Latest / The H. G. Wells Library / The Invisible Man Chapters 18-19
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- 0:00Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
- 0:03Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information not a volunteer, please
- 0:07Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. The Invisible Man by H. G.
- 0:12Speaker 1: Wells read for LibriVox by Alex Foster w w W
- 0:16Speaker 1: dot Alex Foster dot me dot UK, Chapter eighteen, The
- 0:22Speaker 1: Invisible Man sleeps. Exhausted and wounded as the Invisible Man was,
- 0:28Speaker 1: he refused to accept Kemp's word that his freedom should
- 0:31Speaker 1: be respected. He examined the two windows of the bedroom,
- 0:34Speaker 1: drew up the blinds, and opened the sashes to confirm
- 0:37Speaker 1: Kemp's statement that a retreat by them would be possible. Outside,
- 0:41Speaker 1: the night was very quiet and still, and the new
- 0:43Speaker 1: moon was settling over the down Then he examined the
- 0:47Speaker 1: keys of the bedroom and the two dressing room doors
- 0:49Speaker 1: to satisfy himself that these also could be made an
- 0:52Speaker 1: assurance of freedom. Finally, he expressed himself satisfied. He stood
- 0:56Speaker 1: on the hearth rug and Kemp heard the sound of
- 0:58Speaker 1: a yawn. I'm sorry, said the Invisible Man if I
- 1:03Speaker 1: cannot tell you all that I have done to night,
- 1:05Speaker 1: but I am worn out. It's grotesque, no doubt, it's horrible.
- 1:10Speaker 1: But believe me, Kemp, in spite of your arguments of
- 1:13Speaker 1: this morning, it is quite a possible thing. I have
- 1:16Speaker 1: made a discovery. I meant to keep it to myself.
- 1:19Speaker 1: I can't. I must have a partner and you. We
- 1:23Speaker 1: can do such things. But to morrow now, Kemp, I
- 1:28Speaker 1: feel as though I must sleep or perish. Kemp stood
- 1:33Speaker 1: in the middle of the room, staring at the headless garment.
- 1:36Speaker 1: I suppose I must leave you, he said. It's incredible.
- 1:41Speaker 1: Three things happening like this, overturning all my preconceptions would
- 1:44Speaker 1: make me insane, but it's real. Is there anything more
- 1:48Speaker 1: that I can get? You? Only bid me good night,
- 1:52Speaker 1: said Griffin. Good night, said Kemp, and shook an invisible hand.
- 1:56Speaker 1: He walked sideways to the door. Suddenly, the dressing gown
- 2:00Speaker 1: walked quickly towards him. Understand me, said the dressing gown.
- 2:03Speaker 1: No attempts to hamper me or capture me or Kemp's
- 2:07Speaker 1: face changed a little. I thought I gave you my word,
- 2:11Speaker 1: he said. Kemp closed the door softly behind him, and
- 2:15Speaker 1: the key was turned upon him forthwith. Then, as he
- 2:17Speaker 1: stood with an expression of passive amazement on his face,
- 2:20Speaker 1: the rapid feet came to the door of the dressing room,
- 2:23Speaker 1: and that too was locked. Kemp slapped his brow with
- 2:26Speaker 1: his hand. Am I dreaming? Has the world gone mad?
- 2:29Speaker 1: Or have I? He laughed, and put his hand to
- 2:33Speaker 1: the locked door. Barred out of my own bedroom by
- 2:37Speaker 1: a flagrant absurdity, he said. He walked to the head
- 2:40Speaker 1: of the staircase, turned and stared at the locked doors.
- 2:44Speaker 1: It's fact, he said. He put his fingers to his
- 2:47Speaker 1: slightly bruised neck. Undeniable fact. But he shook his head hopelessly,
- 2:55Speaker 1: turned and went downstairs. He lit the dining room lamp,
- 2:59Speaker 1: got out a cigar, and began pacing the room, ejaculating.
- 3:02Speaker 1: Now and then he would argue with himself. Invisible, he said,
- 3:08Speaker 1: Is there such a thing as an invisible animal? In
- 3:10Speaker 1: the sea? Yes, thousands millions, or the larvae, or the
- 3:14Speaker 1: little knopoly i and toneras, or the microscopic things like jellyfish.
