
00:17:56,690 --> 00:18:00,810
He felt alone in the room and looked up, and there, grey and dim, was the bandaged

283
00:18:00,810 --> 00:18:05,470
head and huge blue lenses staring fixedly, with a mist of green spots drifting in

284
00:18:05,470 --> 00:18:07,400
front of them.

285
00:18:07,400 --> 00:18:12,680
It was so uncanny to Henfrey that for a minute they remained staring blankly at one

286
00:18:12,680 --> 00:18:16,010
another. Then Henfrey looked down again.

287
00:18:16,010 --> 00:18:17,120
Very uncomfortable position!

288
00:18:17,120 --> 00:18:20,810
One would like to say something. Should he remark that the weather was very

289
00:18:20,810 --> 00:18:25,500
cold for the time of year? He looked up as if to take aim with that

290
00:18:25,500 --> 00:18:26,570
introductory shot.

291
00:18:26,570 --> 00:18:31,610
"The weather--" he began. "Why don't you finish and go?" said the

292
00:18:31,610 --> 00:18:35,230
rigid figure, evidently in a state of painfully suppressed rage.

293
00:18:35,230 --> 00:18:38,140
"All you've got to do is to fix the hour- hand on its axle.

294
00:18:38,140 --> 00:18:44,980
You're simply humbugging--" "Certainly, sir--one minute more.

295
00:18:44,980 --> 00:18:49,070
I overlooked--" and Mr. Henfrey finished and went.

296
00:18:49,070 --> 00:18:50,910
But he went feeling excessively annoyed.

297
00:18:50,910 --> 00:18:53,990
"Damn it!" said Mr. Henfrey to himself, trudging down the village through the

298
00:18:53,990 --> 00:18:58,160
thawing snow; "a man must do a clock at times, sure-ly."

299
00:18:58,160 --> 00:19:02,440
And again "Can't a man look at you?--Ugly!"

300
00:19:02,440 --> 00:19:07,209
And yet again, "Seemingly not. If the police was wanting you you couldn't

301
00:19:07,209 --> 00:19:08,560
be more wropped and bandaged."

302
00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:15,170
At Gleeson's corner he saw Hall, who had recently married the stranger's hostess at

303
00:19:15,170 --> 00:19:19,920
the "Coach and Horses," and who now drove the Iping conveyance, when occasional

304
00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:21,770
people required it, to Sidderbridge

305
00:19:21,770 --> 00:19:26,090
Junction, coming towards him on his return from that place.

306
00:19:26,090 --> 00:19:29,910
Hall had evidently been "stopping a bit" at Sidderbridge, to judge by his driving.

307
00:19:29,910 --> 00:19:33,660
"'Ow do, Teddy?" he said, passing.

308
00:19:33,660 --> 00:19:38,270
"You got a rum un up home!" said Teddy. Hall very sociably pulled up.

309
00:19:38,270 --> 00:19:42,240
"What's that?" he asked. "Rum-looking customer stopping at the

310
00:19:42,240 --> 00:19:43,459
'Coach and Horses,'" said Teddy.

311
00:19:43,459 --> 00:19:47,420
"My sakes!" And he proceeded to give Hall a vivid

312
00:19:47,420 --> 00:19:53,080
description of his grotesque guest. "Looks a bit like a disguise, don't it?

313
00:19:53,080 --> 00:19:57,010
I'd like to see a man's face if I had him stopping in my place," said Henfrey.

314
00:19:57,010 --> 00:20:00,610
"But women are that trustful--where strangers are concerned.

315
00:20:00,610 --> 00:20:04,620
He's took your rooms and he ain't even given a name, Hall."

316
00:20:04,620 --> 00:20:08,480
"You don't say so!" said Hall, who was a man of sluggish apprehension.

317
00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:09,579
"Yes," said Teddy.

318
00:20:09,579 --> 00:20:12,810
"By the week. Whatever he is, you can't get rid of him

319
00:20:12,810 --> 00:20:15,220
under the week. And he's got a lot of luggage coming to-

320
00:20:15,220 --> 00:20:16,700
morrow, so he says.

321
00:20:16,700 --> 00:20:21,190
Let's hope it won't be stones in boxes, Hall."

322
00:20:21,190 --> 00:20:24,780
He told Hall how his aunt at Hastings had been swindled by a stranger with empty

323
00:20:24,780 --> 00:20:26,430
portmanteaux.

324
00:20:26,430 --> 00:20:31,160
Altogether he left Hall vaguely suspicious. "Get up, old girl," said Hall.

325
00:20:31,160 --> 00:20:35,300
"I s'pose I must see 'bout this." Teddy trudged on his way with his mind

326
00:20:35,300 --> 00:20:39,010
considerably relieved.

327
00:20:39,010 --> 00:20:43,230
Instead of "seeing 'bout it," however, Hall on his return was severely rated by his

328
00:20:43,230 --> 00:20:47,930
wife on the length of time he had spent in Sidderbridge, and his mild inquiries were

329
00:20:47,930 --> 00:20:51,329
answered snappishly and in a manner not to the point.

330
00:20:51,329 --> 00:20:55,630
But the seed of suspicion Teddy had sown germinated in the mind of Mr. Hall in spite

331
00:20:55,630 --> 00:20:57,540
of these discouragements.

332
00:20:57,540 --> 00:21:01,770
"You wim' don't know everything," said Mr. Hall, resolved to ascertain more about the

333
00:21:01,770 --> 00:21:04,459
personality of his guest at the earliest possible opportunity.

334
00:21:04,459 --> 00:21:10,200
And after the stranger had gone to bed, which he did about half-past nine, Mr. Hall

335
00:21:10,200 --> 00:21:14,750
went very aggressively into the parlour and looked very hard at his wife's furniture,

336
00:21:14,750 --> 00:21:16,190
just to show that the stranger wasn't

337
00:21:16,190 --> 00:21:21,240
master there, and scrutinised closely and a little contemptuously a sheet of

338
00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:25,590
mathematical computations the stranger had left.

339
00:21:25,590 --> 00:21:29,680
When retiring for the night he instructed Mrs. Hall to look very closely at the

340
00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:34,209
stranger's luggage when it came next day. "You mind you own business, Hall," said

341
00:21:34,209 --> 00:21:38,200
Mrs. Hall, "and I'll mind mine."

342
00:21:38,200 --> 00:21:42,900
She was all the more inclined to snap at Hall because the stranger was undoubtedly

343
00:21:42,900 --> 00:21:47,620
an unusually strange sort of stranger, and she was by no means assured about him in

344
00:21:47,620 --> 00:21:49,740
her own mind.

345
00:21:49,740 --> 00:21:53,800
In the middle of the night she woke up dreaming of huge white heads like turnips,

346
00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:58,270
that came trailing after her, at the end of interminable necks, and with vast black

347
00:21:58,270 --> 00:21:59,260
eyes.

348
00:21:59,260 --> 00:22:06,970
But being a sensible woman, she subdued her terrors and turned over and went to sleep

349
00:22:06,970 --> 00:22:10,400
again.

350
00:22:10,400 --> 00:22:11,400
>

351
00:22:11,400 --> 00:22:24,070
-CHAPTER III THE THOUSAND AND ONE BOTTLES

352
00:22:24,070 --> 00:22:28,000
So it was that on the twenty-ninth day of February, at the beginning of the thaw,

353
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:33,160
this singular person fell out of infinity into Iping village.

354
00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:37,909
Next day his luggage arrived through the slush--and very remarkable luggage it was.

355
00:22:37,909 --> 00:22:43,089
There were a couple of trunks indeed, such as a rational man might need, but in

356
00:22:43,089 --> 00:22:48,430
addition there were a box of books--big, fat books, of which some were just in an

357
00:22:48,430 --> 00:22:51,299
incomprehensible handwriting--and a dozen

358
00:22:51,299 --> 00:22:55,740
or more crates, boxes, and cases, containing objects packed in straw, as it

359
00:22:55,740 --> 00:23:02,829
seemed to Hall, tugging with a casual curiosity at the straw--glass bottles.

360
00:23:02,829 --> 00:23:07,689
The stranger, muffled in hat, coat, gloves, and wrapper, came out impatiently to meet

361
00:23:07,689 --> 00:23:12,119
Fearenside's cart, while Hall was having a word or so of gossip preparatory to helping

362
00:23:12,119 --> 00:23:12,910
being them in.

363
00:23:12,910 --> 00:23:18,960
Out he came, not noticing Fearenside's dog, who was sniffing in a dilettante spirit at

364
00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:21,420
Hall's legs. "Come along with those boxes," he said.

365
00:23:21,420 --> 00:23:23,890
"I've been waiting long enough."

366
00:23:23,890 --> 00:23:28,260
And he came down the steps towards the tail of the cart as if to lay hands on the

367
00:23:28,260 --> 00:23:30,930
smaller crate.

368
00:23:30,930 --> 00:23:35,180
No sooner had Fearenside's dog caught sight of him, however, than it began to bristle

369
00:23:35,180 --> 00:23:39,930
and growl savagely, and when he rushed down the steps it gave an undecided hop, and

370
00:23:39,930 --> 00:23:41,170
then sprang straight at his hand.

371
00:23:41,170 --> 00:23:47,049
"Whup!" cried Hall, jumping back, for he was no hero with dogs, and Fearenside

372
00:23:47,049 --> 00:23:49,220
howled, "Lie down!" and snatched his whip.

373
00:23:49,220 --> 00:23:55,699
They saw the dog's teeth had slipped the hand, heard a kick, saw the dog execute a

374
00:23:55,699 --> 00:24:00,059
flanking jump and get home on the stranger's leg, and heard the rip of his

375
00:24:00,059 --> 00:24:00,960
trousering.

376
00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:05,670
Then the finer end of Fearenside's whip reached his property, and the dog, yelping

377
00:24:05,670 --> 00:24:08,119
with dismay, retreated under the wheels of the waggon.

378
00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:11,750
It was all the business of a swift half- minute.

379
00:24:11,750 --> 00:24:15,180
No one spoke, everyone shouted.

380
00:24:15,180 --> 00:24:19,460
The stranger glanced swiftly at his torn glove and at his leg, made as if he would

381
00:24:19,460 --> 00:24:24,490
stoop to the latter, then turned and rushed swiftly up the steps into the inn.

382
00:24:24,490 --> 00:24:28,800
They heard him go headlong across the passage and up the uncarpeted stairs to his

383
00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:29,740
bedroom.

384
00:24:29,740 --> 00:24:33,270
"You brute, you!" said Fearenside, climbing off the waggon with his whip in his hand,

385
00:24:33,270 --> 00:24:35,580
while the dog watched him through the wheel.

386
00:24:35,580 --> 00:24:37,150
"Come here," said Fearenside--"You'd better."

387
00:24:37,150 --> 00:24:42,499
Hall had stood gaping. "He wuz bit," said Hall.

388
00:24:42,499 --> 00:24:46,990
"I'd better go and see to en," and he trotted after the stranger.

389
00:24:46,990 --> 00:24:52,889
He met Mrs. Hall in the passage. "Carrier's darg," he said "bit en."

390
00:24:52,889 --> 00:24:56,080
He went straight upstairs, and the stranger's door being ajar, he pushed it

391
00:24:56,080 --> 00:25:00,370
open and was entering without any ceremony, being of a naturally sympathetic turn of

392
00:25:00,370 --> 00:25:02,440
mind.

393
00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:04,450
The blind was down and the room dim.

394
00:25:04,450 --> 00:25:09,630
He caught a glimpse of a most singular thing, what seemed a handless arm waving

395
00:25:09,630 --> 00:25:14,859
towards him, and a face of three huge indeterminate spots on white, very like the

396
00:25:14,859 --> 00:25:17,260
face of a pale pansy.

397
00:25:17,260 --> 00:25:20,690
Then he was struck violently in the chest, hurled back, and the door slammed in his

398
00:25:20,690 --> 00:25:24,620
face and locked. It was so rapid that it gave him no time to

399
00:25:24,620 --> 00:25:25,169
observe.

400
00:25:25,169 --> 00:25:30,139
A waving of indecipherable shapes, a blow, and a concussion.

401
00:25:30,139 --> 00:25:36,430
There he stood on the dark little landing, wondering what it might be that he had

402
00:25:36,430 --> 00:25:37,559
seen.

403
00:25:37,559 --> 00:25:40,710
A couple of minutes after, he rejoined the little group that had formed outside the

404
00:25:40,710 --> 00:25:42,160
"Coach and Horses."

405
00:25:42,160 --> 00:25:46,210
There was Fearenside telling about it all over again for the second time; there was

406
00:25:46,210 --> 00:25:50,020
Mrs. Hall saying his dog didn't have no business to bite her guests; there was

407
00:25:50,020 --> 00:25:52,059
Huxter, the general dealer from over the

408
00:25:52,059 --> 00:25:58,480
road, interrogative; and Sandy Wadgers from the forge, judicial; besides women and

409
00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:03,609
children, all of them saying fatuities: "Wouldn't let en bite me, I knows";

410
00:26:03,609 --> 00:26:08,449
"'Tasn't right have such dargs"; "Whad 'e bite 'n for, than?" and so forth.

411
00:26:08,449 --> 00:26:13,550
Mr. Hall, staring at them from the steps and listening, found it incredible that he

412
00:26:13,550 --> 00:26:17,550
had seen anything so very remarkable happen upstairs.

413
00:26:17,550 --> 00:26:21,910
Besides, his vocabulary was altogether too limited to express his impressions.

414
00:26:21,910 --> 00:26:26,160
"He don't want no help, he says," he said in answer to his wife's inquiry.

415
00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:27,880
"We'd better be a-takin' of his luggage in."

416
00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:32,650
"He ought to have it cauterised at once," said Mr. Huxter; "especially if it's at all

417
00:26:32,650 --> 00:26:33,680
inflamed."

418
00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:36,920
"I'd shoot en, that's what I'd do," said a lady in the group.

419
00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:39,690
Suddenly the dog began growling again.

420
00:26:39,690 --> 00:26:43,150
"Come along," cried an angry voice in the doorway, and there stood the muffled

421
00:26:43,150 --> 00:26:46,740
stranger with his collar turned up, and his hat-brim bent down.

422
00:26:46,740 --> 00:26:49,850
"The sooner you get those things in the better I'll be pleased."

423
00:26:49,850 --> 00:26:56,720
It is stated by an anonymous bystander that his trousers and gloves had been changed.

424
00:26:56,720 --> 00:26:58,250
"Was you hurt, sir?" said Fearenside.

425
00:26:58,250 --> 00:27:01,680
"I'm rare sorry the darg--" "Not a bit," said the stranger.

426
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:05,200
"Never broke the skin. Hurry up with those things."

427
00:27:05,200 --> 00:27:10,540
He then swore to himself, so Mr. Hall asserts.

428
00:27:10,540 --> 00:27:14,150
Directly the first crate was, in accordance with his directions, carried into the

429
00:27:14,150 --> 00:27:18,760
parlour, the stranger flung himself upon it with extraordinary eagerness, and began to

430
00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:23,640
unpack it, scattering the straw with an utter disregard of Mrs. Hall's carpet.

431
00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:29,100
And from it he began to produce bottles-- little fat bottles containing powders,

432
00:27:29,100 --> 00:27:32,990
small and slender bottles containing coloured and white fluids, fluted blue

433
00:27:32,990 --> 00:27:35,880
bottles labeled Poison, bottles with round

434
00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:41,290
bodies and slender necks, large green-glass bottles, large white-glass bottles, bottles

435
00:27:41,290 --> 00:27:45,380
with glass stoppers and frosted labels, bottles with fine corks, bottles with

436
00:27:45,380 --> 00:27:47,680
bungs, bottles with wooden caps, wine

437
00:27:47,680 --> 00:27:53,280
bottles, salad-oil bottles--putting them in rows on the chiffonnier, on the mantel, on

438
00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:57,840
the table under the window, round the floor, on the bookshelf--everywhere.

439
00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:01,900
The chemist's shop in Bramblehurst could not boast half so many.

440
00:28:01,900 --> 00:28:03,300
Quite a sight it was.

441
00:28:03,300 --> 00:28:08,080
Crate after crate yielded bottles, until all six were empty and the table high with

442
00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:12,170
straw; the only things that came out of these crates besides the bottles were a

443
00:28:12,170 --> 00:28:16,790
number of test-tubes and a carefully packed balance.

444
00:28:16,790 --> 00:28:20,250
And directly the crates were unpacked, the stranger went to the window and set to

445
00:28:20,250 --> 00:28:24,400
work, not troubling in the least about the litter of straw, the fire which had gone

446
00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:27,270
out, the box of books outside, nor for the

447
00:28:27,270 --> 00:28:31,170
trunks and other luggage that had gone upstairs.

448
00:28:31,170 --> 00:28:35,250
When Mrs. Hall took his dinner in to him, he was already so absorbed in his work,

449
00:28:35,250 --> 00:28:39,800
pouring little drops out of the bottles into test-tubes, that he did not hear her

450
00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:41,420
until she had swept away the bulk of the

451
00:28:41,420 --> 00:28:45,400
straw and put the tray on the table, with some little emphasis perhaps, seeing the

452
00:28:45,400 --> 00:28:49,820
state that the floor was in. Then he half turned his head and

453
00:28:49,820 --> 00:28:51,950
immediately turned it away again.

454
00:28:51,950 --> 00:28:56,580
But she saw he had removed his glasses; they were beside him on the table, and it

455
00:28:56,580 --> 00:29:00,270
seemed to her that his eye sockets were extraordinarily hollow.

456
00:29:00,270 --> 00:29:04,520
He put on his spectacles again, and then turned and faced her.

457
00:29:04,520 --> 00:29:08,950
She was about to complain of the straw on the floor when he anticipated her.

458
00:29:08,950 --> 00:29:13,140
"I wish you wouldn't come in without knocking," he said in the tone of abnormal

459
00:29:13,140 --> 00:29:15,640
exasperation that seemed so characteristic of him.

460
00:29:15,640 --> 00:29:18,110
"I knocked, but seemingly--"

461
00:29:18,110 --> 00:29:21,950
"Perhaps you did. But in my investigations--my really very

462
00:29:21,950 --> 00:29:27,900
urgent and necessary investigations--the slightest disturbance, the jar of a door--I

463
00:29:27,900 --> 00:29:29,820
must ask you--"

464
00:29:29,820 --> 00:29:32,500
"Certainly, sir. You can turn the lock if you're like that,

465
00:29:32,500 --> 00:29:35,140
you know. Any time."

466
00:29:35,140 --> 00:29:37,230
"A very good idea," said the stranger.

467
00:29:37,230 --> 00:29:41,740
"This stror, sir, if I might make so bold as to remark--"

468
00:29:41,740 --> 00:29:44,230
"Don't. If the straw makes trouble put it down in

469
00:29:44,230 --> 00:29:46,180
the bill."

470
00:29:46,180 --> 00:29:51,300
And he mumbled at her--words suspiciously like curses.

471
00:29:51,300 --> 00:29:55,560
He was so odd, standing there, so aggressive and explosive, bottle in one

472
00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:59,360
hand and test-tube in the other, that Mrs. Hall was quite alarmed.

473
00:29:59,360 --> 00:30:01,670
But she was a resolute woman.

474
00:30:01,670 --> 00:30:05,640
"In which case, I should like to know, sir, what you consider--"

475
00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:08,060
"A shilling--put down a shilling. Surely a shilling's enough?"

476
00:30:08,060 --> 00:30:12,870
"So be it," said Mrs. Hall, taking up the table-cloth and beginning to spread it over

477
00:30:12,870 --> 00:30:16,720
the table. "If you're satisfied, of course--"

478
00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:21,450
He turned and sat down, with his coat- collar toward her.

479
00:30:21,450 --> 00:30:25,860
All the afternoon he worked with the door locked and, as Mrs. Hall testifies, for the

480
00:30:25,860 --> 00:30:28,010
most part in silence.

481
00:30:28,010 --> 00:30:31,990
But once there was a concussion and a sound of bottles ringing together as though the

482
00:30:31,990 --> 00:30:36,950
table had been hit, and the smash of a bottle flung violently down, and then a

483
00:30:36,950 --> 00:30:40,490
rapid pacing athwart the room.

484
00:30:40,490 --> 00:30:44,809
Fearing "something was the matter," she went to the door and listened, not caring

485
00:30:44,809 --> 00:30:48,260
to knock. "I can't go on," he was raving.

486
00:30:48,260 --> 00:30:49,580
"I can't go on.

487
00:30:49,580 --> 00:30:52,640
Three hundred thousand, four hundred thousand!

488
00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:55,410
The huge multitude! Cheated!

489
00:30:55,410 --> 00:30:56,560
All my life it may take me!

490
00:30:56,560 --> 00:30:57,570
... Patience!

491
00:30:57,570 --> 00:30:58,450
Patience indeed! ...

492
00:30:58,450 --> 00:31:02,620
Fool! fool!"

493
00:31:02,620 --> 00:31:06,310
There was a noise of hobnails on the bricks in the bar, and Mrs. Hall had very

494
00:31:06,310 --> 00:31:09,730
reluctantly to leave the rest of his soliloquy.

495
00:31:09,730 --> 00:31:13,710
When she returned the room was silent again, save for the faint crepitation of

496
00:31:13,710 --> 00:31:16,820
his chair and the occasional clink of a bottle.

497
00:31:16,820 --> 00:31:22,580
It was all over; the stranger had resumed work.

498
00:31:22,580 --> 00:31:26,390
When she took in his tea she saw broken glass in the corner of the room under the

499
00:31:26,390 --> 00:31:30,860
concave mirror, and a golden stain that had been carelessly wiped.

500
00:31:30,860 --> 00:31:32,950
She called attention to it.

501
00:31:32,950 --> 00:31:35,640
"Put it down in the bill," snapped her visitor.

502
00:31:35,640 --> 00:31:36,920
"For God's sake don't worry me.

503
00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:41,970
If there's damage done, put it down in the bill," and he went on ticking a list in the

504
00:31:41,970 --> 00:31:46,830
exercise book before him. "I'll tell you something," said Fearenside,

505
00:31:46,830 --> 00:31:48,410
mysteriously.

506
00:31:48,410 --> 00:31:52,800
It was late in the afternoon, and they were in the little beer-shop of Iping Hanger.

507
00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:57,090
"Well?" said Teddy Henfrey. "This chap you're speaking of, what my dog

508
00:31:57,090 --> 00:31:57,770
bit.

509
00:31:57,770 --> 00:32:00,540
Well--he's black. Leastways, his legs are.

510
00:32:00,540 --> 00:32:03,950
I seed through the tear of his trousers and the tear of his glove.

511
00:32:03,950 --> 00:32:06,520
You'd have expected a sort of pinky to show, wouldn't you?

512
00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:08,780
Well--there wasn't none. Just blackness.

513
00:32:08,780 --> 00:32:10,160
I tell you, he's as black as my hat."

514
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:15,080
"My sakes!" said Henfrey. "It's a rummy case altogether.

515
00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:19,970
Why, his nose is as pink as paint!" "That's true," said Fearenside.

516
00:32:19,970 --> 00:32:20,620
"I knows that.

517
00:32:20,620 --> 00:32:24,190
And I tell 'ee what I'm thinking. That marn's a piebald, Teddy.

518
00:32:24,190 --> 00:32:27,500
Black here and white there--in patches. And he's ashamed of it.

519
00:32:27,500 --> 00:32:30,890
He's a kind of half-breed, and the colour's come off patchy instead of mixing.

520
00:32:30,890 --> 00:32:34,730
I've heard of such things before. And it's the common way with horses, as any

521
00:32:34,730 --> 00:32:39,180
one can see."

522
00:32:39,180 --> 00:32:44,800
CHAPTER IV MR. CUSS INTERVIEWS THE STRANGER

523
00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:48,990
I have told the circumstances of the stranger's arrival in Iping with a certain

524
00:32:48,990 --> 00:32:52,900
fulness of detail, in order that the curious impression he created may be

525
00:32:52,900 --> 00:32:54,910
understood by the reader.

526
00:32:54,910 --> 00:32:58,840
But excepting two odd incidents, the circumstances of his stay until the

527
00:32:58,840 --> 00:33:02,580
extraordinary day of the club festival may be passed over very cursorily.

528
00:33:02,580 --> 00:33:07,840
There were a number of skirmishes with Mrs. Hall on matters of domestic discipline, but

529
00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:12,580
in every case until late April, when the first signs of penury began, he over-rode

530
00:33:12,580 --> 00:33:16,890
her by the easy expedient of an extra payment.

531
00:33:16,890 --> 00:33:21,650
Hall did not like him, and whenever he dared he talked of the advisability of

532
00:33:21,650 --> 00:33:25,700
getting rid of him; but he showed his dislike chiefly by concealing it

533
00:33:25,700 --> 00:33:30,710
ostentatiously, and avoiding his visitor as much as possible.

534
00:33:30,710 --> 00:33:34,770
"Wait till the summer," said Mrs. Hall sagely, "when the artisks are beginning to

535
00:33:34,770 --> 00:33:35,560
come.

536
00:33:35,560 --> 00:33:38,960
Then we'll see. He may be a bit overbearing, but bills

537
00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:45,100
settled punctual is bills settled punctual, whatever you'd like to say."

538
00:33:45,100 --> 00:33:49,270
The stranger did not go to church, and indeed made no difference between Sunday

539
00:33:49,270 --> 00:33:55,170
and the irreligious days, even in costume. He worked, as Mrs. Hall thought, very

540
00:33:55,170 --> 00:33:55,950
fitfully.

541
00:33:55,950 --> 00:33:58,770
Some days he would come down early and be continuously busy.

542
00:33:58,770 --> 00:34:03,260
On others he would rise late, pace his room, fretting audibly for hours together,

543
00:34:03,260 --> 00:34:06,650
smoke, sleep in the armchair by the fire.

544
00:34:06,650 --> 00:34:09,060
Communication with the world beyond the village he had none.

545
00:34:09,060 --> 00:34:14,330
His temper continued very uncertain; for the most part his manner was that of a man

546
00:34:14,330 --> 00:34:19,210
suffering under almost unendurable provocation, and once or twice things were

547
00:34:19,210 --> 00:34:23,540
snapped, torn, crushed, or broken in spasmodic gusts of violence.

548
00:34:23,540 --> 00:34:26,920
He seemed under a chronic irritation of the greatest intensity.

549
00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:33,010
His habit of talking to himself in a low voice grew steadily upon him, but though

550
00:34:33,010 --> 00:34:37,510
Mrs. Hall listened conscientiously she could make neither head nor tail of what

551
00:34:37,510 --> 00:34:38,880
she heard.

552
00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:44,080
He rarely went abroad by daylight, but at twilight he would go out muffled up

553
00:34:44,080 --> 00:34:48,710
invisibly, whether the weather were cold or not, and he chose the loneliest paths and

554
00:34:48,710 --> 00:34:51,880
those most overshadowed by trees and banks.

555
00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:55,980
His goggling spectacles and ghastly bandaged face under the penthouse of his

556
00:34:55,980 --> 00:34:59,830
hat, came with a disagreeable suddenness out of the darkness upon one or two home-

557
00:34:59,830 --> 00:35:02,410
going labourers, and Teddy Henfrey,

558
00:35:02,410 --> 00:35:06,130
tumbling out of the "Scarlet Coat" one night, at half-past nine, was scared

559
00:35:06,130 --> 00:35:11,140
shamefully by the stranger's skull-like head (he was walking hat in hand) lit by

560
00:35:11,140 --> 00:35:14,690
the sudden light of the opened inn door.

561
00:35:14,690 --> 00:35:19,080
Such children as saw him at nightfall dreamt of bogies, and it seemed doubtful

562
00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:23,460
whether he disliked boys more than they disliked him, or the reverse; but there was

563
00:35:23,460 --> 00:35:27,080
certainly a vivid enough dislike on either side.

564
00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:32,020
It was inevitable that a person of so remarkable an appearance and bearing should

565
00:35:32,020 --> 00:35:35,730
form a frequent topic in such a village as Iping.

566
00:35:35,730 --> 00:35:39,270
Opinion was greatly divided about his occupation.

567
00:35:39,270 --> 00:35:41,720
Mrs. Hall was sensitive on the point.

568
00:35:41,720 --> 00:35:45,480
When questioned, she explained very carefully that he was an "experimental

569
00:35:45,480 --> 00:35:50,500
investigator," going gingerly over the syllables as one who dreads pitfalls.

570
00:35:50,500 --> 00:35:54,560
When asked what an experimental investigator was, she would say with a

571
00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:59,030
touch of superiority that most educated people knew such things as that, and would

572
00:35:59,030 --> 00:36:00,730
thus explain that he "discovered things."

