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04 - The Invisible Man - H G Wells · Classic Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eight in transit. The eighth chapter is exceedingly brief,
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  Speaker 1: and relates that Gibbons, the amateur naturalist of the district,
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  Speaker 1: while lying out on the spacious open downs without a
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  Speaker 1: soul within a couple of miles of him, as he
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  Speaker 1: thought and almost dozing, heard close to him the sound
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  Speaker 1: of a man coughing, sneezing, and then swearing savagely to himself.
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  Speaker 1: And looking beheld nothing, yet the voice was indisputable. It
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  Speaker 1: continued to swear with that breadth and variety that distinguished
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  Speaker 1: the swearing of a cultivated man. It grew to a climax,
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  Speaker 1: diminished again, and died away in the distance, going, as
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  Speaker 1: it seemed to him, in the direction of Adideine. It
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  Speaker 1: lifted to a spasmodic sneeze and ended. Gibbons had heard
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  Speaker 1: nothing of the morning's occurrences, but the phenomenon was so
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  Speaker 1: striking and disturbing that his philosophical tranquility vanished. He got
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  Speaker 1: up hastily and hurried down the steepness of the hill
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  Speaker 1: towards the village as fast as he could go. Chapter nine.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Thomas Marvel. You must picture mister Thomas Marvel as
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  Speaker 1: a person of copious, flexible visage, a nose of cylindrical protrusion,
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  Speaker 1: a licorice ample fluctuating mouth, and a beard of bristling eccentricity.
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  Speaker 1: His figure inclined to en bompois. His short limbs accentuated
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  Speaker 1: this inclination. He wore a furry silk hat, and the
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  Speaker 1: frequent substitution of twine and shoelaces for buttons apparent at
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  Speaker 1: critical points of his costume marked a man essentially bachelor.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Thomas Marvel was sitting with his feet in a
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  Speaker 1: ditch by the roadside over the down towards Anderdean, about
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  Speaker 1: a mile and a half out of iping. His feet,
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  Speaker 1: save for socks of irregular open work, were bare. His
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  Speaker 1: big toes were broad and pricked, like the ears of
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  Speaker 1: a watchful dog. In a leisurely manner he did. In
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  Speaker 1: a leisurely manner. He was contemplating trying on a pair
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  Speaker 1: of boots. They were the soundest boots he had come
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  Speaker 1: across for a long time, but too large for him,
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  Speaker 1: whereas the ones he had were in dry weather, a
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  Speaker 1: very comfortable fit, but too thin sold for damp. Mister
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  Speaker 1: Thomas Marvel hated roomy shoes, but then he hated damp.
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  Speaker 1: He had never properly thought out which he hated most,
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  Speaker 1: And it was a pleasant day, and there was nothing
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  Speaker 1: better to do. So he put the four shoes in
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  Speaker 1: a graceful group on the turf and looked at them,
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  Speaker 1: and seeing them there among the grass and springing agrimony,
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  Speaker 1: it suddenly occurred to him that both pairs were exceedingly ugly.
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  Speaker 1: To see, he was not at all startled by a
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  Speaker 1: voice behind him. They're boots, anyhow, said the voice. They
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  Speaker 1: are charity boots, said mister Thomas Marvel, with his head
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  Speaker 1: on one side, regarding them distastefully. And which is the
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  Speaker 1: ugliest pair in this whole blessed universe. I'm darned if
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  Speaker 1: I know, hum, said the voice. I've worn worse. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: I've worn none, but none so audacious ugly, if you'll
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  Speaker 1: allow the expression. I've been catching boots in particular for
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  Speaker 1: days because I was sick of them. They're sound enough,
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  Speaker 1: of course, but a gentleman on tramp SE's such a
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  Speaker 1: thundering lot of his boots. And if you'll believe me,
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  Speaker 1: I've raised in nothing in the whole blessed country. I
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  Speaker 1: try as I would, but them look at them, and
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  Speaker 1: a good country for boots too, in a general way.