- 3:19Speaker 1: In the sea, there are more things invisible than visible.
- 3:21Speaker 1: I never thought of that before. And in the ponds too,
- 3:25Speaker 1: or those little pond life things specks of colorless translucent jelly.
- 3:29Speaker 1: But in air, no, it can't be. But after all,
- 3:35Speaker 1: why not if a man was made of glass, he
- 3:38Speaker 1: would still be visible. His meditation became profound. The bulk
- 3:43Speaker 1: of three cigars had passed into the invisible or diffused
- 3:46Speaker 1: as a white ash over the carpet before he spoke again.
- 3:49Speaker 1: Then it was merely an exclamation. He turned aside, walked
- 3:53Speaker 1: out of the room and went into his little consulting
- 3:55Speaker 1: room and lit the gas. There. It was a little
- 3:59Speaker 1: room because because doctor Kemp did not live by practice,
- 4:02Speaker 1: and in it were the day's newspapers. The morning's paper
- 4:05Speaker 1: lay carelessly opened and thrown aside. He caught it up,
- 4:09Speaker 1: turned it over and read the account of a strange
- 4:11Speaker 1: story from Iping that the mariner at Port Stow had
- 4:14Speaker 1: spelt over so painfully to mister Marvel. Kemp read it
- 4:18Speaker 1: swiftly wrapped up, said Kemp, disguised hiding it. No one
- 4:23Speaker 1: seems to have been aware of his misfortune. What the
- 4:26Speaker 1: devil is his game? He dropped the paper and his
- 4:30Speaker 1: eye went seeking ah, he said. He caught up the
- 4:33Speaker 1: Saint James's Gazette, lying folded up as it arrived. Now
- 4:37Speaker 1: we shall get at the truth, said doctor Kemp. He
- 4:40Speaker 1: rent the paper open. A couple of columns confronted him
- 4:44Speaker 1: an entire village in Sussex goes mad? Was the heading?
- 4:48Speaker 1: Good heavens, said Kemp, reading eagerly, an incredulous account of
- 4:52Speaker 1: the events in iping of the previous afternoon that have
- 4:54Speaker 1: already been described over the leaf. The report in the
- 4:58Speaker 1: morning paper had been reprinted. He re read it. Ran
- 5:02Speaker 1: through the streets, striking left and right, jaffers insensible, mister
- 5:06Speaker 1: Huckster in great pain, still unable to describe what he saw.
- 5:09Speaker 1: Painful humiliation, vicar woman ill with terror windows smashed this
- 5:15Speaker 1: extraordinary story. Probably a fabrication, too good not to print,
- 5:19Speaker 1: cum grano. He dropped the paper and stared blankly in
- 5:23Speaker 1: front of him. Probably a fabrication. He caught up the
- 5:29Speaker 1: paper again and re read the whole business. But when
- 5:33Speaker 1: does the tramp coming? Why the deuce was he chasing
- 5:35Speaker 1: a tramp? He sat down abruptly on the surgical bench.
- 5:41Speaker 1: He's not only invisible, he said, but he's mad, homicidal.
- 5:46Speaker 1: When dawn came to mingle its pallor with the lamp
- 5:48Speaker 1: light and cigar smoke of the dining room, Kemp was
- 5:51Speaker 1: still pacing up and down, trying to grasp the incredible.