573
00:36:00,730 --> 00:36:06,660
Her visitor had had an accident, she said, which temporarily discoloured his face and

574
00:36:06,660 --> 00:36:10,780
hands, and being of a sensitive disposition, he was averse to any public

575
00:36:10,780 --> 00:36:14,340
notice of the fact.

576
00:36:14,340 --> 00:36:18,250
Out of her hearing there was a view largely entertained that he was a criminal trying

577
00:36:18,250 --> 00:36:22,200
to escape from justice by wrapping himself up so as to conceal himself altogether from

578
00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:24,160
the eye of the police.

579
00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:27,710
This idea sprang from the brain of Mr. Teddy Henfrey.

580
00:36:27,710 --> 00:36:31,929
No crime of any magnitude dating from the middle or end of February was known to have

581
00:36:31,929 --> 00:36:32,650
occurred.

582
00:36:32,650 --> 00:36:36,560
Elaborated in the imagination of Mr. Gould, the probationary assistant in the National

583
00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:41,760
School, this theory took the form that the stranger was an Anarchist in disguise,

584
00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:44,280
preparing explosives, and he resolved to

585
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:48,090
undertake such detective operations as his time permitted.

586
00:36:48,090 --> 00:36:51,660
These consisted for the most part in looking very hard at the stranger whenever

587
00:36:51,660 --> 00:36:56,110
they met, or in asking people who had never seen the stranger, leading questions about

588
00:36:56,110 --> 00:36:56,540
him.

589
00:36:56,540 --> 00:37:00,590
But he detected nothing.

590
00:37:00,590 --> 00:37:04,400
Another school of opinion followed Mr. Fearenside, and either accepted the piebald

591
00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:08,860
view or some modification of it; as, for instance, Silas Durgan, who was heard to

592
00:37:08,860 --> 00:37:10,790
assert that "if he choses to show enself at

593
00:37:10,790 --> 00:37:15,690
fairs he'd make his fortune in no time," and being a bit of a theologian, compared

594
00:37:15,690 --> 00:37:18,780
the stranger to the man with the one talent.

595
00:37:18,780 --> 00:37:22,190
Yet another view explained the entire matter by regarding the stranger as a

596
00:37:22,190 --> 00:37:25,390
harmless lunatic. That had the advantage of accounting for

597
00:37:25,390 --> 00:37:28,580
everything straight away.

598
00:37:28,580 --> 00:37:32,120
Between these main groups there were waverers and compromisers.

599
00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:36,250
Sussex folk have few superstitions, and it was only after the events of early April

600
00:37:36,250 --> 00:37:41,480
that the thought of the supernatural was first whispered in the village.

601
00:37:41,480 --> 00:37:45,929
Even then it was only credited among the women folk.

602
00:37:45,929 --> 00:37:50,010
But whatever they thought of him, people in Iping, on the whole, agreed in disliking

603
00:37:50,010 --> 00:37:50,929
him.

604
00:37:50,929 --> 00:37:55,810
His irritability, though it might have been comprehensible to an urban brain-worker,

605
00:37:55,810 --> 00:37:59,770
was an amazing thing to these quiet Sussex villagers.

606
00:37:59,770 --> 00:38:04,160
The frantic gesticulations they surprised now and then, the headlong pace after

607
00:38:04,160 --> 00:38:08,940
nightfall that swept him upon them round quiet corners, the inhuman bludgeoning of

608
00:38:08,940 --> 00:38:11,650
all tentative advances of curiosity, the

609
00:38:11,650 --> 00:38:15,420
taste for twilight that led to the closing of doors, the pulling down of blinds, the

610
00:38:15,420 --> 00:38:19,850
extinction of candles and lamps--who could agree with such goings on?

611
00:38:19,850 --> 00:38:25,230
They drew aside as he passed down the village, and when he had gone by, young

612
00:38:25,230 --> 00:38:29,410
humourists would up with coat-collars and down with hat-brims, and go pacing

613
00:38:29,410 --> 00:38:32,940
nervously after him in imitation of his occult bearing.

614
00:38:32,940 --> 00:38:37,260
There was a song popular at that time called "The Bogey Man".

615
00:38:37,260 --> 00:38:41,220
Miss Statchell sang it at the schoolroom concert (in aid of the church lamps), and

616
00:38:41,220 --> 00:38:45,049
thereafter whenever one or two of the villagers were gathered together and the

617
00:38:45,049 --> 00:38:47,170
stranger appeared, a bar or so of this

618
00:38:47,170 --> 00:38:52,440
tune, more or less sharp or flat, was whistled in the midst of them.

619
00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:56,790
Also belated little children would call "Bogey Man!" after him, and make off

620
00:38:56,790 --> 00:38:57,790
tremulously elated.

621
00:38:57,790 --> 00:39:04,679
Cuss, the general practitioner, was devoured by curiosity.

622
00:39:04,679 --> 00:39:08,489
The bandages excited his professional interest, the report of the thousand and

623
00:39:08,489 --> 00:39:12,049
one bottles aroused his jealous regard.

624
00:39:12,049 --> 00:39:16,020
All through April and May he coveted an opportunity of talking to the stranger, and

625
00:39:16,020 --> 00:39:20,459
at last, towards Whitsuntide, he could stand it no longer, but hit upon the

626
00:39:20,459 --> 00:39:24,060
subscription-list for a village nurse as an excuse.

627
00:39:24,060 --> 00:39:28,859
He was surprised to find that Mr. Hall did not know his guest's name.

628
00:39:28,859 --> 00:39:33,469
"He give a name," said Mrs. Hall--an assertion which was quite unfounded--"but I

629
00:39:33,469 --> 00:39:37,229
didn't rightly hear it." She thought it seemed so silly not to know

630
00:39:37,229 --> 00:39:40,770
the man's name.

631
00:39:40,770 --> 00:39:43,650
Cuss rapped at the parlour door and entered.

632
00:39:43,650 --> 00:39:47,310
There was a fairly audible imprecation from within.

633
00:39:47,310 --> 00:39:51,610
"Pardon my intrusion," said Cuss, and then the door closed and cut Mrs. Hall off from

634
00:39:51,610 --> 00:39:55,060
the rest of the conversation.

635
00:39:55,060 --> 00:39:59,410
She could hear the murmur of voices for the next ten minutes, then a cry of surprise,

636
00:39:59,410 --> 00:40:04,410
a stirring of feet, a chair flung aside, a bark of laughter, quick steps to the door,

637
00:40:04,410 --> 00:40:08,820
and Cuss appeared, his face white, his eyes staring over his shoulder.

638
00:40:08,820 --> 00:40:13,750
He left the door open behind him, and without looking at her strode across the

639
00:40:13,750 --> 00:40:18,250
hall and went down the steps, and she heard his feet hurrying along the road.

640
00:40:18,250 --> 00:40:21,200
He carried his hat in his hand.

641
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:24,820
She stood behind the door, looking at the open door of the parlour.

642
00:40:24,820 --> 00:40:28,329
Then she heard the stranger laughing quietly, and then his footsteps came across

643
00:40:28,329 --> 00:40:29,900
the room.

644
00:40:29,900 --> 00:40:34,040
She could not see his face where she stood. The parlour door slammed, and the place was

645
00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:38,800
silent again. Cuss went straight up the village to

646
00:40:38,800 --> 00:40:40,329
Bunting the vicar.

647
00:40:40,329 --> 00:40:42,850
"Am I mad?" Cuss began abruptly, as he entered the

648
00:40:42,850 --> 00:40:45,770
shabby little study. "Do I look like an insane person?"

649
00:40:45,770 --> 00:40:50,980
"What's happened?" said the vicar, putting the ammonite on the loose sheets of his

650
00:40:50,980 --> 00:40:55,530
forth-coming sermon. "That chap at the inn--"

651
00:40:55,530 --> 00:40:56,990
"Well?"

652
00:40:56,990 --> 00:41:01,170
"Give me something to drink," said Cuss, and he sat down.

653
00:41:01,170 --> 00:41:05,030
When his nerves had been steadied by a glass of cheap sherry--the only drink the

654
00:41:05,030 --> 00:41:10,209
good vicar had available--he told him of the interview he had just had.

655
00:41:10,209 --> 00:41:15,270
"Went in," he gasped, "and began to demand a subscription for that Nurse Fund.

656
00:41:15,270 --> 00:41:18,720
He'd stuck his hands in his pockets as I came in, and he sat down lumpily in his

657
00:41:18,720 --> 00:41:20,190
chair.

658
00:41:20,190 --> 00:41:22,930
Sniffed. I told him I'd heard he took an interest in

659
00:41:22,930 --> 00:41:25,660
scientific things. He said yes.

660
00:41:25,660 --> 00:41:26,650
Sniffed again.

661
00:41:26,650 --> 00:41:30,180
Kept on sniffing all the time; evidently recently caught an infernal cold.

662
00:41:30,180 --> 00:41:35,180
No wonder, wrapped up like that! I developed the nurse idea, and all the

663
00:41:35,180 --> 00:41:36,250
while kept my eyes open.

664
00:41:36,250 --> 00:41:42,240
Bottles--chemicals--everywhere. Balance, test-tubes in stands, and a smell

665
00:41:42,240 --> 00:41:46,690
of--evening primrose. Would he subscribe?

666
00:41:46,690 --> 00:41:48,020
Said he'd consider it.

667
00:41:48,020 --> 00:41:51,630
Asked him, point-blank, was he researching. Said he was.

668
00:41:51,630 --> 00:41:53,910
A long research? Got quite cross.

669
00:41:53,910 --> 00:41:57,690
'A damnable long research,' said he, blowing the cork out, so to speak.

670
00:41:57,690 --> 00:42:00,840
'Oh,' said I. And out came the grievance.

671
00:42:00,840 --> 00:42:04,370
The man was just on the boil, and my question boiled him over.

672
00:42:04,370 --> 00:42:08,760
He had been given a prescription, most valuable prescription--what for he wouldn't

673
00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:09,950
say.

674
00:42:09,950 --> 00:42:11,630
Was it medical? 'Damn you!

675
00:42:11,630 --> 00:42:15,329
What are you fishing after?' I apologised.

676
00:42:15,329 --> 00:42:17,170
Dignified sniff and cough.

677
00:42:17,170 --> 00:42:19,480
He resumed. He'd read it.

678
00:42:19,480 --> 00:42:23,320
Five ingredients. Put it down; turned his head.

679
00:42:23,320 --> 00:42:25,449
Draught of air from window lifted the paper.

680
00:42:25,449 --> 00:42:28,770
Swish, rustle. He was working in a room with an open

681
00:42:28,770 --> 00:42:29,880
fireplace, he said.

682
00:42:29,880 --> 00:42:33,140
Saw a flicker, and there was the prescription burning and lifting

683
00:42:33,140 --> 00:42:36,650
chimneyward. Rushed towards it just as it whisked up the

684
00:42:36,650 --> 00:42:38,480
chimney.

685
00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:44,570
So! Just at that point, to illustrate his story, out came his arm."

686
00:42:44,570 --> 00:42:48,060
"Well?" "No hand--just an empty sleeve.

687
00:42:48,060 --> 00:42:49,050
Lord!

688
00:42:49,050 --> 00:42:54,360
I thought, that's a deformity! Got a cork arm, I suppose, and has taken it

689
00:42:54,360 --> 00:42:57,390
off. Then, I thought, there's something odd in

690
00:42:57,390 --> 00:42:58,020
that.

691
00:42:58,020 --> 00:43:01,949
What the devil keeps that sleeve up and open, if there's nothing in it?

692
00:43:01,949 --> 00:43:06,010
There was nothing in it, I tell you. Nothing down it, right down to the joint.

693
00:43:06,010 --> 00:43:10,230
I could see right down it to the elbow, and there was a glimmer of light shining

694
00:43:10,230 --> 00:43:12,840
through a tear of the cloth. 'Good God!'

695
00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:14,410
I said.

696
00:43:14,410 --> 00:43:17,570
Then he stopped. Stared at me with those black goggles of

697
00:43:17,570 --> 00:43:20,940
his, and then at his sleeve." "Well?"

698
00:43:20,940 --> 00:43:22,250
"That's all.

699
00:43:22,250 --> 00:43:29,280
He never said a word; just glared, and put his sleeve back in his pocket quickly.

700
00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:33,620
'I was saying,' said he, 'that there was the prescription burning, wasn't I?'

701
00:43:33,620 --> 00:43:35,320
Interrogative cough.

702
00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:43,110
'How the devil,' said I, 'can you move an empty sleeve like that?'

703
00:43:43,110 --> 00:43:47,150
'Empty sleeve?' 'Yes,' said I, 'an empty sleeve.'

704
00:43:47,150 --> 00:43:49,199
"'It's an empty sleeve, is it?

705
00:43:49,199 --> 00:43:53,630
You saw it was an empty sleeve?' He stood up right away.

706
00:43:53,630 --> 00:43:56,709
I stood up too. He came towards me in three very slow

707
00:43:56,709 --> 00:43:58,890
steps, and stood quite close.

708
00:43:58,890 --> 00:44:03,430
Sniffed venomously. I didn't flinch, though I'm hanged if that

709
00:44:03,430 --> 00:44:07,190
bandaged knob of his, and those blinkers, aren't enough to unnerve any one, coming

710
00:44:07,190 --> 00:44:09,300
quietly up to you.

711
00:44:09,300 --> 00:44:11,770
"'You said it was an empty sleeve?' he said.

712
00:44:11,770 --> 00:44:15,650
'Certainly,' I said. At staring and saying nothing a barefaced

713
00:44:15,650 --> 00:44:17,709
man, unspectacled, starts scratch.

714
00:44:17,709 --> 00:44:23,780
Then very quietly he pulled his sleeve out of his pocket again, and raised his arm

715
00:44:23,780 --> 00:44:26,850
towards me as though he would show it to me again.

716
00:44:26,850 --> 00:44:30,000
He did it very, very slowly.

717
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:33,770
I looked at it. Seemed an age.

718
00:44:33,770 --> 00:44:36,480
'Well?' said I, clearing my throat, 'there's nothing in it.'

719
00:44:36,480 --> 00:44:38,750
"Had to say something.

720
00:44:38,750 --> 00:44:42,400
I was beginning to feel frightened. I could see right down it.

721
00:44:42,400 --> 00:44:47,640
He extended it straight towards me, slowly, slowly--just like that--until the cuff was

722
00:44:47,640 --> 00:44:49,120
six inches from my face.

723
00:44:49,120 --> 00:44:53,150
Queer thing to see an empty sleeve come at you like that!

724
00:44:53,150 --> 00:44:56,720
And then--" "Well?"

725
00:44:56,720 --> 00:45:03,410
"Something--exactly like a finger and thumb it felt--nipped my nose."

726
00:45:03,410 --> 00:45:04,750
Bunting began to laugh.

727
00:45:04,750 --> 00:45:08,870
"There wasn't anything there!" said Cuss, his voice running up into a shriek at the

728
00:45:08,870 --> 00:45:09,360
"there."

729
00:45:09,360 --> 00:45:13,440
"It's all very well for you to laugh, but I tell you I was so startled, I hit his cuff

730
00:45:13,440 --> 00:45:18,860
hard, and turned around, and cut out of the room--I left him--"

731
00:45:18,860 --> 00:45:20,350
Cuss stopped.

732
00:45:20,350 --> 00:45:23,410
There was no mistaking the sincerity of his panic.

733
00:45:23,410 --> 00:45:27,440
He turned round in a helpless way and took a second glass of the excellent vicar's

734
00:45:27,440 --> 00:45:29,890
very inferior sherry.

735
00:45:29,890 --> 00:45:35,320
"When I hit his cuff," said Cuss, "I tell you, it felt exactly like hitting an arm.

736
00:45:35,320 --> 00:45:40,410
And there wasn't an arm! There wasn't the ghost of an arm!"

737
00:45:40,410 --> 00:45:43,310
Mr. Bunting thought it over.

738
00:45:43,310 --> 00:45:49,829
He looked suspiciously at Cuss. "It's a most remarkable story," he said.

739
00:45:49,829 --> 00:45:51,600
He looked very wise and grave indeed.

740
00:45:51,600 --> 00:45:58,170
"It's really," said Mr. Bunting with judicial emphasis, "a most remarkable

741
00:45:58,170 --> 00:46:03,174
story."

742
00:46:03,174 --> 00:46:04,174
>

743
00:46:04,174 --> 00:46:17,294
-CHAPTER V THE BURGLARY AT THE VICARAGE

744
00:46:17,294 --> 00:46:20,604
The facts of the burglary at the vicarage came to us chiefly through the medium of

745
00:46:20,604 --> 00:46:22,604
the vicar and his wife.

746
00:46:22,604 --> 00:46:26,884
It occurred in the small hours of Whit Monday, the day devoted in Iping to the

747
00:46:26,884 --> 00:46:28,854
Club festivities.

748
00:46:28,854 --> 00:46:33,354
Mrs. Bunting, it seems, woke up suddenly in the stillness that comes before the dawn,

749
00:46:33,354 --> 00:46:38,204
with the strong impression that the door of their bedroom had opened and closed.

750
00:46:38,204 --> 00:46:42,373
She did not arouse her husband at first, but sat up in bed listening.

751
00:46:42,373 --> 00:46:46,193
She then distinctly heard the pad, pad, pad of bare feet coming out of the adjoining

752
00:46:46,193 --> 00:46:49,824
dressing-room and walking along the passage towards the staircase.

753
00:46:49,824 --> 00:46:55,663
As soon as she felt assured of this, she aroused the Rev. Mr. Bunting as quietly as

754
00:46:55,663 --> 00:46:56,384
possible.

755
00:46:56,384 --> 00:47:00,233
He did not strike a light, but putting on his spectacles, her dressing-gown and his

756
00:47:00,233 --> 00:47:03,954
bath slippers, he went out on the landing to listen.

757
00:47:03,954 --> 00:47:08,344
He heard quite distinctly a fumbling going on at his study desk down-stairs, and then

758
00:47:08,344 --> 00:47:11,583
a violent sneeze.

759
00:47:11,583 --> 00:47:15,514
At that he returned to his bedroom, armed himself with the most obvious weapon, the

760
00:47:15,514 --> 00:47:18,884
poker, and descended the staircase as noiselessly as possible.

761
00:47:18,884 --> 00:47:22,893
Mrs. Bunting came out on the landing.

762
00:47:22,893 --> 00:47:26,323
The hour was about four, and the ultimate darkness of the night was past.

763
00:47:26,323 --> 00:47:31,003
There was a faint shimmer of light in the hall, but the study doorway yawned

764
00:47:31,003 --> 00:47:33,213
impenetrably black.

765
00:47:33,213 --> 00:47:36,283
Everything was still except the faint creaking of the stairs under Mr. Bunting's

766
00:47:36,283 --> 00:47:39,173
tread, and the slight movements in the study.

767
00:47:39,173 --> 00:47:44,083
Then something snapped, the drawer was opened, and there was a rustle of papers.

768
00:47:44,083 --> 00:47:47,433
Then came an imprecation, and a match was struck and the study was flooded with

769
00:47:47,433 --> 00:47:49,283
yellow light.

770
00:47:49,283 --> 00:47:52,533
Mr. Bunting was now in the hall, and through the crack of the door he could see

771
00:47:52,533 --> 00:47:56,183
the desk and the open drawer and a candle burning on the desk.

772
00:47:56,183 --> 00:47:57,543
But the robber he could not see.

773
00:47:57,543 --> 00:48:04,704
He stood there in the hall undecided what to do, and Mrs. Bunting, her face white and

774
00:48:04,704 --> 00:48:08,344
intent, crept slowly downstairs after him.

775
00:48:08,344 --> 00:48:12,614
One thing kept Mr. Bunting's courage; the persuasion that this burglar was a resident

776
00:48:12,614 --> 00:48:13,084
in the village.

777
00:48:13,084 --> 00:48:18,114
They heard the chink of money, and realised that the robber had found the housekeeping

778
00:48:18,114 --> 00:48:22,754
reserve of gold--two pounds ten in half sovereigns altogether.

779
00:48:22,754 --> 00:48:26,034
At that sound Mr. Bunting was nerved to abrupt action.

780
00:48:26,034 --> 00:48:30,364
Gripping the poker firmly, he rushed into the room, closely followed by Mrs. Bunting.

781
00:48:30,364 --> 00:48:35,743
"Surrender!" cried Mr. Bunting, fiercely, and then stooped amazed.

782
00:48:35,743 --> 00:48:37,413
Apparently the room was perfectly empty.

783
00:48:37,413 --> 00:48:42,844
Yet their conviction that they had, that very moment, heard somebody moving in the

784
00:48:42,844 --> 00:48:44,344
room had amounted to a certainty.

785
00:48:44,344 --> 00:48:48,684
For half a minute, perhaps, they stood gaping, then Mrs. Bunting went across the

786
00:48:48,684 --> 00:48:52,243
room and looked behind the screen, while Mr. Bunting, by a kindred impulse, peered

787
00:48:52,243 --> 00:48:53,374
under the desk.

788
00:48:53,374 --> 00:48:56,984
Then Mrs. Bunting turned back the window- curtains, and Mr. Bunting looked up the

789
00:48:56,984 --> 00:48:59,053
chimney and probed it with the poker.

790
00:48:59,053 --> 00:49:03,663
Then Mrs. Bunting scrutinised the waste- paper basket and Mr. Bunting opened the lid

791
00:49:03,663 --> 00:49:07,484
of the coal-scuttle. Then they came to a stop and stood with

792
00:49:07,484 --> 00:49:09,404
eyes interrogating each other.

793
00:49:09,404 --> 00:49:14,753
"I could have sworn--" said Mr. Bunting. "The candle!" said Mr. Bunting.

794
00:49:14,753 --> 00:49:18,314
"Who lit the candle?" "The drawer!" said Mrs. Bunting.

795
00:49:18,314 --> 00:49:20,854
"And the money's gone!"

796
00:49:20,854 --> 00:49:26,464
She went hastily to the doorway. "Of all the strange occurrences--"

797
00:49:26,464 --> 00:49:30,684
There was a violent sneeze in the passage. They rushed out, and as they did so the

798
00:49:30,684 --> 00:49:31,473
kitchen door slammed.

799
00:49:31,473 --> 00:49:35,363
"Bring the candle," said Mr. Bunting, and led the way.

800
00:49:35,363 --> 00:49:39,124
They both heard a sound of bolts being hastily shot back.

801
00:49:39,124 --> 00:49:42,613
As he opened the kitchen door he saw through the scullery that the back door was

802
00:49:42,613 --> 00:49:46,553
just opening, and the faint light of early dawn displayed the dark masses of the

803
00:49:46,553 --> 00:49:48,594
garden beyond.

804
00:49:48,594 --> 00:49:50,214
He is certain that nothing went out of the door.

805
00:49:50,214 --> 00:49:55,473
It opened, stood open for a moment, and then closed with a slam.

806
00:49:55,473 --> 00:49:58,654
As it did so, the candle Mrs. Bunting was carrying from the study flickered and

807
00:49:58,654 --> 00:50:01,684
flared. It was a minute or more before they entered

808
00:50:01,684 --> 00:50:02,053
the kitchen.

809
00:50:02,053 --> 00:50:08,424
The place was empty. They refastened the back door, examined the

810
00:50:08,424 --> 00:50:13,654
kitchen, pantry, and scullery thoroughly, and at last went down into the cellar.

811
00:50:13,654 --> 00:50:17,824
There was not a soul to be found in the house, search as they would.

812
00:50:17,824 --> 00:50:23,094
Daylight found the vicar and his wife, a quaintly-costumed little couple, still

813
00:50:23,094 --> 00:50:29,374
marvelling about on their own ground floor by the unnecessary light of a guttering

814
00:50:29,374 --> 00:50:30,814
candle.

815
00:50:30,814 --> 00:50:34,304
CHAPTER VI THE FURNITURE THAT WENT MAD

816
00:50:34,304 --> 00:50:41,114
Now it happened that in the early hours of Whit Monday, before Millie was hunted out

817
00:50:41,114 --> 00:50:45,814
for the day, Mr. Hall and Mrs. Hall both rose and went noiselessly down into the

818
00:50:45,814 --> 00:50:46,664
cellar.

819
00:50:46,664 --> 00:50:50,784
Their business there was of a private nature, and had something to do with the

820
00:50:50,784 --> 00:50:53,594
specific gravity of their beer.

821
00:50:53,594 --> 00:50:56,514
They had hardly entered the cellar when Mrs. Hall found she had forgotten to bring

822
00:50:56,514 --> 00:51:00,404
down a bottle of sarsaparilla from their joint-room.

823
00:51:00,404 --> 00:51:04,614
As she was the expert and principal operator in this affair, Hall very properly

824
00:51:04,614 --> 00:51:08,644
went upstairs for it. On the landing he was surprised to see that

825
00:51:08,644 --> 00:51:10,714
the stranger's door was ajar.

826
00:51:10,714 --> 00:51:15,814
He went on into his own room and found the bottle as he had been directed.

827
00:51:15,814 --> 00:51:18,914
But returning with the bottle, he noticed that the bolts of the front door had been

828
00:51:18,914 --> 00:51:22,774
shot back, that the door was in fact simply on the latch.

829
00:51:22,774 --> 00:51:25,564
And with a flash of inspiration he connected this with the stranger's room

830
00:51:25,564 --> 00:51:29,114
upstairs and the suggestions of Mr. Teddy Henfrey.

831
00:51:29,114 --> 00:51:33,564
He distinctly remembered holding the candle while Mrs. Hall shot these bolts overnight.

832
00:51:33,564 --> 00:51:38,304
At the sight he stopped, gaping, then with the bottle still in his hand went upstairs

833
00:51:38,304 --> 00:51:39,334
again.

834
00:51:39,334 --> 00:51:42,584
He rapped at the stranger's door. There was no answer.

835
00:51:42,584 --> 00:51:46,974
He rapped again; then pushed the door wide open and entered.

836
00:51:46,974 --> 00:51:48,974
It was as he expected.

837
00:51:48,974 --> 00:51:51,694
The bed, the room also, was empty.

838
00:51:51,694 --> 00:51:57,424
And what was stranger, even to his heavy intelligence, on the bedroom chair and

839
00:51:57,424 --> 00:52:01,504
along the rail of the bed were scattered the garments, the only garments so far as

840
00:52:01,504 --> 00:52:04,854
he knew, and the bandages of their guest.

841
00:52:04,854 --> 00:52:08,594
His big slouch hat even was cocked jauntily over the bed-post.

842
00:52:08,594 --> 00:52:13,294
As Hall stood there he heard his wife's voice coming out of the depth of the

843
00:52:13,294 --> 00:52:17,574
cellar, with that rapid telescoping of the syllables and interrogative cocking up of

844
00:52:17,574 --> 00:52:19,774
the final words to a high note, by which

845
00:52:19,774 --> 00:52:24,444
the West Sussex villager is wont to indicate a brisk impatience.

846
00:52:24,444 --> 00:52:27,754
"George! You gart whad a wand?"

847
00:52:27,754 --> 00:52:30,174
At that he turned and hurried down to her.

848
00:52:30,174 --> 00:52:33,514
"Janny," he said, over the rail of the cellar steps, "'tas the truth what Henfrey

849
00:52:33,514 --> 00:52:35,084
sez. 'E's not in uz room, 'e en't.

850
00:52:35,084 --> 00:52:36,664
And the front door's onbolted."

851
00:52:36,664 --> 00:52:42,724
At first Mrs. Hall did not understand, and as soon as she did she resolved to see the

852
00:52:42,724 --> 00:52:46,904
empty room for herself. Hall, still holding the bottle, went first.

853
00:52:46,904 --> 00:52:49,634
"If 'e en't there," he said, "'is close are.

854
00:52:49,634 --> 00:52:51,714
And what's 'e doin' 'ithout 'is close, then?

855
00:52:51,714 --> 00:52:55,474
'Tas a most curious business."

856
00:52:55,474 --> 00:52:59,424
As they came up the cellar steps they both, it was afterwards ascertained, fancied they

857
00:52:59,424 --> 00:53:03,384
heard the front door open and shut, but seeing it closed and nothing there, neither

858
00:53:03,384 --> 00:53:05,944
said a word to the other about it at the time.

859
00:53:05,944 --> 00:53:10,224
Mrs. Hall passed her husband in the passage and ran on first upstairs.

860
00:53:10,224 --> 00:53:13,134
Someone sneezed on the staircase.

861
00:53:13,134 --> 00:53:17,534
Hall, following six steps behind, thought that he heard her sneeze.

