Latest / Daily Classic Sci Fi Books / 02 - The Invisible Man - H G Wells

Transcript

02 - The Invisible Man - H G Wells · Daily Classic Sci Fi Books

0:00
Speaker 1: Chapter three, The thousand and one Bottles. So it was
0:06
Speaker 1: that on the twenty ninth day of February, at the
0:08
Speaker 1: beginning of the thaw, this singular person fell out of
0:12
Speaker 1: infinity into iping village. Next day his luggage arrived through
0:16
Speaker 1: the slush, and very remarkable luggage it was. There were
0:20
Speaker 1: a couple of trunks, indeed such as a rational man
0:23
Speaker 1: might need. But in addition there were a box of books,
0:28
Speaker 1: big fat books, of which some were just in an
0:30
Speaker 1: incomprehensible handwriting, and a dozen or more crates, boxes and
0:34
Speaker 1: cases containing objects packed in straw. As it seemed to haul.
0:38
Speaker 1: Tugging with a casual curiosity at the straw glass bottles,
0:44
Speaker 1: the stranger, muffled in hat, coat, gloves and wrapper came
0:48
Speaker 1: out impatiently to meet Fearnside's cart, while Hall, who was
0:52
Speaker 1: having a word or so of gossip preparatory to helping
0:54
Speaker 1: them in out he came, not noticing Fearnside's dog, who
0:58
Speaker 1: was sniffing in a diletant spirit at Hall's legs. Come
1:02
Speaker 1: along with those boxes. He said, I've been waiting long enough,
1:05
Speaker 1: And he came down the steps towards the tail of
1:07
Speaker 1: the cart, as if to lay hands on the smaller crate.
1:12
Speaker 1: No sooner had fear Inside's dog caught sight of him, however,
1:16
Speaker 1: than it began to bristle and growl savagely, and when
1:19
Speaker 1: he rushed down the steps, it gave an undecided hop,
1:21
Speaker 1: and then sprang straight at his hand. Whew, cried Hall,
1:25
Speaker 1: jumping back, for he was no hero with dogs, and
1:28
Speaker 1: fear Inside howled lie down and snatched his whip. They
1:33
Speaker 1: saw the dog's teeth had slipped the hand, heard a kick,
1:36
Speaker 1: saw the dog excute a flanking jub and get home
1:39
Speaker 1: on the stranger's leg, and heard the rip of his trousering.
1:43
Speaker 1: Then the finer end of fear Inside's whip reached his property,
1:46
Speaker 1: and the dog, yelping with dismay, retreated under the wheels
1:49
Speaker 1: of the wagon. Was all the business of a swift
1:52
Speaker 1: half minute. No one spoke, everyone shouted. The stranger glanced
1:58
Speaker 1: swiftly at his torn glove and at his leg, made
2:01
Speaker 1: as if he would stoop to the latter, then turned
2:03
Speaker 1: and rushed swiftly up the steps into the inn. They
2:06
Speaker 1: heard him go headlong across the passage and up the
2:09
Speaker 1: uncarpeted steps to his bedroom. You brute, you said, Feernside,
2:13
Speaker 1: climbing off the wagon with his whip in his hand,
2:15
Speaker 1: while the dog watched him through the wheel. Come here,
2:18
Speaker 1: said Fearnside. You'd better Hall had stood gaping. He was bit,
2:23
Speaker 1: said Hall, I'd better go to see to him, and
2:27
Speaker 1: he trotted after the stranger. He met missus Hall in
2:30
Speaker 1: the passage Garrier's dug. He said, bitten. He went straight upstairs,
2:36
Speaker 1: and the stranger's door, being ajar, he pushed it open
2:38
Speaker 1: and was entering without any ceremony, being of a naturally
2:41
Speaker 1: sympathetic turn of mind. The blind was down and the
2:45
Speaker 1: room dim. He caught a glimpse of a most singular thing,
2:49
Speaker 1: what seemed handless arm waving towards him, and a face
2:53
Speaker 1: of three huge indeterminate spots on white, very like the
2:57
Speaker 1: face of a pale pansy. Then he was struck violently
3:00
Speaker 1: in the chest, hurled back, and the door slammed in
3:02
Speaker 1: his face and locked. It was so rapid that he
3:05
Speaker 1: gave him no time to observe a waving of indecipherable shapes,
3:10
Speaker 1: a blow, and a concussion. There he stood on the
3:14
Speaker 1: dark little landing, wondering what it might have been that
3:17
Speaker 1: he had seen a couple of minutes later he rejoined
3:21
Speaker 1: the little group that had formed outside the coach and horses.
