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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter eighteen, The Invisible Man sleeps. Exhausted and wounded. As
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  Speaker 1: the Invisible Man was, he refused to accept Kemp's word
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  Speaker 1: that his freedom should be respected. He examined the two
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  Speaker 1: windows of the bedroom, drew up the blinds, and opened
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  Speaker 1: the sashes to confirm Kemp's statement that a retreat by
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  Speaker 1: them would be possible. Outside, the night was very quiet
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  Speaker 1: and still, and the new moon was settling over the
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  Speaker 1: down Then he examined the keys of the bedroom and
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  Speaker 1: the two dressing room doors to satisfy himself that these
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  Speaker 1: also could be made an assurance of freedom. Finally, he
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  Speaker 1: expressed himself satisfied. He stood on the hearth rug and
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  Speaker 1: Kemp heard the sound of a yawn. I am sorry,
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  Speaker 1: said the Invisible Man, if I cannot tell you all
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  Speaker 1: that I have done to night, but I am worn out.
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  Speaker 1: It's grotesque, no doubt, it's horrible. But believe me, Kemp,
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  Speaker 1: in spite of your arguments of this morning, it is
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  Speaker 1: quite a possible thing. I have made a discovery. I
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  Speaker 1: meant to keep it to myself. I can't. I must
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  Speaker 1: have a partner and you we can do such things.
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  Speaker 1: But tomorrow now, Kemp, I feel as though I must
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  Speaker 1: sleep or perish. Kemp stood in the middle of the room,
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  Speaker 1: staring at the headless garment. I suppose I must leave you,
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  Speaker 1: he said. It's incredible, three things happening like this, overturning
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  Speaker 1: all my preconceptions would make me insane, but it's real.
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  Speaker 1: Is there anything more that I can get? You? Only
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  Speaker 1: bid me good night, said Griffin. Good night, said Kemp,
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  Speaker 1: and shook an invisible hand. He walked sideways to the door.
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  Speaker 1: Suddenly the dressing gown walked quickly towards him. Understand me,
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  Speaker 1: said the dressing gown. No attempts to hamper me or
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  Speaker 1: capture me or Kemp's face changed a little. I thought
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  Speaker 1: I gave you my word, he said. Kemp closed the
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  Speaker 1: door softly behind him, and the key was turned upon
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  Speaker 1: him forthwith. Then, as he stood with an expression of
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  Speaker 1: passive amazement on his face, the rapid feet came to
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  Speaker 1: the door of the dressing room, and that too was locked.
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  Speaker 1: Kemp slapped his brow with his hand. Am I dreaming?
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  Speaker 1: Has the world gone mad? Or have I? He laughed,
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  Speaker 1: and put his hand to the locked door. Barred out
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  Speaker 1: of my own bedroom by a flagrant absurdity, he said.
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  Speaker 1: He walked to the head of the staircase, turned and
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  Speaker 1: stared at the locked doors. It's fact, he said. He
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  Speaker 1: put his fingers to his slightly bruised neck. Undeniable fact.
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  Speaker 1: But he shook his head hopelessly, turned and went downstairs.
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  Speaker 1: He lit the dining room lamp, got out a cigar,
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  Speaker 1: and began pacing the room, ejaculating. Now and then he
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  Speaker 1: would argue with himself. Invisible, he said, Is there such
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  Speaker 1: a thing as an invisible animal? In the sea? Yes, thousands, millions,
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  Speaker 1: all the larvae, or the little knopoly eye and tonraaz,
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  Speaker 1: all the microscopic things like jellyfish in the see there
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  Speaker 1: are more things invisible than visible. Or I never thought
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  Speaker 1: of that before. And in the ponds too, or those
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  Speaker 1: little pond life things, specks of colorless translucent jelly. But
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  Speaker 1: in air, no, it can't be. But after all, why
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  Speaker 1: not if a man was made of glass, he would
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  Speaker 1: still be visible. His meditation became profound. The bulk of
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  Speaker 1: three cigars had passed into the invisible or diffused as
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  Speaker 1: a white ash over the carpet before he spoke again.