862
00:53:17,534 --> 00:53:21,354
She, going on first, was under the impression that Hall was sneezing.

863
00:53:21,354 --> 00:53:23,444
She flung open the door and stood regarding the room.

864
00:53:23,444 --> 00:53:27,254
"Of all the curious!" she said.

865
00:53:27,254 --> 00:53:30,984
She heard a sniff close behind her head as it seemed, and turning, was surprised to

866
00:53:30,984 --> 00:53:34,534
see Hall a dozen feet off on the topmost stair.

867
00:53:34,534 --> 00:53:36,994
But in another moment he was beside her.

868
00:53:36,994 --> 00:53:40,264
She bent forward and put her hand on the pillow and then under the clothes.

869
00:53:40,264 --> 00:53:45,164
"Cold," she said. "He's been up this hour or more."

870
00:53:45,164 --> 00:53:48,414
As she did so, a most extraordinary thing happened.

871
00:53:48,414 --> 00:53:52,304
The bed-clothes gathered themselves together, leapt up suddenly into a sort of

872
00:53:52,304 --> 00:53:54,504
peak, and then jumped headlong over the bottom rail.

873
00:53:54,504 --> 00:53:59,634
It was exactly as if a hand had clutched them in the centre and flung them aside.

874
00:53:59,634 --> 00:54:03,054
Immediately after, the stranger's hat hopped off the bed-post, described a

875
00:54:03,054 --> 00:54:06,554
whirling flight in the air through the better part of a circle, and then dashed

876
00:54:06,554 --> 00:54:07,984
straight at Mrs. Hall's face.

877
00:54:07,984 --> 00:54:13,324
Then as swiftly came the sponge from the washstand; and then the chair, flinging the

878
00:54:13,324 --> 00:54:17,634
stranger's coat and trousers carelessly aside, and laughing drily in a voice

879
00:54:17,634 --> 00:54:19,944
singularly like the stranger's, turned

880
00:54:19,944 --> 00:54:24,604
itself up with its four legs at Mrs. Hall, seemed to take aim at her for a moment, and

881
00:54:24,604 --> 00:54:26,634
charged at her.

882
00:54:26,634 --> 00:54:31,164
She screamed and turned, and then the chair legs came gently but firmly against her

883
00:54:31,164 --> 00:54:34,014
back and impelled her and Hall out of the room.

884
00:54:34,014 --> 00:54:37,864
The door slammed violently and was locked.

885
00:54:37,864 --> 00:54:42,023
The chair and bed seemed to be executing a dance of triumph for a moment, and then

886
00:54:42,023 --> 00:54:45,693
abruptly everything was still.

887
00:54:45,693 --> 00:54:49,344
Mrs. Hall was left almost in a fainting condition in Mr. Hall's arms on the

888
00:54:49,344 --> 00:54:50,664
landing.

889
00:54:50,664 --> 00:54:54,763
It was with the greatest difficulty that Mr. Hall and Millie, who had been roused by

890
00:54:54,763 --> 00:54:58,904
her scream of alarm, succeeded in getting her downstairs, and applying the

891
00:54:58,904 --> 00:55:02,863
restoratives customary in such cases.

892
00:55:02,863 --> 00:55:06,024
"'Tas sperits," said Mrs. Hall. "I know 'tas sperits.

893
00:55:06,024 --> 00:55:10,714
I've read in papers of en. Tables and chairs leaping and dancing..."

894
00:55:10,714 --> 00:55:12,193
"Take a drop more, Janny," said Hall.

895
00:55:12,193 --> 00:55:15,573
"'Twill steady ye." "Lock him out," said Mrs. Hall.

896
00:55:15,573 --> 00:55:19,294
"Don't let him come in again. I half guessed--I might ha' known.

897
00:55:19,294 --> 00:55:22,794
With them goggling eyes and bandaged head, and never going to church of a Sunday.

898
00:55:22,794 --> 00:55:26,084
And all they bottles--more'n it's right for any one to have.

899
00:55:26,084 --> 00:55:27,784
He's put the sperits into the furniture....

900
00:55:27,784 --> 00:55:31,904
My good old furniture! 'Twas in that very chair my poor dear

901
00:55:31,904 --> 00:55:34,544
mother used to sit when I was a little girl.

902
00:55:34,544 --> 00:55:38,024
To think it should rise up against me now!"

903
00:55:38,024 --> 00:55:43,883
"Just a drop more, Janny," said Hall. "Your nerves is all upset."

904
00:55:43,883 --> 00:55:47,813
They sent Millie across the street through the golden five o'clock sunshine to rouse

905
00:55:47,813 --> 00:55:50,794
up Mr. Sandy Wadgers, the blacksmith.

906
00:55:50,794 --> 00:55:54,943
Mr. Hall's compliments and the furniture upstairs was behaving most extraordinary.

907
00:55:54,943 --> 00:55:58,714
Would Mr. Wadgers come round? He was a knowing man, was Mr. Wadgers, and

908
00:55:58,714 --> 00:56:00,724
very resourceful.

909
00:56:00,724 --> 00:56:05,534
He took quite a grave view of the case. "Arm darmed if thet ent witchcraft," was

910
00:56:05,534 --> 00:56:12,544
the view of Mr. Sandy Wadgers. "You warnt horseshoes for such gentry as

911
00:56:12,544 --> 00:56:12,584
he."

912
00:56:12,584 --> 00:56:16,623
He came round greatly concerned. They wanted him to lead the way upstairs to

913
00:56:16,623 --> 00:56:19,214
the room, but he didn't seem to be in any hurry.

914
00:56:19,214 --> 00:56:22,443
He preferred to talk in the passage.

915
00:56:22,443 --> 00:56:26,363
Over the way Huxter's apprentice came out and began taking down the shutters of the

916
00:56:26,363 --> 00:56:30,693
tobacco window. He was called over to join the discussion.

917
00:56:30,693 --> 00:56:34,563
Mr. Huxter naturally followed over in the course of a few minutes.

918
00:56:34,563 --> 00:56:38,854
The Anglo-Saxon genius for parliamentary government asserted itself; there was a

919
00:56:38,854 --> 00:56:41,003
great deal of talk and no decisive action.

920
00:56:41,003 --> 00:56:45,123
"Let's have the facts first," insisted Mr. Sandy Wadgers.

921
00:56:45,123 --> 00:56:49,693
"Let's be sure we'd be acting perfectly right in bustin' that there door open.

922
00:56:49,693 --> 00:56:53,373
A door onbust is always open to bustin', but ye can't onbust a door once you've

923
00:56:53,373 --> 00:56:55,984
busted en."

924
00:56:55,984 --> 00:56:59,794
And suddenly and most wonderfully the door of the room upstairs opened of its own

925
00:56:59,794 --> 00:57:04,423
accord, and as they looked up in amazement, they saw descending the stairs the muffled

926
00:57:04,423 --> 00:57:06,863
figure of the stranger staring more blackly

927
00:57:06,863 --> 00:57:12,613
and blankly than ever with those unreasonably large blue glass eyes of his.

928
00:57:12,613 --> 00:57:17,024
He came down stiffly and slowly, staring all the time; he walked across the passage

929
00:57:17,024 --> 00:57:20,394
staring, then stopped.

930
00:57:20,394 --> 00:57:24,113
"Look there!" he said, and their eyes followed the direction of his gloved finger

931
00:57:24,113 --> 00:57:28,013
and saw a bottle of sarsaparilla hard by the cellar door.

932
00:57:28,013 --> 00:57:32,313
Then he entered the parlour, and suddenly, swiftly, viciously, slammed the door in

933
00:57:32,313 --> 00:57:37,714
their faces. Not a word was spoken until the last echoes

934
00:57:37,714 --> 00:57:39,883
of the slam had died away.

935
00:57:39,883 --> 00:57:44,763
They stared at one another. "Well, if that don't lick everything!" said

936
00:57:44,763 --> 00:57:47,253
Mr. Wadgers, and left the alternative unsaid.

937
00:57:47,253 --> 00:57:51,974
"I'd go in and ask'n 'bout it," said Wadgers, to Mr. Hall.

938
00:57:51,974 --> 00:57:57,753
"I'd d'mand an explanation." It took some time to bring the landlady's

939
00:57:57,753 --> 00:57:59,743
husband up to that pitch.

940
00:57:59,743 --> 00:58:03,604
At last he rapped, opened the door, and got as far as, "Excuse me--"

941
00:58:03,604 --> 00:58:10,253
"Go to the devil!" said the stranger in a tremendous voice, and "Shut that door after

942
00:58:10,253 --> 00:58:11,214
you."

943
00:58:11,214 --> 00:58:16,344
So that brief interview terminated.

944
00:58:16,344 --> 00:58:21,813
CHAPTER VII THE UNVEILING OF THE STRANGER

945
00:58:21,813 --> 00:58:25,154
The stranger went into the little parlour of the "Coach and Horses" about half-past

946
00:58:25,154 --> 00:58:30,404
five in the morning, and there he remained until near midday, the blinds down, the

947
00:58:30,404 --> 00:58:34,813
door shut, and none, after Hall's repulse, venturing near him.

948
00:58:34,813 --> 00:58:38,263
All that time he must have fasted.

949
00:58:38,263 --> 00:58:42,894
Thrice he rang his bell, the third time furiously and continuously, but no one

950
00:58:42,894 --> 00:58:46,453
answered him. "Him and his 'go to the devil' indeed!"

951
00:58:46,453 --> 00:58:48,834
said Mrs. Hall.

952
00:58:48,834 --> 00:58:52,443
Presently came an imperfect rumour of the burglary at the vicarage, and two and two

953
00:58:52,443 --> 00:58:53,813
were put together.

954
00:58:53,813 --> 00:58:58,483
Hall, assisted by Wadgers, went off to find Mr. Shuckleforth, the magistrate, and take

955
00:58:58,483 --> 00:59:02,493
his advice. No one ventured upstairs.

956
00:59:02,493 --> 00:59:05,253
How the stranger occupied himself is unknown.

957
00:59:05,253 --> 00:59:09,013
Now and then he would stride violently up and down, and twice came an outburst of

958
00:59:09,013 --> 00:59:13,693
curses, a tearing of paper, and a violent smashing of bottles.

959
00:59:13,693 --> 00:59:17,724
The little group of scared but curious people increased.

960
00:59:17,724 --> 00:59:21,313
Mrs. Huxter came over; some gay young fellows resplendent in black ready-made

961
00:59:21,313 --> 00:59:26,383
jackets and pique paper ties--for it was Whit Monday--joined the group with confused

962
00:59:26,383 --> 00:59:28,024
interrogations.

963
00:59:28,024 --> 00:59:31,803
Young Archie Harker distinguished himself by going up the yard and trying to peep

964
00:59:31,803 --> 00:59:33,953
under the window-blinds.

965
00:59:33,953 --> 00:59:37,813
He could see nothing, but gave reason for supposing that he did, and others of the

966
00:59:37,813 --> 00:59:41,633
Iping youth presently joined him.

967
00:59:41,633 --> 00:59:45,964
It was the finest of all possible Whit Mondays, and down the village street stood

968
00:59:45,964 --> 00:59:50,503
a row of nearly a dozen booths, a shooting gallery, and on the grass by the forge were

969
00:59:50,503 --> 00:59:52,883
three yellow and chocolate waggons and some

970
00:59:52,883 --> 00:59:57,503
picturesque strangers of both sexes putting up a cocoanut shy.

971
00:59:57,503 --> 01:00:02,724
The gentlemen wore blue jerseys, the ladies white aprons and quite fashionable hats

972
01:00:02,724 --> 01:00:04,293
with heavy plumes.

973
01:00:04,293 --> 01:00:09,003
Wodger, of the "Purple Fawn," and Mr. Jaggers, the cobbler, who also sold old

974
01:00:09,003 --> 01:00:12,883
second-hand ordinary bicycles, were stretching a string of union-jacks and

975
01:00:12,883 --> 01:00:14,623
royal ensigns (which had originally

976
01:00:14,623 --> 01:00:19,543
celebrated the first Victorian Jubilee) across the road.

977
01:00:19,543 --> 01:00:24,144
And inside, in the artificial darkness of the parlour, into which only one thin jet

978
01:00:24,144 --> 01:00:29,053
of sunlight penetrated, the stranger, hungry we must suppose, and fearful, hidden

979
01:00:29,053 --> 01:00:32,113
in his uncomfortable hot wrappings, pored

980
01:00:32,113 --> 01:00:36,253
through his dark glasses upon his paper or chinked his dirty little bottles, and

981
01:00:36,253 --> 01:00:41,644
occasionally swore savagely at the boys, audible if invisible, outside the windows.

982
01:00:41,644 --> 01:00:45,443
In the corner by the fireplace lay the fragments of half a dozen smashed bottles,

983
01:00:45,443 --> 01:00:49,253
and a pungent twang of chlorine tainted the air.

984
01:00:49,253 --> 01:00:52,784
So much we know from what was heard at the time and from what was subsequently seen in

985
01:00:52,784 --> 01:00:53,003
the room.

986
01:00:53,003 --> 01:00:59,293
About noon he suddenly opened his parlour door and stood glaring fixedly at the three

987
01:00:59,293 --> 01:01:04,243
or four people in the bar. "Mrs. Hall," he said.

988
01:01:04,243 --> 01:01:06,293
Somebody went sheepishly and called for Mrs. Hall.

989
01:01:06,293 --> 01:01:12,404
Mrs. Hall appeared after an interval, a little short of breath, but all the fiercer

990
01:01:12,404 --> 01:01:13,293
for that.

991
01:01:13,293 --> 01:01:16,813
Hall was still out. She had deliberated over this scene, and

992
01:01:16,813 --> 01:01:19,613
she came holding a little tray with an unsettled bill upon it.

993
01:01:19,613 --> 01:01:24,993
"Is it your bill you're wanting, sir?" she said.

994
01:01:24,993 --> 01:01:28,323
"Why wasn't my breakfast laid? Why haven't you prepared my meals and

995
01:01:28,323 --> 01:01:29,173
answered my bell?

996
01:01:29,173 --> 01:01:33,743
Do you think I live without eating?" "Why isn't my bill paid?" said Mrs. Hall.

997
01:01:33,743 --> 01:01:37,803
"That's what I want to know." "I told you three days ago I was awaiting

998
01:01:37,803 --> 01:01:39,233
a remittance--"

999
01:01:39,233 --> 01:01:43,203
"I told you two days ago I wasn't going to await no remittances.

1000
01:01:43,203 --> 01:01:46,953
You can't grumble if your breakfast waits a bit, if my bill's been waiting these five

1001
01:01:46,953 --> 01:01:49,303
days, can you?"

1002
01:01:49,303 --> 01:01:56,034
The stranger swore briefly but vividly. "Nar, nar!" from the bar.

1003
01:01:56,034 --> 01:02:00,724
"And I'd thank you kindly, sir, if you'd keep your swearing to yourself, sir," said

1004
01:02:00,724 --> 01:02:02,664
Mrs. Hall.

1005
01:02:02,664 --> 01:02:06,703
The stranger stood looking more like an angry diving-helmet than ever.

1006
01:02:06,703 --> 01:02:10,914
It was universally felt in the bar that Mrs. Hall had the better of him.

1007
01:02:10,914 --> 01:02:13,414
His next words showed as much.

1008
01:02:13,414 --> 01:02:18,094
"Look here, my good woman--" he began. "Don't 'good woman' me," said Mrs. Hall.

1009
01:02:18,094 --> 01:02:24,383
"I've told you my remittance hasn't come." "Remittance indeed!" said Mrs. Hall.

1010
01:02:24,383 --> 01:02:26,733
"Still, I daresay in my pocket--"

1011
01:02:26,733 --> 01:02:30,334
"You told me three days ago that you hadn't anything but a sovereign's worth of silver

1012
01:02:30,334 --> 01:02:34,293
upon you." "Well, I've found some more--"

1013
01:02:34,293 --> 01:02:36,633
"'Ul-lo!" from the bar.

1014
01:02:36,633 --> 01:02:41,243
"I wonder where you found it," said Mrs. Hall.

1015
01:02:41,243 --> 01:02:43,363
That seemed to annoy the stranger very much.

1016
01:02:43,363 --> 01:02:44,753
He stamped his foot.

1017
01:02:44,753 --> 01:02:49,344
"What do you mean?" he said. "That I wonder where you found it," said

1018
01:02:49,344 --> 01:02:50,144
Mrs. Hall.

1019
01:02:50,144 --> 01:02:53,584
"And before I take any bills or get any breakfasts, or do any such things

1020
01:02:53,584 --> 01:02:57,404
whatsoever, you got to tell me one or two things I don't understand, and what nobody

1021
01:02:57,404 --> 01:03:00,904
don't understand, and what everybody is very anxious to understand.

1022
01:03:00,904 --> 01:03:04,813
I want to know what you been doing t'my chair upstairs, and I want to know how 'tis

1023
01:03:04,813 --> 01:03:06,784
your room was empty, and how you got in again.

1024
01:03:06,784 --> 01:03:10,954
Them as stops in this house comes in by the doors--that's the rule of the house, and

1025
01:03:10,954 --> 01:03:14,314
that you didn't do, and what I want to know is how you did come in.

1026
01:03:14,314 --> 01:03:17,013
And I want to know--"

1027
01:03:17,013 --> 01:03:21,224
Suddenly the stranger raised his gloved hands clenched, stamped his foot, and said,

1028
01:03:21,224 --> 01:03:26,864
"Stop!" with such extraordinary violence that he silenced her instantly.

1029
01:03:26,864 --> 01:03:31,184
"You don't understand," he said, "who I am or what I am.

1030
01:03:31,184 --> 01:03:32,244
I'll show you. By Heaven!

1031
01:03:32,244 --> 01:03:33,444
I'll show you."

1032
01:03:33,444 --> 01:03:37,874
Then he put his open palm over his face and withdrew it.

1033
01:03:37,874 --> 01:03:40,854
The centre of his face became a black cavity.

1034
01:03:40,854 --> 01:03:42,234
"Here," he said.

1035
01:03:42,234 --> 01:03:46,164
He stepped forward and handed Mrs. Hall something which she, staring at his

1036
01:03:46,164 --> 01:03:50,434
metamorphosed face, accepted automatically.

1037
01:03:50,434 --> 01:03:54,844
Then, when she saw what it was, she screamed loudly, dropped it, and staggered

1038
01:03:54,844 --> 01:03:58,914
back. The nose--it was the stranger's nose! pink

1039
01:03:58,914 --> 01:04:03,474
and shining--rolled on the floor.

1040
01:04:03,474 --> 01:04:07,104
Then he removed his spectacles, and everyone in the bar gasped.

1041
01:04:07,104 --> 01:04:11,454
He took off his hat, and with a violent gesture tore at his whiskers and bandages.

1042
01:04:11,454 --> 01:04:13,674
For a moment they resisted him.

1043
01:04:13,674 --> 01:04:18,224
A flash of horrible anticipation passed through the bar.

1044
01:04:18,224 --> 01:04:22,684
"Oh, my Gard!" said some one. Then off they came.

1045
01:04:22,684 --> 01:04:27,054
It was worse than anything.

1046
01:04:27,054 --> 01:04:31,164
Mrs. Hall, standing open-mouthed and horror-struck, shrieked at what she saw,

1047
01:04:31,164 --> 01:04:35,224
and made for the door of the house. Everyone began to move.

1048
01:04:35,224 --> 01:04:39,844
They were prepared for scars, disfigurements, tangible horrors, but

1049
01:04:39,844 --> 01:04:40,954
nothing!

1050
01:04:40,954 --> 01:04:45,624
The bandages and false hair flew across the passage into the bar, making a hobbledehoy

1051
01:04:45,624 --> 01:04:49,854
jump to avoid them. Everyone tumbled on everyone else down the

1052
01:04:49,854 --> 01:04:50,304
steps.

1053
01:04:50,304 --> 01:04:55,214
For the man who stood there shouting some incoherent explanation, was a solid

1054
01:04:55,214 --> 01:05:01,504
gesticulating figure up to the coat-collar of him, and then--nothingness, no visible

1055
01:05:01,504 --> 01:05:04,684
thing at all!

1056
01:05:04,684 --> 01:05:08,684
People down the village heard shouts and shrieks, and looking up the street saw the

1057
01:05:08,684 --> 01:05:12,734
"Coach and Horses" violently firing out its humanity.

1058
01:05:12,734 --> 01:05:17,854
They saw Mrs. Hall fall down and Mr. Teddy Henfrey jump to avoid tumbling over her,

1059
01:05:17,854 --> 01:05:21,244
and then they heard the frightful screams of Millie, who, emerging suddenly from the

1060
01:05:21,244 --> 01:05:23,364
kitchen at the noise of the tumult, had

1061
01:05:23,364 --> 01:05:27,334
come upon the headless stranger from behind.

1062
01:05:27,334 --> 01:05:30,474
These increased suddenly.

1063
01:05:30,474 --> 01:05:34,944
Forthwith everyone all down the street, the sweetstuff seller, cocoanut shy proprietor

1064
01:05:34,944 --> 01:05:39,944
and his assistant, the swing man, little boys and girls, rustic dandies, smart

1065
01:05:39,944 --> 01:05:42,554
wenches, smocked elders and aproned

1066
01:05:42,554 --> 01:05:47,544
gipsies--began running towards the inn, and in a miraculously short space of time a

1067
01:05:47,544 --> 01:05:53,194
crowd of perhaps forty people, and rapidly increasing, swayed and hooted and inquired

1068
01:05:53,194 --> 01:05:58,194
and exclaimed and suggested, in front of Mrs. Hall's establishment.

1069
01:05:58,194 --> 01:06:01,874
Everyone seemed eager to talk at once, and the result was Babel.

1070
01:06:01,874 --> 01:06:06,214
A small group supported Mrs. Hall, who was picked up in a state of collapse.

1071
01:06:06,214 --> 01:06:09,624
There was a conference, and the incredible evidence of a vociferous eye-witness.

1072
01:06:09,624 --> 01:06:11,524
"O Bogey!"

1073
01:06:11,524 --> 01:06:15,654
"What's he been doin', then?" "Ain't hurt the girl, 'as 'e?"

1074
01:06:15,654 --> 01:06:18,764
"Run at en with a knife, I believe." "No 'ed, I tell ye.

1075
01:06:18,764 --> 01:06:20,374
I don't mean no manner of speaking.

1076
01:06:20,374 --> 01:06:23,954
I mean marn 'ithout a 'ed!" "Narnsense!

1077
01:06:23,954 --> 01:06:29,534
'tis some conjuring trick." "Fetched off 'is wrapping, 'e did--"

1078
01:06:29,534 --> 01:06:33,584
In its struggles to see in through the open door, the crowd formed itself into a

1079
01:06:33,584 --> 01:06:38,094
straggling wedge, with the more adventurous apex nearest the inn.

1080
01:06:38,094 --> 01:06:41,764
"He stood for a moment, I heerd the gal scream, and he turned.

1081
01:06:41,764 --> 01:06:44,364
I saw her skirts whisk, and he went after her.

1082
01:06:44,364 --> 01:06:45,294
Didn't take ten seconds.

1083
01:06:45,294 --> 01:06:48,864
Back he comes with a knife in uz hand and a loaf; stood just as if he was staring.

1084
01:06:48,864 --> 01:06:51,254
Not a moment ago. Went in that there door.

1085
01:06:51,254 --> 01:06:54,494
I tell 'e, 'e ain't gart no 'ed at all.

1086
01:06:54,494 --> 01:06:57,934
You just missed en--"

1087
01:06:57,934 --> 01:07:02,344
There was a disturbance behind, and the speaker stopped to step aside for a little

1088
01:07:02,344 --> 01:07:06,684
procession that was marching very resolutely towards the house; first Mr.

1089
01:07:06,684 --> 01:07:09,864
Hall, very red and determined, then Mr.

1090
01:07:09,864 --> 01:07:14,684
Bobby Jaffers, the village constable, and then the wary Mr. Wadgers.

1091
01:07:14,684 --> 01:07:20,434
They had come now armed with a warrant. People shouted conflicting information of

1092
01:07:20,434 --> 01:07:21,534
the recent circumstances.

1093
01:07:21,534 --> 01:07:28,794
"'Ed or no 'ed," said Jaffers, "I got to 'rest en, and 'rest en I will."

1094
01:07:28,794 --> 01:07:32,444
Mr. Hall marched up the steps, marched straight to the door of the parlour and

1095
01:07:32,444 --> 01:07:34,004
flung it open.

1096
01:07:34,004 --> 01:07:39,724
"Constable," he said, "do your duty." Jaffers marched in.

1097
01:07:39,724 --> 01:07:41,444
Hall next, Wadgers last.

1098
01:07:41,444 --> 01:07:45,674
They saw in the dim light the headless figure facing them, with a gnawed crust of

1099
01:07:45,674 --> 01:07:48,474
bread in one gloved hand and a chunk of cheese in the other.

1100
01:07:48,474 --> 01:07:51,774
"That's him!" said Hall.

1101
01:07:51,774 --> 01:07:55,874
"What the devil's this?" came in a tone of angry expostulation from above the collar

1102
01:07:55,874 --> 01:07:59,504
of the figure. "You're a damned rum customer, mister,"

1103
01:07:59,504 --> 01:08:00,744
said Mr. Jaffers.

1104
01:08:00,744 --> 01:08:05,134
"But 'ed or no 'ed, the warrant says 'body,' and duty's duty--"

1105
01:08:05,134 --> 01:08:08,804
"Keep off!" said the figure, starting back.

1106
01:08:08,804 --> 01:08:11,924
Abruptly he whipped down the bread and cheese, and Mr. Hall just grasped the knife

1107
01:08:11,924 --> 01:08:16,094
on the table in time to save it. Off came the stranger's left glove and was

1108
01:08:16,094 --> 01:08:17,934
slapped in Jaffers' face.

1109
01:08:17,934 --> 01:08:22,044
In another moment Jaffers, cutting short some statement concerning a warrant, had

1110
01:08:22,044 --> 01:08:25,784
gripped him by the handless wrist and caught his invisible throat.

1111
01:08:25,784 --> 01:08:29,234
He got a sounding kick on the shin that made him shout, but he kept his grip.

1112
01:08:29,234 --> 01:08:33,674
Hall sent the knife sliding along the table to Wadgers, who acted as goal-keeper for

1113
01:08:33,674 --> 01:08:37,784
the offensive, so to speak, and then stepped forward as Jaffers and the stranger

1114
01:08:37,784 --> 01:08:41,384
swayed and staggered towards him, clutching and hitting in.

1115
01:08:41,384 --> 01:08:45,834
A chair stood in the way, and went aside with a crash as they came down together.

1116
01:08:45,834 --> 01:08:50,214
"Get the feet," said Jaffers between his teeth.

1117
01:08:50,214 --> 01:08:54,254
Mr. Hall, endeavouring to act on instructions, received a sounding kick in

1118
01:08:54,254 --> 01:08:59,234
the ribs that disposed of him for a moment, and Mr. Wadgers, seeing the decapitated

1119
01:08:59,234 --> 01:09:01,164
stranger had rolled over and got the upper

1120
01:09:01,164 --> 01:09:05,594
side of Jaffers, retreated towards the door, knife in hand, and so collided with

1121
01:09:05,594 --> 01:09:09,974
Mr. Huxter and the Sidderbridge carter coming to the rescue of law and order.

1122
01:09:09,974 --> 01:09:14,644
At the same moment down came three or four bottles from the chiffonnier and shot a web

1123
01:09:14,644 --> 01:09:17,844
of pungency into the air of the room.

1124
01:09:17,844 --> 01:09:21,674
"I'll surrender," cried the stranger, though he had Jaffers down, and in another

1125
01:09:21,674 --> 01:09:26,844
moment he stood up panting, a strange figure, headless and handless--for he had

1126
01:09:26,844 --> 01:09:29,754
pulled off his right glove now as well as his left.

1127
01:09:29,754 --> 01:09:31,644
"It's no good," he said, as if sobbing for breath.

1128
01:09:31,644 --> 01:09:36,554
It was the strangest thing in the world to hear that voice coming as if out of empty

1129
01:09:36,554 --> 01:09:40,704
space, but the Sussex peasants are perhaps the most matter-of-fact people under the

1130
01:09:40,704 --> 01:09:41,994
sun.

1131
01:09:41,994 --> 01:09:45,334
Jaffers got up also and produced a pair of handcuffs.

1132
01:09:45,334 --> 01:09:46,864
Then he stared.

1133
01:09:46,864 --> 01:09:53,464
"I say!" said Jaffers, brought up short by a dim realization of the incongruity of the

1134
01:09:53,464 --> 01:09:56,484
whole business, "Darn it! Can't use 'em as I can see."

