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63     III  The thousand and one Bottles
71      XI  In the "Coach and Horses"
100 biting wind and a driving snow, the last snowfall of the year, over
101 the down, walking from Bramblehurst railway station, and carrying a
103 up from head to foot, and the brim of his soft felt hat hid every
105 itself against his shoulders and chest, and added a white crest to
106 the burden he carried. He staggered into the "Coach and Horses" more
107 dead than alive, and flung his portmanteau down. "A fire," he cried,
108 "in the name of human charity! A room and a fire!" He stamped and
109 shook the snow from off himself in the bar, and followed Mrs. Hall
110 into her guest parlour to strike his bargain. And with that much
111 introduction, that and a couple of sovereigns flung upon the table,
114 Mrs. Hall lit the fire and left him there while she went to prepare
117 was no "haggler," and she was resolved to show herself worthy of her
118 good fortune. As soon as the bacon was well under way, and Millie,
120 expressions of contempt, she carried the cloth, plates, and glasses
121 into the parlour and began to lay them with the utmost eclat.
123 that her visitor still wore his hat and coat, standing with his back
124 to her and staring out of the window at the falling snow in the yard.
125 His gloved hands were clasped behind him, and he seemed to be lost
127 his shoulders dripped upon her carpet. "Can I take your hat and coat,
128 sir?" she said, "and give them a good dry in the kitchen?"
132 She was not sure she had heard him, and was about to repeat her
135 He turned his head and looked at her over his shoulder. "I prefer to
136 keep them on," he said with emphasis, and she noticed that he wore
137 big blue spectacles with sidelights, and had a bush side-whisker
138 over his coat-collar that completely hid his cheeks and face.
143 He made no answer, and had turned his face away from her again, and
145 laid the rest of the table things in a quick staccato and whisked
148 hat-brim turned down, hiding his face and ears completely. She put
149 down the eggs and bacon with considerable emphasis, and called
152 "Thank you," he said at the same time, and did not stir until she
153 was closing the door. Then he swung round and approached the table
159 "There! I clean forgot it. It's her being so long!" And while she
161 stabs for her excessive slowness. She had cooked the ham and eggs,
162 laid the table, and done everything, while Millie (help indeed!) had
163 only succeeded in delaying the mustard. And him a new guest and
164 wanting to stay! Then she filled the mustard pot, and, putting it
165 with a certain stateliness upon a gold and black tea-tray, carried
168 She rapped and entered promptly. As she did so her visitor moved
171 floor. She rapped down the mustard pot on the table, and then she
172 noticed the overcoat and hat had been taken off and put over a chair
173 in front of the fire, and a pair of wet boots threatened rust to her
177 "Leave the hat," said her visitor, in a muffled voice, and turning
178 she saw he had raised his head and was sitting and looking at her.
183 him--over the lower part of his face, so that his mouth and jaws
184 were completely hidden, and that was the reason of his muffled
187 bandage, and that another covered his ears, leaving not a scrap of
189 pink, and shiny just as it had been at first. He wore a dark-brown
191 his neck. The thick black hair, escaping as it could below and
192 between the cross bandages, projected in curious tails and horns,
193 giving him the strangest appearance conceivable. This muffled and
198 saw now, with a brown gloved hand, and regarding her with his
204 she began, "that--" and she stopped embarrassed.
206 "Thank you," he said drily, glancing from her to the door and then
209 "I'll have them nicely dried, sir, at once," she said, and carried
211 and blue goggles again as she was going out of the door; but his
213 closed the door behind her, and her face was eloquent of her surprise
214 and perplexity. "I never," she whispered. "There!" She went quite
215 softly to the kitchen, and was too preoccupied to ask Millie what
218 The visitor sat and listened to her retreating feet. He glanced
219 inquiringly at the window before he removed his serviette, and
221 window, took another mouthful, then rose and, taking the serviette
222 in his hand, walked across the room and pulled the blind down to
225 air to the table and his meal.
230 She put on some more coal, unfolded the clothes-horse, and extended
231 the traveller's coat upon this. "And they goggles! Why, he looked
233 on a corner of the horse. "And holding that handkercheif over his
244 a pipe, and all the time that she was in the room he never loosened
248 with his back to the window-blind and spoke now, having eaten and
249 drunk and being comfortably warmed through, with less aggressive
253 "I have some luggage," he said, "at Bramblehurst station," and he
256 said. "There is no speedier delivery?" and seemed quite disappointed
260 Mrs. Hall, nothing loath, answered his questions and developed a
262 answer to the question about a trap; and then, snatching at an
264 and more. A gentleman killed, besides his coachman. Accidents, sir,
273 in the 'ayfield, and, bless me! he was three months tied up sir.
283 bite and kill in his mouth. "_Was_ he?" he said.
285 "He was, sir. And no laughing matter to them as had the doing for
287 much. There was bandages to do, sir, and bandages to undo. So that
295 and remembered the two sovereigns. She went for the matches.
297 "Thanks," he said concisely, as she put them down, and turned his
298 shoulder upon her and stared out of the window again. It was
300 topic of operations and bandages. She did not "make so bold as to
302 and Millie had a hot time of it that afternoon.
310 and for the space of five minutes he was audible pacing the room.
321 At four o'clock, when it was fairly dark and Mrs. Hall was screwing
322 up her courage to go in and ask her visitor if he would take some
327 Mrs. Hall agreed, and then noticed he had his bag with him. "Now
329 old clock in the parlour a bit of a look. 'Tis going, and it strikes
330 well and hearty; but the hour-hand won't do nuthin' but point at
333 And leading the way, she went across to the parlour door and rapped
334 and entered.
340 but left his downcast face in darkness--and the scanty vestiges of
342 shadowy, and indistinct to her, the more so since she had just been
343 lighting the bar lamp, and her eyes were dazzled. But for a second
345 wide open--a vast and incredible mouth that swallowed the whole of
347 the white-bound head, the monstrous goggle eyes, and this huge yawn
349 She opened the door wide, so that the room was lighter, and she saw
358 and speaking over his hand, and then, getting more fully awake,
361 Mrs. Hall went away to get a lamp, and he rose and stretched
362 himself. Then came the light, and Mr. Teddy Henfrey, entering, was
377 like to be alone and undisturbed.
381 had intended to apologise and withdraw, but this anticipation
383 fireplace and put his hands behind his back. "And presently," he
391 mentioned the matter to the postman, and that the carrier could
397 "I should explain," he added, "what I was really too cold and
402 "And my baggage contains apparatus and appliances."
406 "And I'm very naturally anxious to get on with my inquiries."
418 weak and painful that I have to shut myself up in the dark for
419 hours together. Lock myself up. Sometimes--now and then. Not at
424 "Certainly, sir," said Mrs. Hall. "And if I might make so bold as
429 reserved her question and sympathy for a better occasion.
433 Henfrey not only took off the hands of the clock, and the face, but
434 extracted the works; and he tried to work in as slow and quiet and
436 him, and the green shade threw a brilliant light upon his hands,
437 and upon the frame and wheels, and left the rest of the room
441 departure and perhaps falling into conversation with the stranger.
442 But the stranger stood there, perfectly silent and still. So still,
443 it got on Henfrey's nerves. He felt alone in the room and looked up,
444 and there, grey and dim, was the bandaged head and huge blue lenses
454 "Why don't you finish and go?" said the rigid figure, evidently in
458 "Certainly, sir--one minute more. I overlooked--" and Mr. Henfrey
459 finished and went.
465 And again "Can't a man look at you?--Ugly!"
467 And yet again, "Seemingly not. If the police was wanting you you
468 couldn't be more wropped and bandaged."
471 stranger's hostess at the "Coach and Horses," and who now drove
481 "Rum-looking customer stopping at the 'Coach and Horses,'" said
484 And he proceeded to give Hall a vivid description of his grotesque
488 your rooms and he ain't even given a name, Hall."
493 of him under the week. And he's got a lot of luggage coming
505 Sidderbridge, and his mild inquiries were answered snappishly and
510 the earliest possible opportunity. And after the stranger had gone
512 aggressively into the parlour and looked very hard at his wife's
514 and scrutinised closely and a little contemptuously a sheet of
519 "You mind you own business, Hall," said Mrs. Hall, "and I'll mind
523 was undoubtedly an unusually strange sort of stranger, and she was
526 came trailing after her, at the end of interminable necks, and with
528 terrors and turned over and went to sleep again.
534 THE THOUSAND AND ONE BOTTLES
539 village. Next day his luggage arrived through the slush--and very
543 incomprehensible handwriting--and a dozen or more crates, boxes,
544 and cases, containing objects packed in straw, as it seemed to
546 The stranger, muffled in hat, coat, gloves, and wrapper, came out
553 And he came down the steps towards the tail of the cart as if to
557 it began to bristle and growl savagely, and when he rushed down the
558 steps it gave an undecided hop, and then sprang straight at his
560 dogs, and Fearenside howled, "Lie down!" and snatched his whip.
563 dog execute a flanking jump and get home on the stranger's leg, and
565 whip reached his property, and the dog, yelping with dismay,
568 glanced swiftly at his torn glove and at his leg, made as if he
569 would stoop to the latter, then turned and rushed swiftly up the
571 and up the uncarpeted stairs to his bedroom.
577 Hall had stood gaping. "He wuz bit," said Hall. "I'd better go and
578 see to en," and he trotted after the stranger. He met Mrs. Hall in
581 He went straight upstairs, and the stranger's door being ajar, he
582 pushed it open and was entering without any ceremony, being of a
585 The blind was down and the room dim. He caught a glimpse of a most
586 singular thing, what seemed a handless arm waving towards him, and
589 hurled back, and the door slammed in his face and locked. It was so
591 shapes, a blow, and a concussion. There he stood on the dark little
595 formed outside the "Coach and Horses." There was Fearenside telling
599 and Sandy Wadgers from the forge, judicial; besides women and
602 'n for, than?" and so forth.
604 Mr. Hall, staring at them from the steps and listening, found it
619 "Come along," cried an angry voice in the doorway, and there stood
620 the muffled stranger with his collar turned up, and his hat-brim
623 and gloves had been changed.
634 extraordinary eagerness, and began to unpack it, scattering the
635 straw with an utter disregard of Mrs. Hall's carpet. And from it he
637 small and slender bottles containing coloured and white fluids,
638 fluted blue bottles labeled Poison, bottles with round bodies and
640 bottles with glass stoppers and frosted labels, bottles with fine
646 bottles, until all six were empty and the table high with straw; the
648 a number of test-tubes and a carefully packed balance.
650 And directly the crates were unpacked, the stranger went to the
651 window and set to work, not troubling in the least about the litter
653 nor for the trunks and other luggage that had gone upstairs.
658 bulk of the straw and put the tray on the table, with some little
660 half turned his head and immediately turned it away again. But she
662 and it seemed to her that his eye sockets were extraordinarily
663 hollow. He put on his spectacles again, and then turned and faced
673 and necessary investigations--the slightest disturbance, the jar
683 "Don't. If the straw makes trouble put it down in the bill." And he
686 He was so odd, standing there, so aggressive and explosive, bottle
687 in one hand and test-tube in the other, that Mrs. Hall was quite
693 "So be it," said Mrs. Hall, taking up the table-cloth and beginning
696 He turned and sat down, with his coat-collar toward her.
698 All the afternoon he worked with the door locked and, as Mrs. Hall
700 concussion and a sound of bottles ringing together as though the
701 table had been hit, and the smash of a bottle flung violently down,
702 and then a rapid pacing athwart the room. Fearing "something was
703 the matter," she went to the door and listened, not caring to
711 There was a noise of hobnails on the bricks in the bar, and Mrs.
714 crepitation of his chair and the occasional clink of a bottle.
718 room under the concave mirror, and a golden stain that had been
723 and he went on ticking a list in the exercise book before him.
726 late in the afternoon, and they were in the little beer-shop of
733 and the tear of his glove. You'd have expected a sort of pinky to
740 "That's true," said Fearenside. "I knows that. And I tell 'ee what
741 I'm thinking. That marn's a piebald, Teddy. Black here and white
742 there--in patches. And he's ashamed of it. He's a kind of half-breed,
743 and the colour's come off patchy instead of mixing. I've heard of
744 such things before. And it's the common way with horses, as any one
762 expedient of an extra payment. Hall did not like him, and whenever
764 he showed his dislike chiefly by concealing it ostentatiously, and
770 The stranger did not go to church, and indeed made no difference
771 between Sunday and the irreligious days, even in costume. He
773 come down early and be continuously busy. On others he would rise
778 under almost unendurable provocation, and once or twice things were
786 muffled up invisibly, whether the weather were cold or not, and he
787 chose the loneliest paths and those most overshadowed by trees and
788 banks. His goggling spectacles and ghastly bandaged face under the
790 the darkness upon one or two home-going labourers, and Teddy
794 door. Such children as saw him at nightfall dreamt of bogies, and
799 It was inevitable that a person of so remarkable an appearance and
807 and would thus explain that he "discovered things." Her visitor had
809 and hands, and being of a sensitive disposition, he was averse to
820 explosives, and he resolved to undertake such detective operations
826 Another school of opinion followed Mr. Fearenside, and either
829 to show enself at fairs he'd make his fortune in no time," and
835 Between these main groups there were waverers and compromisers.
836 Sussex folk have few superstitions, and it was only after the
845 surprised now and then, the headlong pace after nightfall that
849 the extinction of candles and lamps--who could agree with such
850 goings on? They drew aside as he passed down the village, and when
851 he had gone by, young humourists would up with coat-collars and
852 down with hat-brims, and go pacing nervously after him in imitation
855 (in aid of the church lamps), and thereafter whenever one or two of
856 the villagers were gathered together and the stranger appeared, a
859 Man!" after him, and make off tremulously elated.
863 thousand and one bottles aroused his jealous regard. All through
864 April and May he coveted an opportunity of talking to the stranger,
865 and at last, towards Whitsuntide, he could stand it no longer, but
872 Cuss rapped at the parlour door and entered. There was a fairly
874 and then the door closed and cut Mrs. Hall off from the rest of
879 of laughter, quick steps to the door, and Cuss appeared, his face
881 behind him, and without looking at her strode across the hall and
882 went down the steps, and she heard his feet hurrying along the
885 stranger laughing quietly, and then his footsteps came across the
887 slammed, and the place was silent again.
