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The Invisible Man - HG Wells · Science Fiction Library

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  Speaker 1: The Invisible Matten by H. G. Wells, Chapter one, The
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Strange Man's Arrival. The Stranger came early in February one
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  Speaker 1: wintry day, through a biting wind and a driving snow,
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  Speaker 1: the last snowfall of the year, over the down, Walking
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  Speaker 1: from Bramblehurst Railway station and carrying a little black portmanteau
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  Speaker 1: in his thickly gloved hand. He was wrapped up from
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  Speaker 1: head to foot, and the brim of his soft felt
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  Speaker 1: hat hid every inch of his face but the shiny
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  Speaker 1: tip of his nose. The snow had piled itself against
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  Speaker 1: his shoulders and chest, and added a white crest to
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  Speaker 1: the burden he carried. He staggered into the coach and
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  Speaker 1: horses more dead than alive, and flung his portmanteau down
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  Speaker 1: a fire. He cried, in the name of human charity,
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  Speaker 1: a room and a fire. He stamped and shook the
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  Speaker 1: snow from off himself in the bar, and followed Missus
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  Speaker 1: Hall into her guest parlor to strike his bargain. And
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  Speaker 1: with that much introduction, that and a couple of sovereigns
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  Speaker 1: flung upon the table, he took up his quarters in
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  Speaker 1: the inn. Missus Hall lit the fire and left him
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  Speaker 1: there while she went to prepare him a meal with
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  Speaker 1: her own hands. A guest to stop at iping in
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  Speaker 1: the winter time was an unheard of piece of luck,
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  Speaker 1: let alone a guest who was no haggler, and she
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  Speaker 1: resolved to show herself worthy of her good fortune. As
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  Speaker 1: soon as the bacon was well under way, and Milly
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  Speaker 1: her lymphatic aid had been brisked up a bit by
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  Speaker 1: a few deftly chosen expressions of contempt, she carried the cloth,
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  Speaker 1: plates and glasses into the parlor and began to lay
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  Speaker 1: them with the utmost igler. Although the fire was burning
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: up briskly. She was surprised to see that her visitor
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  Speaker 1: still wore his hat and coat, standing with his back
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  Speaker 1: to her and staring out of the window at the
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  Speaker 1: falling snow in the yard. His gloved hands were clasped
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  Speaker 1: behind him, and he seemed to be lost in thought.
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  Speaker 1: She noticed that the melting snows that still sprinkled his
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  Speaker 1: shoulders dripped upon her carpet. Can I take your hat
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  Speaker 1: and coat, sir, she said, and give them a good
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  Speaker 1: dry in the kitchen, No, he said, without turning. She
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  Speaker 1: was not sure she had heard him, and was about
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  Speaker 1: to repeat her question. He turned his head and looked
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  Speaker 1: at her over his shoulder. I prefer to keep them on,
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  Speaker 1: he said, with emphasis, and she noticed that he wore
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  Speaker 1: big blue spectacles with sidelights, and had a bush side
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  Speaker 1: whisker over his coat collar that completely hid his cheeks
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  Speaker 1: and face. Very well, sir, she said, as you like.
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  Speaker 1: In a bit, the room will be warmer. He made
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  Speaker 1: no answer and had turned his face away from her again,
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  Speaker 1: and missus Hall, feeling that her conversational advances were ill timed,
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  Speaker 1: laid the rest of the table things in a quick
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  Speaker 1: staccato and whisked out of the room. When she returned,
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  Speaker 1: he was still standing there like a man of stone,
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  Speaker 1: his back hunched, his collar turned up, his dripping hat
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  Speaker 1: brim turned down, hiding his face and ears completely. She
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  Speaker 1: put down the eggs and bacon with conscer dable emphasis
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  Speaker 1: and called, rather than said, to him, your lunch is served.
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  Speaker 1: Her Thank you, he said at the same time, and
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  Speaker 1: did not stir until she was closing the door. Then
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  Speaker 1: he swung round and approached the table with a certain
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  Speaker 1: eager quickness. As she went behind the bar to the kitchen,
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  Speaker 1: she heard a sound repeated at regular intervals cherk, cherk, cherk.
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  Speaker 1: It went the sound of a spoon being rapidly whisked
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  Speaker 1: around a basin. That girl, she said there, I'd clean
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  Speaker 1: forgot it, it's her being so long. And while she
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  Speaker 1: herself finished mixing the mustard, she gave Milly a few
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  Speaker 1: verbal stabs for her excessive slowness. She had cooked the
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  Speaker 1: ham and eggs, laid the table, and done everything while
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  Speaker 1: Milly help indeed, had only succeeded in delaying the mustard
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  Speaker 1: and him a new guest and wanting to stay. Then
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  Speaker 1: she filled the mustard pot, and putting it with a
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  Speaker 1: certain stateliness upon a golden black tea tray, carried it
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  Speaker 1: into the parlor. She rapped and entered promptly. As she
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  Speaker 1: did so, her visitor moved quickly, so that she got
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  Speaker 1: but a glimpse of a white object disappearing behind the table.
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  Speaker 1: It would seem he was picking something from the floor.
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  Speaker 1: She rapped down the mustard pot on the table. Then
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  Speaker 1: she noticed the overcoat and hat had been taken off
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  Speaker 1: and put over a chair in front of the fire,
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  Speaker 1: and a pair of wet boots threatened rust to her
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  Speaker 1: steel fender. She went to these things resolutely. I suppose
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  Speaker 1: I may have them to dry now, she said, in
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: a voice that brooked no denial. Leave the hat, said
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  Speaker 1: her visitor in a muffled voice, and turning she saw
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  Speaker 1: he had raised his head and was sitting and looking
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  Speaker 1: at her. For a moment she stood gaping at him,
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  Speaker 1: too surprised to speak. He held a white cloth. It
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  Speaker 1: was a serviette he had brought with him over the
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: lower part of his face, so that his mouth and
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: jaws were completely hidden, and that was the reason of
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  Speaker 1: his muffled voice. But it was not that which startled
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: missus Hall. It was the fact that all his forehead
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  Speaker 1: above his blue glasses was covered by a white bandage,
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  Speaker 1: and that another covered his ears, leaving not a scrap
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  Speaker 1: of his face exposed, excepting only his pink peaked nose.
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  Speaker 1: It was bright, pink and shiny, just as it had
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  Speaker 1: been at first. He wore a dark brown velvet jacket
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  Speaker 1: with a high black linen lined collar, turned up about
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  Speaker 1: his neck. The thick black hair escaping as it could
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  Speaker 1: below and between the cross bandages, projected in curious tails
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  Speaker 1: and horns, giving him the strangest appearance conceivable. This muffled
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  Speaker 1: and bandaged head was so unlike what she had anticipated,
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  Speaker 1: that for a moment she was rigid. He did not
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  Speaker 1: remove the serviette, but remained holding it, as she saw now,
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  Speaker 1: with a brown gloved hand and regarding her with his
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  Speaker 1: inscrutable blue glasses. Leave the hat, he said, speaking very
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  Speaker 1: distinctly through the white cloth. Her nerves began to recover
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  Speaker 1: from the shock that they had received. She placed the
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  Speaker 1: hat on the chair again by the fire. I I
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  Speaker 1: didn't know, sir, she began that, and she stopped, embarrassed.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, he said, dryly, glancing from her to the door,
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  Speaker 1: then at her again. I'll have them nicely dried, so
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  Speaker 1: at once, she said, and carried his clothes out of
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  Speaker 1: the room. She glanced at his white swathed head and
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: blue goggles again as she was going out of the door,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: but his napkin was still in front of his face.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: She shivered a little as she closed the door behind her,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: and her face was eloquent of her surprising perplexity. I
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  Speaker 1: never she whispered. There. She went quite softly to the
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  Speaker 1: kitchen and was too preoccupied to ask merely what she
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  Speaker 1: was messing about with now. When she got there, the
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  Speaker 1: visitor sat and listened to her retreating feet. He glanced
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: inquiringly at the window before he removed his serviette and
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: was resumed his meal. He took a mouthful, glanced suspiciously
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  Speaker 1: at the window, took another mouthful, then rose, and, taking
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: the serviette in his hand, walked across the room and
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: pulled the blind down to the top of the white
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  Speaker 1: muslin that obscured the lower panes. This left the room
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  Speaker 1: in a twilight. This done, he returned with an easier
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  Speaker 1: air to the table than his meal. The poor soles
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  Speaker 1: had an accident, or an operation or something, said missus Hall.
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  Speaker 1: What a turn, then, bandages did give me? To be sure,
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  Speaker 1: she put on some more coal, unfolded the clothes horse,
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  Speaker 1: and extended the traveler's coat upon this, and they goggles
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: while he looked more like a diving helmet than a
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  Speaker 1: human man. She hung his muffler on a corner of
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  Speaker 1: the horse, and holding that handkerchief over his mouth all
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  Speaker 1: the time talking through it. Perhaps his mouth was hurt too,
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  Speaker 1: Maybe she turned round as one who suddenly remembers. Bless
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  Speaker 1: my soul alive, she said, going off at a tangent.
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  Speaker 1: Ain't you done them tat as yet? Milly when missus
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  Speaker 1: Hall went to clear away the stranger's lunch, her idea
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  Speaker 1: that his mouth must also have been cut or disfigured
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  Speaker 1: in the accident she supposed him to have suffered was confirmed,
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  Speaker 1: for he was smoking a pipe, and all the time
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  Speaker 1: that she was in the room, he never loosened the
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  Speaker 1: silk muffler he had wrapped around the lower part of
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  Speaker 1: his face to put the mouthpiece to his lips. Yet
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  Speaker 1: it was not forgetfulness, for she saw he glanced at
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  Speaker 1: it as it smolded out. He sat in the corner
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  Speaker 1: with his back to the window blind and spoke, now,
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  Speaker 1: having eaten and drunk, and being comfortably warmed through with
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  Speaker 1: less aggressive brevity than before. The reflection of the fire
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  Speaker 1: lent a kind of red animation to his big spectacles
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  Speaker 1: that they had lacked. Hitherto, I have some luggage, she
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  Speaker 1: said at Bramblehurst's station, and he asked her how he
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  Speaker 1: could have its sent. He bowed his bandaged head quite
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  Speaker 1: politely in acknowledgment of her explanation to morrow. He said,
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  Speaker 1: there is no speedier delivery, and seemed quite disappointed when
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  Speaker 1: she answered no. Was she quite sure no man with
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  Speaker 1: a trap could go over missus Hall nothing loth, answered
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  Speaker 1: his questions and developed a conversation. It's a steep road
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  Speaker 1: by the down, sir, she said, in answer to the
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  Speaker 1: question about a trap, and then, snatching at an opening,
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  Speaker 1: said it was there. A carriage was up settled a
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  Speaker 1: year ago or more. A gentleman killed besides his coachman. Accidents, sir,
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  Speaker 1: happen in a moment, don't they. But the visitor was
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  Speaker 1: not to be drawn so easily they do, he said,
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  Speaker 1: through his muffler, eyeing her quietly through his impenetrable glasses.
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  Speaker 1: But they take long enough to get well, don't they.
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  Speaker 1: There was my sister's son, Tom Jest cut his arm
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  Speaker 1: with a scythe and tumbled on it in the ayfield,
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  Speaker 1: and blessed me. He was three months tied up her.
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  Speaker 1: You hardly believe it. It's regular given a dread of
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  Speaker 1: a scythe sir, I can quite understand that, said the visitor.
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  Speaker 1: He was afraid one time that he'd have to have
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  Speaker 1: an operation. He was that, sir. The visitor laughed abruptly,
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  Speaker 1: a bark of a laugh that he seemed to bite
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  Speaker 1: and kill in his mouth. Was he? He said, he was, sir,
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  Speaker 1: And no laughing matter to them, as had for doing
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  Speaker 1: for him, as I had my sister being took up
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  Speaker 1: with her little one so much. There was bandages to do, sir,
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  Speaker 1: and bandages to undo. So that if I might be
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  Speaker 1: so bold as to say, sir, will you get me
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  Speaker 1: some matches? Said the visitor quite abruptly. My pipe is out,
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  Speaker 1: missus Hall was pulled up suddenly. It was certainly rude
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  Speaker 1: of him. After telling him all she had done, she
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  Speaker 1: gasped at him for a moment, and then remembered the
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  Speaker 1: two sovereigns, and she went for the matches. Thanks, he
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  Speaker 1: said concisely as she put them down, and turned his
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  Speaker 1: shoulder upon her and stared out of the window again.
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  Speaker 1: It was altogether too discouraging. Evidently he was sensitive on
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  Speaker 1: the topic of operations and bandages. She did not make
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  Speaker 1: so bold as to say, however, after all, but his
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: snubbing way had irritated her, and Milly had a hot
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  Speaker 1: time of it that afternoon. The visitor remained in the
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  Speaker 1: parlor until four o'clock, without giving the ghost of an
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  Speaker 1: excuse for an intrusion. For the most part, he was
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: quite still during that time, As it would seem he
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: sat in the growing darkness, smoking in the firelight, perhaps dozing.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Once or twice. A curious listener might have heard him
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: at the coals, and for the space of five minutes
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: he was audible, pacing the room. He seemed to be
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  Speaker 1: talking to himself. Then the arm chair creaked as he
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  Speaker 1: sat down again. Chapter two, Mister Teddy Henfrey's first impressions.
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  Speaker 1: At four o'clock, when it was fairly dark and Missus
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  Speaker 1: Hall was screwing up her courage to go in and
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  Speaker 1: ask her visitor if he would take some tea, Teddy Henfrey,
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  Speaker 1: the clock dropper, came into the bar. My sakes, Missus
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Hall said he but this is terrible weather for thin boots.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: The snow outside was falling faster. Missus Hall agreed, and
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: then noticed he had his bag with him. Now you're here,
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  Speaker 1: mister Teddy said she. I'd be glad if you'd give
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: the old clock in the par a bit of a
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: look tis going, and it strikes well and hearty. But
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: the hour hand won't do nothing but point at six
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: and leading the way, She went across to the parlor
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: door and rapped and entered her visitors. She saw as
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  Speaker 1: she opened the door was seated in the arm chair
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  Speaker 1: before the fire, dozing, it would seem, with his bandaged
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: head drooping on one side. The only light in the
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: room was the red glow from the fire, which lit
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: his eyes like adverse railway signals, but left his downcast
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: face in darkness, and the scanty vestiges of the day
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: that came in through the open door. Everything was ruddy,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: shadowy and indistinct to her, though more so since she
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: had just been lighting the bar lamp and her eyes
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: were dazzled. But for a second it seemed to her
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: that the man she looked at had an enormous mouth
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: wide open, a vast and incredible mouth that swallowed the
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: whole of the lower portion of his face. It was
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: the sensation of a moment, the white bound head, the
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: monstrous goggle eyes, and this huge yawn below it. Then
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: he stirred, started up in his chair, put up his hand.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: She opened the door wide so that the room was lighter,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: and she saw him more clearly with the muffler held
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  Speaker 1: up to his face, just as she had seen him
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: hold the serviette before the shadows, she fancied had tricked her.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Would you mind, sir, this manner coming to look at
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  Speaker 1: the clock, sir, she said, recovering from the momentary shock.
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  Speaker 1: Look at the clock, he said, staring round in a
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: drowsing manner and speaking over his head, and then getting
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: more fully awake. Certainly, Missus Hall went away to get
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: a lamp, and he rose and stretched himself. Then came
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: the light, and mister Teddy Henfry, entering, was confronted by
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: this bandaged person. He was, he says, taken aback good afternoon,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: said the stranger, regarding him as mister Henfrey says, with
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: a vivid sense of the dark spectacles like a lobster.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: I hope, said mister Henfrey. That it's no intrusion. Uh, none, whatever,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: said the stranger, though I understand, he said, turning to
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: missus Hall, that this room is really to be mine
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: for my own private use, I thought, sir, said Missus Hall,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: you'd prefer the clock, certainly, said the stranger. Certainly, but
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: as a rule I like to be alone and undisturbed.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: But I'm really glad to have the clock, seemed to
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: he said, seeing a certain hesitation in mister Henfrey's manner,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: very glad. Mister Henfrey had intended to apologize and withdraw,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: but this anticipation reassured him. The stranger turned round with
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: his back to the fireplace and put his hands behind
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: his back, and presently he said, when the clock mending
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: is over, I think I should like to have some tea,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: But not till the clock mending is over. Missus Hall
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: was about to leave the room. She made no conversational
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: advances this time, because she did not want to be
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: snubbed in front of mister Henry. When her visitor asked
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: her if she had made any arrangements about his boxes
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: at Bramblehurst, she told him she had mentioned the matter
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: to the postman and that the carrier could bring them
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: over on the morrow. You are certain that that is
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: the earliest, he said. She was certain, with a marked coldness.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: I should explain, he added, what I was really too
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: cold and fatigued to do before that. I am an
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: experimental investigator, indeed, sir, said Missus Hall. Much impressed. And
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: my baggage contains apparatus and appliances very useful things. Indeed
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: they are, sir, said Missus Hall, and I am very
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: naturally anxious to get on with my inquiries. Of course, Sir,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: my reason for coming to iping he proceeded with a
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: certain deliberation of manner was a desire for solitude. I
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: do not wish to be disturbed in my work. In
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: addition to my work, an accident, I thought as much,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: said Missus Hall to herself. An accident necessitates a certain retirement.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: My eyes are sometimes so weak and painful that I
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: have shut myself up in the dark for hours together.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: Lock myself up sometimes now and then, not at present, certainly,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: but at such times the slightest disturbance, the entry of
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: a stranger into the room, is a source of excruciating
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: annoyance to me. It is well these things should be understood, certainly, sir,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: said missus Hall. And if I might make so bold
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: as to ask that, I think is all, said the stranger,
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: with that quietly irresistible air of finality he could assume
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: at will. Missus Hall reserved her question and sympathy for
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: a better occasion. After Missus Hall had left the room,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: he remained standing in front of the fire glaring. So
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: mister Henry puts it at the clock mending. Mister Henfrey
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: not only took off the hands of the clock and
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: the face, but extracted the works, and he tried to
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: work in a slow and quiet and unassuming manner as possible.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: He worked with the lamp close to him, and the
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: green shade threw a brilliant light upon his hands and
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: upon the frame and wheels, and left the rest of
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: the room shadowy. When he looked up, colored patches swam
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: in his eyes. Being constitutionally of a curious nature, he
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: had removed the works a quite unnecessary proceeding, with the
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: idea of delaying his departure and perhaps falling into conversation
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: with the stranger. But the stranger stood there, perfectly, silent
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: and still, so still it got on Henfrey's nerves. He
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: felt alone in the room and looked up, and there,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: gray and dim was the bandaged head and huge blue lenses,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: staring fixedly, with a mist of green spots drifting in
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: front of them. It was so uncanny to Henfrey that
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: for a minute they remained staring blankly at one another.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Then Henry looked down again, very uncomfortable position. One would
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: like to say something, should he remark that the weather
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: was very cold for the time of the year. He
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: looked up, as if to take aim with that introductory
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: shot the weather. He began, why don't you finish and go?
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Said the rigid figure, evidently in a state of painfully
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: suppressed rage. All you've got to do is fix the
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: hour hand on its axle. You're simply humbugging, certainly, sir.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: One minute more I overlooked, and mister Henry finished and went.
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: But he was feeling excessively annoyed. Damn it, said mister
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Henfrey to himself, trudging down the village through the thawing snow.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: A man must do o'clock at times? Surely? And again
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: can't a man look at you? Ugly? And yet again
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: seemingly not? If the police was wanting you, you wouldn't
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: be more wrapped and bandaged. At Gleaston's corner he saw Hall,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: who had recently married the stranger's hostess at the Coach
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: and Horses, and who now drove the iping conveyance when
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: occasional people required it to cid abridge junction, coming towards him.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: On his return from that place, Hall had evidently been
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: stopping a bit at Ciderbridge, to judge by his driving,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: How do Teddy, he said, passing You've got a rumman
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: up at home, said Teddy Hall, very socially pulled up?