1135
01:09:56,484 --> 01:10:01,884
The stranger ran his arm down his waistcoat, and as if by a miracle the

1136
01:10:01,884 --> 01:10:05,414
buttons to which his empty sleeve pointed became undone.

1137
01:10:05,414 --> 01:10:08,334
Then he said something about his shin, and stooped down.

1138
01:10:08,334 --> 01:10:12,014
He seemed to be fumbling with his shoes and socks.

1139
01:10:12,014 --> 01:10:16,234
"Why!" said Huxter, suddenly, "that's not a man at all.

1140
01:10:16,234 --> 01:10:18,264
It's just empty clothes. Look!

1141
01:10:18,264 --> 01:10:20,524
You can see down his collar and the linings of his clothes.

1142
01:10:20,524 --> 01:10:23,354
I could put my arm--"

1143
01:10:23,354 --> 01:10:26,874
He extended his hand; it seemed to meet something in mid-air, and he drew it back

1144
01:10:26,874 --> 01:10:28,044
with a sharp exclamation.

1145
01:10:28,044 --> 01:10:33,494
"I wish you'd keep your fingers out of my eye," said the aerial voice, in a tone of

1146
01:10:33,494 --> 01:10:35,364
savage expostulation.

1147
01:10:35,364 --> 01:10:40,294
"The fact is, I'm all here--head, hands, legs, and all the rest of it, but it

1148
01:10:40,294 --> 01:10:44,774
happens I'm invisible. It's a confounded nuisance, but I am.

1149
01:10:44,774 --> 01:10:48,424
That's no reason why I should be poked to pieces by every stupid bumpkin in Iping, is

1150
01:10:48,424 --> 01:10:51,314
it?"

1151
01:10:51,314 --> 01:10:55,954
The suit of clothes, now all unbuttoned and hanging loosely upon its unseen supports,

1152
01:10:55,954 --> 01:10:59,394
stood up, arms akimbo.

1153
01:10:59,394 --> 01:11:02,184
Several other of the men folks had now entered the room, so that it was closely

1154
01:11:02,184 --> 01:11:07,354
crowded. "Invisible, eh?" said Huxter, ignoring the

1155
01:11:07,354 --> 01:11:08,544
stranger's abuse.

1156
01:11:08,544 --> 01:11:13,054
"Who ever heard the likes of that?" "It's strange, perhaps, but it's not a

1157
01:11:13,054 --> 01:11:15,594
crime. Why am I assaulted by a policeman in this

1158
01:11:15,594 --> 01:11:16,894
fashion?"

1159
01:11:16,894 --> 01:11:18,994
"Ah! that's a different matter," said Jaffers.

1160
01:11:18,994 --> 01:11:23,324
"No doubt you are a bit difficult to see in this light, but I got a warrant and it's

1161
01:11:23,324 --> 01:11:24,814
all correct.

1162
01:11:24,814 --> 01:11:27,704
What I'm after ain't no invisibility,--it's burglary.

1163
01:11:27,704 --> 01:11:31,254
There's a house been broke into and money took."

1164
01:11:31,254 --> 01:11:31,924
"Well?"

1165
01:11:31,924 --> 01:11:36,514
"And circumstances certainly point--" "Stuff and nonsense!" said the Invisible

1166
01:11:36,514 --> 01:11:39,174
Man. "I hope so, sir; but I've got my

1167
01:11:39,174 --> 01:11:40,704
instructions."

1168
01:11:40,704 --> 01:11:43,514
"Well," said the stranger, "I'll come. I'll come.

1169
01:11:43,514 --> 01:11:48,304
But no handcuffs." "It's the regular thing," said Jaffers.

1170
01:11:48,304 --> 01:11:51,054
"No handcuffs," stipulated the stranger.

1171
01:11:51,054 --> 01:11:56,384
"Pardon me," said Jaffers. Abruptly the figure sat down, and before

1172
01:11:56,384 --> 01:12:00,104
any one could realise was was being done, the slippers, socks, and trousers had been

1173
01:12:00,104 --> 01:12:01,834
kicked off under the table.

1174
01:12:01,834 --> 01:12:04,544
Then he sprang up again and flung off his coat.

1175
01:12:04,544 --> 01:12:08,064
"Here, stop that," said Jaffers, suddenly realising what was happening.

1176
01:12:08,064 --> 01:12:12,354
He gripped at the waistcoat; it struggled, and the shirt slipped out of it and left it

1177
01:12:12,354 --> 01:12:16,134
limply and empty in his hand. "Hold him!" said Jaffers, loudly.

1178
01:12:16,134 --> 01:12:17,634
"Once he gets the things off--"

1179
01:12:17,634 --> 01:12:21,754
"Hold him!" cried everyone, and there was a rush at the fluttering white shirt which

1180
01:12:21,754 --> 01:12:25,014
was now all that was visible of the stranger.

1181
01:12:25,014 --> 01:12:28,534
The shirt-sleeve planted a shrewd blow in Hall's face that stopped his open-armed

1182
01:12:28,534 --> 01:12:32,924
advance, and sent him backward into old Toothsome the sexton, and in another moment

1183
01:12:32,924 --> 01:12:34,534
the garment was lifted up and became

1184
01:12:34,534 --> 01:12:38,734
convulsed and vacantly flapping about the arms, even as a shirt that is being thrust

1185
01:12:38,734 --> 01:12:40,484
over a man's head.

1186
01:12:40,484 --> 01:12:44,504
Jaffers clutched at it, and only helped to pull it off; he was struck in the mouth out

1187
01:12:44,504 --> 01:12:48,664
of the air, and incontinently threw his truncheon and smote Teddy Henfrey savagely

1188
01:12:48,664 --> 01:12:50,794
upon the crown of his head.

1189
01:12:50,794 --> 01:12:54,134
"Look out!" said everybody, fencing at random and hitting at nothing.

1190
01:12:54,134 --> 01:12:55,444
"Hold him! Shut the door!

1191
01:12:55,444 --> 01:12:56,564
Don't let him loose!

1192
01:12:56,564 --> 01:12:59,324
I got something! Here he is!"

1193
01:12:59,324 --> 01:13:01,984
A perfect Babel of noises they made.

1194
01:13:01,984 --> 01:13:06,604
Everybody, it seemed, was being hit all at once, and Sandy Wadgers, knowing as ever

1195
01:13:06,604 --> 01:13:10,794
and his wits sharpened by a frightful blow in the nose, reopened the door and led the

1196
01:13:10,794 --> 01:13:12,144
rout.

1197
01:13:12,144 --> 01:13:15,904
The others, following incontinently, were jammed for a moment in the corner by the

1198
01:13:15,904 --> 01:13:18,404
doorway. The hitting continued.

1199
01:13:18,404 --> 01:13:23,124
Phipps, the Unitarian, had a front tooth broken, and Henfrey was injured in the

1200
01:13:23,124 --> 01:13:24,984
cartilage of his ear.

1201
01:13:24,984 --> 01:13:27,804
Jaffers was struck under the jaw, and, turning, caught at something that

1202
01:13:27,804 --> 01:13:32,404
intervened between him and Huxter in the melee, and prevented their coming together.

1203
01:13:32,404 --> 01:13:36,074
He felt a muscular chest, and in another moment the whole mass of struggling,

1204
01:13:36,074 --> 01:13:40,264
excited men shot out into the crowded hall.

1205
01:13:40,264 --> 01:13:44,224
"I got him!" shouted Jaffers, choking and reeling through them all, and wrestling

1206
01:13:44,224 --> 01:13:48,274
with purple face and swelling veins against his unseen enemy.

1207
01:13:48,274 --> 01:13:52,024
Men staggered right and left as the extraordinary conflict swayed swiftly

1208
01:13:52,024 --> 01:13:56,504
towards the house door, and went spinning down the half-dozen steps of the inn.

1209
01:13:56,504 --> 01:14:00,374
Jaffers cried in a strangled voice--holding tight, nevertheless, and making play with

1210
01:14:00,374 --> 01:14:05,154
his knee--spun around, and fell heavily undermost with his head on the gravel.

1211
01:14:05,154 --> 01:14:08,734
Only then did his fingers relax.

1212
01:14:08,734 --> 01:14:10,624
There were excited cries of "Hold him!"

1213
01:14:10,624 --> 01:14:14,414
"Invisible!" and so forth, and a young fellow, a stranger in the place whose name

1214
01:14:14,414 --> 01:14:19,514
did not come to light, rushed in at once, caught something, missed his hold, and fell

1215
01:14:19,514 --> 01:14:20,874
over the constable's prostrate body.

1216
01:14:20,874 --> 01:14:26,244
Half-way across the road a woman screamed as something pushed by her; a dog, kicked

1217
01:14:26,244 --> 01:14:30,814
apparently, yelped and ran howling into Huxter's yard, and with that the transit of

1218
01:14:30,814 --> 01:14:33,054
the Invisible Man was accomplished.

1219
01:14:33,054 --> 01:14:37,924
For a space people stood amazed and gesticulating, and then came panic, and

1220
01:14:37,924 --> 01:14:40,964
scattered them abroad through the village as a gust scatters dead leaves.

1221
01:14:40,964 --> 01:14:48,364
But Jaffers lay quite still, face upward and knees bent, at the foot of the steps of

1222
01:14:48,364 --> 01:14:52,780
the inn.

1223
01:14:52,780 --> 01:14:53,780
>

1224
01:14:53,780 --> 01:15:04,470
-CHAPTER VIII IN TRANSIT

1225
01:15:04,470 --> 01:15:09,579
The eighth chapter is exceedingly brief, and relates that Gibbons, the amateur

1226
01:15:09,579 --> 01:15:14,210
naturalist of the district, while lying out on the spacious open downs without a soul

1227
01:15:14,210 --> 01:15:16,059
within a couple of miles of him, as he

1228
01:15:16,059 --> 01:15:21,310
thought, and almost dozing, heard close to him the sound as of a man coughing,

1229
01:15:21,310 --> 01:15:28,580
sneezing, and then swearing savagely to himself; and looking, beheld nothing.

1230
01:15:28,580 --> 01:15:30,670
Yet the voice was indisputable.

1231
01:15:30,670 --> 01:15:34,679
It continued to swear with that breadth and variety that distinguishes the swearing of

1232
01:15:34,679 --> 01:15:35,529
a cultivated man.

1233
01:15:35,529 --> 01:15:41,249
It grew to a climax, diminished again, and died away in the distance, going as it

1234
01:15:41,249 --> 01:15:43,830
seemed to him in the direction of Adderdean.

1235
01:15:43,830 --> 01:15:48,109
It lifted to a spasmodic sneeze and ended.

1236
01:15:48,109 --> 01:15:51,109
Gibbons had heard nothing of the morning's occurrences, but the phenomenon was so

1237
01:15:51,109 --> 01:15:55,769
striking and disturbing that his philosophical tranquillity vanished; he got

1238
01:15:55,769 --> 01:15:57,509
up hastily, and hurried down the steepness

1239
01:15:57,509 --> 01:16:05,010
of the hill towards the village, as fast as he could go.

1240
01:16:05,010 --> 01:16:10,430
CHAPTER IX MR. THOMAS MARVEL

1241
01:16:10,430 --> 01:16:15,620
You must picture Mr. Thomas Marvel as a person of copious, flexible visage, a nose

1242
01:16:15,620 --> 01:16:21,040
of cylindrical protrusion, a liquorish, ample, fluctuating mouth, and a beard of

1243
01:16:21,040 --> 01:16:22,270
bristling eccentricity.

1244
01:16:22,270 --> 01:16:29,070
His figure inclined to embonpoint; his short limbs accentuated this inclination.

1245
01:16:29,070 --> 01:16:33,470
He wore a furry silk hat, and the frequent substitution of twine and shoe-laces for

1246
01:16:33,470 --> 01:16:41,020
buttons, apparent at critical points of his costume, marked a man essentially bachelor.

1247
01:16:41,020 --> 01:16:44,760
Mr. Thomas Marvel was sitting with his feet in a ditch by the roadside over the down

1248
01:16:44,760 --> 01:16:48,520
towards Adderdean, about a mile and a half out of Iping.

1249
01:16:48,520 --> 01:16:54,260
His feet, save for socks of irregular open- work, were bare, his big toes were broad,

1250
01:16:54,260 --> 01:16:57,759
and pricked like the ears of a watchful dog.

1251
01:16:57,759 --> 01:17:02,480
In a leisurely manner--he did everything in a leisurely manner--he was contemplating

1252
01:17:02,480 --> 01:17:04,620
trying on a pair of boots.

1253
01:17:04,620 --> 01:17:08,810
They were the soundest boots he had come across for a long time, but too large for

1254
01:17:08,810 --> 01:17:13,090
him; whereas the ones he had were, in dry weather, a very comfortable fit, but too

1255
01:17:13,090 --> 01:17:15,099
thin-soled for damp.

1256
01:17:15,099 --> 01:17:19,799
Mr. Thomas Marvel hated roomy shoes, but then he hated damp.

1257
01:17:19,799 --> 01:17:24,010
He had never properly thought out which he hated most, and it was a pleasant day, and

1258
01:17:24,010 --> 01:17:25,799
there was nothing better to do.

1259
01:17:25,799 --> 01:17:29,879
So he put the four shoes in a graceful group on the turf and looked at them.

1260
01:17:29,879 --> 01:17:34,469
And seeing them there among the grass and springing agrimony, it suddenly occurred to

1261
01:17:34,469 --> 01:17:38,129
him that both pairs were exceedingly ugly to see.

1262
01:17:38,129 --> 01:17:41,510
He was not at all startled by a voice behind him.

1263
01:17:41,510 --> 01:17:45,570
"They're boots, anyhow," said the Voice.

1264
01:17:45,570 --> 01:17:49,200
"They are--charity boots," said Mr. Thomas Marvel, with his head on one side regarding

1265
01:17:49,200 --> 01:17:52,919
them distastefully; "and which is the ugliest pair in the whole blessed universe,

1266
01:17:52,919 --> 01:17:54,730
I'm darned if I know!"

1267
01:17:54,730 --> 01:17:59,939
"H'm," said the Voice. "I've worn worse--in fact, I've worn none.

1268
01:17:59,939 --> 01:18:02,859
But none so owdacious ugly--if you'll allow the expression.

1269
01:18:02,859 --> 01:18:05,739
I've been cadging boots--in particular--for days.

1270
01:18:05,739 --> 01:18:08,730
Because I was sick of them. They're sound enough, of course.

1271
01:18:08,730 --> 01:18:11,570
But a gentleman on tramp sees such a thundering lot of his boots.

1272
01:18:11,570 --> 01:18:15,279
And if you'll believe me, I've raised nothing in the whole blessed country, try

1273
01:18:15,279 --> 01:18:16,650
as I would, but them.

1274
01:18:16,650 --> 01:18:19,239
Look at 'em! And a good country for boots, too, in a

1275
01:18:19,239 --> 01:18:20,779
general way. But it's just my promiscuous luck.

1276
01:18:20,779 --> 01:18:24,070
I've got my boots in this country ten years or more.

1277
01:18:24,070 --> 01:18:28,059
And then they treat you like this." "It's a beast of a country," said the

1278
01:18:28,059 --> 01:18:28,439
Voice.

1279
01:18:28,439 --> 01:18:32,620
"And pigs for people." "Ain't it?" said Mr. Thomas Marvel.

1280
01:18:32,620 --> 01:18:33,749
"Lord! But them boots!

1281
01:18:33,749 --> 01:18:35,960
It beats it."

1282
01:18:35,960 --> 01:18:39,150
He turned his head over his shoulder to the right, to look at the boots of his

1283
01:18:39,150 --> 01:18:43,909
interlocutor with a view to comparisons, and lo! where the boots of his interlocutor

1284
01:18:43,909 --> 01:18:46,909
should have been were neither legs nor boots.

1285
01:18:46,909 --> 01:18:50,629
He was irradiated by the dawn of a great amazement.

1286
01:18:50,629 --> 01:18:54,650
"Where are yer?" said Mr. Thomas Marvel over his shoulder and coming on all fours.

1287
01:18:54,650 --> 01:18:59,320
He saw a stretch of empty downs with the wind swaying the remote green-pointed furze

1288
01:18:59,320 --> 01:19:00,699
bushes.

1289
01:19:00,699 --> 01:19:03,999
"Am I drunk?" said Mr. Marvel. "Have I had visions?

1290
01:19:03,999 --> 01:19:06,189
Was I talking to myself? What the--"

1291
01:19:06,189 --> 01:19:10,049
"Don't be alarmed," said a Voice.

1292
01:19:10,049 --> 01:19:14,130
"None of your ventriloquising me," said Mr. Thomas Marvel, rising sharply to his feet.

1293
01:19:14,130 --> 01:19:17,230
"Where are yer? Alarmed, indeed!"

1294
01:19:17,230 --> 01:19:20,530
"Don't be alarmed," repeated the Voice.

1295
01:19:20,530 --> 01:19:23,750
"You'll be alarmed in a minute, you silly fool," said Mr. Thomas Marvel.

1296
01:19:23,750 --> 01:19:26,940
"Where are yer? Lemme get my mark on yer...

1297
01:19:26,940 --> 01:19:32,200
"Are yer buried?" said Mr. Thomas Marvel, after an interval.

1298
01:19:32,200 --> 01:19:35,790
There was no answer. Mr. Thomas Marvel stood bootless and

1299
01:19:35,790 --> 01:19:38,310
amazed, his jacket nearly thrown off.

1300
01:19:38,310 --> 01:19:43,730
"Peewit," said a peewit, very remote. "Peewit, indeed!" said Mr. Thomas Marvel.

1301
01:19:43,730 --> 01:19:45,950
"This ain't no time for foolery."

1302
01:19:45,950 --> 01:19:49,970
The down was desolate, east and west, north and south; the road with its shallow

1303
01:19:49,970 --> 01:19:54,540
ditches and white bordering stakes, ran smooth and empty north and south, and, save

1304
01:19:54,540 --> 01:19:56,670
for that peewit, the blue sky was empty too.

1305
01:19:56,670 --> 01:20:01,330
"So help me," said Mr. Thomas Marvel, shuffling his coat on to his shoulders

1306
01:20:01,330 --> 01:20:01,730
again.

1307
01:20:01,730 --> 01:20:04,420
"It's the drink! I might ha' known."

1308
01:20:04,420 --> 01:20:07,480
"It's not the drink," said the Voice. "You keep your nerves steady."

1309
01:20:07,480 --> 01:20:12,890
"Ow!" said Mr. Marvel, and his face grew white amidst its patches.

1310
01:20:12,890 --> 01:20:16,690
"It's the drink!" his lips repeated noiselessly.

1311
01:20:16,690 --> 01:20:19,430
He remained staring about him, rotating slowly backwards.

1312
01:20:19,430 --> 01:20:23,660
"I could have swore I heard a voice," he whispered.

1313
01:20:23,660 --> 01:20:24,340
"Of course you did."

1314
01:20:24,340 --> 01:20:29,210
"It's there again," said Mr. Marvel, closing his eyes and clasping his hand on

1315
01:20:29,210 --> 01:20:31,340
his brow with a tragic gesture.

1316
01:20:31,340 --> 01:20:35,680
He was suddenly taken by the collar and shaken violently, and left more dazed than

1317
01:20:35,680 --> 01:20:38,680
ever. "Don't be a fool," said the Voice.

1318
01:20:38,680 --> 01:20:44,460
"I'm--off--my--blooming--chump," said Mr. Marvel.

1319
01:20:44,460 --> 01:20:46,930
"It's no good. It's fretting about them blarsted boots.

1320
01:20:46,930 --> 01:20:49,560
I'm off my blessed blooming chump.

1321
01:20:49,560 --> 01:20:53,450
Or it's spirits." "Neither one thing nor the other," said the

1322
01:20:53,450 --> 01:20:54,970
Voice. "Listen!"

1323
01:20:54,970 --> 01:20:57,310
"Chump," said Mr. Marvel.

1324
01:20:57,310 --> 01:21:02,200
"One minute," said the Voice, penetratingly, tremulous with self-control.

1325
01:21:02,200 --> 01:21:05,650
"Well?" said Mr. Thomas Marvel, with a strange feeling of having been dug in the

1326
01:21:05,650 --> 01:21:08,600
chest by a finger.

1327
01:21:08,600 --> 01:21:12,860
"You think I'm just imagination? Just imagination?"

1328
01:21:12,860 --> 01:21:17,780
"What else can you be?" said Mr. Thomas Marvel, rubbing the back of his neck.

1329
01:21:17,780 --> 01:21:20,390
"Very well," said the Voice, in a tone of relief.

1330
01:21:20,390 --> 01:21:23,900
"Then I'm going to throw flints at you till you think differently."

1331
01:21:23,900 --> 01:21:25,060
"But where are yer?"

1332
01:21:25,060 --> 01:21:30,560
The Voice made no answer. Whizz came a flint, apparently out of the

1333
01:21:30,560 --> 01:21:33,360
air, and missed Mr. Marvel's shoulder by a hair's-breadth.

1334
01:21:33,360 --> 01:21:38,310
Mr. Marvel, turning, saw a flint jerk up into the air, trace a complicated path,

1335
01:21:38,310 --> 01:21:42,680
hang for a moment, and then fling at his feet with almost invisible rapidity.

1336
01:21:42,680 --> 01:21:44,690
He was too amazed to dodge.

1337
01:21:44,690 --> 01:21:48,250
Whizz it came, and ricochetted from a bare toe into the ditch.

1338
01:21:48,250 --> 01:21:51,520
Mr. Thomas Marvel jumped a foot and howled aloud.

1339
01:21:51,520 --> 01:21:55,490
Then he started to run, tripped over an unseen obstacle, and came head over heels

1340
01:21:55,490 --> 01:21:56,430
into a sitting position.

1341
01:21:56,430 --> 01:22:01,940
"Now," said the Voice, as a third stone curved upward and hung in the air above the

1342
01:22:01,940 --> 01:22:05,860
tramp. "Am I imagination?"

1343
01:22:05,860 --> 01:22:09,530
Mr. Marvel by way of reply struggled to his feet, and was immediately rolled over

1344
01:22:09,530 --> 01:22:13,090
again. He lay quiet for a moment.

1345
01:22:13,090 --> 01:22:19,400
"If you struggle any more," said the Voice, "I shall throw the flint at your head."

1346
01:22:19,400 --> 01:22:23,510
"It's a fair do," said Mr. Thomas Marvel, sitting up, taking his wounded toe in hand

1347
01:22:23,510 --> 01:22:25,160
and fixing his eye on the third missile.

1348
01:22:25,160 --> 01:22:29,030
"I don't understand it. Stones flinging themselves.

1349
01:22:29,030 --> 01:22:31,600
Stones talking. Put yourself down.

1350
01:22:31,600 --> 01:22:32,020
Rot away.

1351
01:22:32,020 --> 01:22:36,020
I'm done." The third flint fell.

1352
01:22:36,020 --> 01:22:39,210
"It's very simple," said the Voice. "I'm an invisible man."

1353
01:22:39,210 --> 01:22:44,780
"Tell us something I don't know," said Mr. Marvel, gasping with pain.

1354
01:22:44,780 --> 01:22:47,760
"Where you've hid--how you do it--I don't know.

1355
01:22:47,760 --> 01:22:48,620
I'm beat."

1356
01:22:48,620 --> 01:22:51,760
"That's all," said the Voice. "I'm invisible.

1357
01:22:51,760 --> 01:22:55,960
That's what I want you to understand." "Anyone could see that.

1358
01:22:55,960 --> 01:22:58,900
There is no need for you to be so confounded impatient, mister.

1359
01:22:58,900 --> 01:23:01,230
Now then. Give us a notion.

1360
01:23:01,230 --> 01:23:03,870
How are you hid?"

1361
01:23:03,870 --> 01:23:06,250
"I'm invisible. That's the great point.

1362
01:23:06,250 --> 01:23:08,450
And what I want you to understand is this-- "

1363
01:23:08,450 --> 01:23:11,700
"But whereabouts?" interrupted Mr. Marvel.

1364
01:23:11,700 --> 01:23:14,010
"Here! Six yards in front of you."

1365
01:23:14,010 --> 01:23:15,940
"Oh, come! I ain't blind.

1366
01:23:15,940 --> 01:23:17,830
You'll be telling me next you're just thin air.

1367
01:23:17,830 --> 01:23:22,730
I'm not one of your ignorant tramps--" "Yes, I am--thin air.

1368
01:23:22,730 --> 01:23:24,960
You're looking through me."

1369
01:23:24,960 --> 01:23:27,220
"What! Ain't there any stuff to you.

1370
01:23:27,220 --> 01:23:30,179
Vox et--what is it?--jabber. Is it that?"

1371
01:23:30,179 --> 01:23:36,740
"I am just a human being--solid, needing food and drink, needing covering too--But

1372
01:23:36,740 --> 01:23:39,190
I'm invisible. You see?

1373
01:23:39,190 --> 01:23:40,020
Invisible.

1374
01:23:40,020 --> 01:23:43,410
Simple idea. Invisible."

1375
01:23:43,410 --> 01:23:45,970
"What, real like?" "Yes, real."

1376
01:23:45,970 --> 01:23:50,370
"Let's have a hand of you," said Marvel, "if you are real.

1377
01:23:50,370 --> 01:23:55,770
It won't be so darn out-of-the-way like, then--Lord!" he said, "how you made me

1378
01:23:55,770 --> 01:23:58,870
jump!--gripping me like that!"

1379
01:23:58,870 --> 01:24:02,780
He felt the hand that had closed round his wrist with his disengaged fingers, and his

1380
01:24:02,780 --> 01:24:06,960
fingers went timorously up the arm, patted a muscular chest, and explored a bearded

1381
01:24:06,960 --> 01:24:08,230
face.

1382
01:24:08,230 --> 01:24:12,680
Marvel's face was astonishment. "I'm dashed!" he said.

1383
01:24:12,680 --> 01:24:17,340
"If this don't beat cock-fighting! Most remarkable!--And there I can see a

1384
01:24:17,340 --> 01:24:18,840
rabbit clean through you, 'arf a mile away!

1385
01:24:18,840 --> 01:24:24,230
Not a bit of you visible--except--" He scrutinised the apparently empty space

1386
01:24:24,230 --> 01:24:28,020
keenly. "You 'aven't been eatin' bread and cheese?"

1387
01:24:28,020 --> 01:24:30,180
he asked, holding the invisible arm.

1388
01:24:30,180 --> 01:24:34,380
"You're quite right, and it's not quite assimilated into the system."

1389
01:24:34,380 --> 01:24:38,610
"Ah!" said Mr. Marvel. "Sort of ghostly, though."

1390
01:24:38,610 --> 01:24:42,530
"Of course, all this isn't half so wonderful as you think."

1391
01:24:42,530 --> 01:24:46,640
"It's quite wonderful enough for my modest wants," said Mr. Thomas Marvel.

1392
01:24:46,640 --> 01:24:48,150
"Howjer manage it!

1393
01:24:48,150 --> 01:24:51,930
How the dooce is it done?" "It's too long a story.

1394
01:24:51,930 --> 01:24:55,110
And besides--" "I tell you, the whole business fairly

1395
01:24:55,110 --> 01:24:57,710
beats me," said Mr. Marvel.

1396
01:24:57,710 --> 01:25:01,420
"What I want to say at present is this: I need help.

1397
01:25:01,420 --> 01:25:03,900
I have come to that--I came upon you suddenly.

1398
01:25:03,900 --> 01:25:06,900
I was wandering, mad with rage, naked, impotent.

1399
01:25:06,900 --> 01:25:10,180
I could have murdered. And I saw you--"

1400
01:25:10,180 --> 01:25:13,030
"Lord!" said Mr. Marvel.

1401
01:25:13,030 --> 01:25:17,410
"I came up behind you--hesitated--went on-- "

1402
01:25:17,410 --> 01:25:20,730
Mr. Marvel's expression was eloquent. "--then stopped.

1403
01:25:20,730 --> 01:25:24,559
'Here,' I said, 'is an outcast like myself.

1404
01:25:24,559 --> 01:25:29,100
This is the man for me.' So I turned back and came to you--you.

1405
01:25:29,100 --> 01:25:32,170
And--" "Lord!" said Mr. Marvel.

1406
01:25:32,170 --> 01:25:33,800
"But I'm all in a tizzy.

1407
01:25:33,800 --> 01:25:39,530
May I ask--How is it? And what you may be requiring in the way of

1408
01:25:39,530 --> 01:25:42,830
help?--Invisible!" "I want you to help me get clothes--and

1409
01:25:42,830 --> 01:25:45,900
shelter--and then, with other things.

