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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty four. The plan that failed. But now, said Kemp,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: with a side glance out of the window, what are
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: we to do? He moved near his guest as he
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: spoke in such a manner as to prevent the possibility
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: of a sudden glimpse of the three men who were
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: advancing up the hill road with an intolerable slowness. It
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: seemed to Kemp, what were you planning to do when
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: you were heading for Port Burdock? Had you any plan?
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I was going to clear out of the country, but
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: I have altered that plan rather since seeing you. I
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: thought it would be wise, now that the weather is
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: hot and invisibility possible, to make for the south, especially
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: as my secret was known and everybody would be on
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: the lookout for a masked and muffled man. You have
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: a line of steamers from here to France. My idea
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: was to get a board one and run the risks
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: of the passage. Thence I could go by train into
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Spain or Elsecat to Algiers. It would not be difficult.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: There a man might always be invisible and yet live
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: and do things. I was using that tramp as a
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: money box and luggage carrier until I decided how to
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: get my books and things sent over to meet me.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: That's clear, and then the filthy brute must needs try
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: to rob me. He has hidden my books, Kemp, hidden
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: my books. If I can lay my hands on him,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: best plan to get the books out of him first.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: But where is he? Do you know? He's in the
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: town police station, locked up by his own request, in
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: strongest selling the place, cur said the invisible man. But
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: that hangs up your plans a little. We must get
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: those books. Those books are vital, certainly, said Kemp, a
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: little nervously, wondering if he heard footsteps outside. Certainly we
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: must get those books. But that won't be difficult if
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: he doesn't know they're for you. No, said the invicible man,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: and thought Kemp tried to think of something to keep
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: the talk going, but the invisible Man resumed of his
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: own accord. Blundering into your house, Kemp, changes all my
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: plans for you are a man that can understand, in
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: spite of all that has happened, in spite of this publicity,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: of the loss of my books, of what I have suffered,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: there still remain great possibilities, huge possibilities. You have told
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: no one that I am here, he asked abruptly. Camp hesitated,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: that was implied, he said no, one insisted, Griffin not
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: a soul. Ah. Now the invisible man stood up, and,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: sticking his arms, Akimbo began to pace the study. I
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: made a mistake, Kemp, a huge mistake in carrying this
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: thing through alone. I have wasted strength, time, opportunities alone.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: It is wonderful how little a man can do alone,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: to rob a little, to hurt a little. And there
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: is the end. What I want, Kemp, is a goal keeper,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: a helper, and a hiding place, an arrangement whereby I
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: can sleep and eat and rest in peace and unsuspected.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I must have a confederate, with a confederate, with food
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: and rest. A thousand things are possible. Hitherto I have
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: gone on vague lines. We have to consider all that
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: invisibility means, all that it does not mean. It means
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: little advantage for eavesdropping and so forth. One makes sounds
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: it's of little help, A little help perhaps in house
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: breaking and so forth. Once you have caught me, you
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: could easily imprison me. But on the other hand, I
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: am hard to catch this Invisibility, in fact, is only
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: good in two cases. It is useful in getting away,
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: it's useful in approaching. It's particularly useful therefore, in killing.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: I can walk round a man, whatever weapon he has
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: choose My point, strike as I like, dodge, as I like, escape,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: as I like. Kemp's hand went to his mustache. Was
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: that a movement downstairs? And it is killing we must do, Kemp,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: It is killing we must do, repeated Kemp. I am
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: listening to your plan, Griffin, but I am not agreeing.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Mind why killing not wanton killing, but a judicious slaying.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: The point is they know there is an invisible man
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: as well as we know there is an invisible man.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: And that invisible man, Kemp must now establish a reign
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: of terror. Yes, no doubt it's startling, but I mean
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: it a reign of terror. He must take some town
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: like your Burdock and terrify and dominate it. He must
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: issue his orders. He can do that in a thousand ways.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Scraps of paper thrust under doors would suffice, and all
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: who disobeys orders he must kill, and kill all who
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: would defend them. Humph said Kemp, no longer listening to Griffin,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: but to the sound of his front door opening and closing.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: It seems to me, Griffin, he said, to cover his
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: wandering attention, that your confederate would be in a difficult position.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: No one would know he was a confederate, said the
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: invisible man eagerly, and then suddenly, hush, what's that downstairs? Nothing,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: said Kemp, and suddenly began to speak loud and fast.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: I don't agree to this, Griffin, he said, understand me.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: I don't agree to this. Why dream of playing a
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: game against the race. How can you hope to gain happiness?
