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

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter five, The Burglary at the Vicarage. The facts of
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the burglary at the Vicarage came to us chiefly through
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the medium of the vicar and his wife. It occurred
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: in the small hours of whit Monday, the day devoted
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: in iping to the club festivities. Missus Bunting, it seems,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: woke up suddenly in the stillness that comes before the dawn,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: with the strong impression that the door of their bedroom
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: had opened and closed. She did not arouse her husband
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: at first, but sat up in bed listening. She then
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: distinctly heard the pad pad pad of bare feet coming
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: out of the adjoining dressing room and walking along the
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: passage towards the staircase. As soon as she felt assured
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: of this, she roused the Reverend mister Bunting as quietly
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: as possible. He did not strike a light, but, putting
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: on his spectacles, her dressing gown, and his bath slippers,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: he went out on to the landing to listen. He
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: heard quite distinctly a fumbling going on at his study
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: desk downstairs, and then a violence. At that he returned
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: to his bedroom, armed himself with the most obvious weapon,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the poker, and descended the staircase as noiselessly as possible.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Mister Bunting came out on the landing. The hour was
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: about four and the ultimate darkness of the night was past.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: There was a faint shimmer of light in the hall,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: but the study doorway yawned impenetrably black. Everything was still
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: except the faint creaking of the stairs under mister Bunting's tread,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: and the slight movements in the study. Then something snapped.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: The drawer was open, and there was a rustle of papers.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Then came in an imprecation, and a match was struck,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: and the study was flooded with yellow light. Mister Bunting
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: was now in the hall, and through the crack in
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: the door he could see the desk and the open drawer,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: and a candle burning on the desk, but the robber
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: he could not see. He stood there in the hall
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: undecided what to do, and missus Bunting, her face white
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: and intent, crept slowly downstairs after him. One thing mister
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Bunting's courage, the persuasion that this burglar was a resident
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: in the village. They heard the chink of money and
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: realized that the robber had found the housekeeping reserve of
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: gold two pounds ten in half sovereigns altogether. At that sound,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: mister Bunting was nerved to abrupt action. Gripping the poker firmly,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: he rushed into the room, closely followed by Missus Bunting. Surrender,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: cried mister Bunting fiercely, and then stooped amazed. Apparently the
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: room was perfectly empty, yet their conviction that they had
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: that very moment heard someone moving in the room had
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: amounted to a certainty. For half a minute, perhaps they
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: stood gaping. Then Missus Bunting went across the room and
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: looked behind the screen, while mister Bunting, by a kindred impulse,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: peered under the desk. Then Missus Bunting turned back the
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: window curtains, and mister Bunting looked up the chimney and
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: probed it with the poker. Then Missus Bunting scrutinized the
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: waste paper basket, and mister Bunting opened the lid of
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the coalscuttle. Then they came to a stop and stood
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: with eyes interrogating each other. I could have sworn, said
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: mister Bunting. The candle, said Missus Bunting, who lit the
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: candle the drawer, said mister Bunting, and the money's gone.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: She went hastily to the doorway. Off all the strange occurrences.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: There was a violent sneeze in the passage. They rushed out,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: and as they did so, the kitchen door slammed. Bring
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: the candle, said mister Bunting, and led the way. They
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: both heard a sound of bolts being hastily shot back.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: As he opened the kitchen door, he saw through the
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: scullery that the back door was just opening, and the
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: faint light of early dawn displayed the dark masses of
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the garden beyond. He's certain that nothing went out of
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: the door. It opened, stood open for a moment, and
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: then closed with a slam. As it did so, the
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: candle Missus Bunting was carrying from the study flickered and flared.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: It was a moment or more before they entered the kitchen.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: The place was empty. They refastened the back door, examined
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: the kitchen pantry and scullery thoroughly, and at last went
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: down into the cellar. There was not a soul to
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: be found in the house, such as they would daylight
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: found the vicar and his wife, a quaintly costumed little couple,
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  Speaker 1: still marveling about on their own ground floor by the
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: unnecessary light of her guttering candle. Chapter six, The Furniture
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: that Went Mad. Now it happened that in the early
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: hours of whit Monday, before Milly was hunted out for
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: the day, mister Hall and Missus Hall both rose and
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: went noiselessly down into the cellar. Their business there was