1410
01:25:45,900 --> 01:25:49,590
I've left them long enough. If you won't--well!

1411
01:25:49,590 --> 01:25:54,260
But you will--must." "Look here," said Mr. Marvel.

1412
01:25:54,260 --> 01:25:55,600
"I'm too flabbergasted.

1413
01:25:55,600 --> 01:25:57,740
Don't knock me about any more. And leave me go.

1414
01:25:57,740 --> 01:26:01,570
I must get steady a bit. And you've pretty near broken my toe.

1415
01:26:01,570 --> 01:26:03,680
It's all so unreasonable.

1416
01:26:03,680 --> 01:26:07,500
Empty downs, empty sky. Nothing visible for miles except the bosom

1417
01:26:07,500 --> 01:26:09,660
of Nature. And then comes a voice.

1418
01:26:09,660 --> 01:26:10,960
A voice out of heaven!

1419
01:26:10,960 --> 01:26:14,900
And stones! And a fist--Lord!"

1420
01:26:14,900 --> 01:26:19,610
"Pull yourself together," said the Voice, "for you have to do the job I've chosen for

1421
01:26:19,610 --> 01:26:20,550
you."

1422
01:26:20,550 --> 01:26:23,140
Mr. Marvel blew out his cheeks, and his eyes were round.

1423
01:26:23,140 --> 01:26:26,390
"I've chosen you," said the Voice.

1424
01:26:26,390 --> 01:26:30,650
"You are the only man except some of those fools down there, who knows there is such a

1425
01:26:30,650 --> 01:26:34,390
thing as an invisible man. You have to be my helper.

1426
01:26:34,390 --> 01:26:37,150
Help me--and I will do great things for you.

1427
01:26:37,150 --> 01:26:41,390
An invisible man is a man of power." He stopped for a moment to sneeze

1428
01:26:41,390 --> 01:26:42,160
violently.

1429
01:26:42,160 --> 01:26:49,090
"But if you betray me," he said, "if you fail to do as I direct you--" He paused and

1430
01:26:49,090 --> 01:26:54,320
tapped Mr. Marvel's shoulder smartly. Mr. Marvel gave a yelp of terror at the

1431
01:26:54,320 --> 01:26:54,720
touch.

1432
01:26:54,720 --> 01:26:59,570
"I don't want to betray you," said Mr. Marvel, edging away from the direction of

1433
01:26:59,570 --> 01:27:01,200
the fingers. "Don't you go a-thinking that, whatever you

1434
01:27:01,200 --> 01:27:01,720
do.

1435
01:27:01,720 --> 01:27:05,410
All I want to do is to help you--just tell me what I got to do.

1436
01:27:05,410 --> 01:27:08,240
(Lord!) Whatever you want done, that I'm most

1437
01:27:08,240 --> 01:27:11,450
willing to do."

1438
01:27:11,450 --> 01:27:17,510
CHAPTER X MR. MARVEL'S VISIT TO IPING

1439
01:27:17,510 --> 01:27:22,690
After the first gusty panic had spent itself Iping became argumentative.

1440
01:27:22,690 --> 01:27:28,070
Scepticism suddenly reared its head--rather nervous scepticism, not at all assured of

1441
01:27:28,070 --> 01:27:30,390
its back, but scepticism nevertheless.

1442
01:27:30,390 --> 01:27:36,250
It is so much easier not to believe in an invisible man; and those who had actually

1443
01:27:36,250 --> 01:27:40,809
seen him dissolve into air, or felt the strength of his arm, could be counted on

1444
01:27:40,809 --> 01:27:42,030
the fingers of two hands.

1445
01:27:42,030 --> 01:27:46,360
And of these witnesses Mr. Wadgers was presently missing, having retired

1446
01:27:46,360 --> 01:27:50,330
impregnably behind the bolts and bars of his own house, and Jaffers was lying

1447
01:27:50,330 --> 01:27:53,309
stunned in the parlour of the "Coach and Horses."

1448
01:27:53,309 --> 01:27:57,950
Great and strange ideas transcending experience often have less effect upon men

1449
01:27:57,950 --> 01:28:01,800
and women than smaller, more tangible considerations.

1450
01:28:01,800 --> 01:28:06,080
Iping was gay with bunting, and everybody was in gala dress.

1451
01:28:06,080 --> 01:28:09,950
Whit Monday had been looked forward to for a month or more.

1452
01:28:09,950 --> 01:28:14,030
By the afternoon even those who believed in the Unseen were beginning to resume their

1453
01:28:14,030 --> 01:28:18,400
little amusements in a tentative fashion, on the supposition that he had quite gone

1454
01:28:18,400 --> 01:28:21,880
away, and with the sceptics he was already a jest.

1455
01:28:21,880 --> 01:28:27,990
But people, sceptics and believers alike, were remarkably sociable all that day.

1456
01:28:27,990 --> 01:28:31,590
Haysman's meadow was gay with a tent, in which Mrs. Bunting and other ladies were

1457
01:28:31,590 --> 01:28:36,340
preparing tea, while, without, the Sunday- school children ran races and played games

1458
01:28:36,340 --> 01:28:41,270
under the noisy guidance of the curate and the Misses Cuss and Sackbut.

1459
01:28:41,270 --> 01:28:45,250
No doubt there was a slight uneasiness in the air, but people for the most part had

1460
01:28:45,250 --> 01:28:49,179
the sense to conceal whatever imaginative qualms they experienced.

1461
01:28:49,179 --> 01:28:53,090
On the village green an inclined strong [word missing?], down which, clinging the

1462
01:28:53,090 --> 01:28:57,080
while to a pulley-swung handle, one could be hurled violently against a sack at the

1463
01:28:57,080 --> 01:28:59,820
other end, came in for considerable favour

1464
01:28:59,820 --> 01:29:03,830
among the adolescent, as also did the swings and the cocoanut shies.

1465
01:29:03,830 --> 01:29:08,140
There was also promenading, and the steam organ attached to a small roundabout filled

1466
01:29:08,140 --> 01:29:12,900
the air with a pungent flavour of oil and with equally pungent music.

1467
01:29:12,900 --> 01:29:16,720
Members of the club, who had attended church in the morning, were splendid in

1468
01:29:16,720 --> 01:29:20,489
badges of pink and green, and some of the gayer-minded had also adorned their bowler

1469
01:29:20,489 --> 01:29:24,080
hats with brilliant-coloured favours of ribbon.

1470
01:29:24,080 --> 01:29:28,210
Old Fletcher, whose conceptions of holiday- making were severe, was visible through the

1471
01:29:28,210 --> 01:29:32,250
jasmine about his window or through the open door (whichever way you chose to

1472
01:29:32,250 --> 01:29:34,300
look), poised delicately on a plank

1473
01:29:34,300 --> 01:29:40,070
supported on two chairs, and whitewashing the ceiling of his front room.

1474
01:29:40,070 --> 01:29:44,179
About four o'clock a stranger entered the village from the direction of the downs.

1475
01:29:44,179 --> 01:29:48,510
He was a short, stout person in an extraordinarily shabby top hat, and he

1476
01:29:48,510 --> 01:29:53,119
appeared to be very much out of breath. His cheeks were alternately limp and

1477
01:29:53,119 --> 01:29:54,570
tightly puffed.

1478
01:29:54,570 --> 01:29:58,530
His mottled face was apprehensive, and he moved with a sort of reluctant alacrity.

1479
01:29:58,530 --> 01:30:04,750
He turned the corner of the church, and directed his way to the "Coach and Horses."

1480
01:30:04,750 --> 01:30:08,920
Among others old Fletcher remembers seeing him, and indeed the old gentleman was so

1481
01:30:08,920 --> 01:30:12,809
struck by his peculiar agitation that he inadvertently allowed a quantity of

1482
01:30:12,809 --> 01:30:17,260
whitewash to run down the brush into the sleeve of his coat while regarding him.

1483
01:30:17,260 --> 01:30:22,140
This stranger, to the perceptions of the proprietor of the cocoanut shy, appeared to

1484
01:30:22,140 --> 01:30:26,869
be talking to himself, and Mr. Huxter remarked the same thing.

1485
01:30:26,869 --> 01:30:30,929
He stopped at the foot of the "Coach and Horses" steps, and, according to Mr.

1486
01:30:30,929 --> 01:30:34,640
Huxter, appeared to undergo a severe internal struggle before he could induce

1487
01:30:34,640 --> 01:30:36,450
himself to enter the house.

1488
01:30:36,450 --> 01:30:40,590
Finally he marched up the steps, and was seen by Mr. Huxter to turn to the left and

1489
01:30:40,590 --> 01:30:43,820
open the door of the parlour.

1490
01:30:43,820 --> 01:30:47,500
Mr. Huxter heard voices from within the room and from the bar apprising the man of

1491
01:30:47,500 --> 01:30:48,640
his error.

1492
01:30:48,640 --> 01:30:54,799
"That room's private!" said Hall, and the stranger shut the door clumsily and went

1493
01:30:54,799 --> 01:30:56,360
into the bar.

1494
01:30:56,360 --> 01:30:59,369
In the course of a few minutes he reappeared, wiping his lips with the back

1495
01:30:59,369 --> 01:31:03,299
of his hand with an air of quiet satisfaction that somehow impressed Mr.

1496
01:31:03,299 --> 01:31:05,420
Huxter as assumed.

1497
01:31:05,420 --> 01:31:09,040
He stood looking about him for some moments, and then Mr. Huxter saw him walk

1498
01:31:09,040 --> 01:31:13,390
in an oddly furtive manner towards the gates of the yard, upon which the parlour

1499
01:31:13,390 --> 01:31:14,570
window opened.

1500
01:31:14,570 --> 01:31:19,150
The stranger, after some hesitation, leant against one of the gate-posts, produced a

1501
01:31:19,150 --> 01:31:23,960
short clay pipe, and prepared to fill it. His fingers trembled while doing so.

1502
01:31:23,960 --> 01:31:29,590
He lit it clumsily, and folding his arms began to smoke in a languid attitude, an

1503
01:31:29,590 --> 01:31:35,260
attitude which his occasional glances up the yard altogether belied.

1504
01:31:35,260 --> 01:31:39,570
All this Mr. Huxter saw over the canisters of the tobacco window, and the singularity

1505
01:31:39,570 --> 01:31:44,450
of the man's behaviour prompted him to maintain his observation.

1506
01:31:44,450 --> 01:31:48,940
Presently the stranger stood up abruptly and put his pipe in his pocket.

1507
01:31:48,940 --> 01:31:51,489
Then he vanished into the yard.

1508
01:31:51,489 --> 01:31:56,030
Forthwith Mr. Huxter, conceiving he was witness of some petty larceny, leapt round

1509
01:31:56,030 --> 01:31:59,390
his counter and ran out into the road to intercept the thief.

1510
01:31:59,390 --> 01:32:03,869
As he did so, Mr. Marvel reappeared, his hat askew, a big bundle in a blue table-

1511
01:32:03,869 --> 01:32:08,339
cloth in one hand, and three books tied together--as it proved afterwards with the

1512
01:32:08,339 --> 01:32:11,660
Vicar's braces--in the other.

1513
01:32:11,660 --> 01:32:15,940
Directly he saw Huxter he gave a sort of gasp, and turning sharply to the left,

1514
01:32:15,940 --> 01:32:19,700
began to run. "Stop, thief!" cried Huxter, and set off

1515
01:32:19,700 --> 01:32:20,670
after him.

1516
01:32:20,670 --> 01:32:23,730
Mr. Huxter's sensations were vivid but brief.

1517
01:32:23,730 --> 01:32:27,550
He saw the man just before him and spurting briskly for the church corner and the hill

1518
01:32:27,550 --> 01:32:28,480
road.

1519
01:32:28,480 --> 01:32:32,640
He saw the village flags and festivities beyond, and a face or so turned towards

1520
01:32:32,640 --> 01:32:35,450
him. He bawled, "Stop!" again.

1521
01:32:35,450 --> 01:32:39,339
He had hardly gone ten strides before his shin was caught in some mysterious fashion,

1522
01:32:39,339 --> 01:32:43,700
and he was no longer running, but flying with inconceivable rapidity through the

1523
01:32:43,700 --> 01:32:44,120
air.

1524
01:32:44,120 --> 01:32:47,829
He saw the ground suddenly close to his face.

1525
01:32:47,829 --> 01:32:51,839
The world seemed to splash into a million whirling specks of light, and subsequent

1526
01:32:51,839 --> 01:32:59,618
proceedings interested him no more.

1527
01:32:59,618 --> 01:33:00,618
>

1528
01:33:00,618 --> 01:33:08,908
-CHAPTER XI IN THE "COACH AND HORSES"

1529
01:33:08,908 --> 01:33:16,618
Now in order clearly to understand what had happened in the inn, it is necessary to go

1530
01:33:16,618 --> 01:33:20,758
back to the moment when Mr. Marvel first came into view of Mr. Huxter's window.

1531
01:33:20,758 --> 01:33:24,918
At that precise moment Mr. Cuss and Mr. Bunting were in the parlour.

1532
01:33:24,918 --> 01:33:28,978
They were seriously investigating the strange occurrences of the morning, and

1533
01:33:28,978 --> 01:33:33,708
were, with Mr. Hall's permission, making a thorough examination of the Invisible Man's

1534
01:33:33,708 --> 01:33:35,318
belongings.

1535
01:33:35,318 --> 01:33:39,488
Jaffers had partially recovered from his fall and had gone home in the charge of his

1536
01:33:39,488 --> 01:33:41,298
sympathetic friends.

1537
01:33:41,298 --> 01:33:45,668
The stranger's scattered garments had been removed by Mrs. Hall and the room tidied

1538
01:33:45,668 --> 01:33:46,558
up.

1539
01:33:46,558 --> 01:33:51,028
And on the table under the window where the stranger had been wont to work, Cuss had

1540
01:33:51,028 --> 01:33:55,468
hit almost at once on three big books in manuscript labelled "Diary."

1541
01:33:55,468 --> 01:34:00,168
"Diary!" said Cuss, putting the three books on the table.

1542
01:34:00,168 --> 01:34:03,428
"Now, at any rate, we shall learn something."

1543
01:34:03,428 --> 01:34:06,118
The Vicar stood with his hands on the table.

1544
01:34:06,118 --> 01:34:10,718
"Diary," repeated Cuss, sitting down, putting two volumes to support the third,

1545
01:34:10,718 --> 01:34:12,818
and opening it.

1546
01:34:12,818 --> 01:34:17,008
"H'm--no name on the fly-leaf. Bother!--cypher.

1547
01:34:17,008 --> 01:34:21,978
And figures." The vicar came round to look over his

1548
01:34:21,978 --> 01:34:22,428
shoulder.

1549
01:34:22,428 --> 01:34:25,108
Cuss turned the pages over with a face suddenly disappointed.

1550
01:34:25,108 --> 01:34:28,538
"I'm--dear me! It's all cypher, Bunting."

1551
01:34:28,538 --> 01:34:31,788
"There are no diagrams?" asked Mr. Bunting.

1552
01:34:31,788 --> 01:34:37,038
"No illustrations throwing light--" "See for yourself," said Mr. Cuss.

1553
01:34:37,038 --> 01:34:41,058
"Some of it's mathematical and some of it's Russian or some such language (to judge by

1554
01:34:41,058 --> 01:34:43,458
the letters), and some of it's Greek.

1555
01:34:43,458 --> 01:34:45,178
Now the Greek I thought you--"

1556
01:34:45,178 --> 01:34:49,288
"Of course," said Mr. Bunting, taking out and wiping his spectacles and feeling

1557
01:34:49,288 --> 01:34:55,777
suddenly very uncomfortable--for he had no Greek left in his mind worth talking about;

1558
01:34:55,777 --> 01:34:58,158
"yes--the Greek, of course, may furnish a clue."

1559
01:34:58,158 --> 01:35:02,858
"I'll find you a place." "I'd rather glance through the volumes

1560
01:35:02,858 --> 01:35:05,618
first," said Mr. Bunting, still wiping.

1561
01:35:05,618 --> 01:35:11,027
"A general impression first, Cuss, and then, you know, we can go looking for

1562
01:35:11,027 --> 01:35:11,417
clues."

1563
01:35:11,417 --> 01:35:17,037
He coughed, put on his glasses, arranged them fastidiously, coughed again, and

1564
01:35:17,037 --> 01:35:21,447
wished something would happen to avert the seemingly inevitable exposure.

1565
01:35:21,447 --> 01:35:24,967
Then he took the volume Cuss handed him in a leisurely manner.

1566
01:35:24,967 --> 01:35:29,037
And then something did happen. The door opened suddenly.

1567
01:35:29,037 --> 01:35:34,137
Both gentlemen started violently, looked round, and were relieved to see a

1568
01:35:34,137 --> 01:35:37,807
sporadically rosy face beneath a furry silk hat.

1569
01:35:37,807 --> 01:35:40,467
"Tap?" asked the face, and stood staring.

1570
01:35:40,467 --> 01:35:46,958
"No," said both gentlemen at once. "Over the other side, my man," said Mr.

1571
01:35:46,958 --> 01:35:51,027
Bunting. And "Please shut that door," said Mr. Cuss,

1572
01:35:51,027 --> 01:35:52,958
irritably.

1573
01:35:52,958 --> 01:35:57,117
"All right," said the intruder, as it seemed in a low voice curiously different

1574
01:35:57,117 --> 01:36:02,007
from the huskiness of its first inquiry. "Right you are," said the intruder in the

1575
01:36:02,007 --> 01:36:03,298
former voice.

1576
01:36:03,298 --> 01:36:08,887
"Stand clear!" and he vanished and closed the door.

1577
01:36:08,887 --> 01:36:11,378
"A sailor, I should judge," said Mr. Bunting.

1578
01:36:11,378 --> 01:36:13,327
"Amusing fellows, they are.

1579
01:36:13,327 --> 01:36:16,867
Stand clear! indeed. A nautical term, referring to his getting

1580
01:36:16,867 --> 01:36:21,387
back out of the room, I suppose." "I daresay so," said Cuss.

1581
01:36:21,387 --> 01:36:22,817
"My nerves are all loose to-day.

1582
01:36:22,817 --> 01:36:27,018
It quite made me jump--the door opening like that."

1583
01:36:27,018 --> 01:36:32,807
Mr. Bunting smiled as if he had not jumped. "And now," he said with a sigh, "these

1584
01:36:32,807 --> 01:36:34,298
books."

1585
01:36:34,298 --> 01:36:40,417
Someone sniffed as he did so. "One thing is indisputable," said Bunting,

1586
01:36:40,417 --> 01:36:42,677
drawing up a chair next to that of Cuss.

1587
01:36:42,677 --> 01:36:48,878
"There certainly have been very strange things happen in Iping during the last few

1588
01:36:48,878 --> 01:36:52,817
days--very strange. I cannot of course believe in this absurd

1589
01:36:52,817 --> 01:36:54,107
invisibility story--"

1590
01:36:54,107 --> 01:37:00,497
"It's incredible," said Cuss--"incredible. But the fact remains that I saw--I

1591
01:37:00,497 --> 01:37:06,077
certainly saw right down his sleeve--" "But did you--are you sure?

1592
01:37:06,077 --> 01:37:10,988
Suppose a mirror, for instance-- hallucinations are so easily produced.

1593
01:37:10,988 --> 01:37:13,537
I don't know if you have ever seen a really good conjuror--"

1594
01:37:13,537 --> 01:37:17,107
"I won't argue again," said Cuss.

1595
01:37:17,107 --> 01:37:22,348
"We've thrashed that out, Bunting. And just now there's these books--Ah!

1596
01:37:22,348 --> 01:37:29,028
here's some of what I take to be Greek! Greek letters certainly."

1597
01:37:29,028 --> 01:37:31,038
He pointed to the middle of the page.

1598
01:37:31,038 --> 01:37:35,538
Mr. Bunting flushed slightly and brought his face nearer, apparently finding some

1599
01:37:35,538 --> 01:37:40,338
difficulty with his glasses. Suddenly he became aware of a strange

1600
01:37:40,338 --> 01:37:42,688
feeling at the nape of his neck.

1601
01:37:42,688 --> 01:37:46,658
He tried to raise his head, and encountered an immovable resistance.

1602
01:37:46,658 --> 01:37:51,178
The feeling was a curious pressure, the grip of a heavy, firm hand, and it bore his

1603
01:37:51,178 --> 01:37:54,228
chin irresistibly to the table.

1604
01:37:54,228 --> 01:38:00,228
"Don't move, little men," whispered a voice, "or I'll brain you both!"

1605
01:38:00,228 --> 01:38:05,838
He looked into the face of Cuss, close to his own, and each saw a horrified

1606
01:38:05,838 --> 01:38:09,438
reflection of his own sickly astonishment.

1607
01:38:09,438 --> 01:38:13,778
"I'm sorry to handle you so roughly," said the Voice, "but it's unavoidable."

1608
01:38:13,778 --> 01:38:20,528
"Since when did you learn to pry into an investigator's private memoranda," said the

1609
01:38:20,528 --> 01:38:25,488
Voice; and two chins struck the table simultaneously, and two sets of teeth

1610
01:38:25,488 --> 01:38:26,838
rattled.

1611
01:38:26,838 --> 01:38:32,778
"Since when did you learn to invade the private rooms of a man in misfortune?" and

1612
01:38:32,778 --> 01:38:38,798
the concussion was repeated. "Where have they put my clothes?"

1613
01:38:38,798 --> 01:38:40,148
"Listen," said the Voice.

1614
01:38:40,148 --> 01:38:44,088
"The windows are fastened and I've taken the key out of the door.

1615
01:38:44,088 --> 01:38:51,208
I am a fairly strong man, and I have the poker handy--besides being invisible.

1616
01:38:51,208 --> 01:38:54,888
There's not the slightest doubt that I could kill you both and get away quite

1617
01:38:54,888 --> 01:38:59,728
easily if I wanted to--do you understand? Very well.

1618
01:38:59,728 --> 01:39:06,418
If I let you go will you promise not to try any nonsense and do what I tell you?"

1619
01:39:06,418 --> 01:39:11,178
The vicar and the doctor looked at one another, and the doctor pulled a face.

1620
01:39:11,178 --> 01:39:13,708
"Yes," said Mr. Bunting, and the doctor repeated it.

1621
01:39:13,708 --> 01:39:18,978
Then the pressure on the necks relaxed, and the doctor and the vicar sat up, both very

1622
01:39:18,978 --> 01:39:21,968
red in the face and wriggling their heads.

1623
01:39:21,968 --> 01:39:25,658
"Please keep sitting where you are," said the Invisible Man.

1624
01:39:25,658 --> 01:39:29,648
"Here's the poker, you see."

1625
01:39:29,648 --> 01:39:33,738
"When I came into this room," continued the Invisible Man, after presenting the poker

1626
01:39:33,738 --> 01:39:37,918
to the tip of the nose of each of his visitors, "I did not expect to find it

1627
01:39:37,918 --> 01:39:40,468
occupied, and I expected to find, in

1628
01:39:40,468 --> 01:39:44,708
addition to my books of memoranda, an outfit of clothing.

1629
01:39:44,708 --> 01:39:46,808
Where is it? No--don't rise.

1630
01:39:46,808 --> 01:39:48,628
I can see it's gone.

1631
01:39:48,628 --> 01:39:52,808
Now, just at present, though the days are quite warm enough for an invisible man to

1632
01:39:52,808 --> 01:39:56,238
run about stark, the evenings are quite chilly.

1633
01:39:56,238 --> 01:40:05,198
I want clothing--and other accommodation; and I must also have those three books."

1634
01:40:05,198 --> 01:40:09,518
CHAPTER XII THE INVISIBLE MAN LOSES HIS TEMPER

1635
01:40:09,518 --> 01:40:16,518
It is unavoidable that at this point the narrative should break off again, for a

1636
01:40:16,518 --> 01:40:20,418
certain very painful reason that will presently be apparent.

1637
01:40:20,418 --> 01:40:23,818
While these things were going on in the parlour, and while Mr. Huxter was watching

1638
01:40:23,818 --> 01:40:29,418
Mr. Marvel smoking his pipe against the gate, not a dozen yards away were Mr. Hall

1639
01:40:29,418 --> 01:40:34,548
and Teddy Henfrey discussing in a state of cloudy puzzlement the one Iping topic.

1640
01:40:34,548 --> 01:40:40,448
Suddenly there came a violent thud against the door of the parlour, a sharp cry, and

1641
01:40:40,448 --> 01:40:41,818
then--silence.

1642
01:40:41,818 --> 01:40:49,698
"Hul-lo!" said Teddy Henfrey. "Hul-lo!" from the Tap.

1643
01:40:49,698 --> 01:40:52,768
Mr. Hall took things in slowly but surely.

1644
01:40:52,768 --> 01:40:56,708
"That ain't right," he said, and came round from behind the bar towards the parlour

1645
01:40:56,708 --> 01:41:00,188
door. He and Teddy approached the door together,

1646
01:41:00,188 --> 01:41:02,518
with intent faces.

1647
01:41:02,518 --> 01:41:07,148
Their eyes considered. "Summat wrong," said Hall, and Henfrey

1648
01:41:07,148 --> 01:41:08,718
nodded agreement.

1649
01:41:08,718 --> 01:41:12,248
Whiffs of an unpleasant chemical odour met them, and there was a muffled sound of

1650
01:41:12,248 --> 01:41:18,238
conversation, very rapid and subdued. "You all right thur?" asked Hall, rapping.

1651
01:41:18,238 --> 01:41:24,858
The muttered conversation ceased abruptly, for a moment silence, then the conversation

1652
01:41:24,858 --> 01:41:30,198
was resumed, in hissing whispers, then a sharp cry of "No! no, you don't!"

1653
01:41:30,198 --> 01:41:35,657
There came a sudden motion and the oversetting of a chair, a brief struggle.

1654
01:41:35,657 --> 01:41:41,557
Silence again. "What the dooce?" exclaimed Henfrey, sotto

1655
01:41:41,557 --> 01:41:42,367
voce.

1656
01:41:42,367 --> 01:41:48,108
"You--all--right thur?" asked Mr. Hall, sharply, again.

1657
01:41:48,108 --> 01:41:55,307
The Vicar's voice answered with a curious jerking intonation: "Quite ri-right.

1658
01:41:55,307 --> 01:41:57,677
Please don't--interrupt."

1659
01:41:57,677 --> 01:42:04,788
"Odd!" said Mr. Henfrey. "Odd!" said Mr. Hall.

1660
01:42:04,788 --> 01:42:08,927
"Says, 'Don't interrupt,'" said Henfrey. "I heerd'n," said Hall.

1661
01:42:08,927 --> 01:42:12,718
"And a sniff," said Henfrey.

1662
01:42:12,718 --> 01:42:17,617
They remained listening. The conversation was rapid and subdued.

1663
01:42:17,617 --> 01:42:23,307
"I can't," said Mr. Bunting, his voice rising; "I tell you, sir, I will not."

1664
01:42:23,307 --> 01:42:25,608
"What was that?" asked Henfrey.

1665
01:42:25,608 --> 01:42:31,798
"Says he wi' nart," said Hall. "Warn't speaking to us, wuz he?"

1666
01:42:31,798 --> 01:42:36,457
"Disgraceful!" said Mr. Bunting, within. "'Disgraceful,'" said Mr. Henfrey.

1667
01:42:36,457 --> 01:42:38,158
"I heard it--distinct."

1668
01:42:38,158 --> 01:42:44,517
"Who's that speaking now?" asked Henfrey. "Mr. Cuss, I s'pose," said Hall.

1669
01:42:44,517 --> 01:42:49,168
"Can you hear--anything?" Silence.

1670
01:42:49,168 --> 01:42:51,457
The sounds within indistinct and perplexing.

1671
01:42:51,457 --> 01:42:57,778
"Sounds like throwing the table-cloth about," said Hall.

1672
01:42:57,778 --> 01:42:59,947
Mrs. Hall appeared behind the bar.

1673
01:42:59,947 --> 01:43:02,528
Hall made gestures of silence and invitation.

1674
01:43:02,528 --> 01:43:09,108
This aroused Mrs. Hall's wifely opposition. "What yer listenin' there for, Hall?" she

1675
01:43:09,108 --> 01:43:09,517
asked.

1676
01:43:09,517 --> 01:43:13,257
"Ain't you nothin' better to do--busy day like this?"

1677
01:43:13,257 --> 01:43:18,168
Hall tried to convey everything by grimaces and dumb show, but Mrs. Hall was obdurate.

1678
01:43:18,168 --> 01:43:19,848
She raised her voice.