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: Was that? He said, rum looking customer stopping at the
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: coach and horses, said Teddy, my sakes, and he proceeded
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: to give Hall a vivid description of his grotesque guest.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Looks a bit like a disguise, don't it. I'd like
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: to see a man's face if I had him stopping
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: in my place, said Henry. But women are that trustful
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: when strangers are concerned. He's took your rooms and he
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: ain't even given a name. Hall, You don't say so,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: said Hall, who was a man of sluggish apprehension. Yes,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: said Teddy. By the week. Wherever he is, you can't
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: get rid of him under the week. And he's got
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: a lot of luggage coming tomorrow, so he says, let's
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: hope it won't be stones in boxes. Howl. He told
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Hall how his aunt at Hastings had been swindled by
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: a stranger with empty portmanteau. Altogether, he left Hall vaguely suspicious.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Get up, old girl, said Hall. I suppose I must
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: see about this. Teddy trudged on his way with his
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: mind considerably relieved, instead of seeing about it. However, Hall,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: on his return was severely rated by his wife On
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: the length of time he had spent in Ciderbridge, and
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: his mild inquiries were answered snappishly and in a manner
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: not to the point. But the seed of suspicion Teddy
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: had sown germinated in the mind of mister Hall. In
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: spite of these discouragements. You win don't know anything, said
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: mister Hall. Resolved to ascertain more about the personality of
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: his guests at the earliest possible opportunity, and after the
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: stranger had gone to bed, which he did about half
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: past nine, mister Hall went very aggressively into the parlor
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: and looked very hard at his wife's furniture, just to
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: show that the stranger wasn't master there, and scrutinized closely
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: and a little contentiously a sheet of mathematical computations the
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: stranger had left. When retiring for the night, he instructed
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: Missus Hall to look very closely at the stranger's luggage
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: when it came the next day. You mind your own business,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: hall said Missus Hall, and I'll mind mine. She was
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: all the more inclined to snap it Hall, because the
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: stranger was undoubtedly an unusually strange sort of stranger, and
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: she was by no means assured about him in her
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: own mind. In the middle of the night, she woke
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: up dreaming of huge white heads like turnips that came
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: trailing after it at the end of interminable necks, and
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: with vast black eyes. But being a sensible woman, she
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: subdued her terrors and turned over and went to sleep again.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter two, Chapter three, The thousand and one Bottles.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: So it was that on the twenty ninth day of February,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: at the beginning of the thaw, this singular person fell
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: out of infinity into Iping village. Next day his luggage
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: arrived through the slush, and very remarkable luggage it was.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: There were a couple of trunks, indeed such as a
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: rational man might need. But in addition there were a
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: box of books, big fat books, of which some were
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: just in an incomprehensible handwriting, and a dozen or more crates,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: boxes and cases containing objects packed in straw. As it
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: seemed a haul tugging with a casual curiosity at the
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: straw glass bottles, the stranger, muffled in hat, coat, gloves
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: and wrapper, came out impatiently to meet Fearnside's cart, while Hall,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: who was having a word or so of gossip preparatory
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: to helping them in out. He came, not noticing Fearnside's dog,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: who was sniffing in a diletant spirit at Hall's legs.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Come along with those boxes, he said, I've been waiting
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: long enough, and he came down the steps towards the
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: tail of the cart, as if to lay hands on
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: the smaller crate. No sooner had fear Inside's dog caught
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: sight of him, however, than it began to bristle and
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: growl savagely, and when he rushed down the steps, it
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: gave an undecided hop, and then sprang straight at his hand. Whew,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: cried Hall, jumping back, for he was no hero with dogs,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: and fear Inside howled lie down and snatched his whip.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: They saw the dog's teeth had slipped the hand, heard
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: a kick, saw the dog excute a flanking jub and
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: get home on the stranger's leg, and heard the rip
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: of his trousering. Then the finer end of fear Inside's
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: whip reached his property, and the dog, yelping with dismay,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: retreated under the wheels of the wagon. All the business
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: of a swift half minute. No one spoke, Everyone shouted.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: The stranger glanced swiftly at his torn glove and at
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: his leg, made as if he would stoop to the latter,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: then turned and rushed swiftly up the steps into the inn.
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: They heard him go headlong across the passage and up
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: the uncarpeted steps to his bedroom. You brute, you, said Fearnside,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: climbing off the wagon with his whip in his hand,
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: while the dog watched him through the wheel. Come here,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: said Fearnside. You'd better Hall had stood gaping. He was bit,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: said Hall, I'd better go to see to him, and
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: he trotted after the stranger. He met missus Hall in
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: the passage. Carriers dug he said, bitten. He went straight upstairs,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: and the stranger's door, being ajar, he pushed it open
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: and was entering without any ceremony, Being of a naturally
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: sympathetic turn of mind. The blind was down and the
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: room dim. He caught a glimpse of a most singular thing,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: what seemed handless arm waving towards him, and a face
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: of three huge indeterminate spots on white, very like the
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: face of a pale pansy. Then he was struck violently
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: in the chest, hurled back, and the door slammed in
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: his face and locked. It was so rapid that he
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: gave him no time to observe a waving of indecipherable shapes,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: a blow, and a concussion. There he stood on the
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: dark little landing, wondering what it might have been that
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: he had seen. A couple of minutes later he rejoined
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: the little group that had formed outside the coach and horses.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: There was fear inside, telling about it all over again
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: for the second time. There was missus Hall saying his
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: dog didn't have no business to bite her guests. There
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: was Huckster, the general dealer from over the road, interrogative,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: and Sandy Wedges from the forge judicial, besides women and children,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: all of them saying fatuities. I wouldn't let him bite me.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: I knows it hasn't right to have such dogs. What
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: are he biten for? Then? And so forth, Miss Hall,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: staring at them from the steps and listening, found it
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: incredible that he had seen anything so very remarkable happen
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: at says, besides, his vocabulary was altogether too limited to
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: express his impressions. He don't want no help, He says
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: he said, in answer to his wife's inquiry, we'd better
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: be taken of his luggage in yourtabit quterized at once,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: said mister Huckster, especially if it's all inflamed, I'd shoot,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: and That's what I'd do, said her lady in the group.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Suddenly the dog began growling again. Come along, cried an
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: angry voice in the doorway, and there stood the muffled stranger,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: with his collar turned up and his hat brim bent down.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: The sooner you get those things in, the better I'll
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: be pleased. It is stated by an anonymous bystander that
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: his trousers and gloves had been changed. Was you urt, sir,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: said fearnside. I'm rare sorry that I'd not a bit,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: said the stranger. Never broke the skin. Hurry up with
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: those things, he then swore to himself, said mister Hall
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: asserts directly. The first crate was in in accordance with
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: his directions, carried into the parlor. The stranger flung himself
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: upon it with extraordinary eagerness and began to unpack it,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: scattering the straw with an utter disregard of missus Hall's carpet,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: and from it, he began to produce bottles, little fat
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: bottles containing powders, small and slender bottles containing colored and
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: white fluids, fluted blue bottles, labeled poison, bottles with round
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: bodies and slender necks, large green glass bottles, large white
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: glass bottles, bottles with glass stoppers and frosted labels, bottles
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: with fine corks, bottles with bungs, bottles with wooden caps,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: wine bottles, salad oil bottles, putting them in rows on
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: the chiffonnier, on the mantle, on the table, under the window,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: round the floor, on the bookshelf, everywhere. The chemist's shop
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: in Bramblehurst could not boast half so many. Quite a sight.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: It was. Crate after crate yielded bottles, until all six
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: were empty and the table high with straw. The only
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: things that came out of these crates beside the bottles
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: were a number of test tubes and a carefully packed balance,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: And directly the crates were unpacked. The stranger went to
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: the window and set to work, not troubling in the
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: least about the litter of straw, the fire which had
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: gone out, the box of books outside, nor for the
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: trunks and other luggage that had gone upstairs. When missus
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Hall took his dinner to him, he was already so
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: absorbed in his work pouring little drops out of the
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: bottles in test tubes, that he did not hear her
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: until she had swept away the bulk of the straw
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: and put the tray on the table with some little emphasis,
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: perhaps seeing the state that her floor was in. Then
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: he half turned his head and immediately turned it away again.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: But she saw he had removed his glasses. They were
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: beside him on the table, and it seemed to her
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: that his eye sockets were extraordinarily hollow. He put on
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: his spectacles again, and then turned and faced her. She
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: was about to complain of the straw on the floor
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: when he anticipated her. I wish you wouldn't come in
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: without knocking, he said, in the tone of abnormal exasperation
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: that seemed so characteristic of him. I noted, but seemingly
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: perhaps you did. But in my investigations, my really very
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: urgent and necessary investigations, the slightest disturbance the jar of
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: a door. I must ask you, certainly, sir, you can
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: turn the lock if you're like that, You know, any
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: time a very good idea, said the stranger. This straw, sir,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: If I can be so bold as to remark, don't
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: if the straw makes trouble, put it down in the bill.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: And he mumbled at her words suspiciously like curses. He
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: was so odd standing there, so aggressive and explosive, bottle
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: in one hand and test tube in the other, that
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: Missus Hall was quite alarmed. But she was a resolute woman,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: in which case I should like to know her. What
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: you consider a shilling? Put down a shilling. Surely a
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: shilling's enough, So be it, said missus Hall, taking up
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: the tablecloth and beginning to spread it over the table.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: If you're satisfied, of course, he turned and sat down
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: with his coat collar to water. All the afternoon he
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: worked with the door locked, and, as missus Hall testifies,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: for the most part, in silence. But once there was
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: a concussion and a sound of bottles ringing together as
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: though the table had been hit, and the smash of
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: a bottle it flung violently down, and then a rapid
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: pacing athwart the room. Fearing something was the matter, she
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: went to the door and listened, not caring to knock.
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: I can't go on, he was raving, I can't go
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: on three hundred thousand, four hundred thousand. The huge multitude
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: cheated all my life. It may take me patience, patience
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: indeed full fool. There was a noise of hob nails
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: on the bricks in the bar, and missus Hall had
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: very reluctantly to leave the rest of his soliloquy. When
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: she returned, the room was silent again, save for the
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: faint crepitation of his chair and the occasional clink of
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: a bottle. It was all over. The stranger had resumed
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: his work. When she took in his tea, she saw
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: broken glass in the corner of the room, under the
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: concave mirror, and a golden stain that had been carelessly wiped.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: She called attention to it. Put it down in the bill,
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: snapped her visitor. For God's sake, don't worry me if
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: there's damage done. Put it down in the bill, and
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: he went on ticking a list in the exercise book
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: before him. I'll tell you something, said Fernside mysteriously. It
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: was late in the afternoon, and they were in a
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: little beer shop of eyepink hanger. Well, said Teddy Henry.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: This chap, you're speaking of what my dog bit. Well,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: he's black leastways his legs are I seed, through the
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: terear of his trousers and the tear of his glove.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: You'd have expected a sort of pinky to show, wouldn't you. Well,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: there wasn't none, just blackness. I tell you he's as
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: black as my hat, my sex, said Henfrey. It's a
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: rummy case altogether. Why his nose is as pink as paint,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: that's true, said Vernside. I knows that, and I tell
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: you why. I'm thinking that man's a pie bold teddy,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: black here and white there in patches, and he's ashamed
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: of it. He's a kind of art breed, and the
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: colors come off patchy instead of mixing. I've heard of
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: such things before, and it's the common way with horses,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: as anyone can see. Chapter four, mister Cuss interviews the Stranger.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: I have told the circumstances of the Stranger's arrival in
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Iping with a certain fullness of detail, in order that
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: the curious impression he created may be understood by the reader.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: But accepting two odd incidents, the circumstances of his stay
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: until the extraordinary day of the club festival may be
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: passed over very cursorily. There were a number of skirmishes
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: with missus Hall on matters of domestic discipline, but in
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: every case until late eighth, when the first signs of
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: penury began, he overwrote her by the easy expedient of
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: an extra payment. Hall did not like him, and whenever
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: he dared, he talked of the advisability of getting rid
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: of him. But he showed his dislike chiefly by concealing
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: it ostentatiously and avoiding his visitor as much as possible.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: Wait till the summer, said missus Hall, sagely, when the
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: artists are beginning to come. Then we'll see. He may
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: be a bit overbearing, but Bill's settled punctual. Is Bill
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: settled punctual? Whatever you'd like to say. The stranger did
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: not go to church, and indeed made no difference between
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: Sunday and the irreligious days, even in costume. He worked,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: as Missus Hall thought, very fitfully. Some days he would
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: come down early and be continuously busy. On others he
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: would rise late, pace his room, fretting audibly for hours together,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: smoke sleep in the armchair by the fire, communication with
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: the world beyond the village, he had none. His temper
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: continued very uncertain. For the most part. His manner was
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: that of a man suffering under almost unendurable provocation, and
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: once or twice things were snapped, torn, crushed, or broken
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: in spasmodic gusts of violence. He seemed under a chronic
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: irritation of the greatest intensity. His habit of talking to
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: himself in a low voice grew steadily upon him. But
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: though missus Hall listened conscientiously, as she could make neither
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: head nor tail of what she heard. He rarely went
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: abroad by daylight, but at twilight he would go out,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: muffled up invisibly, whether the weather were cold or not,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: and he chose the loneliest paths and those most overshadowed
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: by trees and banks. His goggling spectacles and ghastly bandaged
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: face under the penthouse of his hat came with a
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: disagreeable suddenness out of the darkness upon one or two
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: home going laborers, and Teddy Henry, tumbling out of the
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: scarlet coat one night at half past nine, was scared
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: shamefully by the stranger's skull like head. He was walking,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: hat in hand lit by the sudden light of the
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: opened inn door. Such children as saw him at nightfall
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: dreamt of bogies. And it seemed doubtful whether he disliked
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: boys more than they disliked him, or the reverse, But
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: there was certainly a vivid enough dislike on either side.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: It was inevitable that a person of so remarkable an
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: appearance and bearing should form a frequent topic in such
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: a village as iping opinion was greatly divided about his occupation.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Missus Hall was sensitive on the point. When questioned, she
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: explained very carefully that he was an experimental investigator, going
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: gingerly over the syllables as one who dreads pitfalls. When
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: asked what an experimental investigator was, she would say, with
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: a touch of superiority, that most educated people knew such
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: things as that, and would thus explain that he'd discovered things.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: Her visitor had had an accident, she said, which temporarily
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: discolored his face and hands, and being of a sensitive disposition,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: he was averse to any public notice of the fact.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: Out of her hearing, there was a view largely entertained
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: that he was a criminal trying to escape from justice
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: by wrapping himself up so as to conceal himself altogether
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: from the eye of the police. This idea sprang from
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: the brain of mister Teddy Henfrey. No crime of any
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: magnitude dating from the middle or end of February was
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: known to have occurred. Elaborated in the imagination of mister Gould,
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: the probationary assistant in the National School. This theory took
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: the form that the stranger was an anarchist in disguise
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: preparing explosives, and he resolved to undertake such detective operations
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: as his time permitted. These consisted, for the most part,
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: in looking very hard at the stranger whenever they met,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: or in asking people who had never seen the stranger
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: leading questions about him, but he detected nothing. Another school
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: of opinion followed mister Fernside and either accepted the Piebald
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: view or some modification of it, as for instance, Silas Durgan,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: who was heard to assert, if he chose to show
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: himself at fairs, he'll make his fortune in no time,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: and being a bit of a theologian, compared the stranger
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: to the man with the one talent. Yet another view
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: explained the entire man by regarding the stranger as a
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: harmless lunatic that had the advantage of accounting for everything
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: straight away. Between these main groups there were waverers and compromises.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: Sussex folk have few superstitions, and it was only after
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: the events of early April that the thought of the
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: supernatural was first whispered in the village. Even then it
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: was only credited among the womenfolk. But whatever they thought
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: of him, people in iping on the whole agreed in
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: disliking him. His irritability, though it might have been comprehensible
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: to an urban brain worker, was an amazing thing to
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: these quiet Sussex villagers. The frantic gesticulations they surprised now
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: and then, the headlong pace after nightfall that swept him
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: upon them round quiet corners, the inhuman bludgeoning of all
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: tense of advances of curiosity, the taste for twilight that
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: led to the closing of doors, the pulling of blinds,
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: the extinction of candles and lamps. Who could agree with
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: such goings on, they drew aside as he passed down
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: the village, and when he had gone by, young humorists
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: would go up with coat collars and down with hat brims,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: and go pacing nervously after him, in imitation of his
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: occult bearing. There was a song popular at that time
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: called the Bogie Man. Miss Satchell sang it in the
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: schoolroom concert in aid of the church lamps, and thereafter,
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: whenever one of the two villages were gathered together and
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: the stranger appeared, a bar or so of this tune,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: more or less sharp or flat, was whistled in the
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: midst of them. Also, belated little children would call bogie
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: Man after him and make off tremulously elated. Cuss the
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: general practitioner was devoured by curiosity. The bandages excited his
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: professional interest. The report of the thousand and one bottles
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: aroused his jealous regard. All through April and May he
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: coveted an opportunity of talking to the stranger, and at last,
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: towards whitsuntide, he could stand it no longer, but hit
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: upon the subscription list for a village nurse as an excuse.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: He was surprised to find that mister Hall did not
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: know his guest's name. He give a name, said missus Hall,
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: an assertion which was quite unfounded. But I didn't rightly
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: hear it. She thought it seemed so silly, not to
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: know the man's name. Cuss rapped at the parlor door
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: and entered. There was a fairly audible imprecation from within.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Pardon my intrusion, said Cuss, and then the door closed
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: and cut missus Hall off from the rest of the conversation.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: She could hear the murmur of voices for the next
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: ten minutes. Then a cry of surprise, a stirring of feet,
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: a chair flung aside, a bark of laughter. Quick steps
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: to the door, and Cuss appeared, his face white, his
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: eyes staring over his shoulder. He left the door open
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: behind him, and without looking at her, strode across the
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: hall and went down the steps, and she heard his
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: feet hurrying along the road. He carried his hat in
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: his hand. She stood behind the door, looking at the
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: open door of the parlor. Then she heard the stranger
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: laughing quietly, and his footsteps came across the room. She
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: could not see his face where she stood. The parlor
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: door slammed and the place was silent again. Cuss went
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: straight up to the village to bunting the vicar. Am
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: I mad, Cuss began abruptly as he entered the shabby
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: little study. Do I look like an insane person. What's happened,
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: said the vicar, putting the ammonite on the loose sheets
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: of his forthcoming salmon the chap at the inn. Well,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: give me something to drink, said cuss, and he sat down.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: When his nerves had been steadied by a glass of
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: cheap sherry, the only drink the good vicar had available.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: He told him of the interview he had just had.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: Went in. He gasped and began to demand a subscription
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: for that nurse fund. He'd stuck his hands in his
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: pockets as I came in, and he sat down lumpily
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: in his chair, sniffed. I told him I'd heard he
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: took an interest in scientific things. He said yes, sniffed again,
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: kept on sniffing all the time, evidently recently caught an
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: infernal cold. When no wonder wrapped up like that, I
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: developed the nurse idea, and all the while kept my
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: eyes open. Bottles chemicals everywhere, balance test tubes in stands,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: and a smell of evening primrose. Would he subscribe? Said
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: he'd considered him. Asked him point blank what he researching?
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: Said he was a long research got quite cross, a
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: damnable long research said, he blowing the cork out so
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: to speak, Oh, said I, and out came the grievance.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: The man was just on the boil, and my question
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: boiled him over. He had been given a prescription, a
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: most valuable prescription, although what for he wouldn't say. Was
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: it medical? Damn you? What are you fishing? After I apologized,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: dignified sniff and cough, he resumed he'd read it five ingredients,
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: put it down, turned his head, draft of air from window,
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: lifted the paper swish rustle. He was working in a
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: room with an open fireplace. He saw saw a flicker,
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: and there was the prescription burning and lifting chimneywood rushed
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: towards it, just as it whisked up the chimney. So,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: just at that point, to illustrate his story, out came
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: his arm. Well, no hand, just an empty sleeve. Lord.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: I thought, that's a deformity. Got a cork arm, I suppose,
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: and has taken it off. Then I thought, there's something
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: odd in that. What the devil keeps the sleeve up
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: and open if there's nothing in it? There was nothing
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: in it, I tell you, nothing down it right down
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: to the joint. I could see right down it to
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: the elbow, and there was a glimmer of light shining
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: in through a tear of cloth. Good God, I said.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: Then he stopped, stared at me with those black goggles
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: of his, and then at his sleeve. Well that's all.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: He never said a word, just glared and put his
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: sleeve back in his pocket. Quietly, I was saying, said
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: he that there was the prescription burning, wasn't I interrogative? Cough?
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: How the devil said, I can you move an empty
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: sleeve like that? Empty sleeve? Yes, said I, an empty sleeve.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: It's an empty sleeve, is it? You saw it as
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: an empty sleeve? He stood up right away. I stood
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: up too. He came towards me in three very slow steps,
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: and stood quite close sniffed venomously. I didn't flinch, though
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: I'm hanged if that bandage knob of his and those
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: blinkers aren't enough to unnerve anyone coming quietly up to you.