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Don't be a lone wolf. Publish your results. Take the world,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: take the nation, at least into your confidence. Think what
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: you might do with a million helpers. The invisible man interrupted,
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: arm extended. There are footsteps coming upstairs, he said, in
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: a low voice. Nonsense, said Kemp. Let me see, said
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: the invisible man, and advanced, arm extended to the door,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: and then things happened very swiftly. Kemp hesitated for a second,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: and then moved to intercept him. The invisible man started
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: and stood still. Traitor, cried the voice, and suddenly the
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: dressing gown opened, and, sitting down, the unseen began to disrobe.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Kemp made three swift steps to the door and forthwith
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the invisible man. His legs had vanished. Sprang to his feet.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: With a shout, Kemp flung the door open. As it opened,
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: there came a sound of hurrying feet downstairs and voices.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: With a quick movement, Kemp thrust the invisible man back,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: sprang aside, and slammed the door. The key was outside
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: and ready. In another moment, Griffin would have been alone
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: in the belvedere study a prisoner, save for one little thing.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: The key had been slipped in hastily that morning. As
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Kemp slammed the door, it fell noisily upon the carpet.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Kemp's face became white. He tried to grip the door
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: handle with both hands. For a moment he stood lugging.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Then the door gave six inches, but he got it
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: closed again. The second time, it was jerked a foot
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: wide in the dressing gown came wedging itself into the opening.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: His throat was gripped by invisible fingers, and he left
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: his hold on the handle to defend himself. He was
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: forced back, tripped, and pitched heavily into the corner of
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: the landing. The empty dressing gown was flung on top
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: of him. Half Way up the staircase was Colonel Adye,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: the recipient of Kemp's letter, the chief of the Burdock Police.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: He was staring aghast at the sudden appearance of Kemp,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: followed by the extraordinary sight of the clothing tossing empty
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: in the air. He saw Kemp, felt and struggling to
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: his feet. He saw him rush forward and go down again.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Felt like an ox. Then suddenly he was struck violently
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: by nothing. A vast weight, it seemed, leaped upon him,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: and he was hurled headlong down the staircase, with a
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: grip on his throat and a knee in his groin.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: An invisible foot trod on his back. A ghostly patter
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: passed downstairs. He heard the two police officers in the
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: hall shout and run, and the front door of the
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: house slammed violently. He rolled over and sat up, staring.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: He saw staggering down the staircase Kemp, dusty and disheveled,
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  Speaker 1: one side of his face white from a blow, his
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: lip bleeding, and a pink dressing gown and some underclothing
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: held in his arms. My God, cried Kemp. The game's up.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: He's gone Chapter twenty five, The Hunting of the Invisible Man.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: For a space, Kemp was too inarticulate to make aid
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: I understand the swift things that had just happened. They
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: stood on the landing, Kemp speaking swiftly, the grotesque swathings
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: of Griffin still on his arm. But presently aid I
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: began to grip something of the situation. He is mad,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: said Kemp. Inhuman. He is pure selfishness. He thinks of
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  Speaker 1: nothing but his own advantage, his own safety. I have
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: listened to such a story this morning, of brutal self seeking.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: He has wounded men. He will kill them. Unless we
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: can prevent him, he will create a panic. Nothing can
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: stop him. He is going out now, furious. He must
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: be caught, said ADEI. That is certain. But how cried Kemp?
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: And suddenly he became full of ideas. You must begin
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: at once. You must set every available man to work.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: You must prevent his living this district. Once he gets away,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: he may go through the countryside as he wills, killing
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: and maiming. He dreams of a reign of terror, A
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: reign of terror. I tell you must set a watch
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: on trains and roads, and shipping. The garrison must help.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: You must wire for help. The only thing that may
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: keep him here is the thought of recovering some books
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: of notes he counts of value. I will tell you
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: of that. There is a man in your police station marvel.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: I know, said Ady, I know these books. Yes, but
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: the tramp he says he hasn't got his books. But
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: he thinks the tramp has. And you must prevent him
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: from eating or sleeping day and night. The country must
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: be astir for him. Food must be locked up and secured,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: all food, so that he will have to break his
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: way to it. The houses everywhere must be barred against him.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: Heavens send us cold nights and rain. The whole countryside
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: must begin hunting, and keep hunting. I tell you, Adi,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: he is a danger, a disaster unless he is pinned
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: and secured. It is frightful to think of the things
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: that may happen. What else can we do? Said Adi?
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: I must go down at once and begin organizing. But
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: why not? Come? Yes, you come too, Come and we
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: must hold a sort of council of war. Get hops
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: to help, and the railway managers, by Jove, it's urgent,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: come along. Tell me as we go what else is
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: there we can do? Put that stuff down In another
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: the moment Adi was leaning the way downstairs, they found
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: the front door open and the policeman standing outside, staring
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: at empty air. He's got away, Sir, said one. We
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: must go to the central station at once, said ad I.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: One of you go on down and get a cab
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: to come up and meet us quickly. And now, Kemp,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: what else? Dogs? Said Kemp? Get dogs. They don't see him,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: but they win him. Get dogs. Good, said Adi. It's
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: not generally known, but the prison officials over at Halstead
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: know a man with bloodhounds dogs. What else bear in mind?