900 "Give me something to drink," said Cuss, and he sat down.
904 interview he had just had. "Went in," he gasped, "and began to
906 his pockets as I came in, and he sat down lumpily in his chair.
910 like that! I developed the nurse idea, and all the while kept my
912 in stands, and a smell of--evening primrose. Would he subscribe?
916 I. And out came the grievance. The man was just on the boil, and my
920 sniff and cough. He resumed. He'd read it. Five ingredients. Put it
923 said. Saw a flicker, and there was the prescription burning and
931 deformity! Got a cork arm, I suppose, and has taken it off. Then, I
933 sleeve up and open, if there's nothing in it? There was nothing in
935 see right down it to the elbow, and there was a glimmer of light
937 stopped. Stared at me with those black goggles of his, and then
942 "That's all. He never said a word; just glared, and put his sleeve
950 very slow steps, and stood quite close. Sniffed venomously. I
951 didn't flinch, though I'm hanged if that bandaged knob of his, and
956 At staring and saying nothing a barefaced man, unspectacled, starts
958 again, and raised his arm towards me as though he would show it to
966 And then--"
970 "Something--exactly like a finger and thumb it felt--nipped my
977 I tell you I was so startled, I hit his cuff hard, and turned
978 around, and cut out of the room--I left him--"
981 He turned round in a helpless way and took a second glass of the
983 Cuss, "I tell you, it felt exactly like hitting an arm. And there
987 a most remarkable story," he said. He looked very wise and grave
999 through the medium of the vicar and his wife. It occurred in the
1003 that the door of their bedroom had opened and closed. She did not
1006 adjoining dressing-room and walking along the passage towards the
1009 but putting on his spectacles, her dressing-gown and his bath
1011 distinctly a fumbling going on at his study desk down-stairs, and
1015 obvious weapon, the poker, and descended the staircase as
1018 The hour was about four, and the ultimate darkness of the night was
1021 faint creaking of the stairs under Mr. Bunting's tread, and the
1023 was opened, and there was a rustle of papers. Then came an
1024 imprecation, and a match was struck and the study was flooded with
1025 yellow light. Mr. Bunting was now in the hall, and through the
1026 crack of the door he could see the desk and the open drawer and a
1028 stood there in the hall undecided what to do, and Mrs. Bunting, her
1029 face white and intent, crept slowly downstairs after him. One thing
1033 They heard the chink of money, and realised that the robber had
1038 fiercely, and then stooped amazed. Apparently the room was
1044 and looked behind the screen, while Mr. Bunting, by a kindred
1046 window-curtains, and Mr. Bunting looked up the chimney and probed it
1048 and Mr. Bunting opened the lid of the coal-scuttle. Then they came
1049 to a stop and stood with eyes interrogating each other.
1055 "The drawer!" said Mrs. Bunting. "And the money's gone!"
1061 There was a violent sneeze in the passage. They rushed out, and as
1063 Bunting, and led the way. They both heard a sound of bolts being
1067 the back door was just opening, and the faint light of early dawn
1070 and then closed with a slam. As it did so, the candle Mrs. Bunting
1071 was carrying from the study flickered and flared. It was a minute
1075 kitchen, pantry, and scullery thoroughly, and at last went down
1079 Daylight found the vicar and his wife, a quaintly-costumed little
1091 Millie was hunted out for the day, Mr. Hall and Mrs. Hall both rose
1092 and went noiselessly down into the cellar. Their business there was
1093 of a private nature, and had something to do with the specific
1096 from their joint-room. As she was the expert and principal operator
1100 ajar. He went on into his own room and found the bottle as he had
1105 the latch. And with a flash of inspiration he connected this with
1106 the stranger's room upstairs and the suggestions of Mr. Teddy
1111 again; then pushed the door wide open and entered.
1113 It was as he expected. The bed, the room also, was empty. And what
1115 and along the rail of the bed were scattered the garments, the only
1116 garments so far as he knew, and the bandages of their guest. His
1121 and interrogative cocking up of the final words to a high note,
1125 At that he turned and hurried down to her. "Janny," he said, over
1127 'E's not in uz room, 'e en't. And the front door's onbolted."
1129 At first Mrs. Hall did not understand, and as soon as she did she
1132 And what's 'e doin' 'ithout 'is close, then? 'Tas a most curious
1136 ascertained, fancied they heard the front door open and shut, but
1137 seeing it closed and nothing there, neither said a word to the other
1139 and ran on first upstairs. Someone sneezed on the staircase. Hall,
1142 She flung open the door and stood regarding the room. "Of all the
1145 She heard a sniff close behind her head as it seemed, and turning,
1147 But in another moment he was beside her. She bent forward and put
1148 her hand on the pillow and then under the clothes.
1154 and then jumped headlong over the bottom rail. It was exactly as if
1155 a hand had clutched them in the centre and flung them aside.
1158 a circle, and then dashed straight at Mrs. Hall's face. Then as
1159 swiftly came the sponge from the washstand; and then the chair,
1160 flinging the stranger's coat and trousers carelessly aside, and
1163 for a moment, and charged at her. She screamed and turned, and then
1164 the chair legs came gently but firmly against her back and impelled
1165 her and Hall out of the room. The door slammed violently and was
1166 locked. The chair and bed seemed to be executing a dance of triumph
1167 for a moment, and then abruptly everything was still.
1171 Hall and Millie, who had been roused by her scream of alarm,
1172 succeeded in getting her downstairs, and applying the restoratives
1176 papers of en. Tables and chairs leaping and dancing..."
1181 I half guessed--I might ha' known. With them goggling eyes and
1182 bandaged head, and never going to church of a Sunday. And all
1192 Hall's compliments and the furniture upstairs was behaving most
1194 was Mr. Wadgers, and very resourceful. He took quite a grave view
1201 came out and began taking down the shutters of the tobacco window.
1205 great deal of talk and no decisive action. "Let's have the facts
1211 And suddenly and most wonderfully the door of the room upstairs
1212 opened of its own accord, and as they looked up in amazement,
1214 staring more blackly and blankly than ever with those unreasonably
1215 large blue glass eyes of his. He came down stiffly and slowly,
1219 "Look there!" he said, and their eyes followed the direction of his
1220 gloved finger and saw a bottle of sarsaparilla hard by the cellar
1221 door. Then he entered the parlour, and suddenly, swiftly,
1226 everything!" said Mr. Wadgers, and left the alternative unsaid.
1228 "I'd go in and ask'n 'bout it," said Wadgers, to Mr. Hall. "I'd
1232 At last he rapped, opened the door, and got as far as, "Excuse me--"
1234 "Go to the devil!" said the stranger in a tremendous voice, and
1244 The stranger went into the little parlour of the "Coach and Horses"
1245 about half-past five in the morning, and there he remained until
1246 near midday, the blinds down, the door shut, and none, after Hall's
1250 third time furiously and continuously, but no one answered him.
1251 "Him and his 'go to the devil' indeed!" said Mrs. Hall. Presently
1252 came an imperfect rumour of the burglary at the vicarage, and two
1253 and two were put together. Hall, assisted by Wadgers, went off to
1254 find Mr. Shuckleforth, the magistrate, and take his advice. No one
1256 Now and then he would stride violently up and down, and twice came
1257 an outburst of curses, a tearing of paper, and a violent smashing
1262 jackets and pique paper ties--for it was Whit Monday--joined
1264 distinguished himself by going up the yard and trying to peep
1266 for supposing that he did, and others of the Iping youth
1269 It was the finest of all possible Whit Mondays, and down the
1271 gallery, and on the grass by the forge were three yellow and
1272 chocolate waggons and some picturesque strangers of both sexes
1274 ladies white aprons and quite fashionable hats with heavy plumes.
1275 Woodyer, of the "Purple Fawn," and Mr. Jaggers, the cobbler, who
1277 string of union-jacks and royal ensigns (which had originally
1280 And inside, in the artificial darkness of the parlour, into which
1282 must suppose, and fearful, hidden in his uncomfortable hot wrappings,
1284 little bottles, and occasionally swore savagely at the boys, audible
1286 lay the fragments of half a dozen smashed bottles, and a pungent
1288 heard at the time and from what was subsequently seen in the room.
1290 About noon he suddenly opened his parlour door and stood glaring
1292 said. Somebody went sheepishly and called for Mrs. Hall.
1296 over this scene, and she came holding a little tray with an
1301 and answered my bell? Do you think I live without eating?"
1316 "And I'd thank you kindly, sir, if you'd keep your swearing to
1345 "That I wonder where you found it," said Mrs. Hall. "And before I
1348 and what nobody don't understand, and what everybody is very anxious
1350 upstairs, and I want to know how 'tis your room was empty, and how
1352 doors--that's the rule of the house, and that you _didn't_ do, and
1353 what I want to know is how you _did_ come in. And I want to know--"
1356 foot, and said, "Stop!" with such extraordinary violence that he
1361 face and withdrew it. The centre of his face became a black cavity.
1362 "Here," he said. He stepped forward and handed Mrs. Hall something
1364 Then, when she saw what it was, she screamed loudly, dropped it, and
1365 staggered back. The nose--it was the stranger's nose! pink and
1368 Then he removed his spectacles, and everyone in the bar gasped. He
1369 took off his hat, and with a violent gesture tore at his whiskers
1370 and bandages. For a moment they resisted him. A flash of horrible
1374 It was worse than anything. Mrs. Hall, standing open-mouthed and
1375 horror-struck, shrieked at what she saw, and made for the door of
1377 disfigurements, tangible horrors, but nothing! The bandages and
1382 of him, and then--nothingness, no visible thing at all!
1384 People down the village heard shouts and shrieks, and looking up
1385 the street saw the "Coach and Horses" violently firing out its
1386 humanity. They saw Mrs. Hall fall down and Mr. Teddy Henfrey jump
1387 to avoid tumbling over her, and then they heard the frightful
1393 cocoanut shy proprietor and his assistant, the swing man, little
1394 boys and girls, rustic dandies, smart wenches, smocked elders
1395 and aproned gipsies--began running towards the inn, and in a
1397 and rapidly increasing, swayed and hooted and inquired and
1398 exclaimed and suggested, in front of Mrs. Hall's establishment.
1399 Everyone seemed eager to talk at once, and the result was Babel. A
1401 collapse. There was a conference, and the incredible evidence of a
1411 and he turned. I saw her skirts whisk, and he went after her.
1412 Didn't take ten seconds. Back he comes with a knife in uz hand and
1417 There was a disturbance behind, and the speaker stopped to step
1419 towards the house; first Mr. Hall, very red and determined, then
1420 Mr. Bobby Jaffers, the village constable, and then the wary Mr.
1424 "'Ed or no 'ed," said Jaffers, "I got to 'rest en, and 'rest en I
1428 parlour and flung it open. "Constable," he said, "do your duty."
1432 in one gloved hand and a chunk of cheese in the other.
1440 or no 'ed, the warrant says 'body,' and duty's duty--"
1444 Abruptly he whipped down the bread and cheese, and Mr. Hall just
1446 stranger's left glove and was slapped in Jaffers' face. In another
1448 had gripped him by the handless wrist and caught his invisible
1452 and then stepped forward as Jaffers and the stranger swayed and
1453 staggered towards him, clutching and hitting in. A chair stood in
1454 the way, and went aside with a crash as they came down together.
1459 kick in the ribs that disposed of him for a moment, and Mr.
1460 Wadgers, seeing the decapitated stranger had rolled over and got
1462 hand, and so collided with Mr. Huxter and the Sidderbridge carter
1463 coming to the rescue of law and order. At the same moment down came
1464 three or four bottles from the chiffonnier and shot a web of
1468 and in another moment he stood up panting, a strange figure,
1469 headless and handless--for he had pulled off his right glove now
1475 most matter-of-fact people under the sun. Jaffers got up also and
1482 The stranger ran his arm down his waistcoat, and as if by a miracle
1484 he said something about his shin, and stooped down. He seemed to be
1485 fumbling with his shoes and socks.
1488 empty clothes. Look! You can see down his collar and the linings of
1491 He extended his hand; it seemed to meet something in mid-air, and
1494 expostulation. "The fact is, I'm all here--head, hands, legs, and
1499 The suit of clothes, now all unbuttoned and hanging loosely upon
1510 bit difficult to see in this light, but I got a warrant and it's
1512 There's a house been broke into and money took."
1516 "And circumstances certainly point--"
1518 "Stuff and nonsense!" said the Invisible Man.
1531 Abruptly the figure sat down, and before any one could realise was
1532 was being done, the slippers, socks, and trousers had been kicked
1533 off under the table. Then he sprang up again and flung off his coat.
1536 happening. He gripped at the waistcoat; it struggled, and the shirt
1537 slipped out of it and left it limply and empty in his hand. "Hold
1540 "Hold him!" cried everyone, and there was a rush at the fluttering
1544 his open-armed advance, and sent him backward into old Toothsome
1545 the sexton, and in another moment the garment was lifted up and
1546 became convulsed and vacantly flapping about the arms, even as a
1548 it, and only helped to pull it off; he was struck in the mouth out
1549 of the air, and incontinently threw his truncheon and smote Teddy
1552 "Look out!" said everybody, fencing at random and hitting at
1555 Everybody, it seemed, was being hit all at once, and Sandy Wadgers,
1556 knowing as ever and his wits sharpened by a frightful blow in the
1557 nose, reopened the door and led the rout. The others, following
1560 tooth broken, and Henfrey was injured in the cartilage of his ear.