- 5:55Speaker 1: He was altogether too excited. To sleep. His servants, descending sleepily,
- 6:00Speaker 1: discovered him and were inclined to think that overstudy had
- 6:03Speaker 1: worked this ill on him. He gave them extraordinary but
- 6:06Speaker 1: quite explicit instructions to lave breakfast for two in the
- 6:09Speaker 1: belvedere study, and then to confine themselves to the basement
- 6:13Speaker 1: and ground floor. Then he continued to pace the dining
- 6:16Speaker 1: room until the morning's paper came that had much to
- 6:19Speaker 1: say and little to tell, beyond the confirmation of the
- 6:21Speaker 1: evening before and a very badly written account of another
- 6:24Speaker 1: remarkable tale from Port Burdock. This gave Kemp the essence
- 6:28Speaker 1: of the happenings at the Jolly Cricketers and the name
- 6:30Speaker 1: of Marvel. He has made me keep with him twenty
- 6:34Speaker 1: four hours. Marvel testified. Certain minor facts were added to
- 6:38Speaker 1: the iping story, notably the cutting of the village telegraph wire,
- 6:42Speaker 1: but there was nothing to throw light on the connection
- 6:44Speaker 1: between the invisible man and the tramp, for mister Marvel
- 6:47Speaker 1: had supplied no information about the three books or the
- 6:50Speaker 1: money with which he was lined. The incredulous tone had vanished,
- 6:53Speaker 1: and a shoal of reporters and inquirers were already at
- 6:56Speaker 1: work elaborating the matter. Kemp read every scrap of the
- 7:00Speaker 1: report and sent his housemaid out to get every one
- 7:03Speaker 1: of the morning papers. She could. These also he devoured.
- 7:07Speaker 1: He is invisible, he said, and it reads like rage
- 7:10Speaker 1: growing to mania. The things he may do, the things
- 7:13Speaker 1: he may do, And upstairs he's free as air. What
- 7:17Speaker 1: on earth ought I to do? For instance? Would it
- 7:21Speaker 1: be a breach of faith? If no? He went to
- 7:26Speaker 1: a little untidy desk in the corner and began a note.
- 7:29Speaker 1: He tore this up, half written, and wrote another. He
- 7:32Speaker 1: read it over and considered it. Then he took an
- 7:34Speaker 1: envelope and addressed it to Colonel Adai Port Burdock. The
- 7:40Speaker 1: invisible man awoke even as Kemp was doing this. He
- 7:43Speaker 1: awoke in an evil temper, and Kemp, alert for every sound,
- 7:47Speaker 1: heard his pattering feet rush suddenly across the bedroom overhead.
- 7:51Speaker 1: Then a chair was flung over, and the wash hands
- 7:53Speaker 1: down tumbler smashed. Kemp hurried upstairs and rapped eagerly. Chapter nineteen.
- 8:03Speaker 1: Certain first principles. What's the matter, asked Kemp, When the
- 8:08Speaker 1: invisible man admitted him nothing was the answer, But confound
- 8:13Speaker 1: it the smash fit of temper, said the invisible man
- 8:17Speaker 1: forgot this arm, and it's sore. You're rather liable to
- 8:21Speaker 1: that sort of thing, I am. Kemp walked across the
- 8:26Speaker 1: room and picked up the fragments of broken glass. All
- 8:29Speaker 1: the facts are out about you, said Kemp, standing up
- 8:31Speaker 1: with the glass in his hand. All that happened in
- 8:34Speaker 1: iping and down the hill. The world has become aware
- 8:36Speaker 1: of its invisible citizen, but no one knows you are here.
- 8:41Speaker 1: The invisible man swore, the secret's out. I gather it
- 8:45Speaker 1: was a secret. I don't know what your plans are,
- 8:47Speaker 1: but of course I'm anxious to help you. The invisible
- 8:51Speaker 1: man sat down on the bed. There's breakfast upstairs, said Kemp,
- 8:55Speaker 1: speaking as easily as possible, and he was delighted to
- 8:58Speaker 1: find his strange guest rose willingly. Kemp led the way
- 9:02Speaker 1: to the narrow staircase to the belvidere. Before we can
- 9:06Speaker 1: do anything else, said Kemp, I must understand a little
- 9:09Speaker 1: more about this invisibility of yours. He had sat down.