3:24
Speaker 1: There was fear inside, telling about it all over again
3:26
Speaker 1: for the second time. There was Missus Hall saying his
3:29
Speaker 1: dog didn't have no business to bite her guests. There
3:32
Speaker 1: was Huckster, the general dealer from over the road interrogative,
3:36
Speaker 1: and Sandy Wedges from the forge judicial, besides women and children,
3:41
Speaker 1: all of them saying fatuities. I wouldn't let him bite me.
3:44
Speaker 1: I knows it hasn't right to have such dogs. What'd
3:47
Speaker 1: he biten for? Then? And so forth? Missus Hall, staring
3:52
Speaker 1: at them from the steps and listening, found it incredible
3:55
Speaker 1: that he had seen anything so very remarkable happen at says. Besides,
3:59
Speaker 1: his vok cavalry was altogether too limited to express his impressions.
4:03
Speaker 1: He don't want no help, he says, he said, in
4:06
Speaker 1: answer to his wife's inquiry, we'd better be taken of
4:09
Speaker 1: his luggage in your Tabit cauterized at once, said mister Huckster,
4:13
Speaker 1: especially if it's all inflamed. I'd shoot, and That's what
4:16
Speaker 1: I'd do, said a lady in the group. Suddenly, the
4:19
Speaker 1: dog began growling again. Come along, cried an angry voice
4:23
Speaker 1: in the doorway, and there stood the muffled stranger, with
4:25
Speaker 1: his collar turned up and his hat brim bent down.
4:28
Speaker 1: The sooner you get those things in, the better I'll
4:30
Speaker 1: be pleased. It is stated by an anonymous bystander that
4:35
Speaker 1: his trousers and gloves had been changed. Was you urt, sir,
4:39
Speaker 1: said fearnside. I'm rare sorry that I've not a bit,
4:42
Speaker 1: said the stranger. Never broke the skin. Hurry up with
4:45
Speaker 1: those things, he then swore to himself, said mister Hall
4:49
Speaker 1: asserts directly. The first crate was in in accordance with
4:54
Speaker 1: his directions, carried into the parlor. The stranger flung himself
4:58
Speaker 1: upon it with extraordinary eagerness and began to unpack it,
5:02
Speaker 1: scattering the straw with an utter disregard of missus Hall's carpet.
5:06
Speaker 1: And from it he began to produce bottles. Little fat
5:09
Speaker 1: bottles containing powders, small and slender bottles containing colored and
5:13
Speaker 1: white fluids, fluted blue bottles, labeled poison bottles with round
5:17
Speaker 1: bodies and slender necks, large green glass bottles, large white
5:21
Speaker 1: glass bottles, bottles with glass stoppers and frosted labels, bottles
5:25
Speaker 1: with fine corks, bottles with bungs, bottles with wooden caps,
5:29
Speaker 1: wine bottles, salad oil bottles, putting them in rows on
5:33
Speaker 1: the chiffonnier, on the mantle, on the table, under the window,
5:36
Speaker 1: round the floor, on the bookshelf, everywhere. The chemist's shop
5:40
Speaker 1: in Bramblehurst could not boast half so many. Quite a sight.
5:44
Speaker 1: It was. Crate after crate yielded bottles, until all six
5:48
Speaker 1: were empty, and the table high with straw. The only
5:51
Speaker 1: things that came out of these crates beside the bottles
5:54
Speaker 1: were a number of test tubes and a carefully packed balance,
5:58
Speaker 1: and directly the crates were under packed. The stranger went
6:01
Speaker 1: to the window and set to work, not troubling in
6:03
Speaker 1: the least about the litter of straw, the fire which
6:06
Speaker 1: had gone out, the box of books outside, nor for
6:09
Speaker 1: the trunks and other luggage that had gone upstairs. When
6:13
Speaker 1: missus Hall took his dinner to him, he was already
6:15
Speaker 1: so absorbed in his work pouring little drops out of
6:18
Speaker 1: the bottles in test tubes that he did not hear
6:21
Speaker 1: her until she had swept away the bulk of the
6:23
Speaker 1: straw and put the tray on the table with some
6:25
Speaker 1: little emphasis, perhaps seeing the state that her floor was in.