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: You said it was an empty sleeve, he said, certainly,
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: I said, At staring and saying nothing, A bare faced man,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: unspectacled starts scratch. Then very quietly he pulled his sleeve
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: out of his pocket again and raised his arm towards me,
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: as though he would show it to me again. He
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: did it very, very slowly. I looked at it. Seemed
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: an age, well, said I, clearing my throat. There's nothing
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: in it. I had to say something. I was beginning
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: to feel frightened. I could see right down it. He
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: extended it straight towards me, slowly, slowly, just like that,
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: until the cuff was six inches from my face. Queer
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: thing to see an empty sleeve come at you like that.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: And then well, something exactly like a finger and thumb.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: It felt nipped my nose bunting. Began to laugh. There
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: wasn't anything there, said Cuss, his voice running up into
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: a shriek at the there. It's all very well for
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: you to laugh, but I tell you, I was so startled.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: I hit his cuff hard and turned around and cut
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: out of the room. I left him. Cuss stopped. There
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: was no mistaking the sincerity of his panic. He turned
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: round in a helpless way and took a second glass
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: of the excellent Vicars very inferior sherry. When I hit
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: his cuff, said Cuss, I tell you, it felt exactly
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: like hitting an arm. And there wasn't an arm. There
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: wasn't the ghost of an arm. Mister Bunting thought it over.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: He looked suspiciously at cuss. It's a most remarkable story,
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: he said. He looked very wise and grave. Indeed, it's really,
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: said mister Bunting, with judicial emphasis, a most remarkable story.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter four, Chapter five, The burglary at the Vicarage.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: The facts of the burglary at the Vicarage came to
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: us chiefly through the medium of the vicar and his wife.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: It occurred in the small hours of whit Monday, the
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: day devoted in iping to the club festivities. Missus Bunting,
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: it seems, woke up suddenly, in the stillness that comes
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: before the dawn, with the strong impression that the door
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: of their bedroom had opened and closed. She did not
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: arouse her husband at first, but sat up in bed listening.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: She then distinctly heard the pad pad of bare feet
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: coming out of the adjoining dressing room and walking along
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: the passage towards the staircase. As soon as she felt
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: assured of this, she roused the reverend mister Bunting as
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: quietly as possible. He did not strike a light, but
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: putting on his spectacles her dressing gown and his bath slippers.
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: He went out on to the landing to listen. He
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: heard quite distinctly a fumbling going on at his study
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: desk downstairs, and then a violent sneeze. At that he
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: returned to his bedroom, armed himself with the most obvious weapon,
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: the poker, and descended the staircase as noiselessly as possible.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: Mister Bunting came out on the landing. The hour was
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: about four and the ultimate darkness of the night was past.
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: There was a faint shimmer of light in the hall,
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: but the study doorway yawned impenetrably black. Everything was still
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: except the faint creaking of the stairs under mister Bunting's tread,
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: and the slight movements in the study. Then something snapped.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: The drawer was open, and there was a rustle of papers.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: Then came in an imprecation, and a match was struck,
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: and the study was flooded with yellow light. Mister Bunting
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: was now in the hall, and through the crack in
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: the door he could see the desk and the open drawer,
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: and a candle burning on the desk, but the robber
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: he could not see. He stood there in the hall
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: undecided what to do, and Missus Bunting, her face white
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: and intent, crept slowly downstairs after him. One thing kept
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: mister Bunting's courage, the persuasion that this burglar was a
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: resident in the village. They heard the chink of money
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: and realized that the robber had found the housekeeping reserve
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: of gold two pounds ten in half sovereigns altogether. At
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: that sound, mister Bunting was nerved to abrupt action. Gripping
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: the poker firmly, he rushed into the room, closely followed
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: by Missus Bunting. Surrender, cried mister Bunting fiercely, and then
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: stooped amazed. Apparently the room was perfectly empty, yet their
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: conviction that they had that very moment heard someone moving
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: in the room had amounted to a certainty. For half
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: a minute, perhaps they stood gaping. Then Missus Bunting went
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: across the room and looked behind the screen, while mister Bunting,
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: by a kindred impulse, peered under the desk. Then Missus
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: Bunting turned back the window curtains, and mister Bunting looked
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: up the chimney and probed it with the poker. Then
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: Missus Bunting scrutinized the waste paper pocket and mister Bunting
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: opened the lid of the coalscuttle. Then they came to
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: a stop and stood with eyes interrogating each other. I
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: could have sworn, said mister Bunting. The candle, said Missus Bunting,
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: who lit the candle? The drawer, said mister Bunting, And
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: the money's gone. She went hastily to the doorway Off
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: all the strange occurrences. There was a violent sneeze in
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: the passage. They rushed out, and as they did so,
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: the kitchen door slammed. Bring the candle, said mister Bunting,
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: and led the way. They both heard a sound of
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: bolts being hastily shot back. As he opened the kitchen door,
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: he saw through the scullery that the back door was
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: just opening, and the faint light of early dawn displayed
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: the dark masses of the garden beyond. He's certain that
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: nothing went out of the door. It opened, stood open
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: for a moment, and then closed with a slam. As
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: it did so, the candle Missus Bunting was carrying from
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: the study flickered and flared. It was a moment or
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: more before they entered the kitchen, the place was empty.
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: They refastened the back door, examined the kitchen, pantry and
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: scullery thoroughly, and at last went down into the cellar.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: There was not a soul to be found in the
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: ha search as they would. Daylight found the vicar and
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: his wife, a quaintly costumed little couple, still marveling about
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: on their own ground floor by the unnecessary light of
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: her guttering candle. Chapter six. The Furniture that Went Mad.
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: Now it happened that in the early hours of whit Monday,
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: before Milly was hunted out for the day, mister Hall
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: and Missus Hall both rose and went noiselessly down into
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: the cellar. Their business there was of a private nature
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: and had something to do with the specific gravity of
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: their beer. They had hardly entered the cellar when Missus
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: Hall found she had forgotten to bring down a bottle
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: of sasparilla from their joint room. As she was the
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: expert and principal operator in this affair, Hall, they properly
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: went upstairs for it. On the landing, he was surprised
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: to see that the stranger's door was a jarm. He
• 50:56
  Speaker 1: went on into his own room and found the bottle
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: as he had been directed. But returning with the bottle,
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: he noticed that the bolts of the front door had
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: been shot back, that the door was in fact simply
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: on the latch, And with a flash of inspiration, he
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: connected this with the stranger's room upstairs and the suggestions
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: of mister Teddy Henry. He distinctly remembered holding the candle
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: while missus Hall shot these bolts over night. At the sight,
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: he stopped gaping, then, with the bottle still in his hand,
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: went upstairs again. He rapped at the stranger's door. There
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: was no answer. He rapped again, then pushed the door
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: wide open and entered. It was as he had expected
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: the bed the room also was empty, and what was
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: stranger even to his heavy intelligence. On the bedroom chair
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: and along the rail of the bed were scattered the garments,
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: the only garments so far as he knew, and the
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: bandages of their guest. His big slouch hat even was
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: cocked jauntily over the bed post. As Hall stood there,
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: he heard his wife's voice coming out of the depth
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: of the cellar. With that rapid test scoping of the
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: syllables and interrogative cocking up of the final words to
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: have high note by which the West Sussex villager is
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: wont to indicate a brisk impatience. George, you go why
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: want at that? He turned and hurried down to it. Janny,
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: he staid over the rail of the cellar steps, TuS
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: the truth. Why every says he's not in his roomy
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: end and the front door is unbolted. At first Missus
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: Hall did not understand, and as soon as she did
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: she resolved to see the empty room for herself. Hall,
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: still holding the bottle, went first. If he ain't there,
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: he said, his clothes are? And what was he doing
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: without his clothes? Then to the most curious business. As
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: they came up the cellar steps, they both it was
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: afterwards ascertained, fancied. They heard the front door open and shut,
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: but seeing it closed and nothing there, neither said a
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: word to the other about it. At the time. Missus
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: Hall passed her husband in the passage and ran on
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: first upstairs. Someone sneezed on the staircase. Hall, following six
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: steps behind, thought that he heard her sneeze. She going
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: on first, was under the pression that Hall was sneezing.
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: She flung open the door and stood regarding the room
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: of all A curious she said, she heard a sniff
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: close behind her head, as it seemed in turning, was
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: surprised to see Hall a dozen feet off on the
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: topmost stair, But in another moment he was beside her.
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: She bent forward and put her hand on the pillow,
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: and then under the clothes cold she said, he's been
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: up this hour or more. As she did so, a
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: most extraordinary thing happened. The bedclothes gathered themselves together, leaped
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: suddenly into a sort of peak, and then jumped headlong
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: over the bottom rail. It was exactly as if a
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: hand had clutched them in the center and flung them aside.
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: Immediately after, the Stranger's hat hopped off the bedpost described
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: a whirling flight in the air through the better part
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: of a circle, and then dashed straight at missus Hall's face.
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: Then as swiftly came the sponge from the washstand, and
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: then the chair, flinging the Stranger's coat and trousers carelessly,
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: as and laughing dryly in a voice singularly like the
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: Strangers turned itself up with its four legs at Missus
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: Hall seemed to take aim at her for a moment,
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: and then charged at her. She screamed and turned, and
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: then the chair legs came gently but firmly against her
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: back and impelled her and Hall out of the room.
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: The door slammed violently and was locked. The chair and
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: bed seemed to be executing a dance of triumph for
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: a moment, then abruptly everything was still. Missus Hall was
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: left almost in a fainting condition in mister Hall's arms
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: on the landings. It was with the greatest difficulty that
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: mister Hall and Milly, who had been roused by her
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: scream of alarm, succeeded in getting her down stairs and
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: implying the rectitives customary in such cases. Tis spirits, said
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: missus Hall. I noticed spirits. I read in papers and
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: tables and chairs, leaping and dancing. Take a drop more, Jenny,
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: said Hall. Twell, steady, lock him out, said missus Hall.
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: Don't let him come in again. I half guessed I
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: might have known, with them goggling eyes and bandaged head,
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: and never going to church of a Sunday and all
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: day bottles morn. It's right for anyone to have he's
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: put the spirits into the furniture, my good old furniture.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: Twas in that chair my very dear poor mother used
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: to sit when I was a little girl, to think
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: it should rise up against me. Now, just to drop more,
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: Janny said, Hall, your nerves is all upset. They sent
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: Millie across the street through the golden five o'clock sunshine
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: to rouse up mister Sandy Wadgers, the blacksmith. Mister Hall's compliments,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: and the furniture upstairs was behaving most extraordinary. Would mister
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: Wadgers come round? He was a knowing man, was mister Watchers,
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: and very resourceful. He took quite a grave view of
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: the case. I am damned if that in witchcraft was
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: the view of mister Sandy Wadgers. You want oars shoes
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: for such gentry as he. He came round, greatly concerned.
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: They want him to lead the way upstairs to the room,
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: but he didn't seem to be in any hurry. He
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: preferred to talk in the passage over the way. Huckster's
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: apprentice came out and began taking down the shutters of
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: the tobacco window. He was called over to join the discussion.
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: Mister Huxton naturally followed over. In the course of a
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: few minutes, the Anglo Saxon genius for parliamentary Government asserted itself.
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: There was a great deal of talk and no decisive action.
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: Let's have the facts first, insisted mister Sandy Wadgers. Let's
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: be sure we be acting perfectly right in busting that
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: their door open. A door onbust is always open to busting,
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: but you can't onbust the door once you've busted in.
• 56:40
  Speaker 1: And suddenly, and most wonderfully, the door of the room
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: upstairs opened of its own accord, And as they looked
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: up in amazement, they saw descending the stairs the muffled
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: figure of the stranger, staring more blankly and blankly than
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: ever before, with those unreasonably large blue glass eyes of his.
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: He came down, stiffly and slowly, staring all the time.
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: He walked across the passage, staring, and then stopped. Look there,
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: he said, And their eyes followed the direction of his
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: gloved finger, and saw a bottle of sasparilla hard by
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: the cellar door. Then he entered the parlor and suddenly, swiftly,
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: viciously slammed the door in their faces. Not a word
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: was spoken until the last echoes of the slam had
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: died away. They stared at one another. Well, if that
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: don't lick everything, said mister Wadgers, and left the alternative unsaid.
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: I'd go in and ask about it, said Wadgers to
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: mister Hall, I'd demand an explanation. It took some time
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: to bring the landlady's husband up to that pitch. At
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: last he rapped, opened the door and got as far
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: as excuse me, go to the devil, said the stranger,
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: in a tremendous voice, and shut that door after you.
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: Or so. That brief interview terminated Chapter seven, The Unveiling
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: of the Stranger. The stranger went into the little parlor
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: of the Coach and Horses about half past five in
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: the morning, and there he remained until near midday, the
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: blinds down, the door shut, and none after Haul's repulse
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: venturing near him all that time. He must have fasted thrice.
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: He rang his bell, the third time furiously and continuously,
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: but no one answered him. M And as go to
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: the devil, indeed, said missus Hall. Presently came an imperfect
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: rumor of the burglary at the vicarage, and two and
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: two were put together. Hall, assisted by wadgers, went off
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: to find mister Shuckleforth, the magistrate, and take his advice.
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: No one ventured upstairs. How the stranger occupied himself is
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: unknown now. And then he would stride violently up and down,
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: and twice came an outburst of curses, a tearing of paper,
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: and a violent smashing of bottles. The little group of
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: sc gared but curious people increased. Missus Huckster came over
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: some gay young fellow's respondent in black, ready made jackets
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: and pek paper ties. For it was whit Monday joined
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: the group with confused interrogations. Young Archie Harker distinguished himself
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: by going up the yard and trying to peep under
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: the window blinds. He could see nothing, but gave reason
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: for supposing that he did, and others of the iping
• 59:23
  Speaker 1: youth presently joined him. It was the finest of all
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: possible whit mondays. And down the village street stood a
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: row of nearly a dozen booths, a shooting gallery, and
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: on the grass by the forge were three yellow and
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: chocolate wagons, and some picturesque strangers of both sexes putting
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: up a coconut sigh. A gentleman wore blue jerseys, the
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: ladies white aprons, and quite fashionable hats with heavy plumes.
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: Wadger of the Purple Fawn, and mister Jaggers, the cobbler
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: who also sold old second hand ordinary bicycles, were stretching
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: a string of Union Jack's and Royal ensigns, which had
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: originally celebrated the first Victorian Jubilee across the road and inside,
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: in the artificial darkness of the parlor, into which only
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: one thin jet of sunlight penetrated. The stranger, hungry, we
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: must suppose, and fearful, hidden in his uncomfortable hot trappings,
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: poured through his dark glasses upon his paper, or chinked
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: his dirty little bottles, and occasionally swore savagely at the boys. Audible,
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: if invisible outside the windows. In the corner by the
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: fireplace lay the fragments of half a dozen smashed bottles,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: and a pungent twang of chlorine tainted the air. So
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: much we know from what was heard at the time
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: and from what was subsequently seen in the room. At noon,
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: he suddenly opened his parlor door and stood glaring fixedly
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: at the three or four people in the bar, Missus Hall,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: he said. Somebody went sheepishly and called for Missus Hall.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: Missus Hall appeared after an interval, a little short of breath,
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: but all the fiercer for that Hall was still out.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: She had deliberated over this scene, and she came holding
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: a little tray with an unsettled bill upon it. Is
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: it your bill you're wanting, sir? She said? Why wasn't
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: my breakfast laid? Why haven't you prepared my meals? And
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: answered my bell? Do you think I live without eating?
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: Why isn't my bill paid? Said missus Hall. That's what
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: I want to know. I told you three days ago
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: I was awaiting a remittance. I told you three days
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: ago I wasn't gonna await no remittances. You can't grumble
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: if your breakfast waits a bit, if my bill's been
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: waiting these five days, can you? The stranger swore briefly
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: but vividly, Nah nar from the bar, and I'd thank
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: you kindly, sir, if you'd keep your swearing to yourself, sir,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: said Missus Hall. The stranger stood, looking more like an
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: angry diving helmet than ever it was universally felt in
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: the bar that Missus Hall had the better of him.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: His next words showed as much. Look here, my good woman,
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: he began. Don't good woman me, said missus Hall. I've
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: told you my remittance hasn't come. Remittance indeed, said missus Hall. Still,
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: I daresay in my pocket you told me three days
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: ago that you hadn't anything but a sovereign's worth of
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: silver upon you. Well, I've found some more ullo from
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: the bar. I wonder where you found it, said missus Hall.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: That seemed to annoy the stranger very much. He stamped
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: his foot. What do you mean, he said that, I
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: wonder where you found it, said missus Hall. And before
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: I take any bills, or get any breakfast, or do
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: any such things whatsoever, you've got to tell me two
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: things I don't understand, and what nobody don't understand, and
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: what everybody is very anxious to understand. I want to
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: know what you've been doing to my chair upstairs. And
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: I want to know how tis your room was empty,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: and how you got in again. Them as stops in
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: this house comes in by the doors, that's the roll
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: of the house, and that you didn't do. And what
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: I want to know is how you did come in,
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: and I want to know. Suddenly the stranger raised his
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: gloved hands, clenched, stamped his foot, and said stop, with
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: such extraordinary violence that he silenced her instantly. You don't understand,
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: he said, who I am or what I am? I'll
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: show you. By Heaven, I'll show you. Then he put
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: his open palm over his face and withdrew it. The
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: center of his face became a black cavity. Here, he said.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: He stepped forward and handed Missus Hall something, which she
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: staring at his metamorphosed face, except automatically. Then when she
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: saw what it was, she screamed loudly, dropped it and
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: staggered back the nose. It was the Stranger's nose, pink
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: and shining, rolled on the floor. Then he removed his spectacles,
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: and everyone in the bar gasped. He took off his
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: hat and with a violent gesture, tore at his whiskers
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: and bandages. For a moment they resisted him, a flash
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: of horrible anti disipation passed through the bar. Oh my god,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: said someone. Then off they came. It was worse than anything.
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: Missus Hall, standing open mouthed and horror struck, shrieked at
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: what she saw and made for the door of the house.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: Everyone began to move. They were prepared for scars, disfigurements,
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: tangible horrors, but nothing. The bandages and false hair flew
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: across the passage into their bar, making a hobbledehoy jump
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: to avoid them. Everyone tumbled on everyone else down the steps.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: For the man who stood there, shouting some incoherent explanation,
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: was a solid, gesticulating figure up to the coat collar
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: of him, and then nothingness, no visible thing at all.
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: People down the village heard shouts and shrieks, and looking
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: up the street, saw the coach and horses violently firing
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: out its humanity. Then they saw missus Hall fall down
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: and mister Teddy Henfrey jump to avoid tumbling over her.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: And then they heard the frightful screams of Milly, who
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: emerging suddenly from the kitchen at the noise of the tumult,
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: had come across the headless stranger from behind. These increased
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: suddenly forthwith everyone all down the street. The sweet stuff seller,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: cocoanut shy proprietor and his assistant, the swingman, little boys
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 1: and girls, rustic dandies, smart wrenches, smocked elders and apron
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: gypsies began running towards the inn, and in a miraculously
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: short space of time, a crowd of perhaps forty people
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: and rapidly increasing swayed and hooted and inquired and exclaimed
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: and suggested in front of Missus Hall's establishment. Everyone seemed
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: eager to talk at once, and the result was babel.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: A small group supported Missus Hall, who was picked up
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: in a state of collapse. There was a conference and
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: the incredible evidence of a vociferous eyewitness. Oh bogey, what's
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: he been doing? Then? Ain't hurt the girl? As he
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: run at an with a knife. I believe no head,
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: I tell ye. It didn't mean no manner of speaking.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: I meant man without a head, nonsense to some gunjuring
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: trick fetched off his rapin he did. In its struggles
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: to see in through the open door, the crowd formed
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: itself into a straggling wedge, with the more venturous Apex
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: nearest the inn. He stood for a moment. I heard
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: the girl scream, and he turned. I saw her skirts
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: whisk and he went after. He didn't take ten seconds back.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: He comes with a knife in his hand and a
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: loaf stood just as if he were staring not a
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: moment ago when in that there door, I tell ye,
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: he ain't got no head at all. You just missed
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: an There was a disturbance behind, and the speaker stopped
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: to step aside for a little procession that was marching
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: very resolutely towards the house. First mister Hall, very red
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: and determined. Then mister Bobby Jaffers, the village constable. Then
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: the wary mister Wadgers. They had come, now armed with
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: a warrant. People shouted conflicting information of the recent circumstances.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: Ed or no, ed, said Jaffers. I got a restin,
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: and restin I will. Mister Hall marched up the steps,
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: marched straight to the door of the parlor and flung
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: it open. Constable, he said, do your duty. Jaffers marched
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: in Hall, next, Wadgers. Last they saw in the dim
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: light the headless figure facing them, with a gnawed crust
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: of bed in one gloved hand and a chunk of
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: cheese in the other. That's him, said Hall, what's the
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: devil's This came in a tone of angry expostulation from
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: above the collar of the figure. You're a damned rum customer,
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: mister said mister Jaffers but ed or no ed the
• 1:07:47
  Speaker 1: warrants his body and duty's duty keep off, said the figure,
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: starting back abruptly, he whipped down the bread and cheese,
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: and mister Hall just grasped the knife on the table
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: in time to save it. Off came the strangers left
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: gloves and were slapped in Jaffer's face. In another moment, Jaffers,
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: cutting short some statement concerning a warrant, had gripped him
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: by the handless wrist and caught his invisible throat. He
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: got a sounding kick on the shin that made him shout,
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: but kept his grip. Hall sent the knife sliding along
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: the table to Wadgers, who acted as goalkeeper for the offensive,
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: so to speak, and then stepped forward as Jaffers and
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: the stranger swayed and staggered towards him, clutching and hitting
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: in a chair, stood in the way and went aside
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: with a crash as they came down together. Get the feet,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: said Jaffers, between his teeth. Mister Hall, endeavoring to act
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: on instructions, received a sounding kick in the ribs that
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: disposed of him for a moment, and mister Wadgers, seeing
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: the decapitated stranger, had rolled over and got the upper
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: side of Jaffers, retreated towards the door, knife in hand,
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: and so collided with mister Huckster and the citabridge carter
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: coming to the rescue of order. At the same moment,
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: down came three or four bottles from the chiffonnier and
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: shot a web of pungency in the air of the room.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: I'll surrender, cried the stranger, though he had Jaffers down,
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: and in another moment he stood up, panting, a strange figure,
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: headless and handless, for he had pulled off his right
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: glove now as well as his left. It's no good,
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: he said, as if sobbing for breath. It was the
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: strangest thing in the world to hear that voice, coming
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: as if out of empty space. But the Sussex peasants
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: are perhaps the most matter of fact people under the sun.