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  Speaker 1: But it's just my promiscuous luck. I get my boots
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  Speaker 1: in this country ten years or more, and they treat
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  Speaker 1: you like this. It's a beast of a country, said
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  Speaker 1: the voice. And pigs for people, ain't it, said mister
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  Speaker 1: Thomas Marvel. Lord, but them boots, it beats it. He
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  Speaker 1: turned his head over to his shoulder at the right
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  Speaker 1: to look at the boots of his interlocutor with a
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  Speaker 1: view to comparisons, and lo where the boots of his
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  Speaker 1: interlocutor should have been were neither legs nor boots. He
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  Speaker 1: was irradiated by the dawn of a great amazement. Where
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  Speaker 1: are ye, said mister Thomas Marvel, over his shoulder, and
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  Speaker 1: coming on all fours, he saw a stretch of empty downs,
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  Speaker 1: with the wind swaying and remote green pointed furze bushes.
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  Speaker 1: Am I drunk, said mister Marvel. Have I had visions?
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  Speaker 1: Was I talking to myself? What the Don't be alarmed,
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  Speaker 1: said a voice. None of your ventral aquizing me, said
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  Speaker 1: mister Thomas Marvel, rising sharply to his feet. Where are
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  Speaker 1: ye alarmed? Indeed, don't be alarmed? Repeated the voice. You'll
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  Speaker 1: be alarmed in a minute, you silly fool, said mister
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  Speaker 1: Thomas Marvel. Where are ye? Let me get my mark
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  Speaker 1: on you. Are ye buried? Said mister Thomas Marvel. After
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  Speaker 1: an interval, there was no answer. Mister Thomas Marvel stood
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  Speaker 1: bootless and amazed, his jacket nearly thrown off. Peeweet, said
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  Speaker 1: a peewit. Very remote peewit. Indeed, said mister Thomas Marvel.
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  Speaker 1: This ain't no time for foolery. The dawn was desolate
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  Speaker 1: east and west, north and south. The road, with its
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  Speaker 1: shallow ditches and white bordering stakes, ran smooth and empty
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  Speaker 1: north and south. And save for that peewit, the blue
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  Speaker 1: sky was empty too. So help me, said mister Thomas Marvel,
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  Speaker 1: shuffling his coat on to his shoulders. Again, it's the drink.
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  Speaker 1: I might have known. It's not the drink, said the voice.
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  Speaker 1: You keep your nerves steady, oh, said mister Marvel, and
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  Speaker 1: his face grew white amidst its patches. It's the drink,
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  Speaker 1: his lips repeated noiselessly. He remained staring about him, rotating
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  Speaker 1: slowly backwards. He could have swore I heard a voice,
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  Speaker 1: he whispered. Of course, you did. It's there again, said
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  Speaker 1: mister Marvel, closing his eyes and clasping his hand on
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  Speaker 1: his brow with a tragic gesture. He was suddenly taken
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  Speaker 1: by the collar and shaken violently, and left more dazed
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  Speaker 1: than ever. Don't be a fool, said the voice. I'm
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  Speaker 1: off my bloomin chump, said mister Marvel. It's no good.
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  Speaker 1: It's fretting about them blasted boots. I'm off my blessed
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  Speaker 1: bloomin chump. Or it's spirits. Neither one thing nor the other,
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  Speaker 1: said the voice. Listen, chump, said mister Marvel. One minute,
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  Speaker 1: said the voice, penetratingly trembings for self control. Well, said
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  Speaker 1: mister Thomas Marvel, with a strange feeling of having been
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  Speaker 1: dug in the chest by a finger. You think I'm
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  Speaker 1: just imagination, Just imagination, What else can you be, said
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  Speaker 1: mister Thomas Marvell, rubbing the back of his neck. Very well,
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  Speaker 1: said the voice, in a tone of relief. Then I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to throw flints at you until you think differently.