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  Speaker 1: Then it was merely an exclamation. He turned aside, walked
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  Speaker 1: out of the room, and went into his little consulting
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  Speaker 1: room and lit the gas. There. It was a little
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  Speaker 1: room because doctor Kemp did not live by practice, and
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: in it were the day's newspapers. The morning's paper lay
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  Speaker 1: carelessly opened and thrown aside. He caught it up, turned
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  Speaker 1: it over and read the account of a strange story
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  Speaker 1: from Iping that the mariner at Portstow had spelt over
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  Speaker 1: so painfully to mister Marvel. Kemp read it swiftly wrapped up,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: said Kemp, disguised hiding it. No one seems to have
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  Speaker 1: been aware of his misfortune. What the devil is his game?
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  Speaker 1: He dropped the paper and his eye went seeking ah,
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  Speaker 1: he said. He caught up the Saint James's Gazette, lying
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  Speaker 1: folded up as it arrived. Now we shall get at
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  Speaker 1: the truth, said doctor Kemp. He rent the paper open.
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  Speaker 1: A couple of columns confronted him. An entire village in
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  Speaker 1: Sussex goes mad? Was the heading, Good Heavens, said Kemp,
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  Speaker 1: reading eagerly, an incredulous account of the events in Iping
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  Speaker 1: of the previous afternoon that have already been described. Over
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  Speaker 1: the leaf, the report in the morning paper had been reprinted.
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  Speaker 1: He re read it ran through the streets, striking left
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  Speaker 1: and right, Jaffer's insensible mister Huckster in great pain, still
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  Speaker 1: unable to describe what he saw, painful, humiliation, vicar woman
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  Speaker 1: ill with terror, windows smashed this extraordinary story, probably a fabrication,
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  Speaker 1: too good not to print. Come grand. He dropped the
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  Speaker 1: paper and stared blankly in front of him. Probably a fabrication.
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  Speaker 1: He caught up the paper again and re read the
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  Speaker 1: whole business. But when does the tramp coming? Why the
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: deuce was he chasing a tramp? He sat down abruptly
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  Speaker 1: on the surgical bench. He's not only invisible, he said,
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  Speaker 1: but he's mad, homicidal. When dawn came to mingle its
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  Speaker 1: power with the lamp light and cigar smoke of the
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  Speaker 1: dining room, Kemp was still pacing up and down, trying
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  Speaker 1: to grasp the incredible. He was altogether too excited to sleep.
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  Speaker 1: His servants, descending sleepily, discovered him and were inclined to
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  Speaker 1: think that overstudy had worked this ill on him. He
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  Speaker 1: gave them extraordinary but quite explicit instructions to lay breakfast
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  Speaker 1: for two in the belvedere study, and then to confine
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  Speaker 1: themselves to the basement and ground floor. Then He continued
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  Speaker 1: to pace the dining room until the morning's paper came
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  Speaker 1: that had much to say and little to tell, beyond
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  Speaker 1: the confirmation of the evening before and a very badly
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  Speaker 1: written account of another remarkable tale from Port Burdock. This
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  Speaker 1: gave Kemp the instance of the happenings at the Jolly Cricketers,
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  Speaker 1: and the name of Marvel. He has made me keep
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  Speaker 1: with him twenty four hours. Marvel testified. Certain minor facts
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  Speaker 1: were added to the iping story, notably the cutting of
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  Speaker 1: the village telegraph wire, but there was nothing to throw
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  Speaker 1: light on the connection between the invisible man and the tramp,
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  Speaker 1: For mister Marvel had supplied no information about the three
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  Speaker 1: books or the money with which he was lined. The
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  Speaker 1: incredulous tone had vanished, and a shoal of reporters and
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: inquirers were already at work elaborating the matter. Kemp read
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  Speaker 1: every scrap of the report and sent his housemaid out
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  Speaker 1: to get every one of the morning papers she could.