1561 Jaffers was struck under the jaw, and, turning, caught at something
1562 that intervened between him and Huxter in the melee, and prevented
1563 their coming together. He felt a muscular chest, and in another
1567 "I got him!" shouted Jaffers, choking and reeling through them all,
1568 and wrestling with purple face and swelling veins against his
1571 Men staggered right and left as the extraordinary conflict swayed
1572 swiftly towards the house door, and went spinning down the
1574 voice--holding tight, nevertheless, and making play with his
1575 knee--spun around, and fell heavily undermost with his head on
1578 There were excited cries of "Hold him!" "Invisible!" and so forth,
1579 and a young fellow, a stranger in the place whose name did not come
1581 and fell over the constable's prostrate body. Half-way across the
1583 apparently, yelped and ran howling into Huxter's yard, and with
1585 people stood amazed and gesticulating, and then came panic, and
1589 But Jaffers lay quite still, face upward and knees bent, at the foot
1599 The eighth chapter is exceedingly brief, and relates that Gibbons,
1602 as he thought, and almost dozing, heard close to him the sound as
1603 of a man coughing, sneezing, and then swearing savagely to himself;
1604 and looking, beheld nothing. Yet the voice was indisputable. It
1605 continued to swear with that breadth and variety that distinguishes
1607 again, and died away in the distance, going as it seemed to him in
1608 the direction of Adderdean. It lifted to a spasmodic sneeze and
1610 the phenomenon was so striking and disturbing that his philosophical
1611 tranquillity vanished; he got up hastily, and hurried down the
1623 fluctuating mouth, and a beard of bristling eccentricity. His figure
1625 He wore a furry silk hat, and the frequent substitution of twine and
1630 roadside over the down towards Adderdean, about a mile and a half
1632 bare, his big toes were broad, and pricked like the ears of a
1639 thought out which he hated most, and it was a pleasant day, and
1641 graceful group on the turf and looked at them. And seeing them there
1642 among the grass and springing agrimony, it suddenly occurred to him
1649 on one side regarding them distastefully; "and which is the ugliest
1658 lot of his boots. And if you'll believe me, I've raised nothing in
1660 And a good country for boots, too, in a general way. But it's just
1662 more. And then they treat you like this."
1664 "It's a beast of a country," said the Voice. "And pigs for people."
1670 boots of his interlocutor with a view to comparisons, and lo! where
1673 "Where _are_ yer?" said Mr. Thomas Marvel over his shoulder and
1692 There was no answer. Mr. Thomas Marvel stood bootless and amazed,
1698 foolery." The down was desolate, east and west, north and south;
1699 the road with its shallow ditches and white bordering stakes, ran
1700 smooth and empty north and south, and, save for that peewit, the
1708 "Ow!" said Mr. Marvel, and his face grew white amidst its patches.
1715 "It's there again," said Mr. Marvel, closing his eyes and clasping
1717 by the collar and shaken violently, and left more dazed than ever.
1745 the air, and missed Mr. Marvel's shoulder by a hair's-breadth.
1747 complicated path, hang for a moment, and then fling at his feet
1749 it came, and ricochetted from a bare toe into the ditch. Mr. Thomas
1750 Marvel jumped a foot and howled aloud. Then he started to run,
1751 tripped over an unseen obstacle, and came head over heels into a
1754 "_Now_," said the Voice, as a third stone curved upward and hung in
1757 Mr. Marvel by way of reply struggled to his feet, and was
1763 wounded toe in hand and fixing his eye on the third missile. "I
1780 "I'm invisible. That's the great point. And what I want you to
1795 "I am just a human being--solid, needing food and drink, needing
1808 fingers, and his fingers went timorously up the arm, patted a
1809 muscular chest, and explored a bearded face. Marvel's face was
1813 remarkable!--And there I can see a rabbit clean through you, 'arf
1817 eatin' bread and cheese?" he asked, holding the invisible arm.
1819 "You're quite right, and it's not quite assimilated into the system."
1828 "It's too long a story. And besides--"
1834 naked, impotent. I could have murdered. And I saw you--"
1843 the man for me.' So I turned back and came to you--you. And--"
1846 is it? And what you may be requiring in the way of help?--Invisible!"
1848 "I want you to help me get clothes--and shelter--and then, with
1853 me about any more. And leave me go. I must get steady a bit. And
1856 Nature. And then comes a voice. A voice out of heaven! And stones!
1857 And a fist--Lord!"
1862 Mr. Marvel blew out his cheeks, and his eyes were round.
1866 an invisible man. You have to be my helper. Help me--and I will
1871 He paused and tapped Mr. Marvel's shoulder smartly. Mr. Marvel
1889 man; and those who had actually seen him dissolve into air, or felt
1891 hands. And of these witnesses Mr. Wadgers was presently missing,
1892 having retired impregnably behind the bolts and bars of his own
1893 house, and Jaffers was lying stunned in the parlour of the "Coach
1894 and Horses." Great and strange ideas transcending experience often
1895 have less effect upon men and women than smaller, more tangible
1896 considerations. Iping was gay with bunting, and everybody was in
1900 on the supposition that he had quite gone away, and with the
1901 sceptics he was already a jest. But people, sceptics and believers
1904 Haysman's meadow was gay with a tent, in which Mrs. Bunting and
1906 children ran races and played games under the noisy guidance of the
1907 curate and the Misses Cuss and Sackbut. No doubt there was a slight
1913 adolescent, as also did the swings and the cocoanut shies. There
1914 was also promenading, and the steam organ attached to a small
1915 roundabout filled the air with a pungent flavour of oil and with
1917 church in the morning, were splendid in badges of pink and green,
1918 and some of the gayer-minded had also adorned their bowler hats
1923 chairs, and whitewashing the ceiling of his front room.
1927 shabby top hat, and he appeared to be very much out of breath. His
1928 cheeks were alternately limp and tightly puffed. His mottled face
1929 was apprehensive, and he moved with a sort of reluctant alacrity. He
1930 turned the corner of the church, and directed his way to the "Coach
1931 and Horses." Among others old Fletcher remembers seeing him, and
1937 shy, appeared to be talking to himself, and Mr. Huxter remarked the
1938 same thing. He stopped at the foot of the "Coach and Horses" steps,
1939 and, according to Mr. Huxter, appeared to undergo a severe internal
1941 he marched up the steps, and was seen by Mr. Huxter to turn to the
1942 left and open the door of the parlour. Mr. Huxter heard voices from
1943 within the room and from the bar apprising the man of his error.
1944 "That room's private!" said Hall, and the stranger shut the door
1945 clumsily and went into the bar.
1950 some moments, and then Mr. Huxter saw him walk in an oddly furtive
1953 the gate-posts, produced a short clay pipe, and prepared to fill
1954 it. His fingers trembled while doing so. He lit it clumsily, and
1959 and the singularity of the man's behaviour prompted him to maintain
1962 Presently the stranger stood up abruptly and put his pipe in his
1965 counter and ran out into the road to intercept the thief. As he did
1967 table-cloth in one hand, and three books tied together--as it proved
1969 Huxter he gave a sort of gasp, and turning sharply to the left,
1970 began to run. "Stop, thief!" cried Huxter, and set off after him.
1972 before him and spurting briskly for the church corner and the hill
1973 road. He saw the village flags and festivities beyond, and a face or
1976 and he was no longer running, but flying with inconceivable rapidity
1978 world seemed to splash into a million whirling specks of light, and
1985 IN THE "COACH AND HORSES"
1992 At that precise moment Mr. Cuss and Mr. Bunting were in the parlour.
1994 morning, and were, with Mr. Hall's permission, making a thorough
1996 recovered from his fall and had gone home in the charge of his
1998 removed by Mrs. Hall and the room tidied up. And on the table under
2007 support the third, and opening it. "H'm--no name on the fly-leaf.
2008 Bother!--cypher. And figures."
2018 "See for yourself," said Mr. Cuss. "Some of it's mathematical and
2020 letters), and some of it's Greek. Now the Greek I thought _you_--"
2022 "Of course," said Mr. Bunting, taking out and wiping his spectacles
2023 and feeling suddenly very uncomfortable--for he had no Greek
2030 still wiping. "A general impression first, Cuss, and _then_, you
2034 again, and wished something would happen to avert the seemingly
2036 leisurely manner. And then something did happen.
2040 Both gentlemen started violently, looked round, and were relieved
2042 asked the face, and stood staring.
2046 "Over the other side, my man," said Mr. Bunting. And "Please shut
2051 you are," said the intruder in the former voice. "Stand clear!" and
2052 he vanished and closed the door.
2061 Mr. Bunting smiled as if he had not jumped. "And now," he said with
2079 Bunting. And just now there's these books--Ah! here's some of
2083 and brought his face nearer, apparently finding some difficulty
2085 the nape of his neck. He tried to raise his head, and encountered
2087 grip of a heavy, firm hand, and it bore his chin irresistibly to
2090 and each saw a horrified reflection of his own sickly astonishment.
2096 memoranda," said the Voice; and two chins struck the table
2097 simultaneously, and two sets of teeth rattled.
2100 misfortune?" and the concussion was repeated.
2104 "Listen," said the Voice. "The windows are fastened and I've taken
2105 the key out of the door. I am a fairly strong man, and I have the
2107 doubt that I could kill you both and get away quite easily if I
2109 promise not to try any nonsense and do what I tell you?"
2111 The vicar and the doctor looked at one another, and the doctor
2112 pulled a face. "Yes," said Mr. Bunting, and the doctor repeated it.
2113 Then the pressure on the necks relaxed, and the doctor and the
2114 vicar sat up, both very red in the face and wriggling their heads.
2121 "I did not expect to find it occupied, and I expected to find, in
2125 about stark, the evenings are quite chilly. I want clothing--and
2126 other accommodation; and I must also have those three books."
2137 apparent. While these things were going on in the parlour, and
2139 the gate, not a dozen yards away were Mr. Hall and Teddy Henfrey
2143 a sharp cry, and then--silence.
2150 said, and came round from behind the bar towards the parlour door.
2152 He and Teddy approached the door together, with intent faces. Their
2153 eyes considered. "Summat wrong," said Hall, and Henfrey nodded
2154 agreement. Whiffs of an unpleasant chemical odour met them, and
2155 there was a muffled sound of conversation, very rapid and subdued.
2161 sharp cry of "No! no, you don't!" There came a sudden motion and
2179 "And a sniff," said Henfrey.
2181 They remained listening. The conversation was rapid and subdued.
2197 Silence. The sounds within indistinct and perplexing.
2201 Mrs. Hall appeared behind the bar. Hall made gestures of silence and
2206 Hall tried to convey everything by grimaces and dumb show, but Mrs.
2207 Hall was obdurate. She raised her voice. So Hall and Henfrey, rather
2229 inn door, the road white and vivid, and Huxter's shop-front
2230 blistering in the June sun. Abruptly Huxter's door opened and Huxter
2232 cried Huxter. "Stop thief!" and he ran obliquely across the oblong
2233 towards the yard gates, and vanished.
2235 Simultaneously came a tumult from the parlour, and a sound of
2238 Hall, Henfrey, and the human contents of the tap rushed out at once
2240 towards the road, and Mr. Huxter executing a complicated leap in
2241 the air that ended on his face and shoulder. Down the street people
2245 and the two labourers from the Tap rushed at once to the corner,
2246 shouting incoherent things, and saw Mr. Marvel vanishing by the
2249 become visible, and set off at once along the lane in pursuit. But
2251 astonishment and went flying headlong sideways, clutching one of
2252 the labourers and bringing him to the ground. He had been charged
2254 round in a circle, stared, and conceiving that Hall had tumbled
2264 ground. And then something happened to his rear-most foot, and he
2265 went headlong and rolled sideways just in time to graze the feet
2266 of his brother and partner, following headlong. The two were then
2267 kicked, knelt on, fallen over, and cursed by quite a number of
2270 Now when Hall and Henfrey and the labourers ran out of the house,
2272 remained in the bar next the till. And suddenly the parlour door
2273 was opened, and Mr. Cuss appeared, and without glancing at her
2279 books and bundle in the yard. The face of Mr. Cuss was angry and
2282 bawled. "He's got my trousers! And every stitch of the Vicar's
2286 prostrate Huxter, and, coming round the corner to join the tumult,
2289 struggled to regain his feet, was knocked against and thrown on all
2290 fours again, and became aware that he was involved not in a capture,
2292 and was hit severely behind the ear. He staggered and set off back
2293 to the "Coach and Horses" forthwith, leaping over the deserted
2297 yell of rage, rising sharply out of the confusion of cries, and a
2299 of the Invisible Man, and the note was that of a man suddenly
2306 clothe himself in the hearth-rug and a West Surrey Gazette. "Who's
2310 "Invisible Man," said Cuss, and rushed on to the window. "We'd
2317 inn, and his decision was made. He clambered out of the window,
2318 adjusted his costume hastily, and fled up the village as fast as
2321 From the moment when the Invisible Man screamed with rage and Mr.
2325 Marvel's retreat with the clothes and books. But his temper, at no
2327 and forthwith he set to smiting and overthrowing, for the mere
2331 slamming and fights for hiding-places. You must figure the tumult
2333 planks and two chairs--with cataclysmic results. You must figure
2334 an appalled couple caught dismally in a swing. And then the whole
2335 tumultuous rush has passed and the Iping street with its gauds and
2336 flags is deserted save for the still raging unseen, and littered
2337 with cocoanuts, overthrown canvas screens, and the scattered stock
2339 closing shutters and shoving bolts, and the only visible humanity
2344 the windows in the "Coach and Horses," and then he thrust a street
2347 cottage on the Adderdean road. And after that, as his peculiar
2349 and he was neither heard, seen, nor felt in Iping any more. He
2362 When the dusk was gathering and Iping was just beginning to peep
2367 of ornamental elastic ligature, and a bundle wrapped in a blue
2368 table-cloth. His rubicund face expressed consternation and fatigue;
2370 by a voice other than his own, and ever and again he winced under
2387 said the Voice, and Mr. Marvel abruptly became silent. He blew out
2388 his cheeks, and his eyes were eloquent of despair.