6:30
Speaker 1: Then he half turned his head and immediately turned it
6:32
Speaker 1: away again. But she saw he had removed his glasses.
6:36
Speaker 1: They were beside him on the table, and it seemed
6:39
Speaker 1: to her that his eye sockets were extraordinarily hollow. He
6:42
Speaker 1: put on his spectacles again, and then turned and faced her.
6:46
Speaker 1: She was about to complain of the straw on the
6:48
Speaker 1: floor when he anticipated her. I wish you wouldn't come
6:51
Speaker 1: in without knocking, he said, in the tone of abnormal
6:55
Speaker 1: exasperation that seemed so characteristic of him. I knocked, but
6:59
Speaker 1: seemingly perhaps you did. But in my investigations, my really
7:03
Speaker 1: very urgent and necessary investigations, the slightest disturbance the jar
7:08
Speaker 1: of a door. I must ask you, certainly, sir, you
7:13
Speaker 1: can turn the lock if you're like that, you know,
7:15
Speaker 1: any time a very good idea, said the stranger, This straw, sir.
7:21
Speaker 1: If I can be so bold as to remark, don't
7:24
Speaker 1: if the straw makes trouble, put it down in the bill.
7:28
Speaker 1: And he mumbled at her words suspiciously like curses. He
7:33
Speaker 1: was so odd, standing there, so aggressive and explosive. Bottle
7:37
Speaker 1: in one hand and test tube in the other that
7:39
Speaker 1: Missus Hall was quite alarmed, but she was a resolute woman,
7:44
Speaker 1: in which case I should like to know, sir, what
7:46
Speaker 1: you consider a shilling. Put down a shilling. Surely a
7:49
Speaker 1: shilling's enough, So be it, said missus Hall, taking up
7:53
Speaker 1: the tablecloth and beginning to spread it over the table.
7:56
Speaker 1: If you're satisfied, of course, he turned and sat down
8:00
Speaker 1: with his coat collar to water. All the afternoon he
8:04
Speaker 1: worked with the door locked, and, as missus Hall testifies,
8:07
Speaker 1: for the most part, in silence. But once there was
8:10
Speaker 1: a concussion and a sound of bottles ringing together as
8:13
Speaker 1: though the table had been hit, and the smash of
8:15
Speaker 1: a bottle it flung violently down, and then a rapid
8:19
Speaker 1: pacing athwart the room. Fearing something was the matter, she
8:24
Speaker 1: went to the door and listened, not caring to knock.
8:28
Speaker 1: I can't go on, he was raving. I can't go on.
8:31
Speaker 1: Three hundred thousand, four hundred thousand. The huge multitude cheated
8:37
Speaker 1: all my life. It may take me patience, patience, indeed
8:40
Speaker 1: full fool. There was a noise of hobnails on the
8:46
Speaker 1: bricks in the bar, and Missus Hall had very reluctantly
8:49
Speaker 1: to leave the rest of his soliloquy. When she returned,
8:52
Speaker 1: the room was silent again, save for the faint creputation
8:55
Speaker 1: of his chair and the occasional clink of a bottle.
8:59
Speaker 1: It was all the stranger had resumed his work. When
9:04
Speaker 1: she took in his tea, she saw broken glass in
9:07
Speaker 1: the corner of the room, under the concave mirror, and
9:09
Speaker 1: a golden stain that had been carelessly wiped. She called
9:13
Speaker 1: attention to it. Put it down in the bill, snapped
9:16
Speaker 1: her visitor. For God's sake, don't worry me if there's
9:19
Speaker 1: damage done. Put it down in the bill, and he
9:22
Speaker 1: went on ticking a list in the exercise book before him.