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: Jaffers got up also and produced a pair of handcuffs.
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: Then he stared, I say, said Jaffers, brought up short
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: by a dim realization of the incongruity of the whole business.
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: Darn it can't use him, as I can see the
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: stranger ran his arm down his waistcoat, and as if
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: by a miracle, the buttons to which his empty sleeve
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: pointed became undone. Then he said something about his shin
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: and stooped down. He seemed to be fumbling with his
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: shoes and socks. Why, said huckster suddenly, that's not a
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: man at all all, it's just empty clothes. Look, you
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: can see down his collar in the linings of his clothes.
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: I could put my arm. He extended his hand. It
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: seemed to meet something in mid air, and he drew
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: it back with a sharp exclamation. I wish you'd keep
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: your fingers out of my eye, said the aerial voice,
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: in a tone of savage expostulation. The fact is I
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 1: am all here, head, hands, legs, and all the rest.
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 1: But it happens I'm invisible. It's a confounded nuisance. But
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: I am. There's no reason why I should be poched
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: to pieces by every stupid bumpkin in iping. Is it?
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: The suit of clothes, now all unbuttoned and hanging loosely
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: upon its unseen supports stood up arms akimbo. Several other
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: of the men folks now entered the room, so that
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: it was closely crowded. Invisible, eh, said Huckster, ignoring the
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: stranger's abuse. Whoever heard the likes of that? It's strange perhaps,
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: but it's not a crime. Why am I assaulted by
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: a policeman in this fashion? Ah, that's a different matter,
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: said Jaafers. No doubt, you're a bit difficult to see
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: in this light. But I got a warrant and it's
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: all correct. What I'm after ain't no invisibility. Is burglary
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: as a house being broken into and money took well,
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: and circumstances certainly point stuff and nonsense, said the invisible man.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: I hope so, sir, But I've got my instructions. Well,
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 1: said the stranger. I'll come, I'll come, But no handcuffs.
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: It's the regular thing, said Chaffers. No handcuffs, stipulated the stranger.
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: Pardon me, said Chaffers. Abruptly. The figure sat down, and
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: before anyone could realize what was being done, the slippers,
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: socks and trousers being kicked off under the table. Then
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: he sprang up again and flung off his coat. Here
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: stop that, said Jaffers. Suddenly realizing what was happening, he
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: gripped at the waistcoat. It struggled, and the shirt slipped
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: out off it and left it limply and empty in
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: his hand. Hold him, said Jaffer as loudly. Once he
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: gets the things off, hold him, cried everyone, and there
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: was a rush at the fluttering white shirt, which was
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: now all that was visible of the stranger. The shirt
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: sleeves planted a shrewd blow in Hall's face that stopped
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: his opened armed advance and sent him backward into old
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: tutsum the sexton, and in another moment the garment was
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: lifted up became convulsed and vacantly flapping about the arms,
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: even as a shirt that is being thrust over a
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: man's head. Jaffers clutched at it and only helped to
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: pull it off. He was struck in the mouth, out
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: of the air, and incontinently threw his truncheon and smote
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: Teddy Henfrey savagely upon the crown of his head. Look Out,
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: said everybody, fencing at random and hitting at nothing. Hold him,
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: shut the door, don't let him loose. I got something here.
• 1:12:42
  Speaker 1: He is a perfect babel of noises. They made. Everybody,
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: it seemed, was being hit all at once, and sandy
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: wadgers knowing as ever, and his wits sharpened by a
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: frightful blow in the nose, reopened the door and led
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: the rout. The others following incontinently were jammed for a
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: moment in the court by the doorway. The hitting continued.
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: Phipps the Unitarian had a front tooth broken, and Henfrey
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 1: was injured in the cartilage of his ear. Jaffers was
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: struck under the jaw, and turning caught at something that
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: intervened between him and Huckster in the melee and prevented
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: their coming together. He felt a muscular chest, and in
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: another moment the whole mass of struggling, excited men shot
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: out into the crowded hall. I got him, shouted, Jaffers,
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: choking and reeling through them all and wrestling with purple
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: face and swelling veins against his unseen enemy. Men staggered
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: right and left, as the extraordinary conflict swayed swiftly towards
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: the house door and went spinning down the half dozen
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: steps of the inn. Jaffers cried in a strangled voice,
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: holding tight nevertheless and making play with his knee, spun
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: around and fell heavily undermost with his head on the gravel.
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: Only then did his fingers relax. There were excited cries
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: of hold him invisible, and so forth, and a young fellow,
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: a stranger in the place whose name did not come
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: to light, rushed in at once, caught something, missed his hold,
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: and fell over the constable's prostrate body. Half way across
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: the road, a woman screamed as something pushed by her.
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: A dog kicked, apparently yelped, and ran howling into Huckster's yard.
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: And with that the transit of the invisible man was accomplished.
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: For a space people stood amazed and gesticulating, and then
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: came panic and scattered them abroad through the village as
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: a gust scatters dead leaves, but chaffers lay quite still,
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: face upward and knees bent at the foot of the
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: steps of the inn. End of chapter seven. Chapter eight.
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: In transit. The eighth chapter is exceedingly brief and relates
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: that Gibbons, the amateur naturalist of the district, while lying
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: out on the spacious open downs without a soul within
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: a couple of miles of him, as he thought and
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: almost dozing, heard close to him the sound of a
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: man coughing, sneezing, and then swearing savagely to himself, and
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: looking beheld nothing. Yet the voice was indisputable. It continued
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: to swear with that breadth and variety that distinguished the
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: swearing of a cultivated man. It grew to a climax,
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: diminished again, and died away in the distance, going, as
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: it seemed to him, in the direction of Adadein. It
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: lifted to a spasmodic sneeze and ended. Gibbons had heard
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: nothing of the morning's occurrences, but the phenomenon was so
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: striking and disturbing that his philosophical tranquility vanished. He got
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: up hastily and hurried down the steepness of the hill
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: towards the village as fast as he could go. Chapter nine.
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: Mister Thomas Marvel. You must picture mister Thomas Marvel as
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: a person of copious flexible visage, a nose of cylindrical protrusion,
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: a licorice ample fluctuating mouth, and a beard of bristling eccentric.
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: His figure inclined to en bompois. His short limbs accentuated
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: this inclination. He wore a furry silk hat and the
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: frequent substitution of twine and shoelaces for buttons apparent at
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: critical points of his costume, marked a man essentially bachelor.
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: Mister Thomas Marvel was sitting with his feet in a
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: ditch by the roadside over the down towards Anderdean, about
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: a mile and a half out of Iping. His feet,
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: save for socks of irregular open work, were bare. His
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: big toes were broad and pricked, like the ears of
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: a watchful dog. In a leisurely manner. He did everything
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: in a leisurely manner. He was contemplating trying on a
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: pair of boots. They were the soundest boots he had
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: come across for a long time, but too large for him,
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: whereas the ones he had were in dry weather, a
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: very comfortable fit, but too thin sold for damp. Mister
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: Thomas Marvel hated roomy shoes, but then he hated damp.
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: He had never properly thought out which he hated most.
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: And it was a pleasant day, and there was nothing
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: better to do. So he put the four shoes in
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: a graceful group on the turf and looked at them,
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: and seeing them there among the grass and springing agrimony,
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: it suddenly occurred to him that both pairs were exceedingly
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: ugly to see, he was not at all startled by
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: a voice behind him. They're boots, anyhow, said the voice.
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: They are charity boots, said mister Thomas Marvel, with his
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: head on one side, regarding them distastefully. And which is
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: the ugliest pair in this whole blessed universe. I'm darned
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: if I know, hum, said the voice. I've worn worse.
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: In fact, I've worn none, but none so audacious ugly,
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: if you'll allow the expression. I've been catching boots in
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: particular for days because I was sick of them. They're
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: sound enough, of course, but a gentleman on tramp sees
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: such a thundering lot of his boots. And if you'll
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: believe me, I've raised nothing in the whole blessed country
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: our try as I would, but them look at them.
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: And a good country for boots too, in a general way.
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: But it's just my promiscuous luck. I get my boots
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: in this country ten years or more, and they treat
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: you like this. It's a beast of a country, said
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: the voice. And pigs for people, ain't it, said mister
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: Thomas Marvel. Lord, but them boots. It beats it. He
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: turned his head over to his shoulder at the right
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: to look at the boots of his interlocutor with a
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: view to comparisons, and lo Where the boots of his
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: interlocutor should have been were neither legs nor boots. He
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: was irradiated by the dawn of a great amazement. Where
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: are ye, said mister Thomas Marvel, over his shoulder, and
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: coming on all fours, he saw a stretch of empty downs,
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: with the wind swaying and remote, green pointed furze bushes.
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: Am I drunk? Said mister Marvel. Have I had visions?
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: Was I talking to myself? What the Don't be alarmed,
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: said a voice. None of your ventraloquizing me, said mister
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: Thomas Marvel, rising sharply to his feet. Where are ye alarmed? Indeed,
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: don't be alarmed, repeated the voice. You'll be alarmed in
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: a minute, you silly fool, said mister Thomas Marvel. Where
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 1: are ye? Let me get my mark on yer? Are
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: ye buried? Said mister Thomas Marvel. After an interval, there
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: was no answer. Mister Thomas Marvel stood bootless and amazed,
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: his jacket nearly thrown off peeweat, said a Peewitt, very
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: remote Peewit, indeed, said mister Thomas Marvel. This ain't no
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: time for foolery. The down was desolate east and west,
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 1: north and south. The road, with its shallow ditches and
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: white bordering stakes, ran smooth and empty north and south.
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: And save for that peewit, the blue sky was empty too.
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: So help me, said mister Thomas Marvel, shuffling his coat
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: on to his shoulders. Again. It's the drink. I might
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: have known. It's not the drink, said the voice. You
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: keep your nerves steady, oh, said mister Marvel, and his
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: face grew white amidst its patches. It's the drink, his
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: lips repeated, noiselessly. He remained staring about him, rotating slowly backwards.
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: He could have swore I heard a voice, he whispered.
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: Of course you did. It's there again, said mister Marvel,
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: closing his eyes and clasping his hand on his brow
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: with a tragic gesture. He was suddenly taken by the
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 1: collar and shaken violently, and left more dazed than ever.
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: Don't be a fool, said the voice. I'm off my
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: bloomin chump, said mister Marvel. It's no good. It's fretting
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: about them blasted boots. I'm off my blessed bloom in chump,
• 1:20:27
  Speaker 1: or it's spirits. Neither one thing nor the other, said
• 1:20:31
  Speaker 1: the voice. Listen, chump, said mister Marvel. One minute, said
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: the voice, penetratingly tremulous with self control, Well, said mister
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: Thomas Marvel, with a strange feeling of having been dug
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: in the chest by a finger. You think I'm just imagination,
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: Just imagination, What else can you be, said mister Thomas Marvel,
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: rubbing the back of his neck. Very well, said the voice,
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: in a tone of relief. Then I'm going to throw
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: flints at you until you think differently. But what are yer?
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: The voice made no answer. Whiz came a flint, apparently
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: out of the air, and missed mister Marvell's shoulder by
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 1: a hair's breadth. Mister Marvell, turning, saw a flint jerk
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: up into the air, trace a complicated path, hang for
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: a moment, then fling at his feet with almost invisible rapidity.
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: He was too amazed to dodge. Whizz It came and
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: ricocheted from a bare toe into the ditch. Mister Thomas
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: Marvell jumped a foot and howled aloud. Then he started
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: to run, tripped over an unseen obstacle, and came head
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: overheeled into a sitting position. Now, said the voice, as
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: a third stone curved upward and hung in the air
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: above the tramp, am I imagination? Mister Marvel, by way
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: of reply, struggled to his feet and was immediately rolled
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: over again. He lay quiet for a moment. If you
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: struggle any more, said the voice, I shall throw the
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: flint at your head. It's a fair ado, said mister
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: Thomas Marvel, sitting up, taking his wounded toe in hand
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: and fixing his eye on the third missile. I don't
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: understand it. Stones flinging themselves, stones talking, Put yourself down,
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: rot away. I'm done. The third flint fell. It's very simple,
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: said the voice. I'm an invisible man. Tell us something
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know, said mister Marvel, gasping with pain. Where
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: you've hit? How you I? I don't know. I'm beat,
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: that's all, said the voice. I'm invisible. That's what I
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: want you to understand. Anyone could see that. There's no
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: need for you to be so confounded impatient mister. Now,
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: then give us a notion. How are you hid. I'm invisible.
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: That's the great point. And what I want you to
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: understand is this, But whereabouts interrupted, mister Marvel? Here six
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: yards in front of you. Oh come, I ain't blind.
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 1: You'll be telling me next you're just thin air. I'm
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: not one of your ignorant tramps. Yes, I am thin air.
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: You're looking through me? What ain't any stuff? Do you? Voxett? Oh?
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: Why is it? Jabber? Is that it? I'm just a
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: human being, solid, needing food and drink, needing covering too.
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: But I'm invisible. You see invisible? Simple idea? Invisible? What
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: reel like? Yes? Real? Let's have a hand of you,
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: said Marvel. If you are a real, won't be so
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: darn out of the way like then? Lord, he said,
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: how you made me jump? Gripping me like that? He
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: felt the hand that had closed round his wrist with
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: his disengaged fingers, and his fingers went timorously up the arm,
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: patted a muscular chest, and explored a bearded face. Marvel's
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 1: face was astonishment. I'm dashed, he said, if this don't
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: be cock fighting, most remarkable. And there I can see
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: a rabbit clean through you are a mile away, not
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: a bit of you visible, except he scrutinized the apparently
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: empty space. Keenly, you haven't been eating bread and cheese,
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 1: he asked, holding the invisible arm. You're quite right, and
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: it's not quite assimilated into the system, ah, said mister Marvel,
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: A sort of ghostly though. Of course, all this isn't
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: half wonderful as you think. It's quite wonderful enough for
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: my modest ones, said mister Thomas Marvel. Oh you manage it.
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: Oh the deuce? Is it done? It's too long a story.
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: And besides, I tell you, the old business fairly beats me,
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: said mister Marvel. What I want to say at present
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: is this. I need help. I have come to that.
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: I came upon you suddenly. I was wandering, mad with rage, naked, impotent,
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: I could have murdered. And I saw you, Lord, said
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: mister Marvel. I came up behind you, hesitated, went on.
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: Mister Marvell's expression was eloquent. Then stopped here, I said,
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 1: is an outcast like myself? This is the man for me?
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: So I turned back and came to you. You and Lord,
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: said mister Marvel. But I'm all in a tizzy. I ask,
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 1: how is it? And what you may be requiring in
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: the way of help invisible. I want you to help
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: me get clothes and shelter, and then with other things.
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: I've left them long enough. If you won't, well, but
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: you will. Must look here, said mister Marvel. I'm too flabbergasted.
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: Don't knock me about any more and leave me go.
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: I must steady a bit, and you've pretty near broken
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: my toe. It's also unreasonable. Empty down's empty sky, nothing
• 1:25:43
  Speaker 1: visible for miles except the bosom of nature. And then
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: comes a voice, a voice out of heaven and stones
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: and a fist. Lord, pull yourself together, said the voice,
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: for you have to do the job I've chosen for you.
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: Mister Marvel blew out his cheeks and his eyes were round.
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: I've chosen you, said the voice. You are the only man,
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: except some of those fools down there, who knows there
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: is such a thing as an invisible man. You have
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: to be my helper, help me, and I will do
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: great things for you. An invisible man is a man
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: of power. He stopped for a moment to sneeze violently.
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: But if you betray me, he said, if you fail
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: to do as I direct you, he paused and tapped
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: mister Marvell's shoulder smartly. Mister Marvell gave a yelp of
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: terror at the touch. I don't want to betray you,
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: said mister Marvell, edging away from the direction of the fingers.
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: Don't you go a think in that wherever you do.
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: All I want to do is help you. Just tell
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: me what I got to do to hoard Whatever you
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: want done, that I'm most willing to do. Chapter ten,
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 1: mister Marvell's visit to Iping. After the first gusty panic
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: had spent itself, Iping became argumentative. Skepticism suddenly reared its head,
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: rather nervous, skepticism not at all assured of its back,
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: but skepticism none the less. It is so much easier
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: not to believe in an invisible man, and those who
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: had actually seen him dissolve into air or felt the
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: strength of his arm could be counted on the fingers
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: of two hands. And of those witnesses, mister Wadgers was
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: presently missing, having retired impregnably behind the bolts and bars
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: of his own house, and Jaffers was lying stunned in
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: the parlor of the coach and horses. Great and strange
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: ideas transcending experience often have less effect upon men and
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: women than smaller, more tangible considerations. Iping was gay with Bunting,
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: and everybody was in gala dress, whit Monday had been
• 1:27:44
  Speaker 1: looked forward to for a month or more. By the afternoon,
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: even those who believed in the unseen were beginning to
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: resume their little amusements in a tentative fashion, and on
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: the supposition that he had gone quite away, and with
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 1: the skeptics he was already adjessed. But people, skeptics and
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: believers alike, were remarkably sociable All that day. Hayesman's meadow
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: was gay, with a tent in which Missus Bunting and
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: other ladies were preparing tea, while without the Sunday school
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: children ran races and played games under the noisy guidance
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: of the Curate and the Missus Cuss and Sackbut no
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: doubt there was a slight uneasiness in the air, but people,
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 1: for the most part had the sense to conceal whatever
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: imaginative qualms they experienced. On the village Green an inclined
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: string down which, clinging the while to a pulley swung handle,
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: one could be hurled violently against a sack at the
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: other end, came in for considerable favour among the adolescent,
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 1: as also did the swings and the coconut shies. There
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: was also promenading, and the steam organ attached to a
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: small roundabout, filled the air with a plungent flavor of
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: oil and with equally pungent music. Members of the club
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: who had attended church in the morning were splendid in
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 1: badges of pink and green, and some of the gayer
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: mind it had adorned their bowler hats with brilliant colored
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: flowers of river. Old Fletcher, whose conceptions of holiday making
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: were severe, was visible through the jasmine about his window
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: or through the open door, whichever way you chose to look,
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: poised delicately on a plank, supported on two chairs, and
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 1: whitewashing the ceiling of his front room. About four o'clock
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: a stranger entered the village from the direction of the Downs.
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: He was a short, stout person in an extraordinarily shabby
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: top hat, and he appeared to be very much out
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: of breath. His cheeks were alternately limp and tightly puffed.