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: of a private nature, and had something to do with
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: the specific gravity of their beer. They had hardly entered
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: the cellar when Missus Hall found she had forgotten to
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: bring down a bottle of sasparilla from their joint room.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: As she was the expert and principal operator in this
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: affair Hall, they properly went upstairs for it. On the landing,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: he was surprised to see that the strenger's door was
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: a charm. He went on into his own room and
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: found the bottle as he had been directed. But returning
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: with the bottle, he noticed that the bolts of the
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: front door had been shot back, that the door was
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: in fact simply on the latch, And with a flash
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: of inspiration he connected this with the stranger's room upstairs,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: and the suggestions of mister Teddy Henry. He distinctly remembered
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: holding the candle while missus Hall shot these bolts overnight.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: At the sight, he stopped gaping, then, with the bottle
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: still in his hand, went upstairs again. He rapped at
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: the stranger's door. There was no answer. He rapped again,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: then pushed the door wide open and entered. It was
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: as he had expected the bed. The room also was empty,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: and what was stranger even to his heavy intelligence. On
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: the bedroom chair and along the rail of the bed
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: were scattered the garments, the only garments so far as
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: he knew, and the bandages of their guest. His big
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: slouch hat even was cocked jauntily over the bed post.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: As Hall stood there, he heard his wife's voice coming
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: out of the depth of the cellar, with that rapid
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: telescoping of the syllables and interrogative cocking up of the
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: final words to have high note by which the West
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Sussex villager is wont to indicate a brisk impatience. George
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: yu goa way want At that, he turned and hurried
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: down to it. Janny. He steed over the rail of
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: the cellar steps. Tis the truth what every says. He's
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: not in his room, he end and the front door
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: is unbolted. At first Missus Hall did not understand, and
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: as soon as she did she resolved to see the
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: empty room for herself. Hall, still holding the bottle, went first.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: If he ain't there, he said, his clothes are, and
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: was he doing without his clothes? Then to the most
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: curious business. As they came up the cellar steps. They
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: both it was afterwards ascertained fancied. They heard the front
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: door open and shut, but seeing it closed and nothing there,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: neither said a word to the other about it. At
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: the time Missus Hall passed her husband in the passage
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: and ran on first upstairs, some one sneezed on the staircase. Hall,
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: following six steps behind, thought that he heard her sneeze. She,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: going on first, was under the pression that Hall was sneezing.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: She flung open the door and stood regarding the room
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: of all A curious She said she heard a sniff
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: close behind her head, as it seemed. In turning, was
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: surprised to see Hall a dozen feet off on the
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: topmost stair, but in another moment he was beside her.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: She bent forward and put her hand on the pillow,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: and then under the clothes cold she said, he's been
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: up this hour or more. As she did so, a
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: most extraordinary thing happened. The bedclothes gathered themselves together, leaped
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: suddenly into a sort of peak, and then jumped headlong
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: over the bottom rail. It was exactly as if a
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: hand had clutched them in the center and flung them aside.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Immediately after, the stranger's hat hopped off, the bed post
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: described a whirling flight in the air through the better
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: part of a circle, and then dashed straight at missus
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  Speaker 1: Hall's face. Then as swiftly came the sponge from the washstand,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: and then the chair, flinging the stranger's coat and trousers
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  Speaker 1: carelessly aside, and laughing dryly in a voice singularly like
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the strangers, turned itself up with its four legs a
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Missus Hall seemed to take aim at her for a moment,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: and then charged at her. She screamed and turned, and
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: then the chair legs came gently but firmly against her
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  Speaker 1: back and impelled her and Hall out of the room.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: The door slammed violently and was locked. The chair and
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: bed seemed to be executing a dance of triumph for
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: a moment, then abruptly everything was still. Missus Hall was
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: left almost in a fainting condition in mister Hall's arms
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: on the landings. It was with the greatest difficulty that
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: mister Hall and Milly, who had been roused by her
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: scream of alarm, succeeded in getting her down stairs and
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: implying the rectitives customary in such cases. Tis spirits, said
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Missus Hall. I noticed spirits I read in papers and
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: tables and chairs leaping and dancing. Take a drop more, Jenny,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: said Hall. Fell steady y, lock him out, said Missus Hall.