9:27
Speaker 1: I'll tell you something, said Fernside, mysteriously. It was late
9:31
Speaker 1: in the afternoon, and they were in the little beer
9:32
Speaker 1: shop of Eyepink Hanger. Well, said Teddy Henry, this chap
9:38
Speaker 1: you're speaking of what my dog bit. Well, he's black
9:41
Speaker 1: leastways his legs are. I see through the tear of
9:43
Speaker 1: his trousers and the tear of his glove. You'd have
9:46
Speaker 1: expected a sort of pinky to show, wouldn't you. Well
9:48
Speaker 1: there wasn't none, just blackness. I tell you, he's as
9:51
Speaker 1: black as my hat, my sex, said Henfrey. It's a
9:55
Speaker 1: rummy case altogether. Why his nose is as pink as paint,
10:00
Speaker 1: that's true, said Fernscide. I knows that, and I tell
10:03
Speaker 1: you why I am thinking. That man's a pie bowled teddy,
10:06
Speaker 1: black ere and white there in patches, and he's ashamed
10:09
Speaker 1: of it. He's a kind of art breed and the
10:10
Speaker 1: color's come off patchy instead of mixing. I've heard of
10:13
Speaker 1: such things before, and it's the common way with horses,
10:16
Speaker 1: as any one can see. Chapter four, Mister Cuss interviews
10:24
Speaker 1: the Stranger. I have told the circumstances of the Stranger's
10:29
Speaker 1: arrival in Iping with a certain fullness of detail, in
10:32
Speaker 1: order that the curious impression he created may be understood
10:35
Speaker 1: by the reader. But excepting two odd incidents, the circumstances
10:40
Speaker 1: of his stay until the extraordinary day of the Club
10:42
Speaker 1: Festival may be passed over very cursorily. There were a
10:46
Speaker 1: number of skirmishes with Missus Hall on matters of domestic discipline,
10:49
Speaker 1: but in every case until late April, when the first
10:52
Speaker 1: signs of penury began, he overwrote her by the easy
10:55
Speaker 1: expedient of an extra payment. Hall did not lie like him,
11:01
Speaker 1: and whenever he dared, he talked of the advisability of
11:03
Speaker 1: getting rid of him. But he showed his dislike chiefly
11:06
Speaker 1: by concealing it ostentatiously and avoiding his visitor as much
11:10
Speaker 1: as possible. Wait till the summer, said missus Hall, sagely,
11:15
Speaker 1: when the artists are beginning to come. Then we'll see.
11:19
Speaker 1: He may be a bit overbearing, But Bill's settled punctual
11:21
Speaker 1: is Bill settled punctual. Whatever you'd like to say. The
11:27
Speaker 1: stranger did not go to church, and indeed made no
11:30
Speaker 1: difference between Sunday and the irreligious days, even in costume.
11:34
Speaker 1: He worked, as missus Hall thought, very fitfully. Some days
11:38
Speaker 1: he would come down early and be continuously busy. On
11:41
Speaker 1: others he would rise late, pace his room, fretting audibly
11:44
Speaker 1: for hours together, smoke, sleep in the arm chair by
11:47
Speaker 1: the fire. Communication with the world beyond the village he
11:50
Speaker 1: had none. His temper continued very uncertain. For the most part.
11:55
Speaker 1: His manner was that of a man suffering under almost
11:57
Speaker 1: unendurable provocation, and once or twice things were snapped, torn, crushed,
12:02
Speaker 1: or broken in spasmodic gusts of violence. He seemed under
12:06
Speaker 1: a chronic irritation of the greatest intensity. His habit of
12:11
Speaker 1: talking to himself in a low voice grew steadily upon him.
12:14
Speaker 1: But though missus Hall listened conscientiously, as she could make
12:18
Speaker 1: neither head nor tail of what she heard. He rarely
12:22
Speaker 1: went abroad by daylight, but at twilight he would go out,
12:25
Speaker 1: muffled up invisibly, whether the weather were cold or not,
12:29
Speaker 1: and he chose the loneliest paths and those most overshadowed
12:31
Speaker 1: by trees and banks. His goggling spectacles and ghastly bandaged
12:36
Speaker 1: face under the penthouse of his hat came with a
12:38
Speaker 1: disagreeable suddenness out of the darkness upon one or two
12:41
Speaker 1: home going laborers, and Teddy Henry, tumbling out of the
12:45
Speaker 1: scarlet coat one night at half past nine, was scared
12:48
Speaker 1: shamefully by the stranger's skull like head. He was walking,
12:51
Speaker 1: hat in hand, lit by the sudden light of the
12:54
Speaker 1: opened inn door. Such children as saw him at nightfall
12:58
Speaker 1: dreamt of bogies. And it seemed doubtful whether he disliked
13:02
Speaker 1: boys more than they disliked him, or the reverse, But
13:05
Speaker 1: there was certainly a vivid enough dislike on either side.