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  Speaker 1: But what are you? The voice made no answer. Whiz
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  Speaker 1: came a flint, apparently out of the air, and missed
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  Speaker 1: mister Marvell's shoulder by a hair's breadth. Mister Marvel, turning,
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  Speaker 1: saw a flint jerk up into the air, trace a
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  Speaker 1: complicated path, hang for a moment, then fling at his
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  Speaker 1: feet with almost invisible rapidity. He was too amazed to dodge.
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  Speaker 1: Whizz it came and ricocheted from a bare toe into
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  Speaker 1: the ditch. Mister Thomas Marvell jumped a foot and howled aloud.
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  Speaker 1: Then he started to run, tripped over an unseen obstacle,
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  Speaker 1: and came head over heels into a sitting position. Now,
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  Speaker 1: said the voice, as a third stone curved upward and
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  Speaker 1: hung in the air above the tramp am I imagination.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Marvel, by way of reply, struggled to his feet
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  Speaker 1: and was immediately rolled over again. He lay quiet for
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  Speaker 1: a moment. If you struggle any more, said the voice,
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  Speaker 1: I shall throw the flint at your head. It's a
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  Speaker 1: fair ado, said mister Thomas Marvel, sitting up, taking his
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  Speaker 1: wounded toe in hand and fixing his eye on the
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  Speaker 1: third missile. I don't understand it. Stones flinging themselves, stones talking,
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  Speaker 1: put yourself down, rot away. I'm done. The third flint fell.
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  Speaker 1: It's very simple, said the voice. I'm an invisible man.
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  Speaker 1: Tell us something I don't know, said mister Marvell, gasping
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  Speaker 1: with pain. Where you've hid? How you I? I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: I'm beat, that's all, said the voice. I'm invisible. That's
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  Speaker 1: what I want you to understand. Any one could see that.
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  Speaker 1: There's no need for you to be so confounded impatient mister. Now,
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  Speaker 1: then give us a notion. How are you hid? I'm invisible.
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  Speaker 1: That's the great point. And what I want you to
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  Speaker 1: understand is this. But whereabouts interrupted mister Marvel, here six
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  Speaker 1: yards in front of you. Oh come, I ain't blind.
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  Speaker 1: You'll be telling me next you're just thin air. I'm
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  Speaker 1: not one of your ignorant tramps. Yes, I am thin air.
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  Speaker 1: You're looking through me. What ain't any stuff? Do you? Voxett? Oh?
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  Speaker 1: What is it? Jabber? Is that it? I'm just a
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  Speaker 1: human being, solid, needing food and drink, needing covering too.
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  Speaker 1: But I'm invisible, you see invisible? Simple idea? Invisible? What
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  Speaker 1: reel like? Yes? Real? Let's have a hand of you,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: said Marvel. If you are real, won't be so darn
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  Speaker 1: out of the way like then, Lord, he said, how
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  Speaker 1: you made me jump? Griping me like that? He felt
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  Speaker 1: the hand that closed round his wrist with his disengaged fingers,
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  Speaker 1: and his fingers went timorously up the arm, patted a
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  Speaker 1: muscular chest, and explored a bearded face. Marvel's face was astonishment.
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  Speaker 1: I'm dashed, he said, If this don't be cock fighting,
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  Speaker 1: most remarkable, And there I can see a rabbit clean
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  Speaker 1: through you are a mile away. Not a bit of
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  Speaker 1: you visible, except he scrutinized the apparently empty space. Keenly,
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  Speaker 1: you haven't been eating bread and cheese, he asked, holding
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  Speaker 1: the invisible arm. You're quite right, and it's not quite
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  Speaker 1: assimilated into the system, ah, said mister Marvel, sort of ghostly. Though,
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  Speaker 1: of course, all this isn't half wonderful as you think.
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  Speaker 1: It's quite wonderful enough for my modest ones, said mister
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  Speaker 1: Thomas Marvel. Oh you manage it. Oh the deuce? Is
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  Speaker 1: it done? It's too long a story. And besides, I
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  Speaker 1: tell you, the old business fairly beats me, said mister Marvel.