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  Speaker 1: Don't let him come in again. I half guessed I
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: might have known, with them goggling eyes and bandaged head,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: and never going to church of a Sunday and all
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: day bottles morn. It's right for anyone to have. He's
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: put the spirits into the furniture, My good old furniture.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Twas in that chair my very dear poor mother used
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: to sit when I was a little girl. To think
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: it should rise up against me. Now, just a drop more,
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  Speaker 1: Janny said Hall, Your nerves is all upset. They sent
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Milly across the street through the golden five o'clock sunshine
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: to rouse up mister Sandy Wadgers. The blacksmith, mister Hall's compliments,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: and the furniture upstairs was behaving most extraordinary. Would mister
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: Wadgers come round? He was a knowing man, was mister Watchers,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: and very resourceful. He took quite a grave view of
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: the case. I am damned if that in witchcraft was
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: the view of mister Sandy Wadgers. You want oars shoes
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: for so gentry as he he came round, greatly concerned.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: They wanted him to lead the way upstairs to the room,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: but he didn't seem to be in any hurry. He
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: preferred to talk in the passage over the way. Huckster's
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: apprentice came out and began taking down the shutters of
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: the tobacco window. He was called over to join the discussion.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Mister Huxton naturally followed over. In the course of a
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: few minutes, the Anglo Saxon genius for parliamentary Government asserted itself.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: There was a great deal of talk and no decisive action.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Let's have the facts first, insisted mister Sandy Wadgers. Let's
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: be sure we'd be acting perfectly right in busting that
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: their door open. A door on bust is always open
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: to busting, but you can't onbust a door once you've
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: busted in. And suddenly, and most wonderfully, the door of
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: the room upstairs opened of its own accord, and as
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: they looked up in amazement, they saw descending the stairs
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: the muffled figure of the stranger, staring more blankly and
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: blankly than ever before with those unreasonably large blue glass
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: eyes of his. He came down, stiffly and slowly, staring
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: all the time. He walked across the passage, staring, and
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: then stopped. Look there, he said, And their eyes followed
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: the direction of his gloved finger, and saw a bottle
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: of sasparilla hard by the cellar door. Then he entered
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: the parlor and suddenly, swiftly, viciously slammed the door in
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: their faces. Not a word was spoken until the last
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: echoes of the slam had died away. They stared at
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: one another. Well, if that don't lick everything, said mister Wadgers,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: and left the alternative unsaid. I'd go in and ask
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: about it, said Wadgers to mister Hall. I'd demand an explanation.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: It took some time to bring the landlady's husband up
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: to that pitch. At last he rapped, opened the door
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: and got as far as excuse me, go to the devil,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: said the stranger in a tremendous voice, and shut that
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: after you. Or so that brief interview terminated. Chapter seven,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: The Unveiling of the Stranger. The stranger went into the
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: little parlor of the Coach and Horses about half past
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: five in the morning, and there he remained until near midday,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: the blinds down, the door shut, and none after Haul's repulse,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: venturing near him all that time. He must have fasted thrice.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: He rang his bell, the third time furiously and continuously,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: but no one answered him. M and as go to
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: the devil, indeed, said missus. Hall. Presently came an imperfect
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: rumor of the burglary at the vicarage, and two and
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: two were put together. Hall, assisted by wadgers, went off
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: to find mister Shuckleforth, the magistrate, and take his advice.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: No one ventured upstairs. How the stranger occupied himself is
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: unknown now. And then he would stride violently up and down,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: and twice came an outburst of curses, a tearing of paper,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: and a violent smashing of bottles. The little group of
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: scared but curious people increased. Missus Huckster came over some
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: gay young fellow's respondent in black ready made jackets and
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: pik paper ties. For it was whit Monday joined the
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: group with confused interrogations. Young Archie Harker distinguished himself by
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: going up the yard and trying to peep under the
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: window blinds. He could see nothing, but gave reason for
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: supposing that he did, and others of the iping youth
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: presently joined him. It was the finest of all possible
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: whit mondays. And down the village street stood a row
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: of nearly a dozen booths, a shooting gallery, and on
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: the grass by the forge were three yellow and chocolate
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: wagons and some picturesque strangers of both sexes putting up
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: a coconut sye. A gentleman wore blue jerseys, the ladies
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: white aprons and quite fashionable hats with heavy plumes. Wadger
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: of the Purple Fawn, and mister Jaggers, the cobbler who
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: also sold olds secondhand. Ordinary bicycles were stretching a string
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: of Union jacks and royal ensigns, which had originally celebrated
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: the First Victorian Jubilee, across the road and inside, in
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: the artificial darkness of the parlor, into which only one
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: thin jet of sunlight penetrated, the stranger, hungry, we must suppose,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: and fearful, hidden in his uncomfortable hot trappings, poured through
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: his dark glasses upon his paper, or chinked his dirty
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: little bottles, and occasionally swore savagely at the boys. Audible
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: if invisible outside the windows. In the corner by the
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: fireplace lay the fragments of half a dozen smashed bottles,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: and a pungent twang of chlorine tainted the air. So
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: much we know from what was heard at the time
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: and from what was subsequently seen in the room. At noon,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: he suddenly opened his parlor door and stood glaring fixedly
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: at the three or four people in the bar. Missus Hall,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: he said. Somebody went sheepishly and called for Missus Hall.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: Missus Hall appeared after an interval, a little short of breath,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: but all the fiercer for that Hall was still out.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: She had deliberated over this scene, and she came holding
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: a little tray with an unsettled bill upon it? Is
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: it your bill you're wanting, sir? She said, Why wasn't
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: my breakfast laid? Why haven't you prepared my meals? And
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: answered my bell? Do you think I live without eating?