2392 of them they cut and ran when they did! Here am I ... No one knew I
2393 was invisible! And now what am I to do?"
2399 into vivid curses and ceased.
2401 The despair of Mr. Marvel's face deepened, and his pace slackened.
2426 "And my heart's weak. That little business--I pulled it through,
2431 "I haven't the nerve and strength for the sort of thing you want."
2436 know. But I might--out of sheer funk and misery."
2447 Mr. Marvel mended his pace, and for a time they went in silence
2459 right. You're a fool and all that, but you'll do--"
2468 and the square tower of a church loomed through the gloaming. "I
2470 the village. Go straight through and try no foolery. It will be the
2476 street of the little village with his burdens, and vanished into
2486 Ten o'clock the next morning found Mr. Marvel, unshaven, dirty, and
2487 travel-stained, sitting with the books beside him and his hands deep
2488 in his pockets, looking very weary, nervous, and uncomfortable, and
2494 bench, and although no one took the slightest notice of him, his
2495 agitation remained at fever heat. His hands would go ever and again
2499 elderly mariner, carrying a newspaper, came out of the inn and sat
2510 The mariner produced a toothpick, and (saving his regard) was
2512 liberty to examine Mr. Marvel's dusty figure, and the books beside
2521 Mr. Marvel started and looked at them. "Oh, yes," he said. "Yes,
2528 "And some extra-ordinary things out of 'em," said the mariner.
2530 "True likewise," said Mr. Marvel. He eyed his interlocutor, and
2543 that was firm and deliberate; "there's a story about an Invisible
2546 Mr. Marvel pulled his mouth askew and scratched his cheek and felt
2558 "An Invisible Man!" said Mr. Marvel. "And what's _he_ been up to?"
2561 and then amplifying, "every--blessed--thing."
2569 "He started there. And where he came from, nobody don't seem to
2570 know. Here it is: 'Pe-culiar Story from Iping.' And it says in this
2575 "But then, it's an extra-ordinary story. There is a clergyman and a
2576 medical gent witnesses--saw 'im all right and proper--or leastways
2578 and no one don't seem to have been aware of his misfortune, it says,
2584 had inflicted serious injuries, it says, on our worthy and able
2585 constable, Mr. J. A. Jaffers. Pretty straight story, eh? Names and
2589 count the money in his pockets by his unaided sense of touch, and
2590 full of a strange and novel idea. "It sounds most astonishing."
2600 "Didn't go Back by any chance?" asked Marvel. "Just escaped and
2618 present At Large, and from certain evidence it is supposed that he
2621 And just think of the things he might do! Where'd you be, if he took
2622 a drop over and above, and had a fancy to go for you? Suppose he
2626 chaps hear uncommon sharp, I'm told. And wherever there was liquor
2630 "And--well..."
2639 He looked about him again, listened, bent towards the mariner, and
2647 "Indeed!" said the mariner. "And may I ask--"
2661 "Toothache," said Mr. Marvel, and put his hand to his ear. He caught
2678 "Wait a bit," said the mariner, rising and speaking slowly, "D'you
2683 "Then why did you let me go on and tell you all this blarsted
2689 minutes," he said; "and you, you little pot-bellied, leathery-faced
2696 "Come up," said a Voice, and Mr. Marvel was suddenly whirled about
2697 and started marching off in a curious spasmodic manner. "You'd
2701 a muttered monologue, protests and recriminations.
2707 Mr. Marvel retorted incoherently and, receding, was hidden by a bend
2714 And there was another extraordinary thing he was presently to hear,
2715 that had happened quite close to him. And that was a vision of a
2719 snatched at the money forthwith and had been knocked headlong, and
2725 The story of the flying money was true. And all about that
2726 neighbourhood, even from the august London and Country Banking
2727 Company, from the tills of shops and inns--doors standing that sunny
2728 weather entirely open--money had been quietly and dexterously making
2729 off that day in handfuls and rouleaux, floating quietly along by
2730 walls and shady places, dodging quickly from the approaching eyes of
2731 men. And it had, though no man had traced it, invariably ended its
2736 It was ten days after--and indeed only when the Burdock story was
2737 already old--that the mariner collated these facts and began to
2749 room, with three windows--north, west, and south--and bookshelves
2750 covered with books and scientific publications, and a broad
2751 writing-table, and, under the north window, a microscope, glass
2752 slips, minute instruments, some cultures, and scattered bottles of
2754 bright with the sunset light, and his blinds were up because there
2756 Dr. Kemp was a tall and slender young man, with flaxen hair and a
2757 moustache almost white, and the work he was upon would earn him, he
2761 And his eye, presently wandering from his work, caught the sunset
2764 colour above the crest, and then his attention was attracted by the
2766 towards him. He was a shortish little man, and he wore a high hat,
2767 and he was running so fast that his legs verily twinkled.
2774 He got up, went to the window, and stared at the dusky hillside, and
2783 again for a moment, and again, and then again, three times between
2784 the three detached houses that came next, and then the terrace hid
2787 "Asses!" said Dr. Kemp, swinging round on his heel and walking
2790 But those who saw the fugitive nearer, and perceived the abject
2792 did not share in the doctor's contempt. By the man pounded, and as
2793 he ran he chinked like a well-filled purse that is tossed to and
2795 eyes stared straight downhill to where the lamps were being lit, and
2796 the people were crowded in the street. And his ill-shaped mouth fell
2797 apart, and a glairy foam lay on his lips, and his breath came hoarse
2798 and noisy. All he passed stopped and began staring up the road and
2799 down, and interrogating one another with an inkling of discomfort
2802 And then presently, far up the hill, a dog playing in the road
2803 yelped and ran under a gate, and as they still wondered
2810 houses and slamming the doors behind them, with the news. He heard
2811 it and made one last desperate spurt. Fear came striding by, rushed
2812 ahead of him, and in a moment had seized the town.
2825 and talked of horses with an anaemic cabman, while a black-bearded
2826 man in grey snapped up biscuit and cheese, drank Burton, and
2835 violently, and Marvel, weeping and dishevelled, his hat gone, the
2836 neck of his coat torn open, rushed in, made a convulsive turn, and
2843 row?" He went to the door, released the strap, and it slammed. The
2846 "Lemme go inside," said Marvel, staggering and weeping, but still
2849 and he will."
2854 "Lemme go inside," said Marvel, and shrieked aloud as a blow
2855 suddenly made the fastened door shiver and was followed by a hurried
2856 rapping and a shouting outside. "Hullo," cried the policeman, "who's
2861 "Here you are," said the barman. "Come in here." And he held up the
2872 The window of the inn was suddenly smashed in, and there was a
2873 screaming and running to and fro in the street. The policeman had
2877 locked on Mr. Marvel, stared at the smashed window, and came round
2887 "Draw the bolts," said the man with the black beard, "and if he
2898 "Very well," said the man with the black beard, and stooping down,
2899 revolver ready, drew them himself. Barman, cabman, and policeman
2902 "Come in," said the bearded man in an undertone, standing back and
2905 cabman pushed his head in cautiously, they were still waiting, and
2906 an anxious face peered out of the bar-parlour and supplied
2912 bar-parlour door slammed and they heard the key turn. "There's
2913 the yard door and the private door. The yard door--"
2918 yard door was open!" he said, and his fat underlip dropped. "He may
2922 there, and I've stabbed every inch of it with this little beef
2923 slicer. And they don't think he's come in. They haven't noticed--"
2929 The man with the beard replaced his revolver. And even as he did so
2930 the flap of the bar was shut down and the bolt clicked, and then
2931 with a tremendous thud the catch of the door snapped and the
2933 leveret, and forthwith they were clambering over the bar to his
2934 rescue. The bearded man's revolver cracked and the looking-glass at
2935 the back of the parlour starred and came smashing and tinkling down.
2938 and struggling against the door that led to the yard and kitchen.
2939 The door flew open while the barman hesitated, and Marvel was
2940 dragged into the kitchen. There was a scream and a clatter of pans.
2941 Marvel, head down, and lugging back obstinately, was forced to the
2942 kitchen door, and the bolts were drawn.
2946 invisible hand that collared Marvel, was hit in the face and went
2947 reeling back. The door opened, and Marvel made a frantic effort to
2952 Mr. Marvel, released, suddenly dropped to the ground and made an
2956 policeman trod on his foot. Then he cried out passionately and
2958 and doubled up, kicked under the diaphragm. The door into the
2959 bar-parlour from the kitchen slammed and covered Mr. Marvel's
2960 retreat. The men in the kitchen found themselves clutching at and
2965 "This way," said the policeman, stepping into the yard and
2968 A piece of tile whizzed by his head and smashed among the crockery
2971 "I'll show him," shouted the man with the black beard, and suddenly
2972 a steel barrel shone over the policeman's shoulder, and five
2979 beard. "That's the best of all. Four aces and a joker. Get a
2980 lantern, someone, and come and feel about for his body."
2992 "Hullo!" said Dr. Kemp, putting his pen into his mouth again and
2996 He went to the south window, threw it up, and leaning out stared
2997 down on the network of windows, beaded gas-lamps and shops, with its
2998 black interstices of roof and yard that made up the town at night.
3000 and remained watching. Thence his eyes wandered over the town to far
3001 away where the ships' lights shone, and the pier glowed--a little
3003 in its first quarter hung over the westward hill, and the stars were
3004 clear and almost tropically bright.
3007 remote speculation of social conditions of the future, and lost
3009 with a sigh, pulled down the window again, and returned to his
3013 rang. He had been writing slackly, and with intervals of
3015 answer the door, and waited for her feet on the staircase, but she
3019 his study to the landing, rang, and called over the balustrade to
3026 study, and this time attacked his work resolutely. In a little
3027 while he was hard at work again, and the only sounds in the room
3028 were the ticking of the clock and the subdued shrillness of his
3033 night. He rose, yawned, and went downstairs to bed. He had already
3034 removed his coat and vest, when he noticed that he was thirsty. He
3035 took a candle and went down to the dining-room in search of a
3036 syphon and whiskey.
3039 man, and as he recrossed the hall, he noticed a dark spot on the
3041 upstairs, and then it suddenly occurred to him to ask himself what
3044 back to the hall, put down the syphon and whiskey, and bending
3046 the stickiness and colour of drying blood.
3048 He took up his burden again, and returned upstairs, looking about
3049 him and trying to account for the blood-spot. On the landing he saw
3050 something and stopped astonished. The door-handle of his own room
3053 He looked at his own hand. It was quite clean, and then he
3055 from his study, and that consequently he had not touched the handle
3059 blood, and the sheet had been torn. He had not noticed this before
3069 and blood-stained bed. Then he distinctly heard a movement across
3073 forward to the dressing-table, and put down his burdens. Suddenly,
3074 with a start, he perceived a coiled and blood-stained bandage of
3075 linen rag hanging in mid-air, between him and the wash-hand stand.
3079 but a touch arrested him, and a voice speaking quite close to him.
3103 "Oh!" said Kemp, and then roused himself. "I say!" he said. "But
3105 and his hand, extended towards the bandage, met invisible fingers.
3107 He recoiled at the touch and his colour changed.
3113 "Kemp!" cried the Voice. "Kemp! Keep steady!" and the grip
3117 of the bandaged arm gripped his shoulder, and he was suddenly
3118 tripped and flung backwards upon the bed. He opened his mouth to
3119 shout, and the corner of the sheet was thrust between his teeth.
3120 The Invisible Man had him down grimly, but his arms were free and
3121 he struck and tried to kick savagely.
3129 Kemp struggled for another moment and then lay still.
3134 "I'm an Invisible Man. It's no foolishness, and no magic. I really
3135 am an Invisible Man. And I want your help. I don't want to hurt
3139 "Let me get up," said Kemp. "I'll stop where I am. And let me sit
3142 He sat up and felt his neck.
3144 "I am Griffin, of University College, and I have made myself
3151 almost an albino, six feet high, and broad, with a pink and white
3152 face and red eyes, who won the medal for chemistry."
3162 "It's no devilry. It's a process, sane and intelligible enough--"
3166 "It's horrible enough. But I'm wounded and in pain, and tired ...
3168 and drink, and let me sit down here."
3171 basket chair dragged across the floor and come to rest near the bed.
3172 It creaked, and the seat was depressed the quarter of an inch or so.
3173 He rubbed his eyes and felt his neck again. "This beats ghosts," he
3174 said, and laughed stupidly.
3178 "Or silly," said Kemp, and knuckled his eyes.
3185 The chair creaked and Kemp felt the glass drawn away from him. He
3201 Voice, "and the night is chilly to a man without clothes."
3209 and produced a robe of dingy scarlet. "This do?" he asked. It was
3211 weirdly, stood full and decorous buttoning itself, and sat down in
3213 Unseen, curtly. "And food."
3218 He turned out his drawers for the articles, and then went downstairs
3219 to ransack his larder. He came back with some cold cutlets and
3220 bread, pulled up a light table, and placed them before his guest.
3221 "Never mind knives," said his visitor, and a cutlet hung in mid-air,
3224 "Invisible!" said Kemp, and sat down on a bedroom chair.