1679
01:43:19,848 --> 01:43:24,778
So Hall and Henfrey, rather crestfallen, tiptoed back to the bar, gesticulating to

1680
01:43:24,778 --> 01:43:29,207
explain to her. At first she refused to see anything in

1681
01:43:29,207 --> 01:43:30,677
what they had heard at all.

1682
01:43:30,677 --> 01:43:35,338
Then she insisted on Hall keeping silence, while Henfrey told her his story.

1683
01:43:35,338 --> 01:43:39,088
She was inclined to think the whole business nonsense--perhaps they were just

1684
01:43:39,088 --> 01:43:40,867
moving the furniture about.

1685
01:43:40,867 --> 01:43:44,858
"I heerd'n say 'disgraceful'; that I did," said Hall.

1686
01:43:44,858 --> 01:43:51,427
"I heerd that, Mrs. Hall," said Henfrey. "Like as not--" began Mrs. Hall.

1687
01:43:51,427 --> 01:43:53,057
"Hsh!" said Mr. Teddy Henfrey.

1688
01:43:53,057 --> 01:43:58,207
"Didn't I hear the window?" "What window?" asked Mrs. Hall.

1689
01:43:58,207 --> 01:44:04,338
"Parlour window," said Henfrey. Everyone stood listening intently.

1690
01:44:04,338 --> 01:44:08,137
Mrs. Hall's eyes, directed straight before her, saw without seeing the brilliant

1691
01:44:08,137 --> 01:44:13,197
oblong of the inn door, the road white and vivid, and Huxter's shop-front blistering

1692
01:44:13,197 --> 01:44:14,887
in the June sun.

1693
01:44:14,887 --> 01:44:20,108
Abruptly Huxter's door opened and Huxter appeared, eyes staring with excitement,

1694
01:44:20,108 --> 01:44:24,457
arms gesticulating. "Yap!" cried Huxter.

1695
01:44:24,457 --> 01:44:28,767
"Stop thief!" and he ran obliquely across the oblong towards the yard gates, and

1696
01:44:28,767 --> 01:44:31,507
vanished.

1697
01:44:31,507 --> 01:44:34,497
Simultaneously came a tumult from the parlour, and a sound of windows being

1698
01:44:34,497 --> 01:44:35,728
closed.

1699
01:44:35,728 --> 01:44:40,858
Hall, Henfrey, and the human contents of the tap rushed out at once pell-mell into

1700
01:44:40,858 --> 01:44:41,348
the street.

1701
01:44:41,348 --> 01:44:46,197
They saw someone whisk round the corner towards the road, and Mr. Huxter executing

1702
01:44:46,197 --> 01:44:50,038
a complicated leap in the air that ended on his face and shoulder.

1703
01:44:50,038 --> 01:44:55,327
Down the street people were standing astonished or running towards them.

1704
01:44:55,327 --> 01:44:57,228
Mr. Huxter was stunned.

1705
01:44:57,228 --> 01:45:01,487
Henfrey stopped to discover this, but Hall and the two labourers from the Tap rushed

1706
01:45:01,487 --> 01:45:06,968
at once to the corner, shouting incoherent things, and saw Mr. Marvel vanishing by the

1707
01:45:06,968 --> 01:45:08,367
corner of the church wall.

1708
01:45:08,367 --> 01:45:11,968
They appear to have jumped to the impossible conclusion that this was the

1709
01:45:11,968 --> 01:45:17,547
Invisible Man suddenly become visible, and set off at once along the lane in pursuit.

1710
01:45:17,547 --> 01:45:21,517
But Hall had hardly run a dozen yards before he gave a loud shout of astonishment

1711
01:45:21,517 --> 01:45:25,307
and went flying headlong sideways, clutching one of the labourers and bringing

1712
01:45:25,307 --> 01:45:27,117
him to the ground.

1713
01:45:27,117 --> 01:45:31,108
He had been charged just as one charges a man at football.

1714
01:45:31,108 --> 01:45:35,497
The second labourer came round in a circle, stared, and conceiving that Hall had

1715
01:45:35,497 --> 01:45:39,877
tumbled over of his own accord, turned to resume the pursuit, only to be tripped by

1716
01:45:39,877 --> 01:45:42,158
the ankle just as Huxter had been.

1717
01:45:42,158 --> 01:45:46,647
Then, as the first labourer struggled to his feet, he was kicked sideways by a blow

1718
01:45:46,647 --> 01:45:49,697
that might have felled an ox.

1719
01:45:49,697 --> 01:45:53,177
As he went down, the rush from the direction of the village green came round

1720
01:45:53,177 --> 01:45:54,577
the corner.

1721
01:45:54,577 --> 01:46:00,127
The first to appear was the proprietor of the cocoanut shy, a burly man in a blue

1722
01:46:00,127 --> 01:46:00,858
jersey.

1723
01:46:00,858 --> 01:46:04,538
He was astonished to see the lane empty save for three men sprawling absurdly on

1724
01:46:04,538 --> 01:46:05,158
the ground.

1725
01:46:05,158 --> 01:46:09,707
And then something happened to his rear- most foot, and he went headlong and rolled

1726
01:46:09,707 --> 01:46:14,067
sideways just in time to graze the feet of his brother and partner, following

1727
01:46:14,067 --> 01:46:15,197
headlong.

1728
01:46:15,197 --> 01:46:20,117
The two were then kicked, knelt on, fallen over, and cursed by quite a number of over-

1729
01:46:20,117 --> 01:46:22,918
hasty people.

1730
01:46:22,918 --> 01:46:27,707
Now when Hall and Henfrey and the labourers ran out of the house, Mrs. Hall, who had

1731
01:46:27,707 --> 01:46:32,848
been disciplined by years of experience, remained in the bar next the till.

1732
01:46:32,848 --> 01:46:36,788
And suddenly the parlour door was opened, and Mr. Cuss appeared, and without glancing

1733
01:46:36,788 --> 01:46:40,538
at her rushed at once down the steps toward the corner.

1734
01:46:40,538 --> 01:46:41,687
"Hold him!" he cried.

1735
01:46:41,687 --> 01:46:47,547
"Don't let him drop that parcel." He knew nothing of the existence of Marvel.

1736
01:46:47,547 --> 01:46:52,538
For the Invisible Man had handed over the books and bundle in the yard.

1737
01:46:52,538 --> 01:46:56,788
The face of Mr. Cuss was angry and resolute, but his costume was defective, a

1738
01:46:56,788 --> 01:47:01,257
sort of limp white kilt that could only have passed muster in Greece.

1739
01:47:01,257 --> 01:47:02,797
"Hold him!" he bawled.

1740
01:47:02,797 --> 01:47:08,547
"He's got my trousers! And every stitch of the Vicar's clothes!"

1741
01:47:08,547 --> 01:47:12,687
"'Tend to him in a minute!" he cried to Henfrey as he passed the prostrate Huxter,

1742
01:47:12,687 --> 01:47:16,908
and, coming round the corner to join the tumult, was promptly knocked off his feet

1743
01:47:16,908 --> 01:47:19,627
into an indecorous sprawl.

1744
01:47:19,627 --> 01:47:22,357
Somebody in full flight trod heavily on his finger.

1745
01:47:22,357 --> 01:47:28,107
He yelled, struggled to regain his feet, was knocked against and thrown on all fours

1746
01:47:28,107 --> 01:47:34,158
again, and became aware that he was involved not in a capture, but a rout.

1747
01:47:34,158 --> 01:47:36,297
Everyone was running back to the village.

1748
01:47:36,297 --> 01:47:39,797
He rose again and was hit severely behind the ear.

1749
01:47:39,797 --> 01:47:43,767
He staggered and set off back to the "Coach and Horses" forthwith, leaping over the

1750
01:47:43,767 --> 01:47:48,547
deserted Huxter, who was now sitting up, on his way.

1751
01:47:48,547 --> 01:47:52,617
Behind him as he was halfway up the inn steps he heard a sudden yell of rage,

1752
01:47:52,617 --> 01:47:56,767
rising sharply out of the confusion of cries, and a sounding smack in someone's

1753
01:47:56,767 --> 01:47:57,927
face.

1754
01:47:57,927 --> 01:48:02,437
He recognised the voice as that of the Invisible Man, and the note was that of a

1755
01:48:02,437 --> 01:48:09,218
man suddenly infuriated by a painful blow. In another moment Mr. Cuss was back in the

1756
01:48:09,218 --> 01:48:09,797
parlour.

1757
01:48:09,797 --> 01:48:12,228
"He's coming back, Bunting!" he said, rushing in.

1758
01:48:12,228 --> 01:48:15,278
"Save yourself!"

1759
01:48:15,278 --> 01:48:19,007
Mr. Bunting was standing in the window engaged in an attempt to clothe himself in

1760
01:48:19,007 --> 01:48:21,598
the hearth-rug and a West Surrey Gazette.

1761
01:48:21,598 --> 01:48:26,237
"Who's coming?" he said, so startled that his costume narrowly escaped

1762
01:48:26,237 --> 01:48:29,707
disintegration. "Invisible Man," said Cuss, and rushed on

1763
01:48:29,707 --> 01:48:30,707
to the window.

1764
01:48:30,707 --> 01:48:33,918
"We'd better clear out from here! He's fighting mad!

1765
01:48:33,918 --> 01:48:39,098
Mad!" In another moment he was out in the yard.

1766
01:48:39,098 --> 01:48:42,827
"Good heavens!" said Mr. Bunting, hesitating between two horrible

1767
01:48:42,827 --> 01:48:44,288
alternatives.

1768
01:48:44,288 --> 01:48:48,137
He heard a frightful struggle in the passage of the inn, and his decision was

1769
01:48:48,137 --> 01:48:49,397
made.

1770
01:48:49,397 --> 01:48:54,377
He clambered out of the window, adjusted his costume hastily, and fled up the

1771
01:48:54,377 --> 01:48:57,357
village as fast as his fat little legs would carry him.

1772
01:48:57,357 --> 01:49:03,117
From the moment when the Invisible Man screamed with rage and Mr. Bunting made his

1773
01:49:03,117 --> 01:49:07,728
memorable flight up the village, it became impossible to give a consecutive account of

1774
01:49:07,728 --> 01:49:09,468
affairs in Iping.

1775
01:49:09,468 --> 01:49:13,478
Possibly the Invisible Man's original intention was simply to cover Marvel's

1776
01:49:13,478 --> 01:49:15,598
retreat with the clothes and books.

1777
01:49:15,598 --> 01:49:20,838
But his temper, at no time very good, seems to have gone completely at some chance

1778
01:49:20,838 --> 01:49:25,737
blow, and forthwith he set to smiting and overthrowing, for the mere satisfaction of

1779
01:49:25,737 --> 01:49:27,778
hurting.

1780
01:49:27,778 --> 01:49:32,797
You must figure the street full of running figures, of doors slamming and fights for

1781
01:49:32,797 --> 01:49:34,397
hiding-places.

1782
01:49:34,397 --> 01:49:38,177
You must figure the tumult suddenly striking on the unstable equilibrium of old

1783
01:49:38,177 --> 01:49:42,338
Fletcher's planks and two chairs--with cataclysmic results.

1784
01:49:42,338 --> 01:49:46,647
You must figure an appalled couple caught dismally in a swing.

1785
01:49:46,647 --> 01:49:51,047
And then the whole tumultuous rush has passed and the Iping street with its gauds

1786
01:49:51,047 --> 01:49:57,028
and flags is deserted save for the still raging unseen, and littered with cocoanuts,

1787
01:49:57,028 --> 01:49:59,177
overthrown canvas screens, and the

1788
01:49:59,177 --> 01:50:02,968
scattered stock in trade of a sweetstuff stall.

1789
01:50:02,968 --> 01:50:07,177
Everywhere there is a sound of closing shutters and shoving bolts, and the only

1790
01:50:07,177 --> 01:50:12,947
visible humanity is an occasional flitting eye under a raised eyebrow in the corner of

1791
01:50:12,947 --> 01:50:15,738
a window pane.

1792
01:50:15,738 --> 01:50:20,018
The Invisible Man amused himself for a little while by breaking all the windows in

1793
01:50:20,018 --> 01:50:24,278
the "Coach and Horses," and then he thrust a street lamp through the parlour window of

1794
01:50:24,278 --> 01:50:25,748
Mrs. Gribble.

1795
01:50:25,748 --> 01:50:30,158
He it must have been who cut the telegraph wire to Adderdean just beyond Higgins'

1796
01:50:30,158 --> 01:50:32,498
cottage on the Adderdean road.

1797
01:50:32,498 --> 01:50:37,778
And after that, as his peculiar qualities allowed, he passed out of human perceptions

1798
01:50:37,778 --> 01:50:43,068
altogether, and he was neither heard, seen, nor felt in Iping any more.

1799
01:50:43,068 --> 01:50:46,758
He vanished absolutely.

1800
01:50:46,758 --> 01:50:51,568
But it was the best part of two hours before any human being ventured out again

1801
01:50:51,568 --> 01:50:58,272
into the desolation of Iping street.

1802
01:50:58,272 --> 01:50:59,272
>

1803
01:50:59,272 --> 01:51:12,102
-CHAPTER XIII MR. MARVEL DISCUSSES HIS RESIGNATION

1804
01:51:12,102 --> 01:51:15,932
When the dusk was gathering and Iping was just beginning to peep timorously forth

1805
01:51:15,932 --> 01:51:20,772
again upon the shattered wreckage of its Bank Holiday, a short, thick-set man in a

1806
01:51:20,772 --> 01:51:23,312
shabby silk hat was marching painfully

1807
01:51:23,312 --> 01:51:27,412
through the twilight behind the beechwoods on the road to Bramblehurst.

1808
01:51:27,412 --> 01:51:32,412
He carried three books bound together by some sort of ornamental elastic ligature,

1809
01:51:32,412 --> 01:51:36,372
and a bundle wrapped in a blue table-cloth.

1810
01:51:36,372 --> 01:51:41,412
His rubicund face expressed consternation and fatigue; he appeared to be in a

1811
01:51:41,412 --> 01:51:44,472
spasmodic sort of hurry.

1812
01:51:44,472 --> 01:51:49,202
He was accompanied by a voice other than his own, and ever and again he winced under

1813
01:51:49,202 --> 01:51:51,761
the touch of unseen hands.

1814
01:51:51,761 --> 01:51:56,562
"If you give me the slip again," said the Voice, "if you attempt to give me the slip

1815
01:51:56,562 --> 01:52:00,052
again--" "Lord!" said Mr. Marvel.

1816
01:52:00,052 --> 01:52:03,622
"That shoulder's a mass of bruises as it is."

1817
01:52:03,622 --> 01:52:06,132
"On my honour," said the Voice, "I will kill you."

1818
01:52:06,132 --> 01:52:12,841
"I didn't try to give you the slip," said Marvel, in a voice that was not far remote

1819
01:52:12,841 --> 01:52:15,521
from tears. "I swear I didn't.

1820
01:52:15,521 --> 01:52:17,451
I didn't know the blessed turning, that was all!

1821
01:52:17,451 --> 01:52:19,942
How the devil was I to know the blessed turning?

1822
01:52:19,942 --> 01:52:22,381
As it is, I've been knocked about--"

1823
01:52:22,381 --> 01:52:27,241
"You'll get knocked about a great deal more if you don't mind," said the Voice, and Mr.

1824
01:52:27,241 --> 01:52:32,042
Marvel abruptly became silent. He blew out his cheeks, and his eyes were

1825
01:52:32,042 --> 01:52:32,951
eloquent of despair.

1826
01:52:32,951 --> 01:52:39,951
"It's bad enough to let these floundering yokels explode my little secret, without

1827
01:52:39,951 --> 01:52:44,161
your cutting off with my books. It's lucky for some of them they cut and

1828
01:52:44,161 --> 01:52:46,101
ran when they did!

1829
01:52:46,101 --> 01:52:49,781
Here am I ... No one knew I was invisible!

1830
01:52:49,781 --> 01:52:54,991
And now what am I to do?" "What am I to do?" asked Marvel, sotto

1831
01:52:54,991 --> 01:52:55,481
voce.

1832
01:52:55,481 --> 01:52:59,271
"It's all about. It will be in the papers!

1833
01:52:59,271 --> 01:53:04,631
Everybody will be looking for me; everyone on their guard--" The Voice broke off into

1834
01:53:04,631 --> 01:53:07,591
vivid curses and ceased.

1835
01:53:07,591 --> 01:53:12,222
The despair of Mr. Marvel's face deepened, and his pace slackened.

1836
01:53:12,222 --> 01:53:17,591
"Go on!" said the Voice. Mr. Marvel's face assumed a greyish tint

1837
01:53:17,591 --> 01:53:19,731
between the ruddier patches.

1838
01:53:19,731 --> 01:53:25,871
"Don't drop those books, stupid," said the Voice, sharply--overtaking him.

1839
01:53:25,871 --> 01:53:29,371
"The fact is," said the Voice, "I shall have to make use of you....

1840
01:53:29,371 --> 01:53:31,172
You're a poor tool, but I must."

1841
01:53:31,172 --> 01:53:36,961
"I'm a miserable tool," said Marvel. "You are," said the Voice.

1842
01:53:36,961 --> 01:53:41,731
"I'm the worst possible tool you could have," said Marvel.

1843
01:53:41,731 --> 01:53:46,491
"I'm not strong," he said after a discouraging silence.

1844
01:53:46,491 --> 01:53:53,502
"I'm not over strong," he repeated. "No?"

1845
01:53:53,502 --> 01:53:55,282
"And my heart's weak.

1846
01:53:55,282 --> 01:53:58,351
That little business--I pulled it through, of course--but bless you!

1847
01:53:58,351 --> 01:54:02,472
I could have dropped." "Well?"

1848
01:54:02,472 --> 01:54:07,222
"I haven't the nerve and strength for the sort of thing you want."

1849
01:54:07,222 --> 01:54:10,752
"I'll stimulate you." "I wish you wouldn't.

1850
01:54:10,752 --> 01:54:13,052
I wouldn't like to mess up your plans, you know.

1851
01:54:13,052 --> 01:54:20,412
But I might--out of sheer funk and misery." "You'd better not," said the Voice, with

1852
01:54:20,412 --> 01:54:21,112
quiet emphasis.

1853
01:54:21,112 --> 01:54:28,112
"I wish I was dead," said Marvel. "It ain't justice," he said; "you must

1854
01:54:28,112 --> 01:54:31,442
admit.... It seems to me I've a perfect right--"

1855
01:54:31,442 --> 01:54:34,601
"Get on!" said the Voice.

1856
01:54:34,601 --> 01:54:38,502
Mr. Marvel mended his pace, and for a time they went in silence again.

1857
01:54:38,502 --> 01:54:45,112
"It's devilish hard," said Mr. Marvel. This was quite ineffectual.

1858
01:54:45,112 --> 01:54:45,952
He tried another tack.

1859
01:54:45,952 --> 01:54:53,752
"What do I make by it?" he began again in a tone of unendurable wrong.

1860
01:54:53,752 --> 01:54:58,091
"Oh! shut up!" said the Voice, with sudden amazing vigour.

1861
01:54:58,091 --> 01:54:59,621
"I'll see to you all right.

1862
01:54:59,621 --> 01:55:02,131
You do what you're told. You'll do it all right.

1863
01:55:02,131 --> 01:55:03,862
You're a fool and all that, but you'll do-- "

1864
01:55:03,862 --> 01:55:08,282
"I tell you, sir, I'm not the man for it.

1865
01:55:08,282 --> 01:55:12,841
Respectfully--but it is so--" "If you don't shut up I shall twist your

1866
01:55:12,841 --> 01:55:18,911
wrist again," said the Invisible Man. "I want to think."

1867
01:55:18,911 --> 01:55:22,462
Presently two oblongs of yellow light appeared through the trees, and the square

1868
01:55:22,462 --> 01:55:25,412
tower of a church loomed through the gloaming.

1869
01:55:25,412 --> 01:55:30,922
"I shall keep my hand on your shoulder," said the Voice, "all through the village.

1870
01:55:30,922 --> 01:55:35,762
Go straight through and try no foolery. It will be the worse for you if you do."

1871
01:55:35,762 --> 01:55:42,412
"I know that," sighed Mr. Marvel, "I know all that."

1872
01:55:42,412 --> 01:55:47,032
The unhappy-looking figure in the obsolete silk hat passed up the street of the little

1873
01:55:47,032 --> 01:55:51,752
village with his burdens, and vanished into the gathering darkness beyond the lights of

1874
01:55:51,752 --> 01:55:55,552
the windows.

1875
01:55:55,552 --> 01:56:01,622
CHAPTER XIV AT PORT STOWE

1876
01:56:01,622 --> 01:56:06,842
Ten o'clock the next morning found Mr. Marvel, unshaven, dirty, and travel-

1877
01:56:06,842 --> 01:56:11,222
stained, sitting with the books beside him and his hands deep in his pockets, looking

1878
01:56:11,222 --> 01:56:14,112
very weary, nervous, and uncomfortable, and

1879
01:56:14,112 --> 01:56:17,652
inflating his cheeks at infrequent intervals, on the bench outside a little

1880
01:56:17,652 --> 01:56:23,132
inn on the outskirts of Port Stowe. Beside him were the books, but now they

1881
01:56:23,132 --> 01:56:25,062
were tied with string.

1882
01:56:25,062 --> 01:56:28,842
The bundle had been abandoned in the pine- woods beyond Bramblehurst, in accordance

1883
01:56:28,842 --> 01:56:33,122
with a change in the plans of the Invisible Man.

1884
01:56:33,122 --> 01:56:37,682
Mr. Marvel sat on the bench, and although no one took the slightest notice of him,

1885
01:56:37,682 --> 01:56:39,462
his agitation remained at fever heat.

1886
01:56:39,462 --> 01:56:44,452
His hands would go ever and again to his various pockets with a curious nervous

1887
01:56:44,452 --> 01:56:44,892
fumbling.

1888
01:56:44,892 --> 01:56:50,892
When he had been sitting for the best part of an hour, however, an elderly mariner,

1889
01:56:50,892 --> 01:56:54,152
carrying a newspaper, came out of the inn and sat down beside him.

1890
01:56:54,152 --> 01:56:58,102
"Pleasant day," said the mariner.

1891
01:56:58,102 --> 01:57:01,702
Mr. Marvel glanced about him with something very like terror.

1892
01:57:01,702 --> 01:57:06,412
"Very," he said. "Just seasonable weather for the time of

1893
01:57:06,412 --> 01:57:09,292
year," said the mariner, taking no denial.

1894
01:57:09,292 --> 01:57:15,022
"Quite," said Mr. Marvel. The mariner produced a toothpick, and

1895
01:57:15,022 --> 01:57:18,612
(saving his regard) was engrossed thereby for some minutes.

1896
01:57:18,612 --> 01:57:22,832
His eyes meanwhile were at liberty to examine Mr. Marvel's dusty figure, and the

1897
01:57:22,832 --> 01:57:23,762
books beside him.

1898
01:57:23,762 --> 01:57:28,142
As he had approached Mr. Marvel he had heard a sound like the dropping of coins

1899
01:57:28,142 --> 01:57:29,802
into a pocket.

1900
01:57:29,802 --> 01:57:34,642
He was struck by the contrast of Mr. Marvel's appearance with this suggestion of

1901
01:57:34,642 --> 01:57:36,462
opulence.

1902
01:57:36,462 --> 01:57:40,022
Thence his mind wandered back again to a topic that had taken a curiously firm hold

1903
01:57:40,022 --> 01:57:44,822
of his imagination. "Books?" he said suddenly, noisily

1904
01:57:44,822 --> 01:57:46,632
finishing with the toothpick.

1905
01:57:46,632 --> 01:57:50,392
Mr. Marvel started and looked at them. "Oh, yes," he said.

1906
01:57:50,392 --> 01:57:54,522
"Yes, they're books." "There's some extra-ordinary things in

1907
01:57:54,522 --> 01:57:56,042
books," said the mariner.

1908
01:57:56,042 --> 01:58:01,862
"I believe you," said Mr. Marvel. "And some extra-ordinary things out of

1909
01:58:01,862 --> 01:58:06,612
'em," said the mariner. "True likewise," said Mr. Marvel.

1910
01:58:06,612 --> 01:58:08,892
He eyed his interlocutor, and then glanced about him.

1911
01:58:08,892 --> 01:58:16,212
"There's some extra-ordinary things in newspapers, for example," said the mariner.

1912
01:58:16,212 --> 01:58:16,362
"There are."

1913
01:58:16,362 --> 01:58:22,712
"In this newspaper," said the mariner. "Ah!" said Mr. Marvel.

1914
01:58:22,712 --> 01:58:27,892
"There's a story," said the mariner, fixing Mr. Marvel with an eye that was firm and

1915
01:58:27,892 --> 01:58:34,902
deliberate; "there's a story about an Invisible Man, for instance."

1916
01:58:34,902 --> 01:58:38,182
Mr. Marvel pulled his mouth askew and scratched his cheek and felt his ears

1917
01:58:38,182 --> 01:58:42,782
glowing. "What will they be writing next?" he asked

1918
01:58:42,782 --> 01:58:43,712
faintly.

1919
01:58:43,712 --> 01:58:48,192
"Ostria, or America?" "Neither," said the mariner.

1920
01:58:48,192 --> 01:58:54,272
"Here." "Lord!" said Mr. Marvel, starting.

1921
01:58:54,272 --> 01:58:59,452
"When I say here," said the mariner, to Mr. Marvel's intense relief, "I don't of course

1922
01:58:59,452 --> 01:59:04,412
mean here in this place, I mean hereabouts."

1923
01:59:04,412 --> 01:59:06,922
"An Invisible Man!" said Mr. Marvel.

1924
01:59:06,922 --> 01:59:11,312
"And what's he been up to?" "Everything," said the mariner, controlling

1925
01:59:11,312 --> 01:59:13,842
Marvel with his eye, and then amplifying, "every--blessed--thing."

1926
01:59:13,842 --> 01:59:19,592
"I ain't seen a paper these four days," said Marvel.

1927
01:59:19,592 --> 01:59:23,102
"Iping's the place he started at," said the mariner.

1928
01:59:23,102 --> 01:59:27,582
"In-deed!" said Mr. Marvel.

1929
01:59:27,582 --> 01:59:30,182
"He started there. And where he came from, nobody don't seem

1930
01:59:30,182 --> 01:59:34,491
to know. Here it is: 'Pe-culiar Story from Iping.'

1931
01:59:34,491 --> 01:59:41,282
And it says in this paper that the evidence is extra-ordinary strong--extra-ordinary."

1932
01:59:41,282 --> 01:59:45,862
"Lord!" said Mr. Marvel. "But then, it's an extra-ordinary story.

1933
01:59:45,862 --> 01:59:50,332
There is a clergyman and a medical gent witnesses--saw 'im all right and proper--or

1934
01:59:50,332 --> 01:59:51,952
leastways didn't see 'im.

1935
01:59:51,952 --> 01:59:56,532
He was staying, it says, at the 'Coach an' Horses,' and no one don't seem to have been

1936
01:59:56,532 --> 02:00:01,732
aware of his misfortune, it says, aware of his misfortune, until in an Altercation in

1937
02:00:01,732 --> 02:00:05,142
the inn, it says, his bandages on his head was torn off.

1938
02:00:05,142 --> 02:00:09,042
It was then ob-served that his head was invisible.

1939
02:00:09,042 --> 02:00:14,722
Attempts were At Once made to secure him, but casting off his garments, it says, he

1940
02:00:14,722 --> 02:00:19,862
succeeded in escaping, but not until after a desperate struggle, in which he had

1941
02:00:19,862 --> 02:00:22,832
inflicted serious injuries, it says, on our

1942
02:00:22,832 --> 02:00:27,302
worthy and able constable, Mr. J. A. Jaffers.

1943
02:00:27,302 --> 02:00:31,772
Pretty straight story, eh? Names and everything."

1944
02:00:31,772 --> 02:00:36,482
"Lord!" said Mr. Marvel, looking nervously about him, trying to count the money in his

1945
02:00:36,482 --> 02:00:42,262
pockets by his unaided sense of touch, and full of a strange and novel idea.

1946
02:00:42,262 --> 02:00:44,912
"It sounds most astonishing."

1947
02:00:44,912 --> 02:00:48,482
"Don't it? Extra-ordinary, I call it.

1948
02:00:48,482 --> 02:00:53,072
Never heard tell of Invisible Men before, I haven't, but nowadays one hears such a lot

1949
02:00:53,072 --> 02:00:55,262
of extra-ordinary things--that--"

1950
02:00:55,262 --> 02:01:01,662
"That all he did?" asked Marvel, trying to seem at his ease.