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Why isn't my bill paid? Said missus Hall. That's what
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: I want to know. I told you three days ago
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: I was awaiting a remittance. I told you three days
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: ago I wasn't going to await no remittances. You can't
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: grumble if your breakfast waits a bit, if my bill's
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: been waiting these five days, can you? The stranger swore
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: briefly but vividly, nar nar from the bar, and I'd
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: thank you kindly, sir, if you'd keep your swearing to yourself, sir,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: said missus Hall. The stranger stood, looking more like an
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: angry diving helmet than ever. It was universally felt in
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: the bar that missus Hall had the better of him.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: His next words showed as much. Look here, my good woman,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: he began. Don't good woman me, said missus Hall. I've
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: told you my remittance hasn't come. Remittance indeed, said missus Hall.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Still I daresay in my pocket you told me three
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: days ago that you hadn't anything but a sovereign's worth
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: of silver upon you. Well, i've found some more ul
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: from the bar. I wonder where you found it, said
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Missus Hall. That seemed to annoy the stranger very much.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: He stamped his foot. What do you mean, he said that,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: I wonder where you found it, said Missus Hall. And
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: before I take any bills, or get any breakfast, or
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: do any such things whatsoever, you've got to tell me
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: two things I don't understand, and what nobody don't understand,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: and what everybody is very anxious to understand. I want
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: to know what you've been doing to my chair upstairs.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: And I want to know how tis your room was empty,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: and how you got in again. Them as stops in
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: this house comes in by the door. That's the role
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: of the house, and that you didn't do. And what
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: I want to know is how you did come in,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: And I want to know. Suddenly the stranger raised his
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: gloved hands, clenched, stamped his foot and said stop, with
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: such extraordinary violence that he silenced her instantly. You don't understand,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: he said, who I am or what I am. I'll
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: show you by heaven. I'll show you Then he put
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: his open palm over his face and withdrew it. The
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: center of his face became a black cavity. Here, he said.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: He stepped forward and handed Missus Hall something, which she
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: staring at his metamorphosed face, except automatically. Then when she
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: saw what it was, she screamed loudly, dropped it and
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: staggered back the nose. It was the Stranger's nose, pink
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: and shining, rolled on the floor. Then he removed his spectacles,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: and everyone in the bar gasped. He took off his
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: hat and with a violent gesture, took sw at his
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: whiskers and bandages. For a moment they resisted him. A
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: flash of horrible anticipation passed through the bar. Oh my god,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: said someone. Then off they came. It was worse than anything.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Missus Hall, standing open mouthed and horror struck, shrieked at
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: what she saw and made for the door of the house.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Everyone began to move. They were prepared for scars, disfigurements,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: tangible horrors, but nothing. The bandages and false hair flew
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: across the passage into their bar, making a hobbledyhoy jump
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: to avoid them. Everyone tumbled on everyone else down the steps.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: For the man who stood there, shouting some incoherent explanation,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: was a solid, gesticulating figure up to the coat collar
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: of him, and then nothingness, no visible thing at all.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: People down the village heard shouts and shrieks, and looking
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: up the street, saw the coach and horse is violently
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: firing out its humanity. Then they saw Missus Hall fall
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: down and mister Teddy Henfrey jump to avoid tumbling over her.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: And then they heard the frightful screams of Milly, who,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: emerging suddenly from the kitchen at the noise of the tumult,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: had come across the headless stranger from behind. These increased
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: suddenly forthwith everyone all down the street. The sweet stuff seller,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: coconut shy proprietor and his assistant, the swingman, little boys
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: and girls, rustic dandies, smart wrenches, smocked elders and apron gypsies,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: began running towards the inn, and in a miraculously short
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: space of time, a crowd of perhaps forty people and
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: rapidly increasing swayed and hooted and inquired and exclaimed and
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: suggested in front of Missus Hall's establishment. Everyone seemed eager
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: to talk at once, and the result was Babel. A
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: small group supported Missus Hall, who was picked up in
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: a state of collapse. There was a conference and the
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: incredible evidence of a vociferous eyes witness. Oh bogey, what's
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: he been doing? Then? Ain't hurt the girl? Has he
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: run at an' with a knife. I believe no head?