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 1: His mottled face was apprehensive, and he moved with a
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: sort of reluctant alacrity. He turned the corner of the
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: church and directed his way to the Coach and Horses,
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: among others. Old Fletcher remembered seeing him, and indeed the
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: old gentleman was so struck by his peculiar agitation that
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: he inadvertently allowed a quantity of whitewash to run down
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: the brush into the sleeve of his coat. Whilst regarding him.
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: This stranger, to the perceptions of the proprietor of the
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: Coconut Shy, appeared to be took talking to himself, and
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: mister Huxter remarked the same thing. He stopped at the
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: foot of the Coach and Horses steps, and, according to
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: mister Huckster, appeared to undergo a severe internal struggle before
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 1: he could induce himself to enter the house. Finally, he
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: marched up the steps and was seen by mister Huxter
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: to turn to the left and open the door of
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: the parlor. Mister Huckster heard voices from within the room
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: and from the bar, apprising the man of his error.
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: That room's private said hall, and the stranger shut the
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: door clumsily and went into the bar. In the course
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: of a few minutes, he reappeared, wiping his lips with
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: the back of his hand, with an air of quiet
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: satisfaction that somehow impressed mister Huckster, as he assumed he
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: stood looking about him for some moments, and then mister
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: Huckster saw him walk in an oddly furtive manner towards
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 1: the gates of the yard upon which the parlor window opened.
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: The stranger, after some hesitation, leant against one of the
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: gate posts, produced a short clay pipe, and prepared to
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 1: fill it. His finger trembled while doing so. He lit
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 1: it clumsily and folded his arms began to smoke in
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: a languid attitude, an attitude which his occasional glances up
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 1: the yard altogether belied. All this, mister Huxter saw over
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: the canisters of the tobacco window, and the singularity of
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: the man's behavior prompted him to maintain his observation. Presently,
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: the stranger stood up abruptly and put his pipe in
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: his pocket. Then he vanished into the yard forthwith mister Huckster,
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: conceiving he was witness of some petty larceny, leaped around
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: his counter and ran out into the road to intercept
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: the thief. As he did so, mister Marvel reappeared his
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: hat askew a big bundle in a blue tablecloth in
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: one hand, and three books tied together as it proved afterwards,
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: with the vicar's braces in the other. Directly he saw Huckster.
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 1: He gave a sort of gasp, and, turning sharply to
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: the left, began to run. Stop thief, cried Huxter, and
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: set off after him. Mister Huxter's sensations were vivid but brief.
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: He saw the man just before him, and spurting briskly
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: for the church corner and the hill road, he saw
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: the village flags and festivities beyond, and a face or
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: so turned towards him. He bawled stop again. He had
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: hardly gone ten strides before his shin was caught in
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: some mysterious fashion, and he was no longer running, but
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: flying with inconceivable rapidity through the air. He saw the
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: ground suddenly close to his face. The world seemed to
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: splash into a million whirling specks of light, and subsequent
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: proceedings interested him no more. End of chapter ten, Chapter
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 1: eleven in the Coach and Horses, Now in order to
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 1: clearly understand what had happened in the inn, it is
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: necessary to go back to the moment when mister Marvell
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 1: first came into view of mister Huckster's window. At that
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: precise moment, mister Cuss and mister Bunting were in the parlor.
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: They were seriously investigating the strange occurrences of the morning,
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: and were, with mister Hall's permission, making a thorough examination
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: of the invisible man's belongings. Jaffers had partially recovered from
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 1: his fall and had gone home in charge of his
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 1: sympathetic friends. The stranger's scattered garments had been removed by
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: Missus Hall, and the room tidied up, and on the
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: table under the window where the stranger had been wont
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: to work, Cuss had hit almost at once on three
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 1: big books in manuscript labeled diary. Diary, said Cus, putting
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: the three books on the table. Now, at any rate
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: we shall learn something. The vicar stood with his hands
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: on the table, Diary repeated Cus, sitting down, putting two
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 1: volumes to support the third and opening it hum no
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: name on the fly leaf, bother cipher and figures. The
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 1: vicar came round to look over his shoulder, Cuss turned
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: the pages over with a face suddenly disappointed. I'm dear me,
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: it's all cipher hunting. There are no diagrams, asked mister Bunting,
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: no illustrations throwing light. See for yourself, said mister Cuss.
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: Some of it's mathematical, and some of its Russian or
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: some such language, to judge by the letters, and some
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: of its Greek. Now the Greek, I thought you, of course,
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 1: said mister Bunting, taking out and wiping his spectacles, and
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: feeling suddenly very uncomfortable, for he had no Greek left
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: in his mind worth talking about. Yes, the Greek, of course,
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 1: may furnish a clue. I'll find you a place. I'd
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 1: rather glance through the volumes first, said mister Bunting, still
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: wiping a general impression, first, Cuss, and then you know,
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: we can go looking for clues. He coughed, put on
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 1: his glasses, arranged them fastidiously, coughed again, and wished something
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: would happen to avert the seemingly inevitable exposure. Then he
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: took the volume Cuss handed him in a leisurely manner,
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: and then something did happen. The door opened suddenly, both
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 1: gentlemen started violently, looked around, and were relieved to see
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 1: a sporadically rosy face beneath the furry's hillk hat Tap
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: asked the face and stood staring. No, said both gentlemen
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: at once. Over the other side, my man, said mister Bunting,
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: And please shut that door, said mister Cuss irritably. All right,
• 1:35:25
  Speaker 1: said the intruder, as it seemed, in a low voice,
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: curiously different from the huskiness of its first inquiry. Right
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: you are, said the intruder in the former voice. Stand clear,
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: and he vanished and closed the door. A sailor, I
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 1: should judge, said mister Bunting, amusing fellows. They are stand clear.
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: Indeed an aautical term referring to his getting back out
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 1: of the room. I suppose I dare say so, said Cuss.
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: My nerves are all loose to day. It made me
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 1: quite jump the door opening like that. Mister Bunting smiled
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: as if he had not jumped. And now he said,
• 1:36:03
  Speaker 1: with a sigh, these books someone sniffed as he did. So.
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 1: One thing is indisputable, said Bunting, drawing a chair up
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: next to that of mister Cuss. There certainly have been
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: very strange things happening at Iping during the last few days,
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: very strange. I cannot, of course, believe in this absurd
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 1: invisibility story. It's incredible, said Cus. Incredible, but the fact
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: remains that I saw. I certainly saw right down his sleeve.
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: But did you Are you sure suppose a mirror? For instance?
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: Hallucinations are so easily produced. I don't know if you've
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: ever seen a really good conjuror. I won't argue again,
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 1: said Cus. We've thrashed that out, Bunting. And just now
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 1: there's these books. Ah, here's some of what I take
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: to be Greek Greek letters. Certainly, he pointed to the
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: middle of the page. Mister Bunting flushed slightly and brought
• 1:37:04
  Speaker 1: his face nearer, apparently finding some difficulty with his glasses. Suddenly,
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 1: he became aware of a strange feeling at the nape
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: of his neck. He tried to raise his head and
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: encountered an immovable resistance. The feeling was a curious pressure,
• 1:37:20
  Speaker 1: the grip of a heavy, firm hand, and it bore
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: his chin irresistibly to the table. Don't move, little men,
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 1: whispered a voice, or I'll brain you both. Mister Bunting
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: looked into the face of Cuss close to his own,
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: and each saw a horrified reflection of his own, sickly astonishment.
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry to handle you so roughly, said the voice,
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 1: but it's unavoidable. Since when did you learn to pry
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 1: into an investigator's private memoranda? Said the voice, and two
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: chins struck the table simultaneously, and two sets of teeth rattled.
• 1:37:58
  Speaker 1: Since when did you learn to invade the private rooms
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: of a man in misfortune? And the concussion was repeated.
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: Where have they put my clothes? Listen? Said the voice.
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: The windows are fastened, and I've taken the key out
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: of the door. I am a fairly strong man, and
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: I have the poker handy. Besides being invisible, There's not
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: the slightest doubt that I could kill you both and
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: get away quite easily if I wanted to. Do you
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: understand very well? If I let you go, would you
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: promise not to try any nonsense and do what I
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: tell you? The vicar and the doctor looked at one another,
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: and the doctor pulled a face. Yes, said mister Bunting,
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 1: and the doctor repeated it. Then the pressure on the
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 1: next relaxed and the doctor and the vicar sat up,
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: both very red in the face and wriggling their heads.
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: Please keep sitting where you are, said the invisible man.
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: Here's the poker, you see when I came into this room,
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 1: continued the invisible Man, after presenting the poker to the
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 1: tip of the nose of each of his visitors. I
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: did not expect to find it occupied, and I expected
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: to find, in addition to my books of memoranda, an
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: outfit of clothing. Where is it, No, don't rise, I
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: can see it's gone now. Just at present. Though the
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: days are quite warm enough for an invisible man to
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 1: run about stark, the evenings are quite chilly. I want
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: clothing and other accommodation, and I must also have those
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: three books. Chapter twelve, The Invisible Man loses his temper.
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: It is unavoidable that at this point the narrative should
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: break off again for a certain, very painful reason that
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: will presently be apparent. While these things were going on
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: in the parlor, and while mister Huckster was watching mister
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: Marvell smoking his pipe against the gate not a dozen
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: yards away, mister Hall and Teddy Henry were discussing in
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: a state of cloudy puzzlement the one eyping topic. Suddenly
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: there came a violent thud against the door of the parlor,
• 1:40:10
  Speaker 1: a sharp cry, and then silence. Ullo, said Teddy, Henry
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 1: ullo from the tap. Mister Hall took things in slowly,
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: but surely that ain't right, he said, and came round
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 1: from behind the bar towards the parlor door. He and
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: Teddy approached the door together with intent faces, their eyes
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 1: considered somewhat wrong, said Hall, and Henry nodded agreement. Whiffs
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: of an unpleasant chemical odor met them. There was a
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: muffled sound of conversation, very rapid and subdued. You are
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: right there, asked Hall, rapping. The muttered conversation ceased abruptly
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 1: for a moment silence. Then the conversation was resumed in
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 1: hissing whispers, then a sharp cry of no, no, you don't.
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: There came a sudden motion and the oversetting of a chair,
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 1: a brief struggle, silence again what the deuce, exclaimed Henry
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 1: sotto vatching you all right there, asked mister Hall, sharply.
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: Again the vicar's voice answered with a curious jerking intonation. Cool, cool,
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 1: quite right, Please don't interrupt, odd, said mister Henfrey. Odd
• 1:41:34
  Speaker 1: said mister Hall says, don't interrupt, said Henfrey. Are you hurt?
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: And said Hall? And a sniff said Henfrey. They remained listening.
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 1: The conversation was rapid and subdued. I can't, said mister Bunting,
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: his voice rising, I tell you, sir, I will not.
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 1: What was that, asked Henfrey. Says ye, winner it where
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: speaking to us? Was he disgraceful, said mister Bunting. Within disgraceful,
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 1: said mister Henfrey. I heard it distinct? Who's that speaking now,
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 1: asked Henfrey. Mister cusse, I suppose, said Haul. Can you
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 1: hear anything? Silence? The sounds within indistinct and perplexing, sounds
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: like throwing the tablecloth about, said Hall. Missus Hall appeared
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: behind the bar. Hall made gestures of silence and invitation.
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: This aroused Missus Hall's wifely opposition. What's your lessening there? For? Hall?
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: Ain't you nothing better to do? Busy day like this?
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: Hall tried to convey everything by grimaces and dumb show,
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: but Missus Hall was obdurate. She raised her voice, so
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: Hall and Henfrey, rather crestfallen, tiptoed back to the bar
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: gesticulating to explain to her. At first she refused, used
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: to see anything in what they had heard at all.
• 1:43:02
  Speaker 1: Then she insisted on Hall keeping silence while Henfrey told
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 1: her his story. She was inclined to think the whole
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: business nonsense. Perhaps they were just moving the furniture about.
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: I heard and say disgraceful that I did, said Hall.
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: I heard that, Missus Hall, said Henfrey. Like as not
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: began Missus Hall sh said, mister Teddy Henry. Didn't I
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 1: hear the window? What window, asked Missus Hall. Parlor window,
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 1: said Henfrey. Everyone stood listening intently. Missus Hall's eyes directed
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: straight before her saw without seeing the brilliant oblong of
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: the inn door, the road white and vivid, and Huckster's
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: shop front blistering in the June sun. Abruptly, Huckster's door
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: opened and Huckster appeared, eyes staring with excitement, arms gesticulating.
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: Yap cried Hunter, stop thief, and he run obliquely across
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 1: the oblong towards the yard and vanished. Simultaneously came a
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 1: tumult from the parlor and a sound of windows being closed. Hall, Henfrey,
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: and the human contents of the tap rushed out at
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: once pell mell into the street. They saw someone whisker
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: around the corner towards the road, and mister Huckster executing
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 1: a complicated leap in the air that ended on his
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: face and shoulder. Down the street. People were standing astonished
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: or running towards them. Mister Huckster was stunned. Henry stopped
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: to discover this, but Hall and the two laborers from
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: the tap rushed at once to the corner, shouting incoherent things,
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: and saw mister Marvell vanishing by the corner of the
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 1: church wall. They appeared to have jumped to the impossible
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: conclusion that this was the invisible man suddenly become visible
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 1: and set off at once along the lane in pursuit.
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: But Hall had hardly run a dozen yards before he
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: gave a loud shout of astonishment and went flying headlong sideways,
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: clutching one of the laborers and bringing him to the ground.
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: He had been charged, just as one charges a man
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: at football. The second laborer came round in a circle,
• 1:45:04
  Speaker 1: stared and conceiving that Hall had tumbled over of his
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 1: own accord, turned to resume the pursuit, only to be
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 1: tripped by the ankle, just as Huckster had been. Then,
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: as the first labourer struggled to his feet, he was
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 1: kicked sideways by a blow that might have felled an ox.
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 1: As he went down the rush from the direction of
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: the village Green came round the corner. The first to
• 1:45:26
  Speaker 1: appear was the proprietor of the Cocoanut Shy, a burly
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: man in blue Jersey. He was astonished to see the
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: lane empty save for three men sprawling absurdly on the ground.
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 1: And then something happened to his rearmost foot, and he
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: went headlong and rolled sideways, just in time to graze
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 1: the feet of his brother and partner following headlong. The
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 1: two were then kicked, knelt on, fallen over, and cursed
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: by quite a number of over hasty people. Now, when
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: Hall and Henfrey and the labourers ran out of the house,
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: Missus Hall, who had been disciplined by years of experience,
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: remained in the bar next to the till. And suddenly
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: the parlor door was opened and mister Cuss appeared, and
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 1: without glancing at her, rushed at once down the steps
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 1: round the corner. Hold him, he cried, don't let him
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 1: drop that parcel he knew nothing of the existence of Marvel,
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 1: for the invisible man had handed over the books and
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: bundle in the yard. The face of mister Cuss was
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 1: angry and resolute, but his costume was defective, a sort
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 1: of limp white kilt that could only have passed muster
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: in Greece. Hold him, he bawled. He's got my trousers,
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: and every stitch of the vicar's clothes tend to him
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: in a minute, he cried to Henry. As he passed
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 1: the prostrate huckster, and coming round the corner to join
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 1: the tumult, was promptly knocked off his feet into an
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 1: indecorous sprawl. Somebody in full flight trod heavily on his finger.
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: He yelled, struggled to regain his feet, was knocked against
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 1: and thrown on all fours again, and became aware that
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: he was involved not in a capture but a rout.
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: Everyone was running back to the village. He rose again
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: and was hit severely behind the ear. He staggered and
• 1:47:12
  Speaker 1: set off back to the coach and horses, forthwith leaping
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 1: over the deserted huckster, who was now sitting up on
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 1: his way behind him. As he was half way up
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 1: the inn steps, he heard a sudden yell of rage,
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: rising sharply out of the confusion of cries, and a
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: sounding smack in someone's face. He recognized the voice as
• 1:47:31
  Speaker 1: that of the Invisible Man, and the note was that
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: of a man suddenly infuriated by a painful blow. In
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 1: another moment, mister Cuss was back in the parlor. He's
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 1: coming back, Bunting, he said, rushing in. Save yourself. Mister
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 1: Bunting was standing in the window, engaged in an attempt
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: to clothe himself in the hearth rug and a West
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: Surrey gazette. Who's coming, he said, so startled that his
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: costume narrowly escaped disintegration. Invisible Man, said Cuss, and rushed
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: on at to the window. We'd better clear out from here.
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 1: He's fighting mad mad. In another moment, he was out
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: in the yard. Good heavens, said mister Bunting, hesitating between
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: two horrible alternatives. He heard a frightful struggle in the
• 1:48:17
  Speaker 1: passage of the inn, and his decision was made. He
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: clambered out of the window, adjusted his costume hastily, and
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: fled up the village as fast as his fat little
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: legs would carry him. From the moment when the Invisible
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 1: Man screamed with rage and mister Bunting made his memorable
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: flight up the village, it became impossible to give a
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 1: consecutive account of affairs in Iping. Possibly the Invisible Man's
• 1:48:42
  Speaker 1: original intention were simply to cover Marvel's retreat with the
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 1: clothes and books, but his temper at no time very good,
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: seems to have gone completely. At some chance blow and
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 1: forthwith he set to smiting and overthrowing. For the mere
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 1: satisfaction of hurting, you must figure the street full of running,
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: figures of doors slamming, and fights for hiding places. You
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: must figure the tumult suddenly striking on the unstable equilibrium
• 1:49:09
  Speaker 1: of old Fletcher's planks and two chairs with cataclysmic results.
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 1: You must figure an appalled couple caught dismally in a swing.
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 1: And then the whole tumultuous rush has passed, and the
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 1: Iping street, with its gourds and flags, is deserted, save
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: for the still raging, unseen and littered with cocoanuts, overthrown canvas, screens,
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: and the scattered stock in trade of a sweet stuff's tall.
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: Everywhere there is a sound of closing shutters and shoving bolts,
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 1: and the only visible humanity is an occasional flitting eye
• 1:49:41
  Speaker 1: under a raised eyebrow in the corner of a windowpane.
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: The invisible man amused himself for a little while by
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: breaking all the windows in the coach and horses, and
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 1: then he thrust a street lamp through the parlor window
• 1:49:55
  Speaker 1: of Missus Gribble. He it must have been who cut
• 1:49:59
  Speaker 1: the telegraph wire to Addeddeton, just beyond Higgins's cottage on
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: the Aderdean Road. And after that, as his peculiar qualities allowed,
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: he passed out of human perceptions altogether, and he was
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: neither heard, seen, nor felt in Iping any more. He
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 1: vanished absolutely. But it was the best part of two
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 1: hours before any human being ventured out again into the
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 1: desolation of an Iping Street. End of chapter twelve. Chapter thirteen,
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: mister Marvel discusses his resignation. When the dust was gathering
• 1:50:38
  Speaker 1: and Iping was just beginning to peep timorously forth again
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 1: upon the shattered wreckage of its bank holiday, A short,
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 1: thick set man in a shabby silk hat was marching
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: painfully through the twilight behind the beech woods on the
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 1: road to Bramblehurst. He carried three books, bound together by
• 1:50:54
  Speaker 1: some sort of ornamental elastic ligature, and a bundle wrapped
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: in a blue tablecloth. His rubicund face expressed consternation and fatigue.
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 1: He appeared to be in some sort of spasmodic hurry.
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: He was accompanied by a voice other than his own,
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: and ever and again he winced under the touch of
• 1:51:14
  Speaker 1: unseen hands. If you give me the slip again, said
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 1: the voice. If you attempt to give me the slip again, Lord,
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: said mister Marvell. That shoulder's a mass of bruises as
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: it is. On my honor, said the voice. I will
• 1:51:30
  Speaker 1: kill you. I didn't try to give you the slip,
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 1: said Marvel, in a voice that was not far remote
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 1: from tears. I swear I didn't. I didn't know the
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 1: blessed turning. That was all how the devil was I
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 1: to know the blessed turning? As it is, I've been
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: knocked about. You'll get knocked about a great deal more
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 1: if you don't mind, said the voice, and mister Marvell
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 1: abruptly became silent. He blew out his cheeks, and his
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: eyes were eloquent of despair. It's bad enough to let
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 1: those floundering yokels explode my little secret without your cutting
• 1:52:05
  Speaker 1: off with my books. It's lucky for some of them.
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: They cut and ran when they did. Here am I
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: No one knew I was invisible? And now what am
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 1: I to do? What am I to do? Asked Marvel
• 1:52:19
  Speaker 1: sotto vo. She it's all about. It will be in
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: the papers. Everybody will be looking for me, every one
• 1:52:26
  Speaker 1: on their guard. The voice broke off into vivid curses
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 1: and ceased. The despair of mister Marvell's face deepened and
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 1: his pace slackened. Go on, said the voice. Mister Marvell's
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: face assumed a grayish tint between the ruddier patches. Don't
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 1: drop those books, stupid, said the voice, sharply, overtaking him.