3233 "Of all the strange and wonderful--"
3239 it coagulates, I see. It's only the living tissue I've changed, and
3248 He reached over and secured the whiskey bottle. Kemp stared at the
3264 hungry--in pain. And you want me to tell stories!"
3275 After he had done eating, and he made a heavy meal, the Invisible
3277 find a knife, and cursed when the outer leaf loosened. It was
3278 strange to see him smoking; his mouth, and throat, pharynx and
3281 "This blessed gift of smoking!" he said, and puffed vigorously.
3287 He helped himself to more whiskey and soda. Kemp got up, looked
3288 about him, and fetched a glass from his spare room. "It's wild--but
3292 don't. Cool and methodical--after the first collapse. I must tell
3295 "But how was it all done?" said Kemp, "and how did you get like
3298 "For God's sake, let me smoke in peace for a little while! And then
3302 was growing painful; he was feverish, exhausted, and his mind came
3303 round to brood upon his chase down the hill and the struggle about
3320 He groaned suddenly and leant forward, supporting his invisible
3332 "Nothing--scratch and blood. Oh, God! How I want sleep!"
3352 Exhausted and wounded as the Invisible Man was, he refused to accept
3354 two windows of the bedroom, drew up the blinds and opened the
3356 possible. Outside the night was very quiet and still, and the new
3358 bedroom and the two dressing-room doors, to satisfy himself that
3360 expressed himself satisfied. He stood on the hearth rug and Kemp
3367 I meant to keep it to myself. I can't. I must have a partner. And
3379 "Good-night," said Kemp, and shook an invisible hand. He walked
3387 Kemp closed the door softly behind him, and the key was turned upon
3390 dressing-room and that too was locked. Kemp slapped his brow with
3393 He laughed, and put his hand to the locked door. "Barred out of my
3396 He walked to the head of the staircase, turned, and stared at the
3402 He shook his head hopelessly, turned, and went downstairs.
3404 He lit the dining-room lamp, got out a cigar, and began pacing the
3405 room, ejaculating. Now and then he would argue with himself.
3410 Thousands--millions. All the larvae, all the little nauplii and
3413 that before. And in the ponds too! All those little pond-life
3425 walked out of the room, and went into his little consulting-room and
3427 live by practice, and in it were the day's newspapers. The morning's
3428 paper lay carelessly opened and thrown aside. He caught it up,
3429 turned it over, and read the account of a "Strange Story from Iping"
3436 He dropped the paper, and his eye went seeking. "Ah!" he said, and
3447 He re-read it. "Ran through the streets striking right and left.
3453 He dropped the paper and stared blankly in front of him. "Probably
3456 He caught up the paper again, and re-read the whole business. "But
3462 When dawn came to mingle its pallor with the lamp-light and cigar
3463 smoke of the dining-room, Kemp was still pacing up and down, trying
3467 sleepily, discovered him, and were inclined to think that
3470 belvedere study--and then to confine themselves to the basement
3471 and ground-floor. Then he continued to pace the dining-room until
3472 the morning's paper came. That had much to say and little to tell,
3473 beyond the confirmation of the evening before, and a very badly
3476 and the name of Marvel. "He has made me keep with him twenty-four
3480 the Invisible Man and the Tramp; for Mr. Marvel had supplied no
3482 lined. The incredulous tone had vanished and a shoal of reporters
3483 and inquirers were already at work elaborating the matter.
3485 Kemp read every scrap of the report and sent his housemaid out to
3489 "He is invisible!" he said. "And it reads like rage growing to
3490 mania! The things he may do! The things he may do! And he's
3495 He went to a little untidy desk in the corner, and began a note. He
3496 tore this up half written, and wrote another. He read it over and
3497 considered it. Then he took an envelope and addressed it to "Colonel
3501 evil temper, and Kemp, alert for every sound, heard his pattering
3503 flung over and the wash-hand stand tumbler smashed. Kemp hurried
3504 upstairs and rapped eagerly.
3519 "Fit of temper," said the Invisible Man. "Forgot this arm; and it's
3526 Kemp walked across the room and picked up the fragments of broken
3528 with the glass in his hand; "all that happened in Iping, and down
3540 possible, and he was delighted to find his strange guest rose
3548 business flashed and vanished again as he looked across to
3552 "It's simple enough--and credible enough," said Griffin, putting
3553 the serviette aside and leaning the invisible head on an invisible
3564 "I went there after I left London. You know I dropped medicine and
3570 network with solutions glimmering elusively through. And being but
3571 two-and-twenty and full of enthusiasm, I said, 'I will devote my
3573 two-and-twenty?"
3579 "But I went to work--like a slave. And I had hardly worked and
3582 of pigments and refraction--a formula, a geometrical expression
3602 the colour absorbs some of the light and reflects the rest, all the
3607 and there where the surfaces were favourable the light would
3608 be reflected and refracted, so that you would get a brilliant
3609 appearance of flashing reflections and translucencies--a sort of
3612 refraction and reflection. See that? From certain points of view
3617 hardly any light and refract and reflect very little. And if you
3623 air. And for precisely the same reason!"
3627 "And here is another fact you will know to be true. If a sheet of
3628 glass is smashed, Kemp, and beaten into a powder, it becomes much
3631 of the glass at which refraction and reflection occur. In the sheet
3633 reflected or refracted by each grain it passes through, and very
3636 and water have much the same refractive index; that is, the light
3642 it is put in any medium of almost the same refractive index. And if
3656 transparent and seem not to be so. Paper, for instance, is made up
3657 of transparent fibres, and it is white and opaque only for the same
3658 reason that a powder of glass is white and opaque. Oil white paper,
3660 is no longer refraction or reflection except at the surfaces, and
3661 it becomes as transparent as glass. And not only paper, but cotton
3662 fibre, linen fibre, wool fibre, woody fibre, and _bone_, Kemp,
3663 _flesh_, Kemp, _hair_, Kemp, _nails_ and _nerves_, Kemp, in fact
3664 the whole fabric of a man except the red of his blood and the black
3671 only last night of the sea larvae and all jelly-fish!"
3673 "_Now_ you have me! And all that I knew and had in mind a year after
3677 was always prying! And you know the knavish system of the scientific
3678 world. I simply would not publish, and let him share my credit. I
3679 went on working; I got nearer and nearer making my formula into an
3681 flash my work upon the world with crushing effect and become famous
3683 gaps. And suddenly, not by design but by accident, I made a
3689 white--colourless--and remain with all the functions it has now!"
3693 The Invisible Man rose and began pacing the little study. "You may
3695 daytime one was bothered with the gaping, silly students--and I
3696 worked then sometimes till dawn. It came suddenly, splendid and
3698 tall lights burning brightly and silently. In all my great moments
3703 doing, and went and stared out of the great window at the stars.
3706 "To do such a thing would be to transcend magic. And I beheld,
3709 I saw none. You have only to think! And I, a shabby, poverty-struck,
3712 tell you, would have flung himself upon that research. And I worked
3713 three years, and every mountain of difficulty I toiled over showed
3714 another from its summit. The infinite details! And the exasperation!
3717 And the students, the cramped means! Three years I had of it--
3719 "And after three years of secrecy and exasperation, I found that to
3724 "Money," said the Invisible Man, and went again to stare out of the
3730 "The money was not his, and he shot himself."
3741 rose, took the Invisible Man's arm, and turned him away from the
3744 "You are tired," he said, "and while I sit, you walk about. Have
3747 He placed himself between Griffin and the nearest window.
3749 For a space Griffin sat silent, and then he resumed abruptly:
3757 thicket, and suddenly coming on some unmeaning tragedy. I went to
3758 bury him. My mind was still on this research, and I did not lift
3760 hearse, the scant ceremony, the windy frost-bitten hillside, and the
3765 had once been a village and was now patched and tinkered by the
3767 roads ran out at last into the desecrated fields and ended in
3768 rubble heaps and rank wet weeds. I remember myself as a gaunt black
3769 figure, going along the slippery, shiny pavement, and the strange
3782 "Something moved me to turn back and talk to her. She was a very
3790 and loved. There stood the apparatus, the experiments arranged and
3791 waiting. And now there was scarcely a difficulty left, beyond the
3803 they are obvious enough. I needed two little dynamos, and these I
3806 see it in the flicker of the flashes soft and white, and then to
3807 watch it fade like a wreath of smoke and vanish.
3810 emptiness, and there was the thing as solid as ever. I felt it
3811 awkwardly, and threw it on the floor. I had a little trouble
3814 "And then came a curious experience. I heard a miaow behind me, and
3817 for you,' I said, and went to the window, opened it, and called
3818 softly. She came in, purring--the poor beast was starving--and
3823 made her comfortable on the pillow of my truckle-bed. And I gave
3826 "And you processed her?"
3828 "I processed her. But giving drugs to a cat is no joke, Kemp! And
3833 "In two particulars. These were the claws and the pigment stuff,
3839 bleach the blood and done certain other things to her, I gave the
3840 beast opium, and put her and the pillow she was sleeping on, on the
3841 apparatus. And after all the rest had faded and vanished, there
3846 "I can't explain it. She was bandaged and clamped, of course--so
3847 I had her safe; but she woke while she was still misty, and miaowed
3848 dismally, and someone came knocking. It was an old woman from
3851 whipped out some chloroform, applied it, and answered the door.
3853 politely. She was a little doubtful and tried to peer past me into
3855 windows, truckle-bed, with the gas engine vibrating, and the
3856 seethe of the radiant points, and that faint ghastly stinging of
3857 chloroform in the air. She had to be satisfied at last and went
3862 "Three or four hours--the cat. The bones and sinews and the fat
3863 were the last to go, and the tips of the coloured hairs. And, as I
3867 "It was night outside long before the business was over, and nothing
3868 was to be seen but the dim eyes and the claws. I stopped the gas
3869 engine, felt for and stroked the beast, which was still insensible,
3870 and then, being tired, left it sleeping on the invisible pillow and
3872 aimless stuff, going over the experiment over and over again, or
3873 dreaming feverishly of things growing misty and vanishing about me,
3874 until everything, the ground I stood on, vanished, and so I came to
3876 miaowing about the room. I tried to hush it by talking to it, and
3878 striking a light--there were just the round eyes shining green--and
3880 wouldn't be quiet, it just sat down and miaowed at the door. I tried
3883 parts of the room. At last I opened the window and made a bustle. I
3887 again, and the dismal windy hillside, until the day had come. I
3888 found sleeping was hopeless, and, locking my door after me,
3899 was alive four days after, I know, and down a grating in Great
3908 Street, and the horse soldiers coming out, and at last I found the
3916 me incapable of any strength of feeling. I was apathetic, and I
3920 pretty clearly this was a transient mood, due to overwork and want
3921 of sleep, and that either by drugs or rest it would be possible to
3925 through; the fixed idea still ruled me. And soon, for the money I
3927 children playing and girls watching them, and tried to think of all
3929 After a time I crawled home, took some food and a strong dose of
3930 strychnine, and went to sleep in my clothes on my unmade bed.
3936 "I awoke vastly invigorated and rather irritable. You know?"
3940 "And there was someone rapping at the door. It was my landlord
3941 with threats and inquiries, an old Polish Jew in a long grey coat
3942 and greasy slippers. I had been tormenting a cat in the night, he
3948 the room, peering about over his German-silver spectacles, and a
3950 of my secret. I tried to keep between him and the concentrating
3951 apparatus I had arranged, and that only made him more curious. What
3952 was I doing? Why was I always alone and secretive? Was it legal?
3957 the collar; something ripped, and he went spinning out into his own
3958 passage. I slammed and locked the door and sat down quivering.
3960 "He made a fuss outside, which I disregarded, and after a time he
3966 pounds left in the world, for the most part in a bank--and I
3971 interrupted at its very climax, I became very angry and active. I
3973 has them now--and directed them from the nearest Post Office to a
3974 house of call for letters and parcels in Great Portland Street. I
3978 after him. He glared at me as I went by him, and I made the house
3980 to my floor, hesitate, and go down. I set to work upon my
3983 "It was all done that evening and night. While I was still sitting
3986 footsteps went away and returned, and the knocking was resumed.
3988 paper. Then in a fit of irritation I rose and went and flung the
3992 held it out to me, saw something odd about my hands, I expect, and
3996 dropped candle and writ together, and went blundering down the dark
3997 passage to the stairs. I shut the door, locked it, and went to the
4002 of racking anguish, sickness and fainting. I set my teeth, though my
4005 chloroformed it. Lucky it was I lived alone and untended in my room.
4006 There were times when I sobbed and groaned and talked. But I stuck
4007 to it.... I became insensible and woke languid in the darkness.
4009 "The pain had passed. I thought I was killing myself and I did not
4010 care. I shall never forget that dawn, and the strange horror of
4011 seeing that my hands had become as clouded glass, and watching them
4012 grow clearer and thinner as the day went by, until at last I could
4014 transparent eyelids. My limbs became glassy, the bones and arteries
4015 faded, vanished, and the little white nerves went last. I gritted
4016 my teeth and stayed there to the end. At last only the dead tips of
4017 the fingernails remained, pallid and white, and the brown stain of
4021 infant--stepping with limbs I could not see. I was weak and very
4022 hungry. I went and stared at nothing in my shaving-glass, at nothing
4024 my eyes, fainter than mist. I had to hang on to the table and press
4028 to the apparatus and completed the process.
4031 out the light, and about midday I was awakened again by a knocking.
4032 My strength had returned. I sat up and listened and heard a
4033 whispering. I sprang to my feet and as noiselessly as possible began
4034 to detach the connections of my apparatus, and to distribute it
4036 Presently the knocking was renewed and voices called, first my
4037 landlord's, and then two others. To gain time I answered them. The
4038 invisible rag and pillow came to hand and I opened the window and
4043 to tremble and do things hurriedly.