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  Speaker 1: What I want to say at present is this, I
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  Speaker 1: need help. I have come to that. I came upon
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  Speaker 1: you suddenly. I was wandering mad with rage, naked, impotent,
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  Speaker 1: I could have murdered, and I saw you, Lord, said
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  Speaker 1: mister Marvell. I came up behind you, hesitated went on.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Marvell's expression was eloquent. Then stopped here, I said,
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  Speaker 1: is an outcast like myself? This is the man for me.
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  Speaker 1: So I turned back and came to you. You and Lord,
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  Speaker 1: said mister Marvel. But I'm all in a tizzy. I
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  Speaker 1: ask how is it? And what you may be requiring
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  Speaker 1: in the way of help invisible, I want you to
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  Speaker 1: help me get clothes and shelter, and then with other things.
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  Speaker 1: I've left them long enough. If you won't, well, but
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  Speaker 1: you will. Must look here, said mister Marvell. I'm too flabbergasted.
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  Speaker 1: Don't knock me about any more and leave me go.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: I must steady a bit, and you've pretty near broken
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: my toe. It's also unreasonable. Empty Down's empty sky, nothing
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  Speaker 1: visible for miles except the bosom of nature. And then
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  Speaker 1: comes a voice, a voice out of heaven and stones
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  Speaker 1: and a fist. Lord, pull yourself together, said the voice,
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  Speaker 1: for you have to do the job I have chosen
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  Speaker 1: for you. Mister Marvell blew out his cheeks and his
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  Speaker 1: eyes were round. I've chosen you, said the voice. You
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  Speaker 1: are the only man except some of those fools down
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  Speaker 1: there who knows there is such a thing as an
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  Speaker 1: invisible man. You have to be my helper, help me,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: and I will do great things for you. An invisible
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: man is a man of power. He stopped for a
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  Speaker 1: moment to sneeze violently. But if you betray me, he said,
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  Speaker 1: if you fail to do as I direct you, he
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: paused and tapped mister Marvell's shoulder smartly. Mister Marvell gave
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  Speaker 1: a yelp of terror at the touch. I don't want
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  Speaker 1: to betray you, said mister Marvell, edging away from the
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  Speaker 1: direction of the fingers. Don't you oh think in that
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  Speaker 1: wherever you do, All I want to do is help you.
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  Speaker 1: Just tell me what I got to do to hoard
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  Speaker 1: whatever you want done. That I'm most willing to do.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter ten, mister Marvel's visit to Iping. After the first
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  Speaker 1: gusty panic had spent itself, Iping became argumentative. Skepticism suddenly
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  Speaker 1: reared its head, rather nervous, skepticism not at all assured
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  Speaker 1: of its back, but skepticism nonetheless. It is so much
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  Speaker 1: easier not to believe in an invisible man, And those
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  Speaker 1: who had actually seen him dissolve into air or felt
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: the strength of his arm could be counted on the
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  Speaker 1: fingers of two hands, And of those witnesses, mister Wadgers
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: was presently missing, having retired impregnably behind the bolts and
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: bars of his own house, and Jaffers was lying stunned
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: in the parlor of the coach and horses. Great and
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: strange ideas transcending experience often have less effect upon men
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  Speaker 1: and women than smaller, more tangible considerations. Iping was gay
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: with Bunting, and everybody was in gala dress, whit Monday
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  Speaker 1: had been looked forward to for a month or more.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: By the afternoon, even those who believed in the unseen
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  Speaker 1: were beginning to resume their little amusements in a tentative fashion,
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  Speaker 1: and on the supposition that he had gone quite away,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: and with the skeptics he was already adjessed. But people,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: skeptics and believers alike were remarkably sociable all that day.