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: The fact is, said the voice. I shall have to
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: make use of you. You're a poor tool, but I must.
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 1: O'm a miserable tool, said Marvel. You are, said the voice.
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 1: I'm the worst possible tool you could have, said Marvel.
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 1: I'm not strong, he said, after a discouraging silence. I'm
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 1: not over strong, he repeated. No, and my heart's weak.
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 1: That little business I pulled it through, of course, but
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 1: bless you, I could have dropped. Well, I haven't the
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: nerve and strength for the sort of thing you want.
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 1: I'll stimulate you. I wish you wouldn't. I wouldn't like
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 1: to mess up your plans, you know, but I might
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 1: out of sheer funk and misery. You'd better not, said
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 1: the voice, with quiet emphasis. I wish I was dead,
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 1: said Marvel. He ain't justice, he said, you must admit
• 1:53:53
  Speaker 1: it seems to me I've a perfect right Get on,
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 1: said the voice. Mister Marvell mended his pace, and for
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: a time they went in silence again. It's devilish, horrid,
• 1:54:06
  Speaker 1: said mister Marple. This was quite ineffectual. He tried another tack.
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 1: What do I make by it? He began, and again
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 1: in a tone of unendurable wrong. Oh, shut up, said
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: the voice, with sudden, amazing vigor. I'll see to you,
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 1: all right. You do what you're told. You'll do it
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 1: all right. You're fallen all that, but you'll do I
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 1: tell you, sir, I'm not the man for it, respectfully,
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 1: but it is so. If you don't shut up, I
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: shall twist your wrist again, said the invisible man. I
• 1:54:40
  Speaker 1: want to think presently. Two oblongs of yellow light appeared
• 1:54:45
  Speaker 1: through the trees, and the square tower of a church
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 1: loomed through the gloaming. I shall keep my hand on
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 1: your shoulder, said the voice all through the village. Go
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 1: straight through, and try no foolery. It'll be the worse
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: for you if you do. Oh he know that, sighed
• 1:55:03
  Speaker 1: mister Marvel. Oh he know all that. The unhappy looking
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 1: figure in the obsolete silk hat passed up the street
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 1: of the little village with his burdens and vanished into
• 1:55:14
  Speaker 1: the gathering darkness beyond the lights of the windows. Chapter fourteen.
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: At Port Stowe, ten o'clock the next morning found mister Marvel, unshaven,
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 1: dirty and travel stained, sitting with the books beside him,
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 1: and his hands deep in his pockets, looking very weary,
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: nervous and uncomfortable, and inflating his cheeks at infrequent intervals,
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 1: on the bench outside a little inn on the outskirts
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: of Port Stow. Beside him were the books, but now
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 1: they were tied with string. The bundle had been abandoned
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: in the pine woods beyond Bramblehurst in accordance with a
• 1:55:54
  Speaker 1: change of plans in the Invisible Man. Mister Marvel sat
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 1: on the bench and although no one took the slightest
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 1: notice of him. His agitation remained at fever heat. His
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 1: hands would go ever and again to his various pockets
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: with a curious, nervous fumbling. When he had been sitting
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 1: for the best part of an hour, however, an elderly
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 1: mariner carrying a newspaper came out of the inn and
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 1: sat down beside him. Pleasant day, said the mariner. Mister
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: Marvell glanced about him with something very like terror. Very,
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 1: he said, just seasonable weather for the time of year,
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 1: said the mariner, taking no denial, quite, said mister Marvel.
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 1: The mariner produced a toothpick, and, saving his regard, was
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: engrossed thereby for some minutes. His eyes, meanwhile, were at
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 1: liberty to examine mister Marvell's dusty figure and the books
• 1:56:47
  Speaker 1: beside him. As he had approached mister Marvell, he had
• 1:56:51
  Speaker 1: heard a sound like the dropping of coins into a pocket.
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 1: He was struck by the contrast of mister Marvell's appearance
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: with this sudden suggestion of opulence. Thence his mind wandered
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 1: back again to a topic that had taken a curiously
• 1:57:04
  Speaker 1: firm hold of his imagination. Books. He said, suddenly noisily
• 1:57:09
  Speaker 1: finishing with a tuthpick. Mister Marvel started and looked at them. Oh, yes,
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 1: he said, Yes, they're books. There are some extraordinary things
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 1: in books, said the mariner. We believe you, said mister Marvel.
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: And some extraordinary things out of them, said the mariner. True. Likewise,
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: said mister Marvel. He eyed his interlocutor, and then glanced
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 1: about him. There's some extraordinary things in newspapers, for example,
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 1: said the mariner. There are in this newspaper, said the mariner. Ah,
• 1:57:46
  Speaker 1: said mister Marvel. There's a story, said the mariner, fixing
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 1: mister Marvel with an eye that was firm and deliberate.
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 1: There's a story about an invisible man, for instance. Mister
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 1: Marvel pulled his mouth askew and scratched his cheek, and
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 1: felt his ears glowing. What will they be writing next,
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 1: he asked, faintly. Austria or America? Neither, said the mariner. Here, lord,
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 1: said mister Marvel. Starting when I say here, said the mariner,
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 1: said mister Marvel's intense relief. I don't, of course mean
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 1: here in this place, I mean hereabouts. An invisible man,
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 1: said mister Marvel. And what's he been up to? Everything,
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 1: said the mariner, controlling Marvel with his eye, and then
• 1:58:37
  Speaker 1: amplifying every blessed thing. I ain't seen a paper these
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 1: four days, said Marvel. Iping's the place he started at,
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 1: said the mariner. Indeed, said mister Marvel, he started there,
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 1: and where he came from. Nobody don't seem to know here.
• 1:58:56
  Speaker 1: It is peculiar story from Iping. And it says in
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: this paper that the evidence is extraordinarily strong. Extraordinary, lord,
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 1: said mister Marvel. But then it's an extraordinary story. There
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 1: was a clergyman and a medical gent. Witnesses saw him
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 1: all right and proper at least ways didn't see him.
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 1: He was staying it as at the coach and horses,
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 1: and don't no one seemed to being aware of his misfortune.
• 1:59:23
  Speaker 1: Aware of his misfortune, it says, until in an altercation
• 1:59:26
  Speaker 1: at the inn. It says his bandages on his head
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 1: was torn off. Was then observed that his head was invisible.
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 1: Attempts were at once made to secure him, but casting
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 1: off his garments. It says. He succeeded in escaping, but
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 1: not until after a desperate struggle in which he had
• 1:59:44
  Speaker 1: inflicted serious injuries. It says on her worthy and able, constable,
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 1: mister J. A. Jaffers, pretty straight story, eh, names and everything, Lord,
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: said mister Marvel, looking nervously about him, trying to count
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: the money in his pockets by his unaided sense of touch,
• 2:00:03
  Speaker 1: and full of a strange novel idea. It sounds most astonishing,
• 2:00:10
  Speaker 1: don't it extraordinary? I call it? Never a tell of
• 2:00:14
  Speaker 1: invisible men? Before I haven't, but nowadays when he hears
• 2:00:17
  Speaker 1: such a lot of extraordinary things. That that all he did,
• 2:00:23
  Speaker 1: asked Marvel, trying to seem at his ease. It's enough,
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 1: ain't it? Said the Mariner. Didn't go back by any chance,
• 2:00:33
  Speaker 1: asked Marvel. Just escaped, and that's all, eh all, said
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 1: the Mariner. Why ain't it enough? Quite enough? Said Marvel.
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 1: I should think it was enough, said the Mariner. I
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 1: should think it was enough. He didn't have any pals.
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 1: You don't say he had any pals, does it, asked
• 2:00:54
  Speaker 1: mister Marvel. Anxious, ain't one of U sawt enough for you?
• 2:00:58
  Speaker 1: Asked the Mariner. No, thank heaven, as one say he didn't.
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 1: He nodded his head slowly. It makes me regular uncomfortable
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 1: the bare thought of that chap running about the country.
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: He is at present at large, and from certain evidence,
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: it is supposed that he has taken took I suppose
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 1: they mean the road to port Stow. You see, we're
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 1: right in it, none of your American wonderers this time.
• 2:01:27
  Speaker 1: And just think of the things he might do. Where'd
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 1: ye be if he took a drop over and above
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 1: and had a fancy to go for you? Supposing he
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 1: wants to rob, who can prevent him? He can tresp us,
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 1: he can burgle, He could walk through the cordon of
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 1: a policeman as easy as me. Or you could give
• 2:01:43
  Speaker 1: the slip to a blind man, easier for the easier.
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 1: Blind chapsk here uncommon sharp, I'm told, And wherever there
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 1: was liquor, he fancied. He's got a tremendous advantage, certainly,
• 2:01:56
  Speaker 1: said mister Marvell. And well you're right, said the mariner.
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 1: He has. All of this time, mister Marvell had been
• 2:02:07
  Speaker 1: glancing about him, intently, listening for faint footfalls, trying to
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 1: detect imperceptible movements. He seemed on the point of some
• 2:02:15
  Speaker 1: great resolution. He coughed behind his hand. He looked about
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: him again, listened, bent towards the Mariner, and lowered his voice.
• 2:02:27
  Speaker 1: The fact of it is. I happen to know just
• 2:02:30
  Speaker 1: a thing or two about this invisible man from private sources, Oh,
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 1: said the mariner. Interested you, Yes, said mister Marvel. Me indeed,
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 1: said the mariner. And may I ask you will be astonished,
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 1: said mister Marvel behind his hand. It's tremendous, indeed, said
• 2:02:53
  Speaker 1: the mariner. The fact is, began mister Marvell eagerly, in
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 1: a confidential undertone. Suddenly his expression changed marvelously. Oh, he said.
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 1: He rose stiffly in his seat. His face was eloquent
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 1: of physical softening. Wow, he said, what's up, said the mariner.
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: Concerned toothache, said mister Marvell, and put his hand to
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 1: his ear. He caught hold of his books. I must
• 2:03:21
  Speaker 1: be getting on, I think, he edged in a curious
• 2:03:25
  Speaker 1: way along the seat, away from his interlocutor. But you
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 1: was just gonna tell me about this here, invisible, ma'am,
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 1: protested the mariner. Mister Marvel seemed to consult it himself. Hoax,
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 1: said a voice. It's a hoax, said mister Marvel. But
• 2:03:42
  Speaker 1: it's in the paper, said the mariner. Hoax all the same,
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 1: said Marvel. I know the chat that started to lie.
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 1: There ain't no invisible man whatsoever bloy me? But how
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 1: about this paper? Do you mean to say not a
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 1: word of it? Said Marvel, stoutly. The mariner stared the
• 2:04:02
  Speaker 1: paper in hand. Mister Marvel jerkily faced about. Wait a bit,
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 1: said the mariner, rising and speaking slowly. Do you mean
• 2:04:11
  Speaker 1: to say I do? Said mister Marvel. Then why do
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 1: you let me go on and tell you all this
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 1: blasted stuff? Then what do you mean by letting a
• 2:04:19
  Speaker 1: man make a fool of himself like that? For hey,
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 1: mister Marvel blew out his cheeks. The mariner was suddenly
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 1: very red. Indeed, he clenched his hands. I've been talking here,
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: there's ten minutes, he said, And you, your little pot bellied,
• 2:04:34
  Speaker 1: leathery faced son of an old boot, couldn't have the
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 1: elementary manners. Don't you come bandying words with me? Said
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 1: mister Marvel, bandying words. I've a drolly good mind. Come up,
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 1: said a voice, and mister Marvel was suddenly whirled about
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 1: and started marching off in a curious, spasmodic manner. You'd
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 1: better move on, said the mariner. Who's moving on, said
• 2:05:00
  Speaker 1: mister Marvel. He was receding obliquely with a curious, hurrying
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 1: gait with occasional violent jerks forward. Somewhere along the road.
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 1: He began a muttered monolog protests and recriminations. Silly devil,
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 1: said the mariner, legs wide apart, elbows akimbo, watching the
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: receding figure. I'll show you, you silly ass, hoaxing me.
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 1: It's here on the paper, mister Marvel retorted incoherently, And
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 1: receding was hidden by a bend in the road, But
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: the mariner still stood magnificent in the midst of the
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 1: way until the approach of a butcher's cart dislodged him.
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 1: Then he turned himself towards Portstow. Full of extraordinary asses,
• 2:05:41
  Speaker 1: he said softly to himself, just take me down a bit.
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 1: That was his silly game. It's on the paper. And
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 1: there was another extraordinary thing he was presently to hear
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 1: that had happened quite close to him, And that was
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 1: a vision of a fistful of money, no less, traveling
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 1: without visible aid along by the wall at the corner
• 2:06:02
  Speaker 1: of Saint Michael's Lane. A brother Mariner had seen this
• 2:06:05
  Speaker 1: wonderful sight that very morning. He had snatched at the
• 2:06:08
  Speaker 1: money forthwith and had been knocked headlong, and when he
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 1: got to his feet, the butterfly money had vanished. Our
• 2:06:15
  Speaker 1: mariner was in the mood to believe anything, he declared,
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 1: but that was a bit too stiff. Afterwards, however, he
• 2:06:22
  Speaker 1: began to think things over, the story of the flying
• 2:06:26
  Speaker 1: money was true, and all about that neighborhood, even from
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 1: the August London and Country Banking Company, from the tills
• 2:06:32
  Speaker 1: of shops and inns doors, standing that sunny weather entirely open,
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 1: money had been quietly and dexterously making off that day
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 1: in handfuls and rulo, floating quietly along by walls and
• 2:06:44
  Speaker 1: shady places, dodging quickly from the approaching eyes of men.
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 1: And it had, though no man had traced it, invariably
• 2:06:52
  Speaker 1: ended its mysterious flight in the pocket of that agitated
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 1: gentleman in the obsolete silk hat, sitting outside the little
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: end on the outskirt of Port Stow. It was ten
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 1: days after, and indeed only when the Burdock story was
• 2:07:06
  Speaker 1: already old, that the mariner collated these facts and began
• 2:07:10
  Speaker 1: to understand how near he had been to the wonderful
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 1: invisible man. Chapter fifteen. The man who was running in
• 2:07:21
  Speaker 1: the early evening time, Doctor Kemp was sitting in his
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: study in the Belvidere on the hill overlooking Birdock. It
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 1: was a pleasant little room with three windows north west
• 2:07:31
  Speaker 1: and south, and bookshelves covered with books and scientific publications,
• 2:07:36
  Speaker 1: and a broad writing table, and underneath the north window
• 2:07:40
  Speaker 1: a microscope, glass lips, minute instruments, some cultures, and scattered
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 1: bottles of reagents. Doctor Kemp's solar lamp was lit, albeit
• 2:07:50
  Speaker 1: the sky was still bright with the sunset light, and
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 1: his blinds were up because there was no offense of
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 1: peering outsiders to require them pulled down. Doctor Kemp was
• 2:07:59
  Speaker 1: a tall and slender young man, with flaxen hair and
• 2:08:02
  Speaker 1: a mustache almost white, and the work he was upon
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 1: would earn him he hoped the fellowship of the Royal Society,
• 2:08:10
  Speaker 1: so highly did he think of it. And his eye,
• 2:08:13
  Speaker 1: presently wandering from his work, caught the sunset blazing at
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 1: the back of the hill that is over against his own.
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 1: For a minute, perhaps he sat pen in mouth, admiring
• 2:08:24
  Speaker 1: the rich golden color above the crest, and then his
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 1: attention was attracted by the little figure of a man,
• 2:08:29
  Speaker 1: inky black running over the hill brow towards him. He
• 2:08:33
  Speaker 1: was a shortish little man, and he wore a high hat,
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 1: and he was running so fast that his legs verily twinkled.
• 2:08:42
  Speaker 1: Another of those fools, said doctor Kemp, like that ass
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 1: who ran into me this morning around a corner with
• 2:08:48
  Speaker 1: visible man a coming, Sir, I can't imagine what possesses people.
• 2:08:53
  Speaker 1: One might think we were in the thirteenth century. He
• 2:08:57
  Speaker 1: got up, went to the window and stared at the
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 1: dusky hillsie and the dark little figure tearing down it.
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 1: He seems in a confounded hurry, said doctor Kemp. But
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 1: he doesn't seem to be getting on. If his pockets
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 1: were full of lead, he couldn't run. Heavier spurted, sir,
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 1: said doctor Kemp. In another moment, the higher of the
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 1: villas that had clambered up the hill from Burdock had
• 2:09:19
  Speaker 1: occluded the running figure. He was visible again for a moment,
• 2:09:23
  Speaker 1: and again, and then again three times between the three
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 1: detached houses that came next, and then the terrace hid him. Asses,
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 1: said doctor Kemp, swinging around on his heel and walking
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 1: back to his writing table. But those who saw the
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 1: fugitive nearer and perceived the abject terror on his perspiring
• 2:09:41
  Speaker 1: face being themselves in the open roadway did not share
• 2:09:45
  Speaker 1: in the doctor's contempt. The man pounded, and as he
• 2:09:49
  Speaker 1: ran he chinked, like a well filled purse that is
• 2:09:52
  Speaker 1: tossed to and fro. He looked neither to the right
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 1: nor the left, but his dilated eyes stared straight down hill,
• 2:09:59
  Speaker 1: to where the lamps were being and the people were
• 2:10:01
  Speaker 1: crowded in the street. And his ill shaped mouth fell apart,
• 2:10:05
  Speaker 1: and a glary foam lay on his lips, and his
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 1: breath came hoarse and noisy. All he passed stopped and
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: began staring up the road and down and interrogating one
• 2:10:14
  Speaker 1: another with an inkling of discomfort for the reason of
• 2:10:17
  Speaker 1: his haste. And then, presently far up the hill, a
• 2:10:21
  Speaker 1: dog playing in the road yelped and ran under a gate.
• 2:10:24
  Speaker 1: And as they still wandered, something a wind, a pad,
• 2:10:28
  Speaker 1: pad pad, a sound like a panting breathing rushed by.
• 2:10:33
  Speaker 1: People screamed, people sprang off the pavement. It passed in shouts,
• 2:10:38
  Speaker 1: It passed by instinct down the hill. They were shouting
• 2:10:42
  Speaker 1: in the street before Marvel was halfway there. They were
• 2:10:45
  Speaker 1: bolting into houses and slamming the doors behind them. And
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 1: with the news he heard it and made one last
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 1: desperate spurt. Fear came striding by, rushed ahead of him,
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 1: and in a moment had seized the town. The Invisible
• 2:10:58
  Speaker 1: Man is coming Invisible Man, Chapter sixteen. In The Jolly Cricketers.
• 2:11:09
  Speaker 1: The Jolly Cricketers is just at the bottom of the
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 1: hill where the tram lines begin. The barman leant his
• 2:11:15
  Speaker 1: fat red arms on the counter and talked of horses
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 1: with an anemic cabman, while a black bearded man in
• 2:11:20
  Speaker 1: a gray snapped up biscuit and cheese, drank burton, and
• 2:11:24
  Speaker 1: conversed in American with a policeman off duty. What's the
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 1: shouting about, said the anemic cabman, going off at a tangent,
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 1: trying to see up the hill over the dirty yellow
• 2:11:35
  Speaker 1: blind in the low window of the inn. Somebody ran
• 2:11:38
  Speaker 1: by outside fire perhaps, said the barman. Footsteps approached, running heavily.
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 1: The door was pushed open violently, and Marvel weeping and disheveled,
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 1: his hat gone, the neck of his coat torn open,
• 2:11:53
  Speaker 1: rushed in, made a convulsive turn and attempted to shut
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 1: the door. It was half held open by a trap coming.
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 1: He bawled, his voice shrieking with terror. He's coming, the
• 2:12:05
  Speaker 1: visible man after me. For God's sake, help help, help
• 2:12:10
  Speaker 1: shut the doors, said the policeman, who's coming. What's the row?
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 1: He went to the door, released the strap and it slammed.
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: The American closed the other door. Let me go inside,
• 2:12:22
  Speaker 1: said Marvel, staggering and weeping, but still clutching the books.
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 1: Let me go inside. Lock me in somewhere. I tell
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 1: you he's after me. I gave him the slip. He
• 2:12:32
  Speaker 1: said he'd kill me, and he will. You're safe, said
• 2:12:36
  Speaker 1: the man with the black beard. The doors shut. What's
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 1: it all about? Let me go inside, said Marvel, and
• 2:12:42
  Speaker 1: shrieked aloud as a blow suddenly made the fastened door
• 2:12:45
  Speaker 1: shiver and was followed by a hurried rapping and a
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 1: shouting outside. Hello, cried the policeman. Who's there. Mister Marvel
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 1: began to make frantic dives at panels that looked like doors.