1951
02:01:01,662 --> 02:01:09,362
"It's enough, ain't it?" said the mariner. "Didn't go Back by any chance?" asked

1952
02:01:09,362 --> 02:01:10,672
Marvel.

1953
02:01:10,672 --> 02:01:14,512
"Just escaped and that's all, eh?" "All!" said the mariner.

1954
02:01:14,512 --> 02:01:19,332
"Why!--ain't it enough?" "Quite enough," said Marvel.

1955
02:01:19,332 --> 02:01:21,112
"I should think it was enough," said the mariner.

1956
02:01:21,112 --> 02:01:24,232
"I should think it was enough."

1957
02:01:24,232 --> 02:01:29,922
"He didn't have any pals--it don't say he had any pals, does it?" asked Mr. Marvel,

1958
02:01:29,922 --> 02:01:34,232
anxious. "Ain't one of a sort enough for you?" asked

1959
02:01:34,232 --> 02:01:35,332
the mariner.

1960
02:01:35,332 --> 02:01:38,952
"No, thank Heaven, as one might say, he didn't."

1961
02:01:38,952 --> 02:01:41,072
He nodded his head slowly.

1962
02:01:41,072 --> 02:01:45,922
"It makes me regular uncomfortable, the bare thought of that chap running about the

1963
02:01:45,922 --> 02:01:46,792
country!

1964
02:01:46,792 --> 02:01:52,551
He is at present At Large, and from certain evidence it is supposed that he has--taken-

1965
02:01:52,551 --> 02:01:58,862
-took, I suppose they mean--the road to Port Stowe.

1966
02:01:58,862 --> 02:02:00,992
You see we're right in it!

1967
02:02:00,992 --> 02:02:05,252
None of your American wonders, this time. And just think of the things he might do!

1968
02:02:05,252 --> 02:02:10,072
Where'd you be, if he took a drop over and above, and had a fancy to go for you?

1969
02:02:10,072 --> 02:02:13,022
Suppose he wants to rob--who can prevent him?

1970
02:02:13,022 --> 02:02:17,772
He can trespass, he can burgle, he could walk through a cordon of policemen as easy

1971
02:02:17,772 --> 02:02:20,482
as me or you could give the slip to a blind man!

1972
02:02:20,482 --> 02:02:21,512
Easier!

1973
02:02:21,512 --> 02:02:25,592
For these here blind chaps hear uncommon sharp, I'm told.

1974
02:02:25,592 --> 02:02:31,202
And wherever there was liquor he fancied--" "He's got a tremenjous advantage,

1975
02:02:31,202 --> 02:02:33,702
certainly," said Mr. Marvel.

1976
02:02:33,702 --> 02:02:37,942
"And--well..." "You're right," said the mariner.

1977
02:02:37,942 --> 02:02:40,582
"He has."

1978
02:02:40,582 --> 02:02:45,132
All this time Mr. Marvel had been glancing about him intently, listening for faint

1979
02:02:45,132 --> 02:02:49,562
footfalls, trying to detect imperceptible movements.

1980
02:02:49,562 --> 02:02:52,792
He seemed on the point of some great resolution.

1981
02:02:52,792 --> 02:02:56,502
He coughed behind his hand.

1982
02:02:56,502 --> 02:03:02,432
He looked about him again, listened, bent towards the mariner, and lowered his voice:

1983
02:03:02,432 --> 02:03:08,452
"The fact of it is--I happen--to know just a thing or two about this Invisible Man.

1984
02:03:08,452 --> 02:03:09,672
From private sources."

1985
02:03:09,672 --> 02:03:14,962
"Oh!" said the mariner, interested. "You?"

1986
02:03:14,962 --> 02:03:18,111
"Yes," said Mr. Marvel. "Me."

1987
02:03:18,111 --> 02:03:20,372
"Indeed!" said the mariner.

1988
02:03:20,372 --> 02:03:24,282
"And may I ask--" "You'll be astonished," said Mr. Marvel

1989
02:03:24,282 --> 02:03:26,632
behind his hand. "It's tremenjous."

1990
02:03:26,632 --> 02:03:30,111
"Indeed!" said the mariner.

1991
02:03:30,111 --> 02:03:34,682
"The fact is," began Mr. Marvel eagerly in a confidential undertone.

1992
02:03:34,682 --> 02:03:36,872
Suddenly his expression changed marvellously.

1993
02:03:36,872 --> 02:03:38,732
"Ow!" he said.

1994
02:03:38,732 --> 02:03:43,172
He rose stiffly in his seat. His face was eloquent of physical

1995
02:03:43,172 --> 02:03:45,992
suffering. "Wow!" he said.

1996
02:03:45,992 --> 02:03:51,412
"What's up?" said the mariner, concerned.

1997
02:03:51,412 --> 02:03:54,742
"Toothache," said Mr. Marvel, and put his hand to his ear.

1998
02:03:54,742 --> 02:03:58,072
He caught hold of his books. "I must be getting on, I think," he said.

1999
02:03:58,072 --> 02:04:04,051
He edged in a curious way along the seat away from his interlocutor.

2000
02:04:04,051 --> 02:04:08,192
"But you was just a-going to tell me about this here Invisible Man!" protested the

2001
02:04:08,192 --> 02:04:09,602
mariner.

2002
02:04:09,602 --> 02:04:13,952
Mr. Marvel seemed to consult with himself. "Hoax," said a Voice.

2003
02:04:13,952 --> 02:04:19,502
"It's a hoax," said Mr. Marvel. "But it's in the paper," said the mariner.

2004
02:04:19,502 --> 02:04:22,282
"Hoax all the same," said Marvel.

2005
02:04:22,282 --> 02:04:27,022
"I know the chap that started the lie. There ain't no Invisible Man whatsoever--

2006
02:04:27,022 --> 02:04:31,692
Blimey." "But how 'bout this paper?

2007
02:04:31,692 --> 02:04:32,212
D'you mean to say--?"

2008
02:04:32,212 --> 02:04:39,402
"Not a word of it," said Marvel, stoutly. The mariner stared, paper in hand.

2009
02:04:39,402 --> 02:04:44,932
Mr. Marvel jerkily faced about. "Wait a bit," said the mariner, rising and

2010
02:04:44,932 --> 02:04:47,332
speaking slowly, "D'you mean to say--?"

2011
02:04:47,332 --> 02:04:53,082
"I do," said Mr. Marvel. "Then why did you let me go on and tell you

2012
02:04:53,082 --> 02:04:55,801
all this blarsted stuff, then? What d'yer mean by letting a man make a

2013
02:04:55,801 --> 02:04:56,872
fool of himself like that for?

2014
02:04:56,872 --> 02:05:01,111
Eh?" Mr. Marvel blew out his cheeks.

2015
02:05:01,111 --> 02:05:05,572
The mariner was suddenly very red indeed; he clenched his hands.

2016
02:05:05,572 --> 02:05:09,782
"I been talking here this ten minutes," he said; "and you, you little pot-bellied,

2017
02:05:09,782 --> 02:05:13,192
leathery-faced son of an old boot, couldn't have the elementary manners--"

2018
02:05:13,192 --> 02:05:20,022
"Don't you come bandying words with me," said Mr. Marvel.

2019
02:05:20,022 --> 02:05:23,082
"Bandying words! I'm a jolly good mind--"

2020
02:05:23,082 --> 02:05:27,832
"Come up," said a Voice, and Mr. Marvel was suddenly whirled about and started marching

2021
02:05:27,832 --> 02:05:33,342
off in a curious spasmodic manner. "You'd better move on," said the mariner.

2022
02:05:33,342 --> 02:05:35,801
"Who's moving on?" said Mr. Marvel.

2023
02:05:35,801 --> 02:05:40,622
He was receding obliquely with a curious hurrying gait, with occasional violent

2024
02:05:40,622 --> 02:05:44,102
jerks forward. Some way along the road he began a muttered

2025
02:05:44,102 --> 02:05:48,301
monologue, protests and recriminations.

2026
02:05:48,301 --> 02:05:53,301
"Silly devil!" said the mariner, legs wide apart, elbows akimbo, watching the receding

2027
02:05:53,301 --> 02:05:57,442
figure. "I'll show you, you silly ass--hoaxing me!

2028
02:05:57,442 --> 02:05:59,551
It's here--on the paper!"

2029
02:05:59,551 --> 02:06:05,642
Mr. Marvel retorted incoherently and, receding, was hidden by a bend in the road,

2030
02:06:05,642 --> 02:06:09,892
but the mariner still stood magnificent in the midst of the way, until the approach of

2031
02:06:09,892 --> 02:06:12,452
a butcher's cart dislodged him.

2032
02:06:12,452 --> 02:06:17,072
Then he turned himself towards Port Stowe. "Full of extra-ordinary asses," he said

2033
02:06:17,072 --> 02:06:21,372
softly to himself. "Just to take me down a bit--that was his

2034
02:06:21,372 --> 02:06:24,682
silly game--It's on the paper!"

2035
02:06:24,682 --> 02:06:28,421
And there was another extraordinary thing he was presently to hear, that had happened

2036
02:06:28,421 --> 02:06:29,551
quite close to him.

2037
02:06:29,551 --> 02:06:34,962
And that was a vision of a "fist full of money" (no less) travelling without visible

2038
02:06:34,962 --> 02:06:39,272
agency, along by the wall at the corner of St. Michael's Lane.

2039
02:06:39,272 --> 02:06:42,892
A brother mariner had seen this wonderful sight that very morning.

2040
02:06:42,892 --> 02:06:47,332
He had snatched at the money forthwith and had been knocked headlong, and when he had

2041
02:06:47,332 --> 02:06:49,512
got to his feet the butterfly money had vanished.

2042
02:06:49,512 --> 02:06:54,082
Our mariner was in the mood to believe anything, he declared, but that was a bit

2043
02:06:54,082 --> 02:06:58,382
too stiff. Afterwards, however, he began to think

2044
02:06:58,382 --> 02:06:58,882
things over.

2045
02:06:58,882 --> 02:07:03,022
The story of the flying money was true.

2046
02:07:03,022 --> 02:07:06,602
And all about that neighbourhood, even from the august London and Country Banking

2047
02:07:06,602 --> 02:07:11,801
Company, from the tills of shops and inns-- doors standing that sunny weather entirely

2048
02:07:11,801 --> 02:07:14,382
open--money had been quietly and

2049
02:07:14,382 --> 02:07:19,272
dexterously making off that day in handfuls and rouleaux, floating quietly along by

2050
02:07:19,272 --> 02:07:24,162
walls and shady places, dodging quickly from the approaching eyes of men.

2051
02:07:24,162 --> 02:07:29,152
And it had, though no man had traced it, invariably ended its mysterious flight in

2052
02:07:29,152 --> 02:07:33,752
the pocket of that agitated gentleman in the obsolete silk hat, sitting outside the

2053
02:07:33,752 --> 02:07:35,812
little inn on the outskirts of Port Stowe.

2054
02:07:35,812 --> 02:07:43,912
It was ten days after--and indeed only when the Burdock story was already old--that the

2055
02:07:43,912 --> 02:07:48,062
mariner collated these facts and began to understand how near he had been to the

2056
02:07:48,062 --> 02:07:49,486
wonderful Invisible Man.

2057
02:07:49,486 --> 02:07:50,486
>

2058
02:07:50,486 --> 02:08:01,236
-CHAPTER XV THE MAN WHO WAS RUNNING

2059
02:08:01,236 --> 02:08:05,866
In the early evening time Dr. Kemp was sitting in his study in the belvedere on

2060
02:08:05,866 --> 02:08:07,596
the hill overlooking Burdock.

2061
02:08:07,596 --> 02:08:12,775
It was a pleasant little room, with three windows--north, west, and south--and

2062
02:08:12,775 --> 02:08:16,775
bookshelves covered with books and scientific publications, and a broad

2063
02:08:16,775 --> 02:08:19,765
writing-table, and, under the north window,

2064
02:08:19,765 --> 02:08:24,666
a microscope, glass slips, minute instruments, some cultures, and scattered

2065
02:08:24,666 --> 02:08:26,996
bottles of reagents.

2066
02:08:26,996 --> 02:08:32,385
Dr. Kemp's solar lamp was lit, albeit the sky was still bright with the sunset light,

2067
02:08:32,385 --> 02:08:36,236
and his blinds were up because there was no offence of peering outsiders to require

2068
02:08:36,236 --> 02:08:38,475
them pulled down.

2069
02:08:38,475 --> 02:08:43,176
Dr. Kemp was a tall and slender young man, with flaxen hair and a moustache almost

2070
02:08:43,176 --> 02:08:48,626
white, and the work he was upon would earn him, he hoped, the fellowship of the Royal

2071
02:08:48,626 --> 02:08:52,626
Society, so highly did he think of it.

2072
02:08:52,626 --> 02:08:57,086
And his eye, presently wandering from his work, caught the sunset blazing at the back

2073
02:08:57,086 --> 02:09:00,296
of the hill that is over against his own.

2074
02:09:00,296 --> 02:09:04,936
For a minute perhaps he sat, pen in mouth, admiring the rich golden colour above the

2075
02:09:04,936 --> 02:09:10,236
crest, and then his attention was attracted by the little figure of a man, inky black,

2076
02:09:10,236 --> 02:09:12,846
running over the hill-brow towards him.

2077
02:09:12,846 --> 02:09:17,965
He was a shortish little man, and he wore a high hat, and he was running so fast that

2078
02:09:17,965 --> 02:09:23,885
his legs verily twinkled. "Another of those fools," said Dr. Kemp.

2079
02:09:23,885 --> 02:09:28,796
"Like that ass who ran into me this morning round a corner, with the ''Visible Man a-

2080
02:09:28,796 --> 02:09:33,165
coming, sir!' I can't imagine what possess people.

2081
02:09:33,165 --> 02:09:36,786
One might think we were in the thirteenth century."

2082
02:09:36,786 --> 02:09:40,656
He got up, went to the window, and stared at the dusky hillside, and the dark little

2083
02:09:40,656 --> 02:09:41,736
figure tearing down it.

2084
02:09:41,736 --> 02:09:47,215
"He seems in a confounded hurry," said Dr. Kemp, "but he doesn't seem to be getting

2085
02:09:47,215 --> 02:09:49,305
on. If his pockets were full of lead, he

2086
02:09:49,305 --> 02:09:51,975
couldn't run heavier."

2087
02:09:51,975 --> 02:09:56,536
"Spurted, sir," said Dr. Kemp. In another moment the higher of the villas

2088
02:09:56,536 --> 02:10:00,906
that had clambered up the hill from Burdock had occulted the running figure.

2089
02:10:00,906 --> 02:10:05,376
He was visible again for a moment, and again, and then again, three times between

2090
02:10:05,376 --> 02:10:10,466
the three detached houses that came next, and then the terrace hid him.

2091
02:10:10,466 --> 02:10:13,996
"Asses!" said Dr. Kemp, swinging round on his heel and walking back to his writing-

2092
02:10:13,996 --> 02:10:14,636
table.

2093
02:10:14,636 --> 02:10:20,236
But those who saw the fugitive nearer, and perceived the abject terror on his

2094
02:10:20,236 --> 02:10:25,406
perspiring face, being themselves in the open roadway, did not share in the doctor's

2095
02:10:25,406 --> 02:10:25,936
contempt.

2096
02:10:25,936 --> 02:10:31,606
By the man pounded, and as he ran he chinked like a well-filled purse that is

2097
02:10:31,606 --> 02:10:33,785
tossed to and fro.

2098
02:10:33,785 --> 02:10:38,005
He looked neither to the right nor the left, but his dilated eyes stared straight

2099
02:10:38,005 --> 02:10:42,626
downhill to where the lamps were being lit, and the people were crowded in the street.

2100
02:10:42,626 --> 02:10:47,606
And his ill-shaped mouth fell apart, and a glairy foam lay on his lips, and his breath

2101
02:10:47,606 --> 02:10:49,626
came hoarse and noisy.

2102
02:10:49,626 --> 02:10:54,276
All he passed stopped and began staring up the road and down, and interrogating one

2103
02:10:54,276 --> 02:10:58,686
another with an inkling of discomfort for the reason of his haste.

2104
02:10:58,686 --> 02:11:03,705
And then presently, far up the hill, a dog playing in the road yelped and ran under a

2105
02:11:03,705 --> 02:11:09,805
gate, and as they still wondered something- -a wind--a pad, pad, pad,--a sound like a

2106
02:11:09,805 --> 02:11:13,365
panting breathing, rushed by.

2107
02:11:13,365 --> 02:11:17,285
People screamed. People sprang off the pavement: It passed

2108
02:11:17,285 --> 02:11:20,106
in shouts, it passed by instinct down the hill.

2109
02:11:20,106 --> 02:11:24,055
They were shouting in the street before Marvel was halfway there.

2110
02:11:24,055 --> 02:11:29,886
They were bolting into houses and slamming the doors behind them, with the news.

2111
02:11:29,886 --> 02:11:32,386
He heard it and made one last desperate spurt.

2112
02:11:32,386 --> 02:11:37,835
Fear came striding by, rushed ahead of him, and in a moment had seized the town.

2113
02:11:37,835 --> 02:11:39,425
"The Invisible Man is coming!

2114
02:11:39,425 --> 02:11:43,845
The Invisible Man!"

2115
02:11:43,845 --> 02:11:48,656
CHAPTER XVI IN THE "JOLLY CRICKETERS"

2116
02:11:48,656 --> 02:11:52,186
The "Jolly Cricketers" is just at the bottom of the hill, where the tram-lines

2117
02:11:52,186 --> 02:11:53,625
begin.

2118
02:11:53,625 --> 02:11:57,145
The barman leant his fat red arms on the counter and talked of horses with an

2119
02:11:57,145 --> 02:12:03,085
anaemic cabman, while a black-bearded man in grey snapped up biscuit and cheese,

2120
02:12:03,085 --> 02:12:06,806
drank Burton, and conversed in American with a policeman off duty.

2121
02:12:06,806 --> 02:12:13,085
"What's the shouting about!" said the anaemic cabman, going off at a tangent,

2122
02:12:13,085 --> 02:12:17,875
trying to see up the hill over the dirty yellow blind in the low window of the inn.

2123
02:12:17,875 --> 02:12:19,256
Somebody ran by outside.

2124
02:12:19,256 --> 02:12:23,576
"Fire, perhaps," said the barman.

2125
02:12:23,576 --> 02:12:28,296
Footsteps approached, running heavily, the door was pushed open violently, and Marvel,

2126
02:12:28,296 --> 02:12:34,766
weeping and dishevelled, his hat gone, the neck of his coat torn open, rushed in, made

2127
02:12:34,766 --> 02:12:38,085
a convulsive turn, and attempted to shut the door.

2128
02:12:38,085 --> 02:12:43,136
It was held half open by a strap. "Coming!" he bawled, his voice shrieking

2129
02:12:43,136 --> 02:12:43,756
with terror.

2130
02:12:43,756 --> 02:12:46,256
"He's coming. The 'Visible Man!

2131
02:12:46,256 --> 02:12:47,606
After me! For Gawd's sake!

2132
02:12:47,606 --> 02:12:48,316
'Elp!

2133
02:12:48,316 --> 02:12:50,636
'Elp! 'Elp!"

2134
02:12:50,636 --> 02:12:53,016
"Shut the doors," said the policeman. "Who's coming?

2135
02:12:53,016 --> 02:12:54,715
What's the row?"

2136
02:12:54,715 --> 02:12:58,106
He went to the door, released the strap, and it slammed.

2137
02:12:58,106 --> 02:13:03,596
The American closed the other door. "Lemme go inside," said Marvel, staggering

2138
02:13:03,596 --> 02:13:06,516
and weeping, but still clutching the books.

2139
02:13:06,516 --> 02:13:08,826
"Lemme go inside. Lock me in--somewhere.

2140
02:13:08,826 --> 02:13:11,736
I tell you he's after me. I give him the slip.

2141
02:13:11,736 --> 02:13:12,935
He said he'd kill me and he will."

2142
02:13:12,935 --> 02:13:17,146
"You're safe," said the man with the black beard.

2143
02:13:17,146 --> 02:13:19,826
"The door's shut. What's it all about?"

2144
02:13:19,826 --> 02:13:24,275
"Lemme go inside," said Marvel, and shrieked aloud as a blow suddenly made the

2145
02:13:24,275 --> 02:13:28,226
fastened door shiver and was followed by a hurried rapping and a shouting outside.

2146
02:13:28,226 --> 02:13:32,935
"Hullo," cried the policeman, "who's there?"

2147
02:13:32,935 --> 02:13:37,266
Mr. Marvel began to make frantic dives at panels that looked like doors.

2148
02:13:37,266 --> 02:13:39,266
"He'll kill me--he's got a knife or something.

2149
02:13:39,266 --> 02:13:42,275
For Gawd's sake--!" "Here you are," said the barman.

2150
02:13:42,275 --> 02:13:43,456
"Come in here."

2151
02:13:43,456 --> 02:13:48,646
And he held up the flap of the bar. Mr. Marvel rushed behind the bar as the

2152
02:13:48,646 --> 02:13:52,696
summons outside was repeated. "Don't open the door," he screamed.

2153
02:13:52,696 --> 02:13:55,036
"Please don't open the door.

2154
02:13:55,036 --> 02:14:00,585
Where shall I hide?" "This, this Invisible Man, then?" asked the

2155
02:14:00,585 --> 02:14:02,875
man with the black beard, with one hand behind him.

2156
02:14:02,875 --> 02:14:07,125
"I guess it's about time we saw him."

2157
02:14:07,125 --> 02:14:10,756
The window of the inn was suddenly smashed in, and there was a screaming and running

2158
02:14:10,756 --> 02:14:12,745
to and fro in the street.

2159
02:14:12,745 --> 02:14:16,835
The policeman had been standing on the settee staring out, craning to see who was

2160
02:14:16,835 --> 02:14:20,046
at the door. He got down with raised eyebrows.

2161
02:14:20,046 --> 02:14:22,766
"It's that," he said.

2162
02:14:22,766 --> 02:14:26,426
The barman stood in front of the bar- parlour door which was now locked on Mr.

2163
02:14:26,426 --> 02:14:32,846
Marvel, stared at the smashed window, and came round to the two other men.

2164
02:14:32,846 --> 02:14:33,965
Everything was suddenly quiet.

2165
02:14:33,965 --> 02:14:40,346
"I wish I had my truncheon," said the policeman, going irresolutely to the door.

2166
02:14:40,346 --> 02:14:42,596
"Once we open, in he comes. There's no stopping him."

2167
02:14:42,596 --> 02:14:48,636
"Don't you be in too much hurry about that door," said the anaemic cabman, anxiously.

2168
02:14:48,636 --> 02:14:55,715
"Draw the bolts," said the man with the black beard, "and if he comes--" He showed

2169
02:14:55,715 --> 02:14:57,805
a revolver in his hand.

2170
02:14:57,805 --> 02:15:00,796
"That won't do," said the policeman; "that's murder."

2171
02:15:00,796 --> 02:15:04,506
"I know what country I'm in," said the man with the beard.

2172
02:15:04,506 --> 02:15:06,446
"I'm going to let off at his legs.

2173
02:15:06,446 --> 02:15:09,976
Draw the bolts." "Not with that blinking thing going off

2174
02:15:09,976 --> 02:15:14,185
behind me," said the barman, craning over the blind.

2175
02:15:14,185 --> 02:15:17,715
"Very well," said the man with the black beard, and stooping down, revolver ready,

2176
02:15:17,715 --> 02:15:21,226
drew them himself. Barman, cabman, and policeman faced about.

2177
02:15:21,226 --> 02:15:26,636
"Come in," said the bearded man in an undertone, standing back and facing the

2178
02:15:26,636 --> 02:15:32,175
unbolted doors with his pistol behind him. No one came in, the door remained closed.

2179
02:15:32,175 --> 02:15:37,925
Five minutes afterwards when a second cabman pushed his head in cautiously, they

2180
02:15:37,925 --> 02:15:41,976
were still waiting, and an anxious face peered out of the bar-parlour and supplied

2181
02:15:41,976 --> 02:15:44,846
information.

2182
02:15:44,846 --> 02:15:46,856
"Are all the doors of the house shut?" asked Marvel.

2183
02:15:46,856 --> 02:15:50,446
"He's going round--prowling round. He's as artful as the devil."

2184
02:15:50,446 --> 02:15:54,296
"Good Lord!" said the burly barman.

2185
02:15:54,296 --> 02:15:56,435
"There's the back! Just watch them doors!

2186
02:15:56,435 --> 02:16:00,085
I say--!" He looked about him helplessly.

2187
02:16:00,085 --> 02:16:03,875
The bar-parlour door slammed and they heard the key turn.

2188
02:16:03,875 --> 02:16:05,365
"There's the yard door and the private door.

2189
02:16:05,365 --> 02:16:07,905
The yard door--"

2190
02:16:07,905 --> 02:16:11,215
He rushed out of the bar. In a minute he reappeared with a carving-

2191
02:16:11,215 --> 02:16:15,615
knife in his hand. "The yard door was open!" he said, and his

2192
02:16:15,615 --> 02:16:17,136
fat underlip dropped.

2193
02:16:17,136 --> 02:16:20,416
"He may be in the house now!" said the first cabman.

2194
02:16:20,416 --> 02:16:23,496
"He's not in the kitchen," said the barman.

2195
02:16:23,496 --> 02:16:26,576
"There's two women there, and I've stabbed every inch of it with this little beef

2196
02:16:26,576 --> 02:16:28,586
slicer. And they don't think he's come in.

2197
02:16:28,586 --> 02:16:29,426
They haven't noticed--"

2198
02:16:29,426 --> 02:16:34,016
"Have you fastened it?" asked the first cabman.

2199
02:16:34,016 --> 02:16:38,486
"I'm out of frocks," said the barman. The man with the beard replaced his

2200
02:16:38,486 --> 02:16:39,516
revolver.

2201
02:16:39,516 --> 02:16:43,336
And even as he did so the flap of the bar was shut down and the bolt clicked, and

2202
02:16:43,336 --> 02:16:47,376
then with a tremendous thud the catch of the door snapped and the bar-parlour door

2203
02:16:47,376 --> 02:16:48,476
burst open.

2204
02:16:48,476 --> 02:16:52,706
They heard Marvel squeal like a caught leveret, and forthwith they were clambering

2205
02:16:52,706 --> 02:16:53,826
over the bar to his rescue.

2206
02:16:53,826 --> 02:16:59,626
The bearded man's revolver cracked and the looking-glass at the back of the parlour

2207
02:16:59,626 --> 02:17:02,946
starred and came smashing and tinkling down.

2208
02:17:02,946 --> 02:17:07,366
As the barman entered the room he saw Marvel, curiously crumpled up and

2209
02:17:07,366 --> 02:17:09,946
struggling against the door that led to the yard and kitchen.

2210
02:17:09,946 --> 02:17:14,036
The door flew open while the barman hesitated, and Marvel was dragged into the

2211
02:17:14,036 --> 02:17:17,246
kitchen. There was a scream and a clatter of pans.

2212
02:17:17,246 --> 02:17:21,296
Marvel, head down, and lugging back obstinately, was forced to the kitchen

2213
02:17:21,296 --> 02:17:24,246
door, and the bolts were drawn.

2214
02:17:24,246 --> 02:17:28,856
Then the policeman, who had been trying to pass the barman, rushed in, followed by one

2215
02:17:28,856 --> 02:17:33,496
of the cabmen, gripped the wrist of the invisible hand that collared Marvel, was

2216
02:17:33,496 --> 02:17:36,116
hit in the face and went reeling back.

2217
02:17:36,116 --> 02:17:41,436
The door opened, and Marvel made a frantic effort to obtain a lodgment behind it.

2218
02:17:41,436 --> 02:17:45,566
Then the cabman collared something. "I got him," said the cabman.

2219
02:17:45,566 --> 02:17:48,776
The barman's red hands came clawing at the unseen.

2220
02:17:48,776 --> 02:17:51,776
"Here he is!" said the barman.

2221
02:17:51,776 --> 02:17:55,686
Mr. Marvel, released, suddenly dropped to the ground and made an attempt to crawl

2222
02:17:55,686 --> 02:17:59,656
behind the legs of the fighting men. The struggle blundered round the edge of

2223
02:17:59,656 --> 02:18:00,876
the door.

2224
02:18:00,876 --> 02:18:04,706
The voice of the Invisible Man was heard for the first time, yelling out sharply, as

2225
02:18:04,706 --> 02:18:08,466
the policeman trod on his foot. Then he cried out passionately and his

2226
02:18:08,466 --> 02:18:11,086
fists flew round like flails.