13:09
Speaker 1: It was inevitable that a person of so remarkable an
13:12
Speaker 1: appearance and bearing should form a frequent topic in such
13:15
Speaker 1: a village. As iping opinion was greatly divided about his occupation,
13:21
Speaker 1: Missus Hall was sensitive on the point. When questioned, she
13:24
Speaker 1: explained very carefully that he was an experimental investigator, going
13:29
Speaker 1: gingerly over the syllables as one who dreads pitfalls. When
13:32
Speaker 1: asked what an experimental investigator was, she would say, with
13:36
Speaker 1: a touch of superiority, that most educated people knew such
13:39
Speaker 1: things as that, and would thus explain that he'd discovered things.
13:43
Speaker 1: Her visitor had had an accident, she said, which temporarily
13:47
Speaker 1: discolored his face and hands, and being of a sensitive disposition,
13:51
Speaker 1: he was averse to any public notice of the fact.
13:56
Speaker 1: Out of her hearing there was a view largely entertained
13:59
Speaker 1: that he was a criminal trying to escape from justice
14:01
Speaker 1: by wrapping himself up so as to conceal himself altogether
14:04
Speaker 1: from the eye of the police. This idea sprang from
14:07
Speaker 1: the brain of mister Teddy Henfrey. No crime of any
14:10
Speaker 1: magnitude dating from the middle or end of February was
14:12
Speaker 1: known to have occurred. Elaborated in the imagination of mister
14:16
Speaker 1: Gould the probationary assistant. In the National School, this theory
14:20
Speaker 1: took the form that the stranger was an anarchist in
14:22
Speaker 1: disguise preparing explosives, and he resolved to undertake such detective
14:27
Speaker 1: operations as his time permitted. These consisted, for the most part,
14:31
Speaker 1: in looking very hard at the stranger whenever they met,
14:34
Speaker 1: or in asking people who had never seen the stranger
14:36
Speaker 1: leading questions about him, but he detected nothing. Another school
14:42
Speaker 1: of opinion followed mister Fernside and either accepted the Piebald
14:46
Speaker 1: view or some modification of it, as for instance, Silas Durgan,
14:50
Speaker 1: who was heard to assert, if he chose to show
14:52
Speaker 1: himself at fairs, he'll make his fortune in no time,
14:55
Speaker 1: and being a bit of a theologian, compared the stranger
14:57
Speaker 1: to the man with the one talent. Yet another view
15:01
Speaker 1: explained the entire man by regarding the stranger as a
15:04
Speaker 1: harmless lunatic that had the advantage of accounting for everything straightway.
15:10
Speaker 1: Between these main groups there were waverers and compromises. Sussex
15:14
Speaker 1: Folk have few superstitions, and it was only after the
15:17
Speaker 1: events of early April that the thought of the supernatural
15:20
Speaker 1: was first whispered in the village. Even then it was
15:23
Speaker 1: only credited among the women folk. But whatever they thought
15:28
Speaker 1: of him, people in iping on the whole agreed in
15:31
Speaker 1: disliking him. His irritability, though it might have been comprehensible
15:35
Speaker 1: to an urban brain worker, was an amazing thing to
15:38
Speaker 1: these quiet Sussex villagers. The frantic gesticulations they surprised now
15:43
Speaker 1: and then, the headlong pace after nightfall that swept him
15:47
Speaker 1: upon them round quiet corners, the inhuman bludgeoning of all
15:51
Speaker 1: tensative advances of curiosity, the taste for twilight that led
15:54
Speaker 1: to the closing of doors, the pulling of blinds, the
15:57
Speaker 1: extinction of candles and lamps. Who could agree with such
16:01
Speaker 1: goings on, they drew aside as he passed down the village,
16:05
Speaker 1: and when he had gone by, young humorists would go
16:08
Speaker 1: up with coat collars and down with hat brims, and
16:10
Speaker 1: go pacing nervously after him in imitation of his occult bearing.
16:15
Speaker 1: There was a song popular at that time called the
16:17
Speaker 1: Bogie Man. Miss Satchell sang it in the school room
16:20
Speaker 1: concert in aid of the church lamps, and thereafter, whenever
16:24
Speaker 1: one of the two villages were gathered together and the
16:26
Speaker 1: stranger appeared, a bar or so of this tune, more
16:30
Speaker 1: or less sharp or flat, was whistled in the midst
16:32
Speaker 1: of them. Also belated little children would call Bogie Man
16:37
Speaker 1: after him and make off tremulously elated Cuss, the general practitioner,
16:44
Speaker 1: was devoured by curiosity. The bandages excited his professional interest.