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 1: He'll kill me. He's got a knife or something. For
• 2:13:00
  Speaker 1: God's sake, here you are, said the barman. Come in here,
• 2:13:03
  Speaker 1: and he held up the flap of the bar. Mister
• 2:13:07
  Speaker 1: Marvel rushed behind the bar as the summon's outside was repeated.
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 1: Don't open the door, he screamed, please don't open the door.
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 1: Where shall I eide this? This invisible man then asked
• 2:13:20
  Speaker 1: the man with the black beard, with one hand behind him. Oh, yes,
• 2:13:24
  Speaker 1: it's about time we saw him. The window of the
• 2:13:28
  Speaker 1: inn was suddenly smashed in, and there was a screaming
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 1: and running to and fro in the street. The policeman
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 1: had been standing on the settee staring out, craning to
• 2:13:36
  Speaker 1: see who was at the door. He got down with
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 1: raised eyebrows. It's that, he said. The barman stood in
• 2:13:44
  Speaker 1: front of the bar parlor, which was now locked on.
• 2:13:46
  Speaker 1: Mister Marvel stared at the smashed window and came around
• 2:13:50
  Speaker 1: to the other two men. Everything was suddenly quiet. I
• 2:13:56
  Speaker 1: wish I had my truncheon, said the policeman, going irresolutely
• 2:13:59
  Speaker 1: to the door. Once we open in he comes, there's
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 1: no stop in him. Don't you be in too much
• 2:14:05
  Speaker 1: hurry about that door, said the anemic cabman. Actionously, draw
• 2:14:11
  Speaker 1: the bolts, said the man with a black beard, And
• 2:14:14
  Speaker 1: if he comes, he showed a revolver in his hand.
• 2:14:18
  Speaker 1: That won't do, said the policeman. That's murder. I know
• 2:14:22
  Speaker 1: what country I'm in, said the man with the beard.
• 2:14:25
  Speaker 1: I'm going to let off at his legs. Draw the bolts.
• 2:14:28
  Speaker 1: Not with that blinking fingering off behind me, said the barman,
• 2:14:31
  Speaker 1: craning over the blind. Very well, said the man with
• 2:14:35
  Speaker 1: a black beard, and stooping down revolver already drew himself. Barman,
• 2:14:40
  Speaker 1: cabman and policeman faced about. Come in, said the bearded
• 2:14:44
  Speaker 1: man in an undertone, standing back and facing the unbolted
• 2:14:47
  Speaker 1: doors with his pistol behind him. No one came in.
• 2:14:51
  Speaker 1: The door remained closed five minutes afterwards, when a second
• 2:14:56
  Speaker 1: cabman pushed his head in cautiously. They were still waiting,
• 2:14:59
  Speaker 1: and an anxious face peered out of the bar parlor
• 2:15:01
  Speaker 1: and supplied information. Are all the doors of the house shut,
• 2:15:06
  Speaker 1: asked Marvel. He's going round, prowling round. He's as artful
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 1: as the devil. Good lord, said the burly barman. There's
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 1: the back. Just watch them doors, I say. He looked
• 2:15:18
  Speaker 1: about him helplessly. The bar parlor door slammed, and they
• 2:15:22
  Speaker 1: heard the key turn. There's the yard door and the
• 2:15:25
  Speaker 1: private door. The yard door, he rushed out of the bar.
• 2:15:30
  Speaker 1: In a minute he reappeared with a carving knife in
• 2:15:32
  Speaker 1: his hand. The yard door was open, he said, and
• 2:15:35
  Speaker 1: his fat under lip dropped. He may be in the
• 2:15:38
  Speaker 1: house now, said the first cabman. He's not in the kitchen,
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 1: said the barman. There's two women there, and I've stabbed
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 1: every inch of it with his little beef slicer, and
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 1: they don't think he's come in. They haven't noticed. Have
• 2:15:51
  Speaker 1: you fastened it, asked the first cabman. I'm out of frocks,
• 2:15:55
  Speaker 1: said the barman. The man with the beard replaced his revolver,
• 2:16:00
  Speaker 1: and even as he did so, the flap of the
• 2:16:01
  Speaker 1: bar was shut down and the bolt clicked, and then
• 2:16:03
  Speaker 1: with a tremendous thud, the catch of the door snapped
• 2:16:06
  Speaker 1: and the bar parlor door pursed open. The heard Marvel
• 2:16:10
  Speaker 1: squeal like a caught leverage, and forthwith they were clambering
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 1: over the bar to his rescue. The bearded man's revolver cracked,
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 1: and the looking glass at the back of the parlor
• 2:16:19
  Speaker 1: starred and came smashing and tinkling down. As the barman
• 2:16:24
  Speaker 1: entered the room, he saw Marvel curiously crumpled up and
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 1: struggling against the door that led to the yard and kitchen.
• 2:16:30
  Speaker 1: The door flew open while the barman hesitated and Marvel
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 1: was dragged into the kitchen. There was a scream and
• 2:16:36
  Speaker 1: a clatter of hands. Marvel, head down and lugging back obstinately,
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 1: was forced to the kitchen door, and the bolts were drawn.
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 1: Then the policeman, who had been trying to pass the barman,
• 2:16:47
  Speaker 1: rushed in, followed by one of the cabin grabbed the
• 2:16:50
  Speaker 1: wrist of the invisible hand that collared. Marvel, was hit
• 2:16:54
  Speaker 1: in the face and went reeling back. The door opened,
• 2:16:57
  Speaker 1: and Marvel made a frantic effort to obtain a lodgment
• 2:16:59
  Speaker 1: behind him. Then the cabman collared. Something I got him,
• 2:17:04
  Speaker 1: said the cabman. The barman's red hands came clawing at
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 1: the unseen. Here he is, said the barman. Mister Marvell, released,
• 2:17:13
  Speaker 1: suddenly dropped to the ground and made an attempt to
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 1: crawl behind the legs of the fighting men. The struggle
• 2:17:18
  Speaker 1: blundered around the edge of the door. The voice of
• 2:17:21
  Speaker 1: the invisible man was heard for the first time, yelling
• 2:17:24
  Speaker 1: out sharply as the policeman trod on his foot. Then
• 2:17:27
  Speaker 1: he cried out passionately, and his fists flew round like flails.
• 2:17:31
  Speaker 1: The cabman suddenly whooped and doubled up, kicked under the diaphragm.
• 2:17:35
  Speaker 1: The door into the bar parlor from the kitchen slammed
• 2:17:38
  Speaker 1: and covered mister Marvell's retreat. The men in the kitchen
• 2:17:41
  Speaker 1: found themselves clutching at and struggling with empty air. Where
• 2:17:47
  Speaker 1: is he gone, cried the man with a beard. Out
• 2:17:50
  Speaker 1: this way, said the policeman, stepping into the garden, stopping.
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 1: A piece of tile whizzed by his head and smashed
• 2:17:55
  Speaker 1: among the crockery on the kitchen table. I'll show him,
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 1: shouted the man with the black beard. And suddenly a
• 2:18:02
  Speaker 1: steel barrel shone over the policeman's shoulder, and five bullets
• 2:18:05
  Speaker 1: had followed one another into the twilight. Whence the missile
• 2:18:08
  Speaker 1: had come. As he fired, the man with the beard
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 1: moved his hand in a horizontal curve so that his
• 2:18:14
  Speaker 1: shots radiated out into the narrow yard like spokes from
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 1: a wheel. A silence followed five cartridges, said the man
• 2:18:22
  Speaker 1: with a black beard. That's the best of all four aces,
• 2:18:26
  Speaker 1: and a joker. Get a lantern, someone uncomme and feel
• 2:18:29
  Speaker 1: about for his body. Chapter seventeen, Doctor Kemp's visitor. Doctor
• 2:18:40
  Speaker 1: Kemp had continued writing in his study until the shots
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 1: aroused him. Crack, crack, crack. They came one after another. Hallo,
• 2:18:48
  Speaker 1: said doctor Kemp, putting his pen into his mouth again
• 2:18:50
  Speaker 1: and listening. Who's letting revolvers off in Burdock? What are
• 2:18:54
  Speaker 1: the asses at now? He went to the south window,
• 2:18:58
  Speaker 1: threw it up, and leaning up, stared down on the
• 2:19:01
  Speaker 1: network of windows, beaded gas lamps and shops with its
• 2:19:04
  Speaker 1: black interstices of roof and yard that made up the
• 2:19:06
  Speaker 1: town at night. Looked like a crowd down the hill,
• 2:19:10
  Speaker 1: he said, by the cricketers, and remained watching. Thence his
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 1: eyes wandered over the town to far away, where the
• 2:19:17
  Speaker 1: ship's lights shone, and the piered lowed a little illuminated
• 2:19:21
  Speaker 1: faceted pavilion like a gem of yellow light. The moon
• 2:19:24
  Speaker 1: in his first quarter hung over the westward hill, and
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 1: the stars were clear and almost tropically bright. After five minutes,
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 1: during which his mind had traveled into a remote speculation
• 2:19:35
  Speaker 1: of social conditions of the future, and lost itself at
• 2:19:39
  Speaker 1: last over the time dimension, doctor Kemp roused himself with
• 2:19:42
  Speaker 1: a sigh, pulled down the window again, and returned to
• 2:19:45
  Speaker 1: his writing desk. It must have been about an hour
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 1: after this that the front door bell rang. He had
• 2:19:52
  Speaker 1: been writing slightly, and with intervals of abstraction. Since the shots,
• 2:19:56
  Speaker 1: he sat listening. He heard the servant answer the door,
• 2:20:00
  Speaker 1: and waited for her feet on the staircase, but she
• 2:20:02
  Speaker 1: did not come. Wonder what that was, said doctor Kemp.
• 2:20:08
  Speaker 1: He tried to resume his work, failed, got up, went
• 2:20:12
  Speaker 1: downstairs from his study to the landing rang and called
• 2:20:15
  Speaker 1: over the balustrade to the housemaid as she appeared in
• 2:20:17
  Speaker 1: the hall below. Was that a letter, he asked, Only
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 1: a runaway ring, sir, she answered, I'm restless to night,
• 2:20:25
  Speaker 1: he has said to himself. He went back to his
• 2:20:28
  Speaker 1: study and this time attacked his work resolutely. In a
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 1: little while he was hard at work again, and the
• 2:20:34
  Speaker 1: only sounds in the room were the ticking of the
• 2:20:36
  Speaker 1: clock and the subdued shrillness of his quill hurrying in
• 2:20:39
  Speaker 1: the very center of the circle of light. His lamp
• 2:20:42
  Speaker 1: shade threw on his table. It was two o'clock before
• 2:20:46
  Speaker 1: doctor Kemp had finished his work for the night. He rose, yawned,
• 2:20:50
  Speaker 1: and went downstairs to bed. He had already removed his
• 2:20:53
  Speaker 1: coat and vest when he noticed that he was thirsty.
• 2:20:56
  Speaker 1: He took a candle and went down to the dining
• 2:20:58
  Speaker 1: room in search of a siphon and whish Doctor Kemp's
• 2:21:03
  Speaker 1: scientific pursuits have made him a very observant man, and
• 2:21:06
  Speaker 1: as he recrossed the hall he noticed a dark spot
• 2:21:09
  Speaker 1: on the linoleum near the mat at the foot of
• 2:21:11
  Speaker 1: the stairs. He went on upstairs, and then it suddenly
• 2:21:15
  Speaker 1: occurred to him to ask himself what the spot on
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 1: the linonium might be. Apparently some subconscious element was at work.
• 2:21:22
  Speaker 1: At any rate, he turned with his burden, went back
• 2:21:25
  Speaker 1: to the hall, put down the siphon and whiskey, and
• 2:21:28
  Speaker 1: bending down, touched the spot. Without any great surprise, he
• 2:21:33
  Speaker 1: found it had the stickiness and color of drying blood.
• 2:21:37
  Speaker 1: He took up his burden again and returned upstairs. Looking
• 2:21:40
  Speaker 1: about him and trying to account for the blood spot
• 2:21:43
  Speaker 1: on the landing, he saw something and stopped, astonished. The
• 2:21:47
  Speaker 1: door handle of his own room was blood stained. He
• 2:21:51
  Speaker 1: looked at his own hand, it was quite clean, and
• 2:21:54
  Speaker 1: then he remembered the door of his room had been
• 2:21:56
  Speaker 1: open when he came down from his study, and that
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 1: consequently he had not touched the handle at all. He
• 2:22:01
  Speaker 1: went straight into his room, his face quite calm, perhaps
• 2:22:04
  Speaker 1: a trifle more resolute than usual. His glance wandering inquisitively
• 2:22:09
  Speaker 1: fell on the bed. On the counterpane was a mess
• 2:22:12
  Speaker 1: of blood, and the sheet had been torn. He had
• 2:22:15
  Speaker 1: not noticed this before because he had walked straight to
• 2:22:17
  Speaker 1: the dressing table on the further side. The bedclothes were depressed,
• 2:22:22
  Speaker 1: as if someone had recently been sitting there. Then he
• 2:22:26
  Speaker 1: had an odd impression that he heard a low voice say, good,
• 2:22:29
  Speaker 1: Heaven's Kemp. But doctor Kemp was no believer in voices.
• 2:22:35
  Speaker 1: He stood staring at the tumbled sheets. Was that really
• 2:22:38
  Speaker 1: a voice? He looked about again, but noticed nothing further
• 2:22:42
  Speaker 1: than the disordered and blood stained bed. Then he distinctly
• 2:22:46
  Speaker 1: heard a movement across the room near the wash handstand.
• 2:22:51
  Speaker 1: All men, however highly educated, retained some superstitious inklings. The
• 2:22:55
  Speaker 1: feeling that is called eerie came upon him. He closed
• 2:22:59
  Speaker 1: the door the room, came forward to the dressing table
• 2:23:02
  Speaker 1: and put down his burdens. Suddenly, with a start, he
• 2:23:06
  Speaker 1: perceived a coiled and blood stained bandage of linen rag
• 2:23:09
  Speaker 1: hanging in mid air between him and the washhand stand.
• 2:23:13
  Speaker 1: He stared at this in amazement. It was an empty bandage,
• 2:23:18
  Speaker 1: a bandage properly tied, but quite empty. He would have
• 2:23:22
  Speaker 1: advanced to grasp it, but a touch arrested him, and
• 2:23:25
  Speaker 1: a voice speaking quite close to him. Kemp said the voice, Eh,
• 2:23:30
  Speaker 1: said Kemp, with his mouth open. Keep your nerve, said
• 2:23:33
  Speaker 1: the voice, I am an invisible man. Kemp made no
• 2:23:38
  Speaker 1: answer for a space, simply stared at the bandage. Invisible man,
• 2:23:43
  Speaker 1: he said, I am an invisible man, repeated the voice.
• 2:23:49
  Speaker 1: The story he had been active to ridicule only that
• 2:23:52
  Speaker 1: morning rushed through Kemp's brain. He does not appear to
• 2:23:56
  Speaker 1: have been either very much frightened or very greatly surprised
• 2:23:59
  Speaker 1: at the moment. Realization came later. I thought it was
• 2:24:03
  Speaker 1: all a lie, he said. The thought uppermost in his
• 2:24:08
  Speaker 1: mind was the reiterated arguments of the morning. Have you
• 2:24:11
  Speaker 1: a bandage, John, he asked, Yes, said the invisible man. Oh,
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 1: said Kemp, and then roused himself. I say, he said,
• 2:24:20
  Speaker 1: but this is nonsense. It's some trick. He stepped forward.
• 2:24:24
  Speaker 1: Suddenly in his hand extended towards the bandage, met invisible fingers.
• 2:24:29
  Speaker 1: He recoiled at the touch, and his color changed. Keep steady, Kemp,
• 2:24:33
  Speaker 1: for God's sake, I want help badly stop. The hand
• 2:24:38
  Speaker 1: gripped his arm. He struck at it. Kemp cried the voice, Kemp,
• 2:24:41
  Speaker 1: keep steady, and the grip tightened. A frantic desire to
• 2:24:46
  Speaker 1: free himself took possession of Kemp. The hand of the
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 1: bandaged arm gripped his shoulder, and he was suddenly tripped
• 2:24:51
  Speaker 1: and flung backwards upon the bed. He opened his mouth
• 2:24:55
  Speaker 1: to shout, and the corner of the sheet was thrust
• 2:24:57
  Speaker 1: between his teeth. The invisible man had him down grimly,
• 2:25:01
  Speaker 1: but his arms were free, and he struck and tried
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 1: to kick savagely. Listen to reason, will you, said the
• 2:25:07
  Speaker 1: invisible man, sticking to him, in spite of a pounding
• 2:25:09
  Speaker 1: in the ribs. By Heaven, you'll madden me in a minute.
• 2:25:13
  Speaker 1: Lie still, you fool, bawled the invisible man in Kemp's ear.
• 2:25:17
  Speaker 1: Kemp struggled for another moment and then lay still. If
• 2:25:21
  Speaker 1: you shout, I'll smash your face, said the invisible man,
• 2:25:24
  Speaker 1: relieving his mouth. I'm an invisible man. It's no foolish
• 2:25:29
  Speaker 1: and no magic. I really am an invisible man, and
• 2:25:33
  Speaker 1: I want your help. I don't want to hurt you,
• 2:25:35
  Speaker 1: but if you behave like a frantic rustic I must.
• 2:25:39
  Speaker 1: Don't you remember me, Kemp gryffin of University College. Let
• 2:25:44
  Speaker 1: me get up, said Kemp. I'll stop where I am
• 2:25:46
  Speaker 1: and let me see it. Quiet for a minute, he
• 2:25:49
  Speaker 1: sat up and felt his neck. I am Gryffin of
• 2:25:52
  Speaker 1: University College, and I have made myself invisible. I am
• 2:25:56
  Speaker 1: just an ordinary man, a man you have known, made invisible, Gryffin,
• 2:26:02
  Speaker 1: said Kemp. Gryffin answered the voice, A younger student than
• 2:26:06
  Speaker 1: you were, almost an albino, six feet high and broad,
• 2:26:10
  Speaker 1: with a pink and white face and red eyes, who
• 2:26:12
  Speaker 1: won the medal for chemistry. I am confused, said Kemp.
• 2:26:17
  Speaker 1: My brain is writing. What has this to do with Griffin?
• 2:26:21
  Speaker 1: I am Griffin. Kemp thought. It's horrible, he said, but
• 2:26:27
  Speaker 1: what devilry must happen to make a man invisible? It's
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 1: no devilry. It's a process, sane and intelligible enough. It's horrible,
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 1: said Kemp. How on earth it's horrible enough. But I
• 2:26:40
  Speaker 1: am wounded and in pain and tired. Great God, Kemp,
• 2:26:44
  Speaker 1: you are a man. Take it steady, Give me some
• 2:26:47
  Speaker 1: food and drink, and let me sit down here. Kemp
• 2:26:51
  Speaker 1: stared at the bandage as it moved across the room,
• 2:26:54
  Speaker 1: then saw a basket chair dragged across the floor and
• 2:26:56
  Speaker 1: come to rest near the bed. It creaked, and the
• 2:26:59
  Speaker 1: sea twas depressed by the quarter of an inch or so.
• 2:27:03
  Speaker 1: He rubbed his eyes and felt his neck again. This
• 2:27:07
  Speaker 1: beats ghosts, he said, and laughed stupidly. That's better, Thank Heaven.
• 2:27:12
  Speaker 1: You're getting sensible or silly, said Kemp, and knuckled his eyes.
• 2:27:17
  Speaker 1: Give me some whiskey. I'm near dead. It didn't feel
• 2:27:20
  Speaker 1: so Where are you? If I get up, I run
• 2:27:23
  Speaker 1: into you? There? All right? Whisky here? Where shall I
• 2:27:28
  Speaker 1: give it to you? The chair creaked, and Kemp felt
• 2:27:31
  Speaker 1: the glass drawn away from him. He let go by
• 2:27:34
  Speaker 1: an effort. His instinct was all against it. It came
• 2:27:37
  Speaker 1: to rest poised twenty inches above the front edge of
• 2:27:40
  Speaker 1: the seat of the chair. He stared at it in
• 2:27:43
  Speaker 1: infinite perplexity. This is this must be hypnotism. You have
• 2:27:49
  Speaker 1: suggested you are invisible. Nonsense, said the voice. It's frantic.
• 2:27:55
  Speaker 1: Listen to me, I demonstrated conclusively this morning, began Kemp.