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Said Kemp. His food shows after eating. His food shows
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: until it is assimilated, so that he has to hide
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: after eating. You must keep on beating every thicket, every
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: quiet corner, and put all weapons, all implements that might
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: be weapons away. He can't carry such things for long,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: and what he can snatch up and strike men with
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: must be hidden away. Good again, said Adi. We shall
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: have him yet, and on the roads, said Kemp. And hesitated, Yes,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: said ad I. Powdered glass said Kemp. It's cruel, I know,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: but think of what he may do. Adi drew the
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: breath in sharply between his teeth. It's unsportsmanlike. I don't know,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: but I'll have powdered glass got ready. If he goes
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: too far. The man's become inhuman, I tell you, said Kemp.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: I am sure he will establish a reign of terror
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: so soon as he has got over the emotions of
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: this escape. As I am sure I am talking to you.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Our only chance is to be ahead. He has cut
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: himself off from his kind. His blood be upon his
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: own head. Chapter twenty six, The Wixedeed Murder. The Invisible
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Man seems to have rushed out of Kemp's house in
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: a state of blind fury. A little child playing near
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Kemp's gateway was violently caught up and thrown aside, so
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: that its ankle was broken, and thereafter for some hours
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: the Invisible Man passed out of human perceptions. No one
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: knows where he went nor what he did, but one
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: can imagine him hurrying through the hot June forenoon up
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: the hill and on to the open downland behind Port Burdock,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: raging and despairing at his intolerable fate, and sheltering at last.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Heated and weary, Amid the thickets of Hintondean to piece
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: together again his shattered schemes against his species. That seems
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: to most probable refuge for him, for there it was
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: he reasserted himself in a grimly tragical manner about two
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: in the afternoon. One wonders what his state of mind
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: may have been during that time, and what plans he devised.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: No doubt he was almost ecstatically exasperated by Kemp's treachery,
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: and though we may be able to understand the motives
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: that led to that deceit, we may still imagine and
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: even sympathize a little with the fury the attempted surprise
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: must have occasioned. Perhaps something of this done astonishment of
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: his Oxford Street experiences may have returned to him, for
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: he had evidently counted on Kemp's cooperation in his brutal
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: dream of a terrorized world. At any rate, he vanished
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: from human ken about mid day, and no living witness
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: can tell what he did until about half past two.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: It was a fortunate thing, perhaps for humanity, but for
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: him it was a fatal inaction. During that time, a
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: growing multitude of men scattered over the countryside were busy
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: in the morning, he had still been simply a legend
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: a terror. In the afternoon, by virtue, chiefly of Kemp's
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: dryly worded proclamation, he was presented as a tangible antagonist
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: to be wounded, captured, or overcome, and the countryside began
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: organizing itself with inconceivable rapidity. By two o'clock even he
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: might still have removed himself out of the district by
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: getting a board a train, but after two that became impossible.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Every passenger train along the lines on a great parallelogram
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: between Southampton, Manchester, Brighton and Horsham traveled with locked doors,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: and the goods traffic was almost entirely suspended, and in
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: a great circle of twenty miles around Port Burdock, men
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: armed with guns and bludgeons were presently setting out in
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: groups of three and four with dogs to beat the
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: roads and fields. Mounted policemen rode along the country lanes,
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: stopping at every cottage and warning the people to lock
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: up their houses and keep indoors unless they were armed.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: And all the elementary schools had broken up by three o'clock,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: and the children, scared and keeping together in groups, were
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: hurrying home. Kemp's proclamation signed indeed by Adee, was posted
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: over almost the whole district by four or five o'clock
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: in the afternoon. It gave briefly but clearly all the
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: conditions of the struggle, the necessity of keeping the invisible
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: man from food and sleep, the necessity for incessant watchfulness,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: and for a prompt attention to any evidence of his movements.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: And so swift and decided was the action of the authorities,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: so prompt and universal was the belief in this strange being,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: that before nightfall an area of several hundred square miles
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: was in a stringent state of siege. And before nightfall, too,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: a thrill of horror went through the whole watching nervous countryside.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Going from whispering mouth to mouth, swift and certain, over
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: the length and breadth of the country passed the story
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: of the murder of mister Wicksteed. If our supposition that
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: the Invisible man's refuge was the Hintondean thickets, we must
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: suppose that in the early afternoon he sallied out again,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: bent upon some project that involved the use of a weapon.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: We cannot know what that project was, but the evidence
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: that he had the iron rod in hand before he
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: met Wicksteed is to me at least overwhelming. Of course,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: we can know nothing of the details of that encounter.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: It occurred on the edge of a gravel pit, not