16:49
Speaker 1: The report of the thousand and one bottles aroused his
16:51
Speaker 1: jealous regard. All through April and May, he coveted an
16:55
Speaker 1: opportunity of talking to the stranger, and at last, towards whitsuntide,
17:00
Speaker 1: he could stand it no longer, but hit upon the
17:02
Speaker 1: subscription list for a village nurse as an excuse. He
17:06
Speaker 1: was surprised to find that mister Hall did not know
17:08
Speaker 1: his guest's name. He give a name, said Missus Hall,
17:12
Speaker 1: an assertion which was quite unfounded. But I didn't rightly
17:15
Speaker 1: hear it. She thought it seemed so silly not to
17:18
Speaker 1: know the man's name. Cuss rapped at the parlor door
17:23
Speaker 1: and entered. There was a fairly audible imprecation from within.
17:29
Speaker 1: Pardon my intrusion, said Cuss, and then the door closed
17:32
Speaker 1: and cut Missus Hall off from the rest of the conversation.
17:36
Speaker 1: She could hear the murmur of voices for the next
17:38
Speaker 1: ten minutes. Then a cry of surprise, a stirring of feet,
17:42
Speaker 1: a chair flung aside, a bark of laughter. Quick steps
17:45
Speaker 1: to the door, and Cuss appeared, his face white, his
17:49
Speaker 1: eyes staring over his shoulder. He left the door open
17:53
Speaker 1: behind him, and without looking at her, strode across the
17:55
Speaker 1: hall and went down the steps, and she heard his
17:58
Speaker 1: feet hurrying along the road. He carried his hat in
18:01
Speaker 1: his hand. She stood behind the door, looking at the
18:04
Speaker 1: open door of the parlor. Then she heard the stranger
18:07
Speaker 1: laughing quietly, and his footsteps came across the room. She
18:11
Speaker 1: could not see his face where she stood. The parlor
18:14
Speaker 1: door slammed, and the place was silent again. Cuss went
18:19
Speaker 1: straight up to the village to bunting the vicar. Am
18:22
Speaker 1: I mad, Cuss began abruptly as he entered the shabby
18:25
Speaker 1: little study. Do I look like an insane person? What's happened?
18:29
Speaker 1: Said the vicar, putting the ammonite on the loose sheets
18:32
Speaker 1: of his forthcoming sermon the chap at the inn. Well,
18:38
Speaker 1: give me something to drink, said Cuss, and he sat down.
18:42
Speaker 1: When his nerves had been steadied by a glass of
18:45
Speaker 1: cheap sherry, the only drink the good Vicar had available.
18:48
Speaker 1: He told him of the interview he had just had.
18:51
Speaker 1: Went in. He gasped and began to demand a subscription
18:55
Speaker 1: for that nurse fund. He'd stuck his hands in his
18:58
Speaker 1: pockets as I came in, and he sat down umpily
19:00
Speaker 1: in his chair, sniffed. I told him I'd heard he
19:04
Speaker 1: took an interest in scientific things. He said yes, sniffed again,
19:08
Speaker 1: kept on sniffing all the time, evidently recently caught an
19:11
Speaker 1: infernal cold. When no wonder wrapped up like that, I
19:14
Speaker 1: developed the nurse idea, and all the while kept my
19:17
Speaker 1: eyes open. Bottles chemicals everywhere, balance test tubes in stands,
19:23
Speaker 1: and a smell of evening primrose. Would he subscribe? Said
19:28
Speaker 1: he'd considered in asked him point blank what he researching?
19:32
Speaker 1: Said he was a long research. Got quite cross, a
19:35
Speaker 1: damnable long research, said he blowing the cork out so
19:38
Speaker 1: to speak, Oh, said I, and out came the grievance.