2227
02:18:11,086 --> 02:18:15,326
The cabman suddenly whooped and doubled up, kicked under the diaphragm.

2228
02:18:15,326 --> 02:18:19,316
The door into the bar-parlour from the kitchen slammed and covered Mr. Marvel's

2229
02:18:19,316 --> 02:18:20,676
retreat.

2230
02:18:20,676 --> 02:18:26,526
The men in the kitchen found themselves clutching at and struggling with empty air.

2231
02:18:26,526 --> 02:18:28,846
"Where's he gone?" cried the man with the beard.

2232
02:18:28,846 --> 02:18:29,276
"Out?"

2233
02:18:29,276 --> 02:18:33,066
"This way," said the policeman, stepping into the yard and stopping.

2234
02:18:33,066 --> 02:18:36,736
A piece of tile whizzed by his head and smashed among the crockery on the kitchen

2235
02:18:36,736 --> 02:18:38,696
table.

2236
02:18:38,696 --> 02:18:42,686
"I'll show him," shouted the man with the black beard, and suddenly a steel barrel

2237
02:18:42,686 --> 02:18:46,406
shone over the policeman's shoulder, and five bullets had followed one another into

2238
02:18:46,406 --> 02:18:49,146
the twilight whence the missile had come.

2239
02:18:49,146 --> 02:18:53,926
As he fired, the man with the beard moved his hand in a horizontal curve, so that his

2240
02:18:53,926 --> 02:18:56,866
shots radiated out into the narrow yard like spokes from a wheel.

2241
02:18:56,866 --> 02:19:00,976
A silence followed.

2242
02:19:00,976 --> 02:19:03,646
"Five cartridges," said the man with the black beard.

2243
02:19:03,646 --> 02:19:06,196
"That's the best of all. Four aces and a joker.

2244
02:19:06,196 --> 02:19:14,036
Get a lantern, someone, and come and feel about for his body."

2245
02:19:14,036 --> 02:19:19,946
CHAPTER XVII DR. KEMP'S VISITOR

2246
02:19:19,946 --> 02:19:23,866
Dr. Kemp had continued writing in his study until the shots aroused him.

2247
02:19:23,866 --> 02:19:28,056
Crack, crack, crack, they came one after the other.

2248
02:19:28,056 --> 02:19:30,876
"Hullo!" said Dr. Kemp, putting his pen into his mouth again and listening.

2249
02:19:30,876 --> 02:19:35,336
"Who's letting off revolvers in Burdock? What are the asses at now?"

2250
02:19:35,336 --> 02:19:40,936
He went to the south window, threw it up, and leaning out stared down on the network

2251
02:19:40,936 --> 02:19:45,626
of windows, beaded gas-lamps and shops, with its black interstices of roof and yard

2252
02:19:45,626 --> 02:19:48,546
that made up the town at night.

2253
02:19:48,546 --> 02:19:52,786
"Looks like a crowd down the hill," he said, "by 'The Cricketers,'" and remained

2254
02:19:52,786 --> 02:19:54,116
watching.

2255
02:19:54,116 --> 02:19:58,886
Thence his eyes wandered over the town to far away where the ships' lights shone, and

2256
02:19:58,886 --> 02:20:03,746
the pier glowed--a little illuminated, facetted pavilion like a gem of yellow

2257
02:20:03,746 --> 02:20:04,136
light.

2258
02:20:04,136 --> 02:20:09,006
The moon in its first quarter hung over the westward hill, and the stars were clear and

2259
02:20:09,006 --> 02:20:09,866
almost tropically bright.

2260
02:20:09,866 --> 02:20:15,606
After five minutes, during which his mind had travelled into a remote speculation of

2261
02:20:15,606 --> 02:20:21,366
social conditions of the future, and lost itself at last over the time dimension, Dr.

2262
02:20:21,366 --> 02:20:23,526
Kemp roused himself with a sigh, pulled

2263
02:20:23,526 --> 02:20:27,396
down the window again, and returned to his writing desk.

2264
02:20:27,396 --> 02:20:31,636
It must have been about an hour after this that the front-door bell rang.

2265
02:20:31,636 --> 02:20:36,106
He had been writing slackly, and with intervals of abstraction, since the shots.

2266
02:20:36,106 --> 02:20:36,826
He sat listening.

2267
02:20:36,826 --> 02:20:42,206
He heard the servant answer the door, and waited for her feet on the staircase, but

2268
02:20:42,206 --> 02:20:47,596
she did not come. "Wonder what that was," said Dr. Kemp.

2269
02:20:47,596 --> 02:20:52,766
He tried to resume his work, failed, got up, went downstairs from his study to the

2270
02:20:52,766 --> 02:20:56,806
landing, rang, and called over the balustrade to the housemaid as she appeared

2271
02:20:56,806 --> 02:20:59,006
in the hall below.

2272
02:20:59,006 --> 02:21:04,406
"Was that a letter?" he asked. "Only a runaway ring, sir," she answered.

2273
02:21:04,406 --> 02:21:07,606
"I'm restless to-night," he said to himself.

2274
02:21:07,606 --> 02:21:10,836
He went back to his study, and this time attacked his work resolutely.

2275
02:21:10,836 --> 02:21:15,606
In a little while he was hard at work again, and the only sounds in the room were

2276
02:21:15,606 --> 02:21:19,676
the ticking of the clock and the subdued shrillness of his quill, hurrying in the

2277
02:21:19,676 --> 02:21:24,296
very centre of the circle of light his lampshade threw on his table.

2278
02:21:24,296 --> 02:21:28,566
It was two o'clock before Dr. Kemp had finished his work for the night.

2279
02:21:28,566 --> 02:21:30,776
He rose, yawned, and went downstairs to bed.

2280
02:21:30,776 --> 02:21:36,526
He had already removed his coat and vest, when he noticed that he was thirsty.

2281
02:21:36,526 --> 02:21:39,726
He took a candle and went down to the dining-room in search of a syphon and

2282
02:21:39,726 --> 02:21:42,156
whiskey.

2283
02:21:42,156 --> 02:21:46,486
Dr. Kemp's scientific pursuits have made him a very observant man, and as he

2284
02:21:46,486 --> 02:21:51,046
recrossed the hall, he noticed a dark spot on the linoleum near the mat at the foot of

2285
02:21:51,046 --> 02:21:53,046
the stairs.

2286
02:21:53,046 --> 02:21:56,586
He went on upstairs, and then it suddenly occurred to him to ask himself what the

2287
02:21:56,586 --> 02:22:01,456
spot on the linoleum might be. Apparently some subconscious element was at

2288
02:22:01,456 --> 02:22:02,546
work.

2289
02:22:02,546 --> 02:22:06,716
At any rate, he turned with his burden, went back to the hall, put down the syphon

2290
02:22:06,716 --> 02:22:11,316
and whiskey, and bending down, touched the spot.

2291
02:22:11,316 --> 02:22:17,426
Without any great surprise he found it had the stickiness and colour of drying blood.

2292
02:22:17,426 --> 02:22:21,176
He took up his burden again, and returned upstairs, looking about him and trying to

2293
02:22:21,176 --> 02:22:23,356
account for the blood-spot.

2294
02:22:23,356 --> 02:22:26,536
On the landing he saw something and stopped astonished.

2295
02:22:26,536 --> 02:22:29,326
The door-handle of his own room was blood- stained.

2296
02:22:29,326 --> 02:22:32,156
He looked at his own hand.

2297
02:22:32,156 --> 02:22:36,236
It was quite clean, and then he remembered that the door of his room had been open

2298
02:22:36,236 --> 02:22:40,226
when he came down from his study, and that consequently he had not touched the handle

2299
02:22:40,226 --> 02:22:41,476
at all.

2300
02:22:41,476 --> 02:22:45,556
He went straight into his room, his face quite calm--perhaps a trifle more resolute

2301
02:22:45,556 --> 02:22:49,176
than usual. His glance, wandering inquisitively, fell

2302
02:22:49,176 --> 02:22:50,946
on the bed.

2303
02:22:50,946 --> 02:22:54,956
On the counterpane was a mess of blood, and the sheet had been torn.

2304
02:22:54,956 --> 02:22:58,166
He had not noticed this before because he had walked straight to the dressing-table.

2305
02:22:58,166 --> 02:23:03,856
On the further side the bedclothes were depressed as if someone had been recently

2306
02:23:03,856 --> 02:23:05,306
sitting there.

2307
02:23:05,306 --> 02:23:10,606
Then he had an odd impression that he had heard a low voice say, "Good Heavens!--

2308
02:23:10,606 --> 02:23:12,646
Kemp!" But Dr. Kemp was no believer in voices.

2309
02:23:12,646 --> 02:23:17,546
He stood staring at the tumbled sheets.

2310
02:23:17,546 --> 02:23:21,466
Was that really a voice? He looked about again, but noticed nothing

2311
02:23:21,466 --> 02:23:23,846
further than the disordered and blood- stained bed.

2312
02:23:23,846 --> 02:23:30,906
Then he distinctly heard a movement across the room, near the wash-hand stand.

2313
02:23:30,906 --> 02:23:35,526
All men, however highly educated, retain some superstitious inklings.

2314
02:23:35,526 --> 02:23:38,496
The feeling that is called "eerie" came upon him.

2315
02:23:38,496 --> 02:23:42,616
He closed the door of the room, came forward to the dressing-table, and put down

2316
02:23:42,616 --> 02:23:44,706
his burdens.

2317
02:23:44,706 --> 02:23:48,436
Suddenly, with a start, he perceived a coiled and blood-stained bandage of linen

2318
02:23:48,436 --> 02:23:51,846
rag hanging in mid-air, between him and the wash-hand stand.

2319
02:23:51,846 --> 02:23:55,856
He stared at this in amazement.

2320
02:23:55,856 --> 02:24:01,676
It was an empty bandage, a bandage properly tied but quite empty.

2321
02:24:01,676 --> 02:24:05,786
He would have advanced to grasp it, but a touch arrested him, and a voice speaking

2322
02:24:05,786 --> 02:24:07,566
quite close to him.

2323
02:24:07,566 --> 02:24:12,516
"Kemp!" said the Voice. "Eh?" said Kemp, with his mouth open.

2324
02:24:12,516 --> 02:24:15,276
"Keep your nerve," said the Voice. "I'm an Invisible Man."

2325
02:24:15,276 --> 02:24:21,856
Kemp made no answer for a space, simply stared at the bandage.

2326
02:24:21,856 --> 02:24:26,836
"Invisible Man," he said. "I am an Invisible Man," repeated the

2327
02:24:26,836 --> 02:24:27,126
Voice.

2328
02:24:27,126 --> 02:24:33,626
The story he had been active to ridicule only that morning rushed through Kemp's

2329
02:24:33,626 --> 02:24:35,256
brain.

2330
02:24:35,256 --> 02:24:38,876
He does not appear to have been either very much frightened or very greatly surprised

2331
02:24:38,876 --> 02:24:41,576
at the moment. Realisation came later.

2332
02:24:41,576 --> 02:24:46,956
"I thought it was all a lie," he said.

2333
02:24:46,956 --> 02:24:51,036
The thought uppermost in his mind was the reiterated arguments of the morning.

2334
02:24:51,036 --> 02:24:56,025
"Have you a bandage on?" he asked. "Yes," said the Invisible Man.

2335
02:24:56,025 --> 02:24:59,266
"Oh!" said Kemp, and then roused himself.

2336
02:24:59,266 --> 02:25:02,195
"I say!" he said. "But this is nonsense.

2337
02:25:02,195 --> 02:25:03,435
It's some trick."

2338
02:25:03,435 --> 02:25:07,755
He stepped forward suddenly, and his hand, extended towards the bandage, met invisible

2339
02:25:07,755 --> 02:25:11,825
fingers. He recoiled at the touch and his colour

2340
02:25:11,825 --> 02:25:12,236
changed.

2341
02:25:12,236 --> 02:25:15,505
"Keep steady, Kemp, for God's sake! I want help badly.

2342
02:25:15,505 --> 02:25:18,795
Stop!" The hand gripped his arm.

2343
02:25:18,795 --> 02:25:20,005
He struck at it.

2344
02:25:20,005 --> 02:25:21,486
"Kemp!" cried the Voice. "Kemp!

2345
02:25:21,486 --> 02:25:26,755
Keep steady!" and the grip tightened. A frantic desire to free himself took

2346
02:25:26,755 --> 02:25:28,265
possession of Kemp.

2347
02:25:28,265 --> 02:25:31,696
The hand of the bandaged arm gripped his shoulder, and he was suddenly tripped and

2348
02:25:31,696 --> 02:25:33,986
flung backwards upon the bed.

2349
02:25:33,986 --> 02:25:37,405
He opened his mouth to shout, and the corner of the sheet was thrust between his

2350
02:25:37,405 --> 02:25:38,806
teeth.

2351
02:25:38,806 --> 02:25:43,436
The Invisible Man had him down grimly, but his arms were free and he struck and tried

2352
02:25:43,436 --> 02:25:45,655
to kick savagely.

2353
02:25:45,655 --> 02:25:49,255
"Listen to reason, will you?" said the Invisible Man, sticking to him in spite of

2354
02:25:49,255 --> 02:25:52,956
a pounding in the ribs. "By Heaven! you'll madden me in a minute!

2355
02:25:52,956 --> 02:25:57,745
"Lie still, you fool!" bawled the Invisible Man in Kemp's ear.

2356
02:25:57,745 --> 02:26:00,785
Kemp struggled for another moment and then lay still.

2357
02:26:00,785 --> 02:26:06,226
"If you shout, I'll smash your face," said the Invisible Man, relieving his mouth.

2358
02:26:06,226 --> 02:26:10,336
"I'm an Invisible Man. It's no foolishness, and no magic.

2359
02:26:10,336 --> 02:26:12,295
I really am an Invisible Man.

2360
02:26:12,295 --> 02:26:16,436
And I want your help. I don't want to hurt you, but if you behave

2361
02:26:16,436 --> 02:26:20,365
like a frantic rustic, I must. Don't you remember me, Kemp?

2362
02:26:20,365 --> 02:26:21,956
Griffin, of University College?"

2363
02:26:21,956 --> 02:26:26,395
"Let me get up," said Kemp. "I'll stop where I am.

2364
02:26:26,395 --> 02:26:31,206
And let me sit quiet for a minute." He sat up and felt his neck.

2365
02:26:31,206 --> 02:26:35,505
"I am Griffin, of University College, and I have made myself invisible.

2366
02:26:35,505 --> 02:26:41,436
I am just an ordinary man--a man you have known--made invisible."

2367
02:26:41,436 --> 02:26:43,696
"Griffin?" said Kemp.

2368
02:26:43,696 --> 02:26:47,745
"Griffin," answered the Voice. A younger student than you were, almost an

2369
02:26:47,745 --> 02:26:52,326
albino, six feet high, and broad, with a pink and white face and red eyes, who won

2370
02:26:52,326 --> 02:26:55,535
the medal for chemistry."

2371
02:26:55,535 --> 02:26:58,635
"I am confused," said Kemp. "My brain is rioting.

2372
02:26:58,635 --> 02:27:03,976
What has this to do with Griffin?" "I am Griffin."

2373
02:27:03,976 --> 02:27:04,245
Kemp thought.

2374
02:27:04,245 --> 02:27:09,106
"It's horrible," he said. "But what devilry must happen to make a man

2375
02:27:09,106 --> 02:27:11,885
invisible?" "It's no devilry.

2376
02:27:11,885 --> 02:27:14,745
It's a process, sane and intelligible enough--"

2377
02:27:14,745 --> 02:27:16,946
"It's horrible!" said Kemp. "How on earth--?"

2378
02:27:16,946 --> 02:27:19,836
"It's horrible enough.

2379
02:27:19,836 --> 02:27:23,436
But I'm wounded and in pain, and tired ... Great God!

2380
02:27:23,436 --> 02:27:26,236
Kemp, you are a man. Take it steady.

2381
02:27:26,236 --> 02:27:28,505
Give me some food and drink, and let me sit down here."

2382
02:27:28,505 --> 02:27:35,206
Kemp stared at the bandage as it moved across the room, then saw a basket chair

2383
02:27:35,206 --> 02:27:38,446
dragged across the floor and come to rest near the bed.

2384
02:27:38,446 --> 02:27:43,806
It creaked, and the seat was depressed the quarter of an inch or so.

2385
02:27:43,806 --> 02:27:49,836
He rubbed his eyes and felt his neck again. "This beats ghosts," he said, and laughed

2386
02:27:49,836 --> 02:27:50,476
stupidly.

2387
02:27:50,476 --> 02:27:53,456
"That's better. Thank Heaven, you're getting sensible!"

2388
02:27:53,456 --> 02:27:57,535
"Or silly," said Kemp, and knuckled his eyes.

2389
02:27:57,535 --> 02:27:58,356
"Give me some whiskey.

2390
02:27:58,356 --> 02:28:01,456
I'm near dead." "It didn't feel so.

2391
02:28:01,456 --> 02:28:04,025
Where are you? If I get up shall I run into you?

2392
02:28:04,025 --> 02:28:05,375
There! all right.

2393
02:28:05,375 --> 02:28:07,285
Whiskey? Here.

2394
02:28:07,285 --> 02:28:11,665
Where shall I give it to you?" The chair creaked and Kemp felt the glass

2395
02:28:11,665 --> 02:28:13,655
drawn away from him.

2396
02:28:13,655 --> 02:28:17,066
He let go by an effort; his instinct was all against it.

2397
02:28:17,066 --> 02:28:22,405
It came to rest poised twenty inches above the front edge of the seat of the chair.

2398
02:28:22,405 --> 02:28:24,615
He stared at it in infinite perplexity.

2399
02:28:24,615 --> 02:28:30,995
"This is--this must be--hypnotism. You have suggested you are invisible."

2400
02:28:30,995 --> 02:28:34,956
"Nonsense," said the Voice. "It's frantic."

2401
02:28:34,956 --> 02:28:36,346
"Listen to me."

2402
02:28:36,346 --> 02:28:40,495
"I demonstrated conclusively this morning," began Kemp, "that invisibility--"

2403
02:28:40,495 --> 02:28:44,696
"Never mind what you've demonstrated!--I'm starving," said the Voice, "and the night

2404
02:28:44,696 --> 02:28:47,716
is chilly to a man without clothes."

2405
02:28:47,716 --> 02:28:51,535
"Food?" said Kemp. The tumbler of whiskey tilted itself.

2406
02:28:51,535 --> 02:28:54,096
"Yes," said the Invisible Man rapping it down.

2407
02:28:54,096 --> 02:28:56,586
"Have you a dressing-gown?"

2408
02:28:56,586 --> 02:29:01,086
Kemp made some exclamation in an undertone. He walked to a wardrobe and produced a robe

2409
02:29:01,086 --> 02:29:04,476
of dingy scarlet. "This do?" he asked.

2410
02:29:04,476 --> 02:29:05,076
It was taken from him.

2411
02:29:05,076 --> 02:29:10,665
It hung limp for a moment in mid-air, fluttered weirdly, stood full and decorous

2412
02:29:10,665 --> 02:29:13,985
buttoning itself, and sat down in his chair.

2413
02:29:13,985 --> 02:29:17,785
"Drawers, socks, slippers would be a comfort," said the Unseen, curtly.

2414
02:29:17,785 --> 02:29:20,726
"And food." "Anything.

2415
02:29:20,726 --> 02:29:23,415
But this is the insanest thing I ever was in, in my life!"

2416
02:29:23,415 --> 02:29:28,635
He turned out his drawers for the articles, and then went downstairs to ransack his

2417
02:29:28,635 --> 02:29:29,106
larder.

2418
02:29:29,106 --> 02:29:33,485
He came back with some cold cutlets and bread, pulled up a light table, and placed

2419
02:29:33,485 --> 02:29:35,706
them before his guest.

2420
02:29:35,706 --> 02:29:40,905
"Never mind knives," said his visitor, and a cutlet hung in mid-air, with a sound of

2421
02:29:40,905 --> 02:29:44,405
gnawing. "Invisible!" said Kemp, and sat down on a

2422
02:29:44,405 --> 02:29:45,566
bedroom chair.

2423
02:29:45,566 --> 02:29:49,115
"I always like to get something about me before I eat," said the Invisible Man, with

2424
02:29:49,115 --> 02:29:51,735
a full mouth, eating greedily. "Queer fancy!"

2425
02:29:51,735 --> 02:29:55,875
"I suppose that wrist is all right," said Kemp.

2426
02:29:55,875 --> 02:30:00,706
"Trust me," said the Invisible Man. "Of all the strange and wonderful--"

2427
02:30:00,706 --> 02:30:01,745
"Exactly.

2428
02:30:01,745 --> 02:30:04,706
But it's odd I should blunder into your house to get my bandaging.

2429
02:30:04,706 --> 02:30:08,645
My first stroke of luck! Anyhow I meant to sleep in this house to-

2430
02:30:08,645 --> 02:30:08,985
night.

2431
02:30:08,985 --> 02:30:11,586
You must stand that! It's a filthy nuisance, my blood showing,

2432
02:30:11,586 --> 02:30:14,365
isn't it? Quite a clot over there.

2433
02:30:14,365 --> 02:30:16,306
Gets visible as it coagulates, I see.

2434
02:30:16,306 --> 02:30:20,956
It's only the living tissue I've changed, and only for as long as I'm alive....

2435
02:30:20,956 --> 02:30:26,985
I've been in the house three hours." "But how's it done?" began Kemp, in a tone

2436
02:30:26,985 --> 02:30:27,606
of exasperation.

2437
02:30:27,606 --> 02:30:30,336
"Confound it! The whole business--it's unreasonable from

2438
02:30:30,336 --> 02:30:33,836
beginning to end." "Quite reasonable," said the Invisible Man.

2439
02:30:33,836 --> 02:30:35,826
"Perfectly reasonable."

2440
02:30:35,826 --> 02:30:38,566
He reached over and secured the whiskey bottle.

2441
02:30:38,566 --> 02:30:40,995
Kemp stared at the devouring dressing gown.

2442
02:30:40,995 --> 02:30:44,125
A ray of candle-light penetrating a torn patch in the right shoulder, made a

2443
02:30:44,125 --> 02:30:49,476
triangle of light under the left ribs. "What were the shots?" he asked.

2444
02:30:49,476 --> 02:30:51,135
"How did the shooting begin?"

2445
02:30:51,135 --> 02:30:55,275
"There was a real fool of a man--a sort of confederate of mine--curse him!--who tried

2446
02:30:55,275 --> 02:30:58,346
to steal my money. Has done so."

2447
02:30:58,346 --> 02:31:00,125
"Is he invisible too?"

2448
02:31:00,125 --> 02:31:01,576
"No." "Well?"

2449
02:31:01,576 --> 02:31:04,865
"Can't I have some more to eat before I tell you all that?

2450
02:31:04,865 --> 02:31:05,556
I'm hungry--in pain.

2451
02:31:05,556 --> 02:31:09,795
And you want me to tell stories!" Kemp got up.

2452
02:31:09,795 --> 02:31:14,436
"You didn't do any shooting?" he asked. "Not me," said his visitor.

2453
02:31:14,436 --> 02:31:16,446
"Some fool I'd never seen fired at random.

2454
02:31:16,446 --> 02:31:19,696
A lot of them got scared. They all got scared at me.

2455
02:31:19,696 --> 02:31:22,135
Curse them!--I say--I want more to eat than this, Kemp."

2456
02:31:22,135 --> 02:31:26,135
"I'll see what there is to eat downstairs," said Kemp.

2457
02:31:26,135 --> 02:31:27,586
"Not much, I'm afraid."

2458
02:31:27,586 --> 02:31:32,625
After he had done eating, and he made a heavy meal, the Invisible Man demanded a

2459
02:31:32,625 --> 02:31:34,106
cigar.

2460
02:31:34,106 --> 02:31:37,826
He bit the end savagely before Kemp could find a knife, and cursed when the outer

2461
02:31:37,826 --> 02:31:39,265
leaf loosened.

2462
02:31:39,265 --> 02:31:43,316
It was strange to see him smoking; his mouth, and throat, pharynx and nares,

2463
02:31:43,316 --> 02:31:47,706
became visible as a sort of whirling smoke cast.

2464
02:31:47,706 --> 02:31:50,865
"This blessed gift of smoking!" he said, and puffed vigorously.

2465
02:31:50,865 --> 02:31:53,865
"I'm lucky to have fallen upon you, Kemp. You must help me.

2466
02:31:53,865 --> 02:31:55,816
Fancy tumbling on you just now!

2467
02:31:55,816 --> 02:31:58,245
I'm in a devilish scrape--I've been mad, I think.

2468
02:31:58,245 --> 02:32:01,176
The things I have been through! But we will do things yet.

2469
02:32:01,176 --> 02:32:02,515
Let me tell you--"

2470
02:32:02,515 --> 02:32:06,806
He helped himself to more whiskey and soda. Kemp got up, looked about him, and fetched

2471
02:32:06,806 --> 02:32:11,946
a glass from his spare room. "It's wild--but I suppose I may drink."

2472
02:32:11,946 --> 02:32:14,395
"You haven't changed much, Kemp, these dozen years.

2473
02:32:14,395 --> 02:32:17,596
You fair men don't. Cool and methodical--after the first

2474
02:32:17,596 --> 02:32:18,495
collapse.

2475
02:32:18,495 --> 02:32:20,956
I must tell you. We will work together!"

2476
02:32:20,956 --> 02:32:24,885
"But how was it all done?" said Kemp, "and how did you get like this?"

2477
02:32:24,885 --> 02:32:27,035
"For God's sake, let me smoke in peace for a little while!

2478
02:32:27,035 --> 02:32:32,535
And then I will begin to tell you." But the story was not told that night.

2479
02:32:32,535 --> 02:32:36,806
The Invisible Man's wrist was growing painful; he was feverish, exhausted, and

2480
02:32:36,806 --> 02:32:39,755
his mind came round to brood upon his chase down the hill and the struggle about the

2481
02:32:39,755 --> 02:32:40,905
inn.

2482
02:32:40,905 --> 02:32:46,076
He spoke in fragments of Marvel, he smoked faster, his voice grew angry.

2483
02:32:46,076 --> 02:32:47,426
Kemp tried to gather what he could.

2484
02:32:47,426 --> 02:32:52,135
"He was afraid of me, I could see that he was afraid of me," said the Invisible Man

2485
02:32:52,135 --> 02:32:55,436
many times over. "He meant to give me the slip--he was

2486
02:32:55,436 --> 02:32:56,865
always casting about!

2487
02:32:56,865 --> 02:32:59,375
What a fool I was! "The cur!

2488
02:32:59,375 --> 02:33:03,105
"I should have killed him!" "Where did you get the money?" asked Kemp,

2489
02:33:03,105 --> 02:33:04,545
abruptly.

2490
02:33:04,545 --> 02:33:09,816
The Invisible Man was silent for a space. "I can't tell you to-night," he said.

2491
02:33:09,816 --> 02:33:13,966
He groaned suddenly and leant forward, supporting his invisible head on invisible

2492
02:33:13,966 --> 02:33:15,135
hands.

2493
02:33:15,135 --> 02:33:19,105
"Kemp," he said, "I've had no sleep for near three days, except a couple of dozes

2494
02:33:19,105 --> 02:33:21,476
of an hour or so. I must sleep soon."

2495
02:33:21,476 --> 02:33:23,846
"Well, have my room--have this room."

2496
02:33:23,846 --> 02:33:25,735
"But how can I sleep? If I sleep--he will get away.

2497
02:33:25,735 --> 02:33:28,415
Ugh! What does it matter?"

2498
02:33:28,415 --> 02:33:31,096
"What's the shot wound?" asked Kemp, abruptly.

2499
02:33:31,096 --> 02:33:34,525
"Nothing--scratch and blood. Oh, God!

2500
02:33:34,525 --> 02:33:36,226
How I want sleep!"

2501
02:33:36,226 --> 02:33:39,365
"Why not?" The Invisible Man appeared to be regarding

2502
02:33:39,365 --> 02:33:40,535
Kemp.

2503
02:33:40,535 --> 02:33:43,936
"Because I've a particular objection to being caught by my fellow-men," he said

2504
02:33:43,936 --> 02:33:45,905
slowly. Kemp started.

2505
02:33:45,905 --> 02:33:50,525
"Fool that I am!" said the Invisible Man, striking the table smartly.

2506
02:33:50,525 --> 02:33:58,004
"I've put the idea into your head."

2507
02:33:58,004 --> 99:59:59,999
>