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: I tell ye it didn't mean no manner of speaking.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: I meant man without a head, nonsense to some gunjuring
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: trick fetched off his rapin he did. In its struggles
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: to see in through the open door, the crowd formed
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: itself into a straggling wedge, with the more adventurous apex
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: nearest the inn. He stood for a moment. I heard
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: the girl scream, and he turned. I saw her skirts
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: whisk and he went after her. Didn't take ten seconds back.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: He comes with a knife in his hand, and a
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: loaf stood just as if he were staring. Not a
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: moment ago went in that there door. I tell ye,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: he ain't got no head at all. You just missed
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: an There was a disturbance behind, and the speaker stopped
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: to step aside for a little procession that was marching
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: very resolutely towards the house. First mister Hall, very red
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: and determined, Then mister Bobby Jaffers, the village constable, Then
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: the wary mister Wadgers. They had come, now armed with
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: a warrant. People shouted conflicting information of the recent circumstances.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: Ed or no ed, said Jaffers, I got a restin,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: and restin I will. Mister Hall marched up the steps,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: marched straight to the door of the parlor and flung
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: it open. Constable, he said, do your duty. Jaffers marched
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: in Hall, next Wadgers. Last, they saw in the dim light,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: the headless figure facing them, with a gnawed crust of
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: bed in one gloved hand and a chunk of cheese
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: in the other. That's him, said Hall. What's the Devil's
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: This came in a tone of angry expostulation from above
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: the collar of the figure. You're a damned rum customer, mister,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: said mister Jaffers. But ed or no ed the warrant.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: Say his body and duty's duty keep off, said the figure,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: starting back abruptly, he whipped down the bread and cheese,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: and mister Hall just grasped the knife on the table
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: in time to save it. Off came the stranger's left
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: glove and was slapped in Jaffer's face. In another moment, Jaffers,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: cutting short some statement concerning a warrant, had gripped him
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: by the handless wrist and caught his invisible throat. He
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: got a sounding kick on the shin that made him shout,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: but kept his grip. Hall sent the knife sliding along
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: the table to Wadgers, who acted as a goalkeeper for
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: the offensive, so to speak, and then stepped forward as
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: Jaffers and the stranger swayed and staggered towards him, clutching
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: and hitting in a chair, stood in the way and
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: went aside with a crash. As they came down together,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: get the feet, said Jaffers between his teeth. Mister Hall,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: endeavoring to act on instructions, received a sounding kick in
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: the ribs that disposed of him for a moment, and
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: mister Wadgers, seeing the decapitated stranger, had rolled over and
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: got the upper side of Jaffers, retreated towards the door,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: knife in hand, and so collided with mister Huckster and
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: the ciderbridge carter coming to the rescue of order at
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: the same moment. Down came three or four bottles from
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: the chiffonnier and shot a web of pungency into the
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: air of the room. I'll surrender, cried the stranger, though
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: he had Jaffers down, and in another moment he stood up, panting,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: a strange figure, headless and handless, for he had pulled
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: off his right glove now as well as his left.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: It's no good, he said, as if sobbing for breath.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: It was the strangest thing in the world to hear
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: that voice, coming as if out of empty space. But
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: the Sussex peasants are perhaps the most matter of fact
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: people under the sun. Jaffers got up also, and produced
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: a pair of handcuffs. Then he stared, I say, said Jaffers,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: brought up short by a dim realization of the incongruity
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: of the whole business. Darn it can't use him, as
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: I can see. The stranger ran his arm down his waistcoat,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: and as if by a miracle, the buttons to which
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: his empty sleeve pointed became undone. Then he said something
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: about his shin and stooped down. He seemed to be
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: fumbling with his shoes and socks. Why, said Huckster suddenly,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: that's not a man at all, it's just empty clothes. Look,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: you can see down his collar, in the linings of
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: his clothes. I could put my arm. He extended his hand.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: It seemed to meet something in mid air, and he
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: drew it back with a sharp exclamation. I wish you'd
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: keep your fingers out of my eye, said the aerial voice,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: in a tone of savage expostulation. The fact is I
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: am all here, head, hands, legs and all the rest.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: But it happens I'm invisible. It's a confounded nuisance. But
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: I am. There's no reason why I should be poked
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: to pieces by every stupid bumpkin in iping? Is it?