- 9:12Speaker 1: After one nervous glance out of the window with the
- 9:15Speaker 1: air of a man who has talking to do. His
- 9:18Speaker 1: doubts of the sanity of the entire business flashed and
- 9:20Speaker 1: vanished again as He looked across to where Griffin sat
- 9:22Speaker 1: at the breakfast table, a headless, handless dressing gown, wiping
- 9:27Speaker 1: unseen lips on a miraculously held serviette. It's simple enough
- 9:32Speaker 1: and credible enough, said Griffin, putting the serviette aside and
- 9:36Speaker 1: leaning the invisible head on an invisible hand. No doubt
- 9:39Speaker 1: to you, but Kemp laughed, Well, yes to me, it
- 9:43Speaker 1: seemed wonderful at first, no doubt. But now great God,
- 9:47Speaker 1: but we will do great things. Yet I came on
- 9:50Speaker 1: the stuff first, at Cheslestone, Cheslestone. I went there after
- 9:55Speaker 1: I left London. You know I'd dropped medicine and took
- 9:58Speaker 1: up physics. No, well I did. Light fascinated me er
- 10:04Speaker 1: optical density. The whole subject is a network of riddles,
- 10:08Speaker 1: a network with solutions, glimmering elusively through and being but
- 10:12Speaker 1: two and twenty and full of enthusiasm, I said, I
- 10:14Speaker 1: will devote my life to this. This is worth while.
- 10:18Speaker 1: You know what fools we are? Two and twenty fools?
- 10:22Speaker 1: Then are fools now, said Kemp, as though knowing could
- 10:25Speaker 1: be any satisfaction to a man. But I went to
- 10:29Speaker 1: work like a slave, and I had hardly worked and
- 10:32Speaker 1: thought about the matter six months before light came through
- 10:34Speaker 1: one of the meshes. Suddenly, blindingly, I found a general
- 10:38Speaker 1: principle of pigments and refraction, a formula, a geometrical expression
- 10:42Speaker 1: involving four dimensions. Fools, common men, even common mathematicians, do
- 10:47Speaker 1: not know anything of what some general expression may mean
- 10:50Speaker 1: to the student of molecular physics. In the books, the
- 10:53Speaker 1: books that Tramp has hidden, there are marvels miracles. But
- 10:58Speaker 1: this was not a method. It was an idea that
- 11:00Speaker 1: might lead to a method by which it will be possible,
- 11:02Speaker 1: without changing any other property of matter, except in some
- 11:05Speaker 1: instance's colors, to lower the refractive index of a substance
- 11:08Speaker 1: solid or liquid to that of air, so far as
- 11:11Speaker 1: all practical purposes are concerned. Phew, said Camp. That's odd,
- 11:16Speaker 1: but still I don't quite see. I can understand that
- 11:19Speaker 1: thereby you could spoil a valuable stone, But personal invisibility
- 11:23Speaker 1: is a far cry. Precisely, said Griffin, But consider visibility
- 11:29Speaker 1: depends on the action of the visible bodies on light.
- 11:32Speaker 1: Either a body absorbs light, or it reflects or refracts it,
- 11:34Speaker 1: or it does all these things. If it neither reflects,
- 11:38Speaker 1: nor refracts, nor absorbs light, it cannot of itself be visible.
- 11:42Speaker 1: You see an opaque red box, for instance, because the
- 11:45Speaker 1: color absorbs some of the light and reflects the rest
- 11:47Speaker 1: or the red part of the light to you. If
- 11:50Speaker 1: it did not absorb any particular part of the light,
- 11:52Speaker 1: but reflected it all, then it would be a shining
- 11:54Speaker 1: white box silver. A diamond box would neither absorb much
- 11:58Speaker 1: of the light nor reflect much from the surface, but
- 12:01Speaker 1: just here and there where the surfaces were favorable, the
- 12:03Speaker 1: light would be reflected and refracted, so that you would
- 12:06Speaker 1: get a brilliant appearance of flashing reflections on translucencies, a
- 12:09Speaker 1: sort of skeleton of light. A glass box would not
- 12:13Speaker 1: be so brilliant, not so clearly visible as a diamond box,
- 12:16Speaker 1: because there would be less refraction and reflection. You see
- 12:18Speaker 1: that from certain points of view you could see quite
- 12:21Speaker 1: clearly through it. Some kinds of glass would be more
- 12:23Speaker 1: visible than others. A box of flint glass would be
- 12:26Speaker 1: brighter than a box of ordinary window glass. A box
- 12:29Speaker 1: of very thin common glass would be hard to see
- 12:31Speaker 1: in a bad light because it would absorb hardly any
- 12:33Speaker 1: light and refract and reflect very little. And if you
- 12:37Speaker 1: put a sheet of common white glass in water. Still more,
- 12:39Speaker 1: if you put it in some denser liquid than water,
- 12:42Speaker 1: it would vanish almost altogether. Because light passing from water
- 12:45Speaker 1: to glass is only slightly reflected or reflected, or indeed
- 12:48Speaker 1: affected in any way. It is almost as invisible as
- 12:51Speaker 1: a jet of coal, gas or hydrogen is in air.
