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