4045 "I tossed together some loose paper, straw, packing paper and so
4046 forth, in the middle of the room, and turned on the gas. Heavy
4050 the sash, and sat down, secure and invisible, but quivering with
4051 anger, to watch events. They split a panel, I saw, and in another
4052 moment they had broken away the staples of the bolts and stood in
4053 the open doorway. It was the landlord and his two step-sons, sturdy
4054 young men of three or four and twenty. Behind them fluttered the
4058 the younger men rushed to the window at once, flung it up and stared
4059 out. His staring eyes and thick-lipped bearded face came a foot
4062 others as they joined him. The old man went and peered under the
4063 bed, and then they all made a rush for the cupboard. They had to
4064 argue about it at length in Yiddish and Cockney English. They
4067 of my anger as I sat outside the window and watched these four
4073 garbled English that I was an electrician, and appealed to the
4074 dynamos and radiators. They were all nervous about my arrival,
4076 The old lady peered into the cupboard and under the bed, and one of
4077 the young men pushed up the register and stared up the chimney. One
4079 with a butcher, appeared on the landing, and he was called in and
4084 and watching my opportunity, I came into the room and tilted one of
4085 the little dynamos off its fellow on which it was standing, and
4087 smash, I dodged out of the room and went softly downstairs.
4089 "I went into one of the sitting-rooms and waited until they came
4090 down, still speculating and argumentative, all a little disappointed
4091 at finding no 'horrors,' and all a little puzzled how they stood
4093 fired my heap of paper and rubbish, put the chairs and bedding
4095 tube, and waving a farewell to the room left it for the last time."
4099 "Fired the house. It was the only way to cover my trail--and no
4101 and went out into the street. I was invisible, and I was only just
4103 gave me. My head was already teeming with plans of all the wild and
4114 because I could not see my feet; indeed I stumbled twice, and there
4119 might do, with padded feet and noiseless clothes, in a city of the
4121 clap men on the back, fling people's hats astray, and generally
4126 clashing concussion and was hit violently behind, and turning saw
4127 a man carrying a basket of soda-water syphons, and looking in
4130 aloud. 'The devil's in the basket,' I said, and suddenly twisted
4131 it out of his hand. He let go incontinently, and I swung the whole
4135 sudden rush for this, and his extending fingers took me with
4137 smash on the cabman, and then, with shouts and the clatter of feet
4139 realised what I had done for myself, and cursing my folly, backed
4140 against a shop window and prepared to dodge out of the confusion. In
4141 a moment I should be wedged into a crowd and inevitably discovered.
4143 nothingness that shoved him aside, and dodged behind the cab-man's
4145 straight across the road, which was happily clear, and hardly
4150 for me, and in a moment my heels were being trodden upon. I took to
4151 the gutter, the roughness of which I found painful to my feet, and
4155 convulsive movement, and found myself behind the hansom. A happy
4156 thought saved me, and as this drove slowly along I followed in its
4157 immediate wake, trembling and astonished at the turn of my
4158 adventure. And not only trembling, but shivering. It was a bright
4159 day in January and I was stark naked and the thin slime of mud that
4162 weather and all its consequences.
4164 "Then suddenly a bright idea came into my head. I ran round and got
4165 into the cab. And so, shivering, scared, and sniffing with the first
4166 intimations of a cold, and with the bruises in the small of my back
4167 growing upon my attention, I drove slowly along Oxford Street and
4173 "We crawled past Mudie's, and there a tall woman with five or six
4174 yellow-labelled books hailed my cab, and I sprang out just in time
4177 past the Museum and so get into the quiet district. I was now
4178 cruelly chilled, and the strangeness of my situation so unnerved me
4181 and incontinently made for me, nose down.
4186 barking and leaping, showing, as it seemed to me, only too plainly
4188 over my shoulder as I did so, and went some way along Montague
4191 "Then I became aware of a blare of music, and looking along the
4193 shirts, and the banner of the Salvation Army to the fore. Such a
4194 crowd, chanting in the roadway and scoffing on the pavement, I
4195 could not hope to penetrate, and dreading to go back and farther
4196 from home again, and deciding on the spur of the moment, I ran up
4197 the white steps of a house facing the museum railings, and stood
4199 at the noise of the band too, hesitated, and turned tail, running
4203 'When shall we see His face?' and it seemed an interminable time
4205 Thud, thud, thud, came the drum with a vibrating resonance, and for
4210 "I looked down and saw the youngsters had stopped and were gaping
4212 steps. The passing people elbowed and jostled them, but their
4216 one. 'And he ain't never come down again. And his foot was
4221 in his voice, and pointed straight to my feet. I looked down and
4226 the ghost of a foot, ain't it?' He hesitated and advanced with
4228 catching, and then a girl. In another moment he would have touched
4230 an exclamation, and with a rapid movement I swung myself over into
4232 enough to follow the movement, and before I was well down the
4233 steps and upon the pavement, he had recovered from his momentary
4234 astonishment and was shouting out that the feet had gone over the
4237 "They rushed round and saw my new footmarks flash into being on the
4238 lower step and upon the pavement. 'What's up?' asked someone.
4242 after the Salvation Army, and this blow not only impeded me but them.
4243 There was an eddy of surprise and interrogation. At the cost of
4244 bowling over one young fellow I got through, and in another moment
4250 "Twice I doubled round corners, thrice I crossed the road and came
4251 back upon my tracks, and then, as my feet grew hot and dry, the
4253 and rubbed my feet clean with my hands, and so got away altogether.
4257 footprint as isolated and incomprehensible to them as Crusoe's
4260 "This running warmed me to a certain extent, and I went on with a
4262 hereabouts. My back had now become very stiff and sore, my tonsils
4263 were painful from the cabman's fingers, and the skin of my neck
4264 had been scratched by his nails; my feet hurt exceedingly and I
4266 man approaching me, and fled limping, for I feared his subtle
4267 intuitions. Once or twice accidental collisions occurred and I left
4269 Then came something silent and quiet against my face, and across
4271 caught a cold, and do as I would I could not avoid an occasional
4272 sneeze. And every dog that came in sight, with its pointing nose
4273 and curious sniffing, was a terror to me.
4275 "Then came men and boys running, first one and then others, and
4277 my lodging, and looking back down a street I saw a mass of black
4278 smoke streaming up above the roofs and telephone wires. It was my
4280 except my cheque-book and the three volumes of memoranda that
4284 The Invisible Man paused and thought. Kemp glanced nervously out of
4295 about me--and if it settled on me it would betray me!--weary,
4296 cold, painful, inexpressibly wretched, and still but half convinced
4300 given me away--made a mere show and rarity of me. Nevertheless, I
4301 was half-minded to accost some passer-by and throw myself upon his
4302 mercy. But I knew too clearly the terror and brutal cruelty my
4304 was to get shelter from the snow, to get myself covered and warm;
4306 rows of London houses stood latched, barred, and bolted
4310 and misery of the snowstorm and the night.
4312 "And then I had a brilliant idea. I turned down one of the roads
4313 leading from Gower Street to Tottenham Court Road, and found myself
4318 they were closed, and as I stood in the wide entrance a carriage
4319 stopped outside, and a man in uniform--you know the kind of
4321 to enter, and walking down the shop--it was a department where they
4322 were selling ribbons and gloves and stockings and that kind of
4323 thing--came to a more spacious region devoted to picnic baskets and
4326 "I did not feel safe there, however; people were going to and fro,
4327 and I prowled restlessly about until I came upon a huge section in
4328 an upper floor containing multitudes of bedsteads, and over these I
4329 clambered, and found a resting-place at last among a huge pile of
4330 folded flock mattresses. The place was already lit up and agreeably
4331 warm, and I decided to remain where I was, keeping a cautious
4332 eye on the two or three sets of shopmen and customers who were
4334 should be able, I thought, to rob the place for food and clothing,
4335 and disguised, prowl through it and examine its resources, perhaps
4338 acceptable figure, to get money, and then to recover my books
4339 and parcels where they awaited me, take a lodging somewhere and
4345 noticed the blinds of the windows being drawn, and customers being
4346 marched doorward. And then a number of brisk young men began with
4348 left my lair as the crowds diminished, and prowled cautiously out
4350 observe how rapidly the young men and women whipped away the goods
4353 grocery section, the displays of this and that, were being whipped
4354 down, folded up, slapped into tidy receptacles, and everything that
4355 could not be taken down and put away had sheets of some coarse
4361 scattering sawdust and carrying pails and brooms. I had to dodge
4362 to get out of the way, and as it was, my ankle got stung with the
4363 sawdust. For some time, wandering through the swathed and darkened
4364 departments, I could hear the brooms at work. And at last a good
4366 locking doors. Silence came upon the place, and I found myself
4367 wandering through the vast and intricate shops, galleries, show-rooms
4369 passing near one of the Tottenham Court Road entrances and listening
4372 "My first visit was to the place where I had seen stockings and
4373 gloves for sale. It was dark, and I had the devil of a hunt after
4375 desk. Then I had to get a candle. I had to tear down wrappings and
4376 ransack a number of boxes and drawers, but at last I managed to turn
4377 out what I sought; the box label called them lambswool pants, and
4378 lambswool vests. Then socks, a thick comforter, and then I went to
4379 the clothing place and got trousers, a lounge jacket, an overcoat
4380 and a slouch hat--a clerical sort of hat with the brim turned down.
4381 I began to feel a human being again, and my next thought was food.
4383 "Upstairs was a refreshment department, and there I got cold meat.
4384 There was coffee still in the urn, and I lit the gas and warmed it
4385 up again, and altogether I did not do badly. Afterwards, prowling
4388 a lot of chocolate and candied fruits, more than was good for me
4389 indeed--and some white burgundy. And near that was a toy department,
4390 and I had a brilliant idea. I found some artificial noses--dummy
4391 noses, you know, and I thought of dark spectacles. But Omniums had
4393 thought of paint. But the discovery set my mind running on wigs and
4394 masks and the like. Finally I went to sleep in a heap of down
4395 quilts, very warm and comfortable.
4398 since the change. I was in a state of physical serenity, and that
4402 had taken, spectacles and so forth, and so complete my disguise. I
4406 and the wrinkled old woman's gnarled face as she asked for her cat.
4408 disappear, and so I came round to the windy hillside and the
4412 "'You also,' said a voice, and suddenly I was being forced towards
4415 never faltered droning and sniffing through the ritual. I realised
4416 I was invisible and inaudible, that overwhelming forces had their
4418 coffin rang hollow as I fell upon it, and the gravel came flying
4420 made convulsive struggles and awoke.
4424 and for a time I could not think where this ample apartment, with
4425 its counters, its piles of rolled stuff, its heap of quilts and
4431 scrambled to my feet, looking about me for some way of escape, and
4433 suppose they saw merely a figure moving quietly and quickly away.
4434 'Who's that?' cried one, and 'Stop, there!' shouted the other. I
4435 dashed around a corner and came full tilt--a faceless figure,
4436 mind you!--on a lanky lad of fifteen. He yelled and I bowled him
4437 over, rushed past him, turned another corner, and by a happy
4439 went running past and I heard voices shouting, 'All hands to the
4440 doors!' asking what was 'up,' and giving one another advice how to
4446 get away in them, and that ruled me. And then down the vista of the
4449 "I sprang to my feet, whipped a chair off the counter, and sent it
4451 round a corner, sent him spinning, and rushed up the stairs. He
4452 kept his footing, gave a view hallo, and came up the staircase hot
4458 "That's it! Art pots. Well, I turned at the top step and swung
4459 round, plucked one out of a pile and smashed it on his silly head
4460 as he came at me. The whole pile of pots went headlong, and I heard
4461 shouting and footsteps running from all parts. I made a mad rush
4462 for the refreshment place, and there was a man in white like a man
4463 cook, who took up the chase. I made one last desperate turn and
4464 found myself among lamps and ironmongery. I went behind the counter
4465 of this, and waited for my cook, and as he bolted in at the head of
4466 the chase, I doubled him up with a lamp. Down he went, and I
4467 crouched down behind the counter and began whipping off my clothes
4471 stunned or scared speechless, and I had to make another dash for
4475 my bedstead storeroom again, and at the end of a wilderness of
4477 infinite wriggling, and stood a free man again, panting and scared,
4478 as the policeman and three of the shopmen came round the corner.
4479 They made a rush for the vest and pants, and collared the trousers.
4485 "I stood watching them hunt for me for a time, and cursing my
4487 drank a little milk I found there, and sat down by the fire to
4490 "In a little while two assistants came in and began to talk over
4491 the business very excitedly and like the fools they were. I heard a
4492 magnified account of my depredations, and other speculations as to
4496 there was any chance of packing and addressing a parcel, but I
4498 the snow having thawed as it fell, and the day being finer and a
4500 was hopeless, and went out again, exasperated at my want of
4513 strange and terrible thing. I was fasting; for to eat, to fill
4519 "Nor had I. And the snow had warned me of other dangers. I could not
4520 go abroad in snow--it would settle on me and expose me. Rain, too,
4522 bubble. And fog--I should be like a fainter bubble in a fog,
4525 smuts and dust upon my skin. I did not know how long it would be
4531 "I went into the slums towards Great Portland Street, and found
4537 sweets, toys, stationery, belated Christmas tomfoolery, and so
4538 forth--an array of masks and noses. I realised that problem was
4540 aimless, and went--circuitously in order to avoid the busy ways,
4549 me abruptly and came into me, sending me into the road and almost
4552 encounter that I went into Covent Garden Market and sat down for
4553 some time in a quiet corner by a stall of violets, panting and
4554 trembling. I found I had caught a fresh cold, and had to turn out
4559 robes, sham jewels, wigs, slippers, dominoes and theatrical
4560 photographs. The shop was old-fashioned and low and dark, and the
4561 house rose above it for four storeys, dark and dismal. I peered
4562 through the window and, seeing no one within, entered. The opening
4563 of the door set a clanking bell ringing. I left it open, and walked
4566 a room, and a man appeared down the shop.