19:42
Speaker 1: The man was just on the boil, and my question
19:44
Speaker 1: boiled him over. He had been given a prescription, a
19:47
Speaker 1: most valuable prescription, although what for he wouldn't say, was
19:51
Speaker 1: it medical? Damn you? What are you fishing? After I apologized,
19:57
Speaker 1: dignified sniff and cough, he resumed he'd read it five ingredients,
20:02
Speaker 1: put it down, turned his head. Draft of air from
20:05
Speaker 1: window lifted the paper swish rustle. He was working in
20:09
Speaker 1: a room with an open fireplace. He saw saw a flicker,
20:12
Speaker 1: and there was the prescription burning and lifting chimney wood
20:16
Speaker 1: rushed towards it, just as it whisked up the chimney. So,
20:20
Speaker 1: just at that point, to illustrate his story, out came
20:22
Speaker 1: his arm. Well, no hand, just an empty sleeve. Lord.
20:31
Speaker 1: I thought, that's a deformity. Got a cork arm, I suppose,
20:35
Speaker 1: and has taken it off. Then I thought, there's something
20:38
Speaker 1: odd in that. What the devil keeps the sleeve up
20:41
Speaker 1: and open if there's nothing in it? There was nothing
20:44
Speaker 1: in it, I tell you, nothing down it right down
20:46
Speaker 1: to the joint. I could see right down it to
20:49
Speaker 1: the elbow, and there was a glimmer of light shining
20:51
Speaker 1: in through a tear of cloth. Good God, I said.
20:56
Speaker 1: Then he stopped, stared at me with those black goggles
20:59
Speaker 1: of his, and then at his sleeve. Well that's all.
21:05
Speaker 1: He never said a word, just glared and put his
21:08
Speaker 1: sleeve back in his pocket quietly, I was saying, said
21:12
Speaker 1: he that there was the prescription burning, wasn't I interrogative?
21:16
Speaker 1: Cough ha how the devil said, I can you move
21:21
Speaker 1: an empty sleeve like that? Empty sleeve? Yes, said I,
21:27
Speaker 1: an empty sleeve. It's an empty sleeve, is it? You
21:31
Speaker 1: saw it as an empty sleeve? He stood up right away.
21:35
Speaker 1: I stood up too. He came towards me in three
21:38
Speaker 1: very slow steps, and stood quite close sniffed venomously. I
21:43
Speaker 1: didn't flinch, though I'm hanged if that bandage knob of
21:45
Speaker 1: his and those blinkers aren't enough to unnerve anyone coming
21:49
Speaker 1: quietly up to you. You said it was an empty sleeve,
21:52
Speaker 1: he said, certainly, I said, at staring and saying nothing,
21:56
Speaker 1: A bare faced man, unspectacled, starts scratch. Then very quietly,
22:02
Speaker 1: he pulled his sleeve out of his pocket again and
22:04
Speaker 1: raised his arm towards me, as though he would show
22:07
Speaker 1: it to me again. He did it very very slowly.
22:11
Speaker 1: I looked at it. Seemed an age, well, said I,
22:16
Speaker 1: clearing my throat. There's nothing in it. I had to
22:20
Speaker 1: say something. I was beginning to feel frightened. I could
22:22
Speaker 1: see right down it. He extended it straight towards me, slowly, slowly,
22:27
Speaker 1: just like that, until the cuff was six inches from
22:30
Speaker 1: my face. Queer things, see an empty sleeve come at
22:33
Speaker 1: you like that? And then well, something exactly like a
22:40
Speaker 1: finger and thumb. It felt nipped my nose. Bunting began
22:45
Speaker 1: to laugh. There wasn't anything there, said Cuss, his voice
22:49
Speaker 1: running up into a shriek at the there. It's all
22:52
Speaker 1: very well for you to laugh, but I tell you,
22:53
Speaker 1: I was so startled. I hit his cuff hard and
22:55
Speaker 1: turned around and cut out of the room. I left him.
23:00
Speaker 1: Cuss stopped. There was no mistaking the sincerity of his panic.
23:05
Speaker 1: He turned round in a helpless way and took a
23:07
Speaker 1: second glass of the excellent Vicar's very inferior sherry. When
23:11
Speaker 1: I hit his cuff, said Cuss. I tell you, it
23:14
Speaker 1: felt exactly like hitting an arm. And there wasn't an arm.
23:18
Speaker 1: There wasn't the ghost of an arm. Mister Bunting thought
23:24
Speaker 1: it over. He looked suspiciously at Cuss. It's a most
23:28
Speaker 1: remarkable story, he said. He looked very wise and grave. Indeed,
23:34
Speaker 1: it's really, said mister Bunting, with judicial emphasis, A most
23:39
Speaker 1: remarkable story. End of chapter four,