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  Speaker 1: Hayesman's meadow was gay, with a tent in which Missus
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: Bunting and other ladies were preparing tea, while without the
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Sunday school children ran races and played games under the
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: noisy guidance of the Curate and the Missus cuss and
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: sackbut no doubt there was a slight uneasiness in the air,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: but people, for the most part had the sense to
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: conceal whatever imaginative qualms they experienced. On the village green,
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  Speaker 1: an inclined string down which, clinging the while to a
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: pulley swung handle, one could be hurled violently against a
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: sack at the other end, came in for considerable favor
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: among the adolescent, as also did the swings and the
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: coconut shies. There was also promenading, and the steam organ
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: attached to a small roundabout, filled the air with a
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: plungent flavor of oil and with equally pungent music. Members
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: of the club who had attended church in the morning
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: were splendid in badges of pink and green, and some
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: of the gayer mind it had adorned their bowler hats
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: with brilliant colored flowers of ribbon. Old Fletcher, whose conceptions
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: of holiday making were severe, was visible through the jasmine
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: about his window or through the open door, whichever way
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: you chose to look, poised delicately on a plank supported
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: on two chairs, and whitewashing the ceiling of his front room.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: About four o'clock, a stranger entered the village from the
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: direction of the downs. He was a short, stout person
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: in an extraordinarily shabby top hat, and he appeared to
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: be very much out of breath. His cheeks were alternately
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: limp and tightly puffed. His mottled face was apprehensive, and
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: he moved with a sort of reluctant alacrity. He turned
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  Speaker 1: the corner of the church and directed his way to
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  Speaker 1: the Coach and Horses, among others. Old Fletcher remembered seeing him,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: and indeed the old gentleman was so struck by his
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: peculiar agitation that he inadvertently allowed a quantity of whitewash
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: to run down the brush into the sleeve of his coat.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Whilst regarding him. This stranger, to the perceptions of the
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: proprietor of the Cocoanut Shy, appeared to be talking to himself,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: and mister Huxter remarked the same thing. He stopped at
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: the foot of the Coach and horses steps, and, according
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: to mister Huckster, appeared to undergo a severe internal struggle
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: before he could induce himself to enter the house. Finally,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: he marched up the steps and was seen by mister
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: Huxter to turn to the left and open the door
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: of the parlor. Mister Huckster heard voices from within the
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: room and from the bar, apprising the man of his error.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: That room's private said hall, and the stranger shut the
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: door clumsily and went into the bar. In the course
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: of a few minutes, he reappeared, wiping his lips with
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: the back of his hand, with an air of quiet
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: satisfaction that somehow impressed mister Huckster, as he assumed he
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: stood looking about him for some moments, and then mister
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Huxter saw him walk in an oddly furtive manner towards
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: the gates of the yard upon which the parlor window opened.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: The stranger, after some hesitation, leant against one of the
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: gate posts, produced a short clay pipe, and prepared to
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: fill it. His fingers trembled while doing so. He lit
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: it clumsily and folded his arms began to smoke in
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: a languid attitude, an attitude which his occasional glances up
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: the yard altogether belied. All this, mister Huxter saw over
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: the canisters of the tobacco window, and the singularity of
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: the man's behavior prompted him to maintain his observation. Presently,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: the stranger stood up abruptly and put his pipe in
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: his pocket. Then he vanished into the yard forthwith mister Huckster,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: conceiving he was witness of some petty larceny, leaped around
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: his counter and ran out into the road to intercept
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: the thief. As he did so, mister Marvel reappeared, his
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: hat askew, a big bundle in a blue tablecloth in
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: one hand, and three books tied together as it proved afterwards,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: with the vicar's braces in the other. Directly he saw Huckster.
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  Speaker 1: He gave a short of gasp, and, turning sharply to
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: the left, began to run. Stop thief, cried Huxter, and
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: set off after him. Mister Huxter's sensations were vivid but brief.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: He saw the man just before him, and spurting briskly
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: for the church corner and the hill road, he saw
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: the village flags and festivities beyond, and a face or
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: so turned towards him. He bawled stop again. He had
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: hardly gone ten strides before his shin was caught in
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: some mysterious fashion, and he was no longer running, but
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: flying with inconceivable rapidity through the air. He saw the
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: ground suddenly close to his face. The world seemed to
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: splash into a million whirling specks of light, and subsequent
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: proceedings interested him no more. End of Chapter ten,