- 12:54Speaker 1: And for precisely the same reason, Yes, said Kemp, that
- 12:58Speaker 1: is pretty plain. And here is another fact you will
- 13:02Speaker 1: know to be true. If a sheet of glass is
- 13:05Speaker 1: smashed camp and then beaten into a powder, it becomes
- 13:07Speaker 1: much more visible. While it is in the air. It
- 13:09Speaker 1: becomes at least an opaque white powder. This is because
- 13:13Speaker 1: the powdering multiplies the surfaces of the glass which refraction
- 13:16Speaker 1: or reflection occur. In the sheet of glass, there are
- 13:18Speaker 1: only two surfaces and the powder. The light is reflected
- 13:21Speaker 1: or refracted by each grain it passes through, and very
- 13:24Speaker 1: little gets right through the powder. But if the white
- 13:26Speaker 1: powdered glass is put into water, it forth with vanishes.
- 13:29Speaker 1: The powdered glass and water have much the same refractive index.
- 13:32Speaker 1: That is, the light undergoes very little refraction or reflexion
- 13:35Speaker 1: in passing from one to the other. You make the
- 13:37Speaker 1: glass invisible by putting it into a liquid of nearly
- 13:40Speaker 1: the same refractive index. A transparent thing becomes invisible if
- 13:43Speaker 1: it is put in any medium of almost the same
- 13:45Speaker 1: refractive index. And if you will consider only a second,
- 13:48Speaker 1: you will see also that the powder of glass might
- 13:51Speaker 1: be made to vanish in air if its refractive index
- 13:53Speaker 1: could be made the same as that of air, For
- 13:56Speaker 1: then there will be no refraction or reflection as the
- 13:58Speaker 1: light passed from glass to air. Yes, yes, said Kemp,
- 14:02Speaker 1: But a man's not powdered glass. No, said Griffin, he's
- 14:07Speaker 1: more transparent. Nonsense that from a doctor. How one forgets?
- 14:14Speaker 1: Have you already forgotten your physics in ten years? Just
- 14:18Speaker 1: think of all the things that are transparent and seem
- 14:20Speaker 1: not to be so. Paper, for instance, is made up
- 14:22Speaker 1: of transparent fibers, and it is white and opaque only
- 14:25Speaker 1: for the same reason that a powder of glass is
- 14:27Speaker 1: white and opaque. Oil. White paper fill up the instances
- 14:31Speaker 1: between the particles with oil, so that there is no
- 14:33Speaker 1: longer refraction or reflection except at the surfaces, and it
- 14:36Speaker 1: becomes as transparent as glass. Are not only paper, but cotton, fiber,
- 14:41Speaker 1: linen fiber, wool fiber, woody fiber, and bone, Kemp, flesh, Kemp, hair, Kemp,
- 14:46Speaker 1: nails and nerves kemps. In fact, the whole fabric of
- 14:49Speaker 1: a man, except the red of his blood and the
- 14:51Speaker 1: black pigment of hair, are all made up of transparent,
- 14:54Speaker 1: colorless tissue, so little surfaces to make us visible one
- 14:58Speaker 1: to the other. For the most part. The fibers of
- 15:01Speaker 1: a living manner no more a paque than water. Great Heavens,
- 15:05Speaker 1: said Kemp. Of course, of course, I was thinking only
- 15:08Speaker 1: last night of the sea larvae and all jelly fish.