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  Speaker 1: These also he devoured. He is invisible, he said, and
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  Speaker 1: it reads like rage growing to mania. The things he
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  Speaker 1: may do, the things he may do, And upstairs he's
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  Speaker 1: free as air. What on earth ought I to do,
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  Speaker 1: for instance, would it be a breach of faith? If no,
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  Speaker 1: He went to a little untidy desk in the corner
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  Speaker 1: and began a note. He tore this up, half written,
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  Speaker 1: and wrote another. He read it over and considered it.
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  Speaker 1: Then he took an envelope and addressed it to Colonel
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  Speaker 1: adi Port Burdock. The Invisible Man awoke even as Kemp
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  Speaker 1: was doing this. He awoke in an evil temper, and Kemp,
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  Speaker 1: alert for every sound, heard his pattering feet rush suddenly
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  Speaker 1: across the bedroom overhead. Then a chair was flung over
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  Speaker 1: and the wash handstand tumbler smashed. Kemp hurried upstairs and
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  Speaker 1: rapped eagerly, Chapter nineteen. Certain first Principles. What's the matter,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: asked Kemp, when the Invisible Man admitted him nothing was
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  Speaker 1: the answer, but confound it the smash fit of temper,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: said the invisible Man forgot this arm and its soar.
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  Speaker 1: You're rather liable to that sort of thing, I am.
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  Speaker 1: Kemp walked across the room and picked up the fragments
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  Speaker 1: of broken glass. All the facts are out about you,
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  Speaker 1: said Kemp, standing up with the glass in his hand.
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  Speaker 1: All that happened in iping and down the hill the
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  Speaker 1: world has become aware of its invisible citizen, but no
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  Speaker 1: one knows you are here. The invisible man swore, the
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  Speaker 1: secret's out. I gather it was a secret. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know what your plans are, but of course I'm anxious
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  Speaker 1: to help you. The invisible man sat down on the bed.
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  Speaker 1: There's breakfast upstairs, said Kemp, speaking as easily as possible,
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  Speaker 1: and he was delighted to find his strange guest rose willingly.
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  Speaker 1: Kemp led the way to the narrow staircase to the belvidere.
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  Speaker 1: Before we can do anything else, said Kemp, I must
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  Speaker 1: understand a little more about this invisibility of yours. He
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  Speaker 1: had sat down after one nervous glance out of the
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  Speaker 1: window with the air of a man who has talking
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  Speaker 1: to do. His doubts of the sanity of the entire
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  Speaker 1: placeness flashed and vanished again as he looked across to
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  Speaker 1: where Griffin sat at the breakfast table, a headless, handless
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  Speaker 1: dressing gown, wiping unseen lips on a miraculously held serviette.
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  Speaker 1: It's simple enough and credible enough, said Griffin, putting the
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  Speaker 1: serviette aside and leaning the invisible head on an invisible hand.
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  Speaker 1: No doubt to you, But Kemp laughed, well, yes to me,
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  Speaker 1: it seemed wonderful at first, no doubt. But now great God,
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  Speaker 1: but we will do great things. Yet I came on
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  Speaker 1: the stuff first at Cheslestowe, Cheslestone. I went there after
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  Speaker 1: I left London. You know I dropped medicine and took
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  Speaker 1: up physics. No, well I did. Light fascinated me er
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  Speaker 1: optical density. The whole subject is a network of riddles,
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  Speaker 1: a network with solutions, glimmering elusively through and being but
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  Speaker 1: two and twenty and full of enthusiasm, I said, I
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  Speaker 1: will devote my life to this. This is worth while.
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  Speaker 1: You know what fools we are are two and twenty fools?