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: two hundred yards from Lord Burdock's lodge gate. Everything points
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: to a desperate struggle. The trampled ground, the numerous wounds
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: mister Wicksteed received his splintered walking stick. But why the
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: attack was made save in a murderous frenzy, it is
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: impossible to imagine. Indeed, the theory of madness is almost unavoidable.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Mister Wicksteed was a man of forty five or forty six,
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: steward to Lord Burdock, of inoffensive habits and appearance, the
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: very last person in the world to provoke such a
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: terrible antagonist against him. It would seem the invisible Man
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: used an iron rod dragged from a broken piece of fence.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: He stopped this quiet man going quietly home to his
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: midday meal, attacked him, beat down his feeble defenses, broke
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: his arm, felt him, and smashed his head to a jelly.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Of course, he must have dragged this rod out of
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: the fencing before he met his victim. He must have
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: been carrying it ready in his hand. Only two details
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: beyond what has already been stated, seemed to bear on
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: the matter. One is the circumstance that the gravel pit
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: was not in missus Wicksteed's direct path home, but nearly
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: a couple of hundred yards out of his way. The
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: other is the assertion of a little girl to that
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: effect that, going to her afternoon school, she saw the
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: murdered man trotting in a peculiar manner across a field
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: towards the gravel pit. Her pantomime of his action suggests
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: a man pursuing something on the ground before him and
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: striking at it, ever and again with his walking stick.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: She was the last person to see him alive. He
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: passed out of her sight to his death, the struggle
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: being hidden from her only by a clump of beech
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: trees and a slight depression in the ground. Now, this,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: to the present writer's mind, at least lifts the murder
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: out of the realm of the absolutely wanton. We may
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: imagine that Griffin had taken the rod as a weapon, indeed,
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: but without any deliberate intention of using it in murder.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Weak Steed may then have come by and noticed this
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: rod inexplicably moving through the air without any thought of
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: the invisible man. For Port Burdock is ten miles away,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: he may have pursued it. It is quite conceivable that
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: he may not even have heard of the invisible man.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: One can then imagine the invisible man making off quietly
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: in order to avoid discovering his presence in the neighborhood,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: and Wicksteed, excited and curious, pursuing this unaccountably locomotive object,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: finally striking at it. No doubt, the invisible Man could
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: easily have distanced his middle aged pursuer under ordinary circumstances,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: but the position in which Wisted's body was found suggests
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: that he had had the ill luck to drive his
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: quarry into a corner between a drift of stinging lettles
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: and the gravel pit. To those who appreciate the extraordinary
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: irascibility of the invisible man, the rest of the encounter
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: will be easy to imagine, but this is pure hypothesis.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: The only undeniable facts, for stories of children are often unreliable,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: are the discovery of Wicksteed's body done to death, and
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: of the blood stained iron rod flung among the nettles.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: The abandonment of the rod by Griffin suggests that in
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: the emotional excitement of the affair, the purpose for which
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: he took it, if he had a purpose, was abandoned.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: He was certainly an intensely egotistical and unfeeling man, But
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: the sight of his victim, his first victim, bloody and
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: pitiful at his feet, may have released some long pent
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: fountain of remorse, which for a time may have flooded
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: whatever scheme of action he had contrived. After the murder
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: of mister Wicksteed, he would seem to have struck across
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: the country towards the Downland. There is a story of
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: a voice heard about sunset by a couple of men
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: in a field near fern Bottom. It was wailing and laughing,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: sobbing and groaning, and ever and again it shouted. It
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: must have been a queer hearing it, drove up across
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: the middle of a clover field, and died away towards
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: the hills. That afternoon. The invisible man must have learnt
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: something of the rapid use Kemp had made of his confidences.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: He must have found houses locked and secured. He may
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: have loitered about railway stations and prowled about inns, and
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: no doubt he read the proclamations and realized something of
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: the nature of the campaign against him. And as the
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: evening advanced, the fields became dotted here and there with
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: groups of three or four men, and noisy with the
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: yelping of dogs. These men hunters had peculiar instructions in
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: the case of an encounter as to the way they
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: should support one another, but he avoided them all. We
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: may understand something of his exasperation, and it could have
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: been none the less because he himself had supplied the
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: information that was being used, though remorselessly against him. For
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: that day at least he lost heart for nearly twenty
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: four hours saved when he turned on Wicksteed. He was
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: a hunted man. In the night he must have eaten
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: and slept, for in the morning he was himself again, active, powerful, angry,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: and malignant, prepared for his last great struggle against the world.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter twenty six