- 15:12Speaker 1: Now you have me and all that I knew and
- 15:14Speaker 1: had in mind a year after I left London six
- 15:17Speaker 1: years ago. But I kept it to myself. I had
- 15:20Speaker 1: to do my work under frightful disadvantages. Oliver, my professor
- 15:24Speaker 1: was a scientific bounder, a journalist by instinct, a thief
- 15:28Speaker 1: of ideas. He was always prying, and you know the
- 15:31Speaker 1: knavish system of the scientific world. I simply would not
- 15:34Speaker 1: publish and let him share my credit. I went on working.
- 15:38Speaker 1: I got nearer and nearer to making my formula in
- 15:40Speaker 1: an experiment a reality. I told no living soul, because
- 15:45Speaker 1: I meant to flash my work upon the world with
- 15:47Speaker 1: crushing effect and become famous at a blow, I took
- 15:50Speaker 1: up the question of pigments to fill up certain gaps,
- 15:53Speaker 1: and suddenly, but by design, not by accident, I made
- 15:57Speaker 1: a discovery in physiology. Years you know, the red coloring
- 16:03Speaker 1: matter of blood. It can be made white, colorless, and
- 16:07Speaker 1: remain with all the functions it has. Now Kemp gave
- 16:10Speaker 1: a cry of credulous amazement. The invisible man rose and
- 16:15Speaker 1: began pacing a little study, you may well exclaim. I
- 16:18Speaker 1: remember that night. It was late at night. In the daytime,
- 16:22Speaker 1: one was bothering with the gaping silly students. And I
- 16:25Speaker 1: worked then, sometimes till dawn. It came suddenly, splendid and
- 16:28Speaker 1: complete in my mind. I was alone the laboratory, still,
- 16:32Speaker 1: with the tall lights burning brightly and silently. In all
- 16:36Speaker 1: my great moments, I have been alone. One could make
- 16:39Speaker 1: an animal a tissue transparent. One could make it invisible,
- 16:44Speaker 1: all except the pigments. I could be invisible, I said, suddenly,
- 16:48Speaker 1: realizing what it meant to be an albino. With such
- 16:51Speaker 1: knowledge it was overwhelming. I left the filtering I was
- 16:55Speaker 1: doing and went and stared out of the great window
- 16:57Speaker 1: at the stars. I could be invisible, I repeated, to
- 17:04Speaker 1: do such a thing would be to transcend magic. And
- 17:07Speaker 1: I beheld, unclouded by doubt, a magnificent vision of all
- 17:11Speaker 1: that invisibility might mean to a man, the mystery, the power,
- 17:14Speaker 1: the freedom, drawbacks. I saw none. You have only to think,
- 17:19Speaker 1: And I, a shabby, poverty struck hemmed in demonstrator teaching
- 17:23Speaker 1: fools in a provincial college, might suddenly become this. I
- 17:28Speaker 1: ask you, Kemp, if you any one, I tell you
- 17:30Speaker 1: would have flung himself upon that research. And I worked
- 17:33Speaker 1: three years, and every mountain of difficulty I toiled over
- 17:36Speaker 1: showed another from its summit, the infinite details, and the
- 17:40Speaker 1: exasperation a professor, a provincial professor, always prying when you
- 17:45Speaker 1: were going to publish this work of yours, with his
- 17:47Speaker 1: everlasting question, and the students, the cramped means. Three years
- 17:52Speaker 1: I had of it, And after three years of secrecy
- 17:56Speaker 1: and exasperation, I found that to complete it was impossible. Impossible,
- 18:02Speaker 1: how asked Kemp, Money, said the invisible man, and went
- 18:06Speaker 1: again to stare out of the window. He turned round abruptly.
- 18:11Speaker 1: I robbed the old man, robbed my father. The money
- 18:16Speaker 1: was not his, and he shot himself. End of Chapter nineteen,
- 18:24Speaker 1: recorded in Nottingham, England, on the ninth of April twenty
- 18:26Speaker 1: o six by Alex Foster w w W dot Alex
- 18:30Speaker 1: Foster dot me dot u k