4569 into the house, secrete myself upstairs, watch my opportunity, and
4570 when everything was quiet, rummage out a wig, mask, spectacles, and
4571 costume, and go into the world, perhaps a grotesque but still a
4572 credible figure. And incidentally of course I could rob the house
4576 hunched, beetle-browed man, with long arms and very short bandy
4578 with an expression of expectation. This gave way to surprise, and
4580 He went to stare up and down the street. He came in again in a
4581 minute, kicked the door to with his foot spitefully, and went
4584 "I came forward to follow him, and at the noise of my movement he
4589 and the door reopened. He stood looking about the shop like one who
4591 back of the counter and peered behind some fixtures. Then he stood
4592 doubtful. He had left the house door open and I slipped into the
4595 "It was a queer little room, poorly furnished and with a number of
4597 and it was a confoundedly exasperating thing for me, Kemp, to have
4598 to sniff his coffee and stand watching while he came in and resumed
4599 his meal. And his table manners were irritating. Three doors opened
4600 into the little room, one going upstairs and one down, but they
4602 I could scarcely move because of his alertness, and there was a
4605 "The spectacular quality of my sensations was curious and novel, but
4606 for all that I was heartily tired and angry long before he had done
4607 his eating. But at last he made an end and putting his beggarly
4608 crockery on the black tin tray upon which he had had his teapot, and
4612 for shutting doors--and I followed him into a very dirty underground
4613 kitchen and scullery. I had the pleasure of seeing him begin to wash
4614 up, and then, finding no good in keeping down there, and the brick
4615 floor being cold on my feet, I returned upstairs and sat in his
4616 chair by the fire. It was burning low, and scarcely thinking, I put
4617 on a little coal. The noise of this brought him up at once, and
4618 he stood aglare. He peered about the room and was within an ace
4620 satisfied. He stopped in the doorway and took a final inspection
4623 "I waited in the little parlour for an age, and at last he came up
4624 and opened the upstairs door. I just managed to get by him.
4627 blundered into him. He stood looking back right into my face and
4629 pulled at his lower lip. His eye went up and down the staircase.
4630 Then he grunted and went on up again.
4632 "His hand was on the handle of a door, and then he stopped again
4636 there's anyone in this house--' he cried with an oath, and left the
4638 what he wanted, and rushing past me went blundering noisily and
4643 the room, and before I could enter, slammed it in my face.
4645 "I resolved to explore the house, and spent some time in doing so
4646 as noiselessly as possible. The house was very old and tumble-down,
4647 damp so that the paper in the attics was peeling from the walls, and
4648 rat infested. Some of the door handles were stiff and I was afraid
4649 to turn them. Several rooms I did inspect were unfurnished, and
4652 of old clothes. I began routing among these, and in my eagerness
4654 footstep and, looking up just in time, saw him peering in at the
4655 tumbled heap and holding an old-fashioned revolver in his hand.
4656 I stood perfectly still while he stared about open-mouthed and
4659 "He shut the door quietly, and immediately I heard the key turn in
4662 from door to window and back, and stood perplexed. A gust of anger
4664 anything further, and my first attempt brought down a pile from an
4666 time he actually touched me, jumped back with amazement and stood
4672 started going all over the house, revolver in hand and locking door
4673 after door and pocketing the keys. When I realised what he was up to
4676 and so I made no more ado, but knocked him on the head."
4688 I couldn't think of any other way of doing it. And then I gagged
4689 him with a Louis Quatorze vest and tied him up in a sheet."
4694 idiot scared and quiet, and a devilish hard thing to get out
4700 "But still," said Kemp, "in England--to-day. And the man was in
4701 his own house, and you were--well, robbing."
4707 "And his too," said Kemp.
4711 Kemp's face grew a trifle hard. He was about to speak and checked
4715 "Of course I was in a fix--an infernal fix. And he made me wild
4717 locking and unlocking doors. He was simply exasperating. You don't
4723 "I was hungry. Downstairs I found a loaf and some rank cheese--more
4724 than sufficient to satisfy my hunger. I took some brandy and
4725 water, and then went up past my impromptu bag--he was lying quite
4728 window. I went and peered out through their interstices. Outside
4741 I collected in the clothes storeroom, and then I made a deliberate
4742 selection. I found a handbag I thought a suitable possession, and
4743 some powder, rouge, and sticking-plaster.
4745 "I had thought of painting and powdering my face and all that
4748 turpentine and other appliances and a considerable amount of time
4751 dark glasses, greyish whiskers, and a wig. I could find no
4752 underclothing, but that I could buy subsequently, and for the time I
4753 swathed myself in calico dominoes and some white cashmere scarfs. I
4755 fit and sufficed. In a desk in the shop were three sovereigns and
4756 about thirty shillings' worth of silver, and in a locked cupboard I
4766 into the shop, pulled down the shop blinds, and surveyed myself
4770 "I spent some minutes screwing up my courage and then unlocked the
4771 shop door and marched out into the street, leaving the little man
4773 dozen turnings intervened between me and the costumier's shop. No
4779 "And you troubled no more about the hunchback?" said Kemp.
4785 He became silent and went to the window and stared out.
4793 merely to fling aside my garments and vanish. No person could hold
4795 myself to a sumptuous feast, and then put up at a good hotel, and
4798 into a place and was already ordering lunch, when it occurred to me
4801 and went out exasperated. I don't know if you have ever been
4807 desire for tasteful food, I went into another place and demanded a
4809 me curiously, but of course it was not their affair--and so at
4811 sufficed; and when I had had it, I sat over a cigar, trying to plan
4812 my line of action. And outside a snowstorm was beginning.
4815 helpless absurdity an Invisible Man was--in a cold and dirty
4816 climate and a crowded civilised city. Before I made this mad
4825 I to do? And for this I had become a wrapped-up mystery, a swathed
4826 and bandaged caricature of a man!"
4828 He paused, and his attitude suggested a roving glance at the
4837 mean to do invisibly. And that is what I chiefly want to talk to
4842 "Yes. I had simply to get my three volumes of memoranda and my
4843 cheque-book, my luggage and underclothing, order a quantity of
4845 calculations as soon as I get my books--and then I started. Jove!
4846 I remember the snowstorm now, and the accursed bother it was to
4857 couldn't they leave me alone? And that grocer lout?"
4865 for years, to have planned and plotted, and then to get some
4897 weather is hot and invisibility possible, to make for the South.
4898 Especially as my secret was known, and everyone would be on the
4899 lookout for a masked and muffled man. You have a line of steamers
4900 from here to France. My idea was to get aboard one and run the
4903 be invisible--and yet live. And do things. I was using that tramp
4904 as a money box and luggage carrier, until I decided how to get my
4905 books and things sent over to meet me."
4909 "And then the filthy brute must needs try and rob me! He _has_ hidden
4929 "No," said the Invisible Man, and thought.
4948 "Ah! Now--" The Invisible Man stood up, and sticking his arms akimbo
4954 to hurt a little, and there is the end.
4956 "What I want, Kemp, is a goal-keeper, a helper, and a hiding-place,
4957 an arrangement whereby I can sleep and eat and rest in peace, and
4959 food and rest--a thousand things are possible.
4963 advantage for eavesdropping and so forth--one makes sounds. It's
4964 of little help--a little help perhaps--in housebreaking and so
4975 "And it is killing we must do, Kemp."
4982 Invisible Man. And that Invisible Man, Kemp, must now establish a
4984 Reign of Terror. He must take some town like your Burdock and
4985 terrify and dominate it. He must issue his orders. He can do that
4987 suffice. And all who disobey his orders he must kill, and kill
4991 of his front door opening and closing.
4998 eagerly. And then suddenly, "Hush! What's that downstairs?"
5000 "Nothing," said Kemp, and suddenly began to speak loud and fast.
5012 "Let me see," said the Invisible Man, and advanced, arm extended,
5015 And then things happened very swiftly. Kemp hesitated for a second
5016 and then moved to intercept him. The Invisible Man started and stood
5017 still. "Traitor!" cried the Voice, and suddenly the dressing-gown
5018 opened, and sitting down the Unseen began to disrobe. Kemp made
5019 three swift steps to the door, and forthwith the Invisible Man--his
5023 As it opened, there came a sound of hurrying feet downstairs and
5027 aside, and slammed the door. The key was outside and ready. In
5036 foot wide, and the dressing-gown came wedging itself into the
5037 opening. His throat was gripped by invisible fingers, and he left
5039 tripped and pitched heavily into the corner of the landing. The
5045 of clothing tossing empty in the air. He saw Kemp felled, and
5046 struggling to his feet. He saw him rush forward, and go down again,
5050 it seemed, leapt upon him, and he was hurled headlong down the
5051 staircase, with a grip on his throat and a knee in his groin. An
5053 he heard the two police officers in the hall shout and run, and the
5056 He rolled over and sat up staring. He saw, staggering down the
5057 staircase, Kemp, dusty and disheveled, one side of his face white
5058 from a blow, his lip bleeding, and a pink dressing-gown and some
5084 "But how?" cried Kemp, and suddenly became full of ideas. "You must
5087 through the countryside as he wills, killing and maiming. He dreams
5089 watch on trains and roads and shipping. The garrison must help. You
5096 "Says he hasn't them. But he thinks the tramp has. And you must
5097 prevent him from eating or sleeping; day and night the country must
5098 be astir for him. Food must be locked up and secured, all food, so
5100 be barred against him. Heaven send us cold nights and rain! The
5101 whole country-side must begin hunting and keep hunting. I tell you,
5102 Adye, he is a danger, a disaster; unless he is pinned and secured,
5105 "What else can we do?" said Adye. "I must go down at once and begin
5106 organising. But why not come? Yes--you come too! Come, and we
5107 must hold a sort of council of war--get Hopps to help--and the
5112 the front door open and the policemen standing outside staring at
5116 go on down and get a cab to come up and meet us--quickly. And
5128 You must keep on beating. Every thicket, every quiet corner. And
5130 can't carry such things for long. And what he can snatch up and
5135 "And on the roads," said Kemp, and hesitated.
5161 violently caught up and thrown aside, so that its ankle was broken,
5162 and thereafter for some hours the Invisible Man passed out of human
5165 hill and on to the open downland behind Port Burdock, raging and
5166 despairing at his intolerable fate, and sheltering at last, heated
5167 and weary, amid the thickets of Hintondean, to piece together again
5173 and what plans he devised. No doubt he was almost ecstatically
5174 exasperated by Kemp's treachery, and though we may be able to
5176 imagine and even sympathise a little with the fury the attempted
5181 human ken about midday, and no living witness can tell what he did
5189 antagonist, to be wounded, captured, or overcome, and the
5194 parallelogram between Southampton, Manchester, Brighton and Horsham,
5195 travelled with locked doors, and the goods traffic was almost
5196 entirely suspended. And in a great circle of twenty miles round Port
5197 Burdock, men armed with guns and bludgeons were presently setting
5198 out in groups of three and four, with dogs, to beat the roads and
5202 cottage and warning the people to lock up their houses, and keep
5203 indoors unless they were armed, and all the elementary schools had
5204 broken up by three o'clock, and the children, scared and keeping
5209 Man from food and sleep, the necessity for incessant watchfulness
5210 and for a prompt attention to any evidence of his movements. And
5211 so swift and decided was the action of the authorities, so prompt
5212 and universal was the belief in this strange being, that before
5214 state of siege. And before nightfall, too, a thrill of horror
5216 whispering mouth to mouth, swift and certain over the length and
5235 habits and appearance, the very last person in the world to provoke
5240 him, and smashed his head to a jelly.
5251 something on the ground before him and striking at it ever and
5254 hidden from her only by a clump of beech trees and a slight
5261 come by and noticed this rod inexplicably moving through the air.
5266 discovering his presence in the neighbourhood, and Wicksteed,
5267 excited and curious, pursuing this unaccountably locomotive
5274 stinging nettles and the gravel pit. To those who appreciate the
5280 body, done to death, and of the blood-stained iron rod flung among
5284 an intensely egotistical and unfeeling man, but the sight of his
5285 victim, his first victim, bloody and pitiful at his feet, may have
5292 Bottom. It was wailing and laughing, sobbing and groaning, and ever
5293 and again it shouted. It must have been queer hearing. It drove up
5294 across the middle of a clover field and died away towards the
5299 found houses locked and secured; he may have loitered about
5300 railway stations and prowled about inns, and no doubt he read the
5301 proclamations and realised something of the nature of the campaign
5302 against him. And as the evening advanced, the fields became dotted
5303 here and there with groups of three or four men, and noisy with the
5307 his exasperation, and it could have been none the less because
5311 a hunted man. In the night, he must have eaten and slept; for in
5312 the morning he was himself again, active, powerful, angry, and
5325 "You have been amazingly energetic and clever," this letter ran,
5329 have slept in spite of you, and the game is only beginning. The
5332 is no longer under the Queen, tell your Colonel of Police, and
5346 his voice! And he means it."
5348 He turned the folded sheet over and saw on the addressed side of it
5349 the postmark Hintondean, and the prosaic detail "2d. to pay."
5352 come by the one o'clock post--and went into his study. He rang
5353 for his housekeeper, and told her to go round the house at once,
5354 examine all the fastenings of the windows, and close all the
5357 carefully, and put it into the pocket of his lounge jacket. He
5360 leaving the house. "There is no danger," he said, and added a
5362 after doing this, and then returned to his cooling lunch.
5365 "We will have him!" he said; "and I am the bait. He will come too
5374 food every day--and I don't envy him. Did he really sleep last
5381 brickwork over the frame, and made him start violently back.
