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

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