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  Speaker 1: Then are fools? Now, said Kemp, as though knowing could
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  Speaker 1: be any satisfaction to a man. But I went to
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  Speaker 1: work like a slave. And I had hardly worked and
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  Speaker 1: thought about the matter six months before light came through
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  Speaker 1: one of the meshes. Suddenly, blindingly, I found a general
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: principle of pigments and refraction, a formula, a geometrical expression
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  Speaker 1: involving four dimensions. Fools, common men, even common mathematicians, do
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  Speaker 1: not know anything of what some general expression may mean
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  Speaker 1: to the student of molecular physics. In the books, the
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  Speaker 1: books that tramps hidden, there are marvels miracles. But this
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  Speaker 1: was not a method. It was an idea that might
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  Speaker 1: lead to a method by which it will be possible
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  Speaker 1: without changing any other property of matter, except in some
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  Speaker 1: instances colors to lower the refractive index of a substance
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  Speaker 1: solid or liquid to that of air. So far as
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  Speaker 1: all practical purposes are concerned, few said Kemp. That's odd,
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  Speaker 1: but still I don't quite see. I can understand that
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  Speaker 1: there you could spoil a valuable stone, but personal invisibility
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: is a far cry. Precisely said Griffin, But consider visibility
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  Speaker 1: depends on the action of the visible bodies on light.
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  Speaker 1: Either a body absorbs light, or it reflects or refract it,
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  Speaker 1: or it does all these things. If it neither reflects,
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  Speaker 1: nor refracts, nor absorbs light, it cannot of itself be visible.
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  Speaker 1: You see an opaque red box, for instance, because the
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  Speaker 1: color absorbs some of the light and reflects the rest
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  Speaker 1: or the red part of the light to you. If
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  Speaker 1: it did not absorb any particular part of the light,
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  Speaker 1: but reflected it all, then it would be a shining
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  Speaker 1: white box. Silver, a diamond, box would neither absorb much
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  Speaker 1: of the light nor reflect much from the general surface,
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  Speaker 1: but just here and there, where the surfaces were favorable,
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  Speaker 1: the light would be reflected and refracted, so that you
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  Speaker 1: would get a brilliant appearance of flashing reflections on translucencies,
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  Speaker 1: a sort of skeleton of light. A glass box would
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  Speaker 1: not be so brilliant, not so clearly visible as a
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  Speaker 1: diamond box, because there would be less refraction and reflection.
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  Speaker 1: You see that from certain points of view you could
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  Speaker 1: see quite clearly through it. Some kinds of glass would
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  Speaker 1: be more visible than others. A box of flint glass
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  Speaker 1: would be brighter than a box of ordinary window glass.
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  Speaker 1: A box of very thin common glass would be hard
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  Speaker 1: to see in a bad light because it would absorb
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  Speaker 1: hardly any light and refract and reflect very little. And
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  Speaker 1: if you put a sheet of common white glass in water,
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  Speaker 1: still more, if you put it in some denser liquid
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  Speaker 1: than water, it would vanish almost altogether. Because light passing
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  Speaker 1: from water to glass is only slightly reflected or reflected,
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  Speaker 1: or indeed affected in any way, it is almost as
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  Speaker 1: invisible as a jet of coal gas or hydrogen is
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: in air, and for precisely the same reason, yes, said Kemp,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: that is pretty plain sailing. And here is another fact
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: you will know to be true. If a sheet of
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  Speaker 1: glass is smashed camp and then beaten into a powder,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: it becomes much more visible. While it is in the air.
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  Speaker 1: It becomes at least an opaque white powder. This is
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  Speaker 1: because the powdering multiplies the surfaces of the glass at
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: which refraction a reflection occur. In the sheet of glass
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  Speaker 1: there are only two surfaces and the powder. The light
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: is reflected or refracted by each grain it passes through,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: and very little gets right through the powder. But if
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  Speaker 1: the white powdered glass is put into water, it forthwith vanishes.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: The powdered glass and water have much the same refractive index.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: That is, the light undergoes very little refraction or reflection
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: in passing from one to the other. You make the
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  Speaker 1: glass invisible by putting it into a liquid of nearly
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: the same refractive index. A transparent thing becomes invisible if
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: it is put in any medium of almost the same
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: refractive index. And if you will consider only a second,
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  Speaker 1: you will see also that the powder of glass might
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  Speaker 1: be made to vanish in air if its refractive index
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: could be made the same as that of air, for
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: then there will be no refraction or reflection as the
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: light passed from glass to air. Yes, yes, said Kemp.