5386 Presently he heard the front-door bell ringing, and hurried
5387 downstairs. He unbolted and unlocked the door, examined the chain,
5388 put it up, and opened cautiously without showing himself. A
5398 Kemp released the chain, and Adye entered through as narrow an
5411 "Look here!" said Kemp, and led the way into his study. He handed
5412 Adye the Invisible Man's letter. Adye read it and whistled softly.
5413 "And you--?" said Adye.
5415 "Proposed a trap--like a fool," said Kemp, "and sent my proposal
5426 window, upstairs!" said Kemp, and led the way up. There came a
5429 half the room littered with splintered glass, and one big flint
5431 contemplating the wreckage. Kemp swore again, and as he did so the
5433 moment, and collapsed in jagged, shivering triangles into the room.
5447 Smash, and then whack of boards hit hard came from downstairs.
5450 shutters are up, and the glass will fall outside. He'll cut his
5455 something, and I'll go down to the station and get the bloodhounds
5474 first-floor bedroom windows crack and clash. Kemp went to the door
5475 and began to slip the bolts as silently as possible. His face was a
5477 another moment Adye was on the doorstep and the bolts were dropping
5480 and square, down the steps. He crossed the lawn and approached the
5482 moved near him. "Stop a bit," said a Voice, and Adye stopped dead
5483 and his hand tightened on the revolver.
5485 "Well?" said Adye, white and grim, and every nerve tense.
5488 and grim as Adye's.
5490 "Sorry," said Adye a little hoarsely, and moistened his lips with
5494 "What are you going for?" said the Voice, and there was a quick
5495 movement of the two, and a flash of sunlight from the open lip of
5498 Adye desisted and thought. "Where I go," he said slowly, "is my own
5500 his neck, his back felt a knee, and he was sprawling backward. He
5501 drew clumsily and fired absurdly, and in another moment he was
5502 struck in the mouth and the revolver wrested from his grip. He made
5503 a vain clutch at a slippery limb, tried to struggle up and fell
5514 "Attention," said the Voice, and then fiercely, "Don't try any
5524 the revolver and saw the sea far off very blue and dark under the
5525 midday sun, the smooth green down, the white cliff of the Head, and
5526 the multitudinous town, and suddenly he knew that life was very
5528 between heaven and earth, six yards away. "What am I to do?" he
5539 Kemp had hurried upstairs after letting Adye out, and now crouching
5540 among the broken glass and peering cautiously over the edge of the
5543 moved a little and the glint of the sunlight flashed in Kemp's
5544 eyes. He shaded his eyes and tried to see the source of the
5558 and became evident on a closer scrutiny as a little dark object
5561 threw up his hands and fell forward on his face, leaving a little
5563 Adye writhed, raised himself on one arm, fell forward, and lay
5567 Adye's attitude. The afternoon was very hot and still, nothing
5569 chasing each other through the shrubbery between the house and the
5577 Then came a ringing and knocking at the front door, that grew at
5580 silence. Kemp sat listening and then began peering cautiously out
5582 head and stood listening uneasily. He armed himself with his
5583 bedroom poker, and went to examine the interior fastenings of the
5584 ground-floor windows again. Everything was safe and quiet. He
5587 were the housemaid and two policemen.
5592 He started. There was a smash from below. He hesitated and went
5593 downstairs again. Suddenly the house resounded with heavy blows and
5594 the splintering of wood. He heard a smash and the destructive clang
5595 of the iron fastenings of the shutters. He turned the key and
5596 opened the kitchen door. As he did so, the shutters, split and
5600 an axe, and now the axe was descending in sweeping blows upon the
5601 window frame and the iron bars defending it. Then suddenly it leapt
5602 aside and vanished. He saw the revolver lying on the path outside,
5603 and then the little weapon sprang into the air. He dodged back. The
5604 revolver cracked just too late, and a splinter from the edge of the
5605 closing door flashed over his head. He slammed and locked the door,
5606 and as he stood outside he heard Griffin shouting and laughing.
5607 Then the blows of the axe with its splitting and smashing
5612 a moment, and then--
5615 He ran into the hall, put up the chain, and drew the bolts. He made
5616 the girl speak before he dropped the chain, and the three people
5617 blundered into the house in a heap, and Kemp slammed the door
5636 shuddered, and retreated into the dining-room. Kemp tried to
5639 "This way," said Kemp, starting into activity, and bundled the
5642 "Poker," said Kemp, and rushed to the fender. He handed the poker
5643 he had carried to the policeman and the dining-room one to the
5646 "Whup!" said one policeman, ducked, and caught the axe on his poker.
5647 The pistol snapped its penultimate shot and ripped a valuable Sidney
5649 weapon, as one might knock down a wasp, and sent it rattling to the
5653 by the fireplace, and then ran to open the shutters--possibly
5656 The axe receded into the passage, and fell to a position about two
5661 forward and wiping with his poker at the Voice. The Invisible Man
5662 must have started back, and he blundered into the umbrella stand.
5666 like paper, and the blow sent the man spinning to the floor at the
5669 sharp exclamation of pain and then the axe fell to the ground. The
5670 policeman wiped again at vacancy and hit nothing; he put his foot on
5671 the axe, and struck again. Then he stood, poker clubbed, listening
5674 He heard the dining-room window open, and a quick rush of feet
5675 within. His companion rolled over and sat up, with the blood
5676 running down between his eye and ear. "Where is he?" asked the man
5688 heard. "Yap!" cried the first policeman, and incontinently flung
5692 throught better of it and stepped into the dining-room.
5694 "Doctor Kemp--" he began, and stopped short.
5699 The dining-room window was wide open, and neither housemaid nor
5702 The second policeman's opinion of Kemp was terse and vivid.
5717 and he went to sleep in the afternoon in accordance with the custom
5718 of years. He slept through the smashing of the windows, and then
5720 looked across at Kemp's house, rubbed his eyes and looked again.
5721 Then he put his feet to the ground, and sat listening. He said he
5724 riot. Every window was broken, and every window, save those of the
5730 He became aware of a measured concussion and the clash of glass,
5731 far away in the distance. And then, as he sat open-mouthed, came a
5733 were flung open violently, and the housemaid in her outdoor hat and
5736 In another moment the window was open, and the housemaid was
5737 struggling out; she pitched forward and vanished among the shrubs.
5738 Mr. Heelas stood up, exclaiming vaguely and vehemently at all these
5740 window, and reappear almost instantaneously running along a path in
5741 the shrubbery and stooping as he ran, like a man who evades
5742 observation. He vanished behind a laburnum, and appeared again
5744 he had tumbled over and was running at a tremendous pace down the
5750 With Mr. Heelas to think things like that was to act, and his cook
5753 slamming of doors, a ringing of bells, and the voice of Mr. Heelas
5756 full of screams and directions, and scurrying feet. He ran himself
5758 Kemp's head and shoulders and knee appeared over the edge of the
5760 asparagus, and was running across the tennis lawn to the house.
5765 Kemp appeared with a face of terror close to the glass, rapping and
5768 and went to hammer at the side door. Then he ran round by the side
5769 gate to the front of the house, and so into the hill-road. And Mr.
5772 way and that by feet unseen. At that Mr. Heelas fled precipitately
5773 upstairs, and the rest of the chase is beyond his purview. But as
5777 direction, and so it was he came to run in his own person the very
5780 training, and though his face was white and wet, his wits were cool
5781 to the last. He ran with wide strides, and wherever a patch of
5783 or a bit of broken glass shone dazzling, he crossed it and left the
5787 was indescribably vast and desolate, and that the beginnings of the
5791 looked locked and barred; no doubt they were locked and barred--by
5794 had dropped out of sight behind it, and people down below were
5799 The people below were staring at him, one or two were running, and
5801 near now, and the "Jolly Cricketers" was noisily barring its doors.
5802 Beyond the tram were posts and heaps of gravel--the drainage
5803 works. He had a transitory idea of jumping into the tram and
5804 slamming the doors, and then he resolved to go for the police
5806 Cricketers," and was in the blistering fag end of the street, with
5807 human beings about him. The tram driver and his helper--arrested
5812 His pace broke a little, and then he heard the swift pad of his
5813 pursuer, and leapt forward again. "The Invisible Man!" he cried to
5814 the navvies, with a vague indicative gesture, and by an inspiration
5815 leapt the excavation and placed a burly group between him and the
5819 shop, and then made for the mouth of an alley that ran back into
5821 playing here, and shrieked and scattered at his apparition, and
5822 forthwith doors and windows opened and excited mothers revealed
5824 yards from the tram-line end, and immediately he became aware of a
5825 tumultuous vociferation and running people.
5828 ran a huge navvy, cursing in fragments and slashing viciously with
5829 a spade, and hard behind him came the tram conductor with his fists
5830 clenched. Up the street others followed these two, striking and
5831 shouting. Down towards the town, men and women were running, and he
5834 grasped the altered condition of the chase. He stopped, and looked
5837 He was hit hard under the ear, and went reeling, trying to face
5839 feet, and he struck a vain counter in the air. Then he was hit
5840 again under the jaw, and sprawled headlong on the ground. In
5841 another moment a knee compressed his diaphragm, and a couple of
5844 assailant, and then the spade of the navvy came whirling through
5845 the air above him, and struck something with a dull thud. He felt
5847 relaxed, and with a convulsive effort, Kemp loosed himself, grasped
5848 a limp shoulder, and rolled uppermost. He gripped the unseen elbows
5853 and a stranger coming into the road suddenly might have thought an
5854 exceptionally savage game of Rugby football was in progress. And
5856 and feet and heavy breathing.
5858 Then came a mighty effort, and the Invisible Man threw off a couple
5859 of his antagonists and rose to his knees. Kemp clung to him in
5860 front like a hound to a stag, and a dozen hands gripped, clutched,
5861 and tore at the Unseen. The tram conductor suddenly got the neck
5862 and shoulders and lugged him back.
5864 Down went the heap of struggling men again and rolled over. There
5868 "Get back, you fools!" cried the muffled voice of Kemp, and there
5872 There was a brief struggle to clear a space, and then the circle of
5874 in the air, and holding invisible arms to the ground. Behind him a
5881 "and I'll hold him." His face was bruised and already going red; he
5882 spoke thickly because of a bleeding lip. He released one hand and
5884 And then, "Good God!"
5886 He stood up abruptly and then knelt down on the ground by the side
5887 of the thing unseen. There was a pushing and shuffling, a sound of
5893 not breathing," he said, and then, "I can't feel his heart. His
5897 screamed sharply. "Looky there!" she said, and thrust out a
5900 And looking where she pointed, everyone saw, faint and transparent
5901 as though it was made of glass, so that veins and arteries and
5902 bones and nerves could be distinguished, the outline of a hand, a
5903 hand limp and prone. It grew clouded and opaque even as they stared.
5907 And so, slowly, beginning at his hands and feet and creeping along
5911 glassy bones and intricate arteries, then the flesh and skin, first
5912 a faint fogginess, and then growing rapidly dense and opaque.
5913 Presently they could see his crushed chest and his shoulders, and
5914 the dim outline of his drawn and battered features.
5917 naked and pitiful on the ground, the bruised and broken body of a
5918 young man about thirty. His hair and brow were white--not grey
5919 with age, but white with the whiteness of albinism--and his eyes
5920 were like garnets. His hands were clenched, his eyes wide open, and
5921 his expression was one of anger and dismay.
5924 and three little children, pushing forward through the crowd, were
5925 suddenly twisted round and sent packing off again.
5927 Someone brought a sheet from the "Jolly Cricketers," and having
5928 covered him, they carried him into that house. And there it was, on
5930 of ignorant and excited people, broken and wounded, betrayed and
5933 seen, ended in infinite disaster his strange and terrible career.
5940 So ends the story of the strange and evil experiments of the
5941 Invisible Man. And if you would learn more of him you must go to a
5942 little inn near Port Stowe and talk to the landlord. The sign of
5943 the inn is an empty board save for a hat and boots, and the name is
5944 the title of this story. The landlord is a short and corpulent
5945 little man with a nose of cylindrical proportions, wiry hair, and a
5946 sporadic rosiness of visage. Drink generously, and he will tell you
5948 and of how the lawyers tried to do him out of the treasure found
5953 treasure trove! Do I _look_ like a Treasure Trove? And then a
5957 And if you want to cut off the flow of his reminiscences abruptly,
5959 books in the story. He admits there were and proceeds to explain,
5962 I cut and ran for Port Stowe. It's that Mr. Kemp put people on with
5965 And then he subsides into a pensive state, watches you furtively,
5966 bustles nervously with glasses, and presently leaves the bar.
5968 He is a bachelor man--his tastes were ever bachelor, and there
5973 are slow, and he is a great thinker. But he has a reputation for
5974 wisdom and for a respectable parsimony in the village, and his
5977 And on Sunday mornings, every Sunday morning, all the year round,
5978 while he is closed to the outer world, and every night after ten,
5980 with water, and having placed this down, he locks the door and
5981 examines the blinds, and even looks under the table. And then,
5982 being satisfied of his solitude, he unlocks the cupboard and a box
5983 in the cupboard and a drawer in that box, and produces three
5984 volumes bound in brown leather, and places them solemnly in the
5985 middle of the table. The covers are weather-worn and tinged with an
5986 algal green--for once they sojourned in a ditch and some of the
5989 books the while. Then he pulls one towards him and opens it, and
5990 begins to study it--turning over the leaves backwards and forwards.
5992 His brows are knit and his lips move painfully. "Hex, little two up
5993 in the air, cross and a fiddle-de-dee. Lord! what a one he was for
5996 Presently he relaxes and leans back, and blinks through his smoke
6006 And though Kemp has fished unceasingly, no human being save the
6008 invisibility and a dozen other strange secrets written therein.
6009 And none other will know of them until he dies.
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