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: The suit of clothes now all unbuttoned and hanging loosely
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: upon its unseen supports? Stood up arms Akimbo. Several other
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: of the men folks had now entered the room, so
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: that it was closely crowded. Invisible, eh, said Huckster, ignoring
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: the stranger's abuse. Whoever heard the likes of that? It's
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: strange perhaps, but it's not a crime. Why am I
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: assaulted by a policeman in this fashion? Ah, that's a
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: different matter, said jaafas no doubt you're a bit difficult
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: to see in this light. But I got a warrant
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: and it's all correct. What I'm after ain't no invisibility.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Is burglary as a house being broken into, and money
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: took well, and circumstances certainly point stuff and nonsense, said
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: the invisible man. I hope so, sir, But I've got
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: my instructions. Well, said the stranger. I'll come, I'll come,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: but no handcuffs. It's the regular thing, said Chaffers. No handcuffs,
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: stipulated the stranger. Pardon me, said Chaffers. Abruptly. The figure
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: sat down, and before anyone could realize what was being done,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: the slippers, socks and trousers being kicked off under the table.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: Then he sprang up again and flung off his coat.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Ere stop that, said Jaffers. Suddenly realizing what was happening.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: He gripped at the waistcoat. It struggled, and the shirt
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: slipped out off it and left it limply and empty
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: in his hand. Hold him, said jaffer as loudly. Whence
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: he gets the things off hold him, cried every one,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: and there was a rush at the fluttering white shirt,
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: which was now all that was visible. Of the stranger.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: The shirt's leaves planted a shrewd blow in Hall's face
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: that stopped his opened armed advance and sent him backward
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: into old toothsum the sexton, and in another moment the
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: garment was lifted up became convulsed and vacantly flapping about
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: the arms. Even as a shirt that is being thrust
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: over a man's head. Jaffers clutched at it and only
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: helped to pull it off. He was struck in the mouth,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: out of the air, and incontinently threw his truncheon and
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: smote Teddy Henfrey savagely upon the crown of his head.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: Look Out, said everybody, fencing at random and hitting at nothing.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Hold him shut the door, don't let him loose. I
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: got something here. He is a perfect babel of noises.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: They made. Everybody, it seemed, was being hit all at once,
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: And Sandy Wadger's knowing as ever, and his wits sharpened
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: by a frightful blow in the nose, reopened the door
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: and led the route. The others following incontinently were jammed
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: for a moment in the corner by the doorway. The
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: hitting continued. Phipps, the Unitarian, had a front tooth broken,
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: and Henfrey was injured in the cartilage of his ear.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Jaffers was struck under the jaw and turning caught at
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: something that intervened between him and Huckster in the melee
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: and prevented their coming together. He felt a muscular chest,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: and in another moment the whole mass of struggling, excited
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: men shot out into the crowded hall. I got him, shouted, Jaffers,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: choking and reeling through them all and wrestling with purple
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: face and swelling veins against his unseen enemy. Men staggered
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: right and left as the extraordinary conflict swayed swiftly towards
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: the house door and went spinning down the half dozen
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: steps of the inn. Jaffers cried in a strangled voice,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: holding tight nevertheless and making play with his knee, spun
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: around and fell heavily undermost, with his head on the gravel.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Only then did his fingers relax. They were excited cries
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: of hold him invisible and so forth, and a young fellow,
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: a stranger in the place whose name did not come
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: to light, rushed in at once, caught something, missed his hold,
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: and fell over the constable's prostrate body. Half way across
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: the road, a woman screamed as something pushed by her.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: A dog kicked apparently yelped, and ran howling into Huckster's yard,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: and with that the transit of the invisible man was accomplished.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: For a space people stood amazed and gesticulating, and then
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: came panic and scattered them abroad through the village as
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: a gust scatters dead leaves, but chaffers lay quite still,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: face upward and knees bent at the foot of the
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: steps of the inn. End of Chapter seven.