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  Speaker 1: But a man's not powdered glass. No, said Griffin, He's
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: more transparent. Nonsense that from a doctor. How one forgets?
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Have you already forgotten your physics in ten years? Just
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: think of all the things that are transparent and seem
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: not to be so. Paper, for instance, is made up
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: of transparent fibers, and it is white and opaque only
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: for the same reason that a powder of glass is
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: white and opaque. Oil. White paper fill up the instances
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: between the particles with oil so that there is no
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: longer refraction or reflection except at the surfaces, and it
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: becomes as transparent as glass. Are not only paper, but cotton, fiber, linen, fiber,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: wool fiber, woody fiber, and bone Kemp, flesh, Kemp, hair, Kemp, nails,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: and nerves kemps. In fact, the whole fabric of a man,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: except the red of his blood and the black pigment
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: of hair, are all made up of transparent, colorless tissue,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: so little surfaces to make us visible one to the other.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: For the most part, the fibers of a living man
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: are no more opaque than water. Great heavens, said Kemp.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, of course, I was thinking only last night
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: of the sea larvae and all jellyfish. Now you have
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: me and all that I knew and had in mind
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: a year after I left London six years ago. But
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: I kept it to myself. I had to do my
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: work under frightful disadvantages. Oliver, my professor was a scientific bounder,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: a journalist by instinct, a thief of ideas. He was
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: always prying, and you know the knavish system of the
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: scientific world. I simply would not publish and let him
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: share my credit. I went on working. I got nearer
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: and nearer to making my formula in an experiment a reality.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: I told no living soul, because I meant to flash
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: my work upon the world with crushing effect and become famous.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: At a blow, I took up the question of pigments
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: to fill up certain gaps, and suddenly, but by design,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: not by accident, I made a discovery in physiology. Yees,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: you know the red coloring matter of blood. It can
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: be made white, colorless, and remain with all the functions
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: it has. Now Kemp gave a cry of credulous amazement.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: The invisible man rose and began pacing a little study,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: you may well exclaim. I remember that night. It was
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: late at night. In the daytime one was bothering with
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: the gaping silly students. And I worked then, sometimes till dawn.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: It came suddenly, splendid and complete in my mind. I
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: was alone the laboratory, still, with the tall lights burning
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: brightly and silently. In all my great moments, I have
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: been alone. One could make an animal a tissue transparent.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: One could make it invisible, all except the pigments. I
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: could be invisible, I said, suddenly realizing what it meant
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: to be an albino. With such knowledge it was overwhelming.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: I left the filtering I was doing and went and
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: stared out of the great window at the stars. I
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: could be invisible, I repeated. To do such a thing
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: would be to transcend magic. And I beheld, unclouded by doubt,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: a magnificent vision of all that invisibility might mean to
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: a man, The mystery, the power, the freedom, drawbacks. I
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: saw none. You have only to think, and I a shabby,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: poverty struck hemmed in demonstrator teaching fools in a provincial
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: college might suddenly become this. I ask you, Kemp, if
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: you any one, I tell you, would have flung himself
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: upon that research. And I worked three years, and every
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: mountain of difficulty I toiled over showed another from its summit,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: the infinite details, and the exasperation a professor, a provincial professor,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: always prying when you were going to publish this work
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: of yours, with his everlasting question, and the students, the
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: cramped means. Three years I had of it, And after
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: three years of secrecy and exasperation, I found that to
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: complete it was impossible. Impossible, how asked Kemp. Money, said
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: the invisible man, and went again to stare out of
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: the window. He turned round abruptly. I robbed the old man,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: robbed my father. The money was not his, and he
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: shot himself. End of Chapter nineteen