• 2:27:59
  Speaker 1: That invisibility. Never mind what you've demonstrated. I'm starving, said
• 2:28:03
  Speaker 1: the voice. And the night is chilly to a man
• 2:28:06
  Speaker 1: without clothes food, said Kemp. The tumbler of whiskey tilted itself, Yes,
• 2:28:12
  Speaker 1: said the invisible man, wrapping it down. Have you a
• 2:28:14
  Speaker 1: dressing gown? Kemp made some exclamation in an undertone. He
• 2:28:19
  Speaker 1: walked to a wardrobe and produced a robe of dingy'scarlet.
• 2:28:23
  Speaker 1: This do, he asked? It was taken from him. It
• 2:28:26
  Speaker 1: hung limp for a moment in mid air, fluttered weirdly,
• 2:28:29
  Speaker 1: stood full and decorously, buttoning itself, and sat down in
• 2:28:32
  Speaker 1: his chair. Drawers, socks, slippers would be a comfort, said
• 2:28:36
  Speaker 1: the unseen Curtly, and food anything, but this is the
• 2:28:41
  Speaker 1: insanest thing I was ever in in my life. He
• 2:28:45
  Speaker 1: turned out his drawers for the articles, and then went
• 2:28:47
  Speaker 1: downstairs to ransack his larder. He came back with some
• 2:28:50
  Speaker 1: cold cutlets and bread, pulled up a light table, and
• 2:28:53
  Speaker 1: placed them before his guest. Never mind knives, said his visitor,
• 2:28:58
  Speaker 1: and a cutlet hung in mid air with a sound
• 2:28:59
  Speaker 1: of invisible, said Kemp, and sat down on a bedroom chair.
• 2:29:05
  Speaker 1: I always like to get something about me before I eat,
• 2:29:07
  Speaker 1: said the invisible man, with a full mouth, eating greedily.
• 2:29:11
  Speaker 1: Queer fancy. I suppose that wrist is all right, said Kemp.
• 2:29:16
  Speaker 1: Trust me, said the invisible man. I've all the strange
• 2:29:19
  Speaker 1: and wonderful, exactly, But it's odd I should blunder into
• 2:29:23
  Speaker 1: your house to get my bandaging, my first stroke of luck. Anyhow,
• 2:29:27
  Speaker 1: I meant to sleep in this house to night. You
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 1: must stand that it's a filthy nuisance. My blood showing,
• 2:29:31
  Speaker 1: Isn't it quite a clot? Over there? Gets visible as
• 2:29:35
  Speaker 1: it coagulates. You see, it's the only living tissue I've changed,
• 2:29:38
  Speaker 1: and only for as long as I'm alive. I've been
• 2:29:41
  Speaker 1: in the house three hours. But how's it done? Began
• 2:29:45
  Speaker 1: Kemp in a tone of exasperation. Confound it the whole business.
• 2:29:49
  Speaker 1: It's unreasonable from beginning to end. Quite reasonable, said the
• 2:29:53
  Speaker 1: invisible man, perfectly reasonable. He reached over and secured the
• 2:29:57
  Speaker 1: whiskey bottle. Kemp stared at the devouring d A ray
• 2:30:01
  Speaker 1: of candle light penetrating a torn patch in the right
• 2:30:03
  Speaker 1: shoulder made a triangle of light under the left ribs.
• 2:30:06
  Speaker 1: Where are the shots? He asked? How did the shooting begin?
• 2:30:10
  Speaker 1: There was a real fool of a man, a sort
• 2:30:12
  Speaker 1: of confederate of mine. Curse him who tried to steal
• 2:30:16
  Speaker 1: my money has done so? Is he invisible too? No? Well,
• 2:30:22
  Speaker 1: can't I have some more to eat before I tell
• 2:30:23
  Speaker 1: you all that I'm hungry in pain, and you want
• 2:30:26
  Speaker 1: me to tell stories, Kemp got up. You didn't do
• 2:30:30
  Speaker 1: any shooting, he asked, Not me, said his visitor. Some
• 2:30:34
  Speaker 1: fool i'd never seen fired at random. A lot of
• 2:30:37
  Speaker 1: them got scared. They all got scared at me. Curse them.
• 2:30:40
  Speaker 1: I say, I want more to eat than this, Kemp.
• 2:30:43
  Speaker 1: I'll see what there is to eat downstairs, said Kemp.
• 2:30:46
  Speaker 1: Not much, I'm afraid. After he had done eating, and
• 2:30:50
  Speaker 1: he had made a heavy meal, the invisible man demanded
• 2:30:52
  Speaker 1: a cigar. He bit the end savagely before Kemp could
• 2:30:56
  Speaker 1: find a knife, and cursed. When the outer leaf loosened,
• 2:30:59
  Speaker 1: it was strange to see him smoking. His mouth and
• 2:31:01
  Speaker 1: throat phananx and narrows became visible as a sort of
• 2:31:04
  Speaker 1: whirling smoke cast this blessed gift of smoking, he said,
• 2:31:09
  Speaker 1: and puffed vigorously. I am lucky to have fallen upon you, Kemp.
• 2:31:12
  Speaker 1: You must help me. Fancy tumbling on you just now.
• 2:31:15
  Speaker 1: I'm in a devilish scrape. I've been mad. I think
• 2:31:18
  Speaker 1: the things I've been through, But we will do things yet.
• 2:31:21
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you he helped himself to more whiskey
• 2:31:24
  Speaker 1: and soda. Kemp got up, looked about him, and fetched
• 2:31:26
  Speaker 1: a glass from his spare room. It's wild, but I
• 2:31:30
  Speaker 1: suppose I may drink. You haven't changed much, Kemp, these
• 2:31:33
  Speaker 1: dozen years. You fair men don't cool and methodical. After
• 2:31:37
  Speaker 1: the first collapse, I must tell you. We will work together.
• 2:31:41
  Speaker 1: But how was it all done? Said Kemp? And how
• 2:31:43
  Speaker 1: did you get like this? For God's sake, let me
• 2:31:45
  Speaker 1: smoke in peace for a little while, and then I
• 2:31:47
  Speaker 1: will begin to tell you. But the story was not
• 2:31:51
  Speaker 1: told that night. The Invisible Man's wrist was growing painful.
• 2:31:54
  Speaker 1: He was feverish, exhausted, and his mind came round to
• 2:31:57
  Speaker 1: brood upon his chase down the hill and the struggle
• 2:31:59
  Speaker 1: about the ear. He spoke in fragments of marvel. He
• 2:32:02
  Speaker 1: smoked faster, his voice grew angry. Kemp tried to gather
• 2:32:07
  Speaker 1: what he could. He was afraid of me. I could
• 2:32:09
  Speaker 1: see that he was afraid of me, said the invisible man.
• 2:32:12
  Speaker 1: Many times over. He meant to give me the slip.
• 2:32:15
  Speaker 1: He was always casting about. What a fool I was
• 2:32:18
  Speaker 1: the cur I should have killed him. Where did you
• 2:32:22
  Speaker 1: get the money, asked Kemp abruptly. The Invisible Man was
• 2:32:25
  Speaker 1: silent for a space. I can't tell you to night,
• 2:32:28
  Speaker 1: he said. He groaned suddenly and leant forward, supporting his
• 2:32:32
  Speaker 1: invisible head on invisible hands. Kemp he said, I've had
• 2:32:36
  Speaker 1: no sleep for near three days, except a couple of
• 2:32:38
  Speaker 1: dozes an hour. I must sleep soon. Well, I have
• 2:32:42
  Speaker 1: my room, have this room, But how can I sleep?
• 2:32:44
  Speaker 1: If I sleep, he will get away? Ugh, what does
• 2:32:47
  Speaker 1: it matter? What's the shot wound? Asked Kemp abruptly, nothing,
• 2:32:52
  Speaker 1: scratch and blood? Oh God, how I want sleep? Why not?
• 2:32:57
  Speaker 1: The invisible man appeared to be regarding Kemp. Because I've
• 2:33:00
  Speaker 1: a particular objection to being caught by my fellow men,
• 2:33:03
  Speaker 1: he said slowly. Kemp started fool that I am, said
• 2:33:08
  Speaker 1: the invisible man, striking the table smartly. I've put the
• 2:33:11
  Speaker 1: idea into your head. End of Chapter seventeen. Chapter eighteen,
• 2:33:20
  Speaker 1: The invisible man sleeps. Exhausted and wounded. As the invisible
• 2:33:26
  Speaker 1: man was, he refused to accept Kemp's word that his
• 2:33:29
  Speaker 1: freedom should be respected. He examined the two windows of
• 2:33:32
  Speaker 1: the bedroom, drew up the blinds, and opened the sashes
• 2:33:35
  Speaker 1: to confirm Kemp's statement that a retreat by them would
• 2:33:37
  Speaker 1: be possible outside the night was very quiet and still,
• 2:33:41
  Speaker 1: and the new moon was settling over the down Then
• 2:33:45
  Speaker 1: he examined the keys of the bedroom and the two
• 2:33:47
  Speaker 1: dressing room doors to satisfy himself that these also could
• 2:33:50
  Speaker 1: be made an assurance of freedom. Finally, he expressed himself satisfied.
• 2:33:55
  Speaker 1: He stood on the hearth rug and Kemp heard the
• 2:33:57
  Speaker 1: sound of a yawn. I'm sorry, said the invisible man
• 2:34:01
  Speaker 1: if I cannot tell you all that I have done tonight,
• 2:34:04
  Speaker 1: but I am worn out. It's grotesque, no doubt, it's horrible.
• 2:34:09
  Speaker 1: But believe me, Kemp, in spite of your arguments of
• 2:34:11
  Speaker 1: this morning, it is quite a possible thing. I have
• 2:34:14
  Speaker 1: made a discovery. I meant to keep it to myself.
• 2:34:18
  Speaker 1: I can't. I must have a partner and you we
• 2:34:22
  Speaker 1: can do such things. But tomorrow now, Kemp, I feel
• 2:34:27
  Speaker 1: as though I must sleep or perish. Kemp stood in
• 2:34:32
  Speaker 1: the middle of the room, staring at the headless garment.
• 2:34:35
  Speaker 1: I suppose I must leave you, he said. It's incredible.
• 2:34:39
  Speaker 1: Three things happening like this, overturning all my preconceptions would
• 2:34:43
  Speaker 1: make me insane, but it's real. Is there anything more
• 2:34:47
  Speaker 1: that I can get? You? Only bid me good night,
• 2:34:50
  Speaker 1: said Griffin. Good night, said Kemp, and shook an invisible hand.
• 2:34:55
  Speaker 1: He walked sideways to the door. Suddenly the dressing gown
• 2:34:59
  Speaker 1: walked quickly towards him. Understand me, said the dressing gown.
• 2:35:02
  Speaker 1: No attempts to hamper me or capture me or Kemp's
• 2:35:06
  Speaker 1: face changed a little. I thought, I gave you my word,
• 2:35:09
  Speaker 1: he said. Kemp closed the door softly behind him, and
• 2:35:13
  Speaker 1: the key was turned upon him forthwith. Then, as he
• 2:35:16
  Speaker 1: stood with an expression of passive amazement on his face,
• 2:35:19
  Speaker 1: the rapid feet came to the door of the dressing room,
• 2:35:21
  Speaker 1: and that too was locked. Kemp slapped his brow with
• 2:35:25
  Speaker 1: his hand. Am I dreaming? Has the world gone mad?
• 2:35:28
  Speaker 1: Or have I? He laughed, and put his hand to
• 2:35:32
  Speaker 1: the locked door. Barred out of my own bedroom by
• 2:35:35
  Speaker 1: a flagrant absurdity, he said. He walked to the head
• 2:35:39
  Speaker 1: of the staircase, turned and stared at the locked doors.
• 2:35:43
  Speaker 1: It's fact, he said. He put his fingers to his
• 2:35:45
  Speaker 1: slightly bruised neck. Undeniable fact. But he shook his head hopelessly,
• 2:35:53
  Speaker 1: turned and went downstairs. He lit the dining room lamp,
• 2:35:57
  Speaker 1: got out a cigar, and began pacing the ROOMA jack
• 2:36:01
  Speaker 1: now and then he would argue with himself. Invisible, He said,
• 2:36:06
  Speaker 1: is there such a thing as an invisible animal in
• 2:36:09
  Speaker 1: the sea? Yes, thousands millions, or the larvae, or the
• 2:36:13
  Speaker 1: little knopoly i and toneras, or the microscopic things like jellyfish.
• 2:36:18
  Speaker 1: In the sea. There are more things invisible than visible,
• 2:36:20
  Speaker 1: or I never thought of that before. And in the
• 2:36:22
  Speaker 1: ponds too, or those little pond life things, specks of
• 2:36:26
  Speaker 1: colorless translucent jelly. But in air, no, it can't be.
• 2:36:32
  Speaker 1: But after all, why not if a man was made
• 2:36:36
  Speaker 1: of glass, he would still be visible. His meditation became profound.
• 2:36:41
  Speaker 1: The bulk of three cigars had passed into the invisible
• 2:36:44
  Speaker 1: or diffused as a white ash over the carpet before
• 2:36:46
  Speaker 1: he spoke again. Then it was merely an exclamation. He
• 2:36:51
  Speaker 1: turned aside, walked out of the room, and went into
• 2:36:53
  Speaker 1: his little consulting room and lit the gas. There. It
• 2:36:57
  Speaker 1: was a little room because doctor Kemp did not live practice,
• 2:37:01
  Speaker 1: and in it were the day's newspapers. The morning's paper
• 2:37:04
  Speaker 1: lay carelessly opened and thrown aside. He caught it up,
• 2:37:07
  Speaker 1: turned it over and read the account of a strange
• 2:37:10
  Speaker 1: story from Iping that the mariner at Port Stow had
• 2:37:13
  Speaker 1: spelt over so painfully to mister Marvel. Kemp read it
• 2:37:16
  Speaker 1: swiftly wrapped up, said Kemp, disguised hiding it. No one
• 2:37:22
  Speaker 1: seems to have been aware of his misfortune. What the
• 2:37:25
  Speaker 1: devil is his game? He dropped the paper and his
• 2:37:29
  Speaker 1: eye went seeking. Ah, he said. He caught up the
• 2:37:32
  Speaker 1: Saint James's Gazette, lying folded up as it arrived. Now
• 2:37:36
  Speaker 1: we shall get at the truth, said doctor Kemp. He
• 2:37:39
  Speaker 1: rent the paper open. A couple of columns confronted him.
• 2:37:42
  Speaker 1: An entire village in Sussex goes mad? Was the heading.
• 2:37:47
  Speaker 1: Good Heavens, said Kemp, reading eagerly, an incredulous account of
• 2:37:50
  Speaker 1: the events in iping of the previous afternoon that have
• 2:37:53
  Speaker 1: already been described. Over the leaf, the report in the
• 2:37:56
  Speaker 1: morning paper had been reprinted. He re read. Ran through
• 2:38:01
  Speaker 1: the streets, striking left and right, jaffers insensible, mister Huckster
• 2:38:05
  Speaker 1: in great pain, still unable to describe what he saw,
• 2:38:08
  Speaker 1: painful humiliation, vicar woman ill with terror, windows smashed. This
• 2:38:14
  Speaker 1: extraordinary story, probably a fabrication, too good not to print,
• 2:38:18
  Speaker 1: cum Grano. He dropped the paper and stared blankly in
• 2:38:22
  Speaker 1: front of him, Probably a fabrication, He caught up the
• 2:38:28
  Speaker 1: paper again and re read the whole business. But when
• 2:38:32
  Speaker 1: does the tramp coming? Why the deuce was he chasing
• 2:38:34
  Speaker 1: a tramp? He sat down abruptly on the surgical bench.
• 2:38:39
  Speaker 1: He's not only invisible, he said, but he's mad, homicidal.
• 2:38:45
  Speaker 1: When dawn came to mingle its power with the lamp
• 2:38:47
  Speaker 1: light and cigar smoke of the dining room, Kemp was
• 2:38:50
  Speaker 1: still pacing up and down, trying to grasp the incredible.
• 2:38:54
  Speaker 1: He was altogether too excited to sleep. His servants, descending sleepily,
• 2:38:59
  Speaker 1: discovered him and were inclined to think that overstudy had
• 2:39:02
  Speaker 1: worked this ill on him. He gave them extraordinary but
• 2:39:05
  Speaker 1: quite explicit instructions to lay breakfast for two in the
• 2:39:08
  Speaker 1: belvedere study, and then to confine themselves to the basement
• 2:39:11
  Speaker 1: and ground floor. Then he continued to pace the dining
• 2:39:15
  Speaker 1: room until the morning's paper came that had much to
• 2:39:17
  Speaker 1: say and little to tell beyond the confirmation of the
• 2:39:20
  Speaker 1: evening before and a very badly written account of another
• 2:39:23
  Speaker 1: remarkable tale from Port Burdock. This gave Kemp the essence
• 2:39:27
  Speaker 1: of the happenings at the Jolly Cricketers, and the name
• 2:39:29
  Speaker 1: of Marvel he has made me keep with him twenty
• 2:39:32
  Speaker 1: four hours. Marvel testified. Certain minor facts were added to
• 2:39:37
  Speaker 1: the iping story, notably the cutting of the village telegraph wire,
• 2:39:41
  Speaker 1: but there was nothing to throw light on the connection
• 2:39:43
  Speaker 1: between the Invisible Man and the tramp, For mister Marvel
• 2:39:46
  Speaker 1: had supplied no information about the three books or the
• 2:39:48
  Speaker 1: money with which he was lined. The incredulous tone had vanished,
• 2:39:52
  Speaker 1: and a shoal of reporters and inquirers were already at
• 2:39:55
  Speaker 1: work elaborating the matter. Kemp read every scrap of the
• 2:39:59
  Speaker 1: report and sent his housemaid out to get every one
• 2:40:01
  Speaker 1: of the morning papers she could. These also he devoured.
• 2:40:06
  Speaker 1: He is invisible, he said, and it reads like rage
• 2:40:09
  Speaker 1: growing to mania. The things he may do, the things
• 2:40:12
  Speaker 1: he may do, And upstairs he's free as air. What
• 2:40:15
  Speaker 1: on earth ought I to do? For instance? Would it
• 2:40:20
  Speaker 1: be a breach of faith? If no? He went to
• 2:40:24
  Speaker 1: a little untidy desk in the corner and began a note.
• 2:40:28
  Speaker 1: He tore this up, half written, and wrote another. He
• 2:40:31
  Speaker 1: read it over and considered it. Then he took an
• 2:40:33
  Speaker 1: envelope and addressed it to Colonel adye Port Burdock. The
• 2:40:39
  Speaker 1: Invisible Man awoke even as Kemp was doing this. He
• 2:40:42
  Speaker 1: awoke in an evil temper, and Kemp, alert for every sound,
• 2:40:46
  Speaker 1: heard his pattering feet rush suddenly across the bedroom overhead.
• 2:40:50
  Speaker 1: Then a chair was flung over and the wash handstand
• 2:40:52
  Speaker 1: tumbler smashed. Kemp hurried upstairs and rapped eagerly, Chapter nineteen,
• 2:41:02
  Speaker 1: Certain First Principles. What's the matter, asked Kemp, when the
• 2:41:06
  Speaker 1: invisible Man admitted him nothing was the answer, but confound
• 2:41:12
  Speaker 1: it the smash fit of temper, said the invisible Man
• 2:41:16
  Speaker 1: forgot this arm, and it's sore. You're rather liable to
• 2:41:20
  Speaker 1: that sort of thing, I am. Kemp walked across the
• 2:41:24
  Speaker 1: room and picked up the fragments of broken glass. All
• 2:41:28
  Speaker 1: the facts are out about you, said Kemp, standing up
• 2:41:30
  Speaker 1: with the glass in his hand. All that happened in
• 2:41:32
  Speaker 1: iping and down the hill. The world has become aware
• 2:41:35
  Speaker 1: of its invisible citizen, but no one knows you are here.
• 2:41:40
  Speaker 1: The invisible Man swore, the secret's out. I gather it
• 2:41:44
  Speaker 1: was a secret. I don't know what your plans are,
• 2:41:46
  Speaker 1: but of course I'm anxious to help you. The Invisible
• 2:41:49
  Speaker 1: Man sat down on the bed. There's breakfast upstairs, said Kemp,
• 2:41:54
  Speaker 1: speaking as easily as possible, and he was delighted to
• 2:41:57
  Speaker 1: find his strange guest rose willingly. Kemp led the way
• 2:42:01
  Speaker 1: to the narrow staircase to the Belvidere. Before we can
• 2:42:05
  Speaker 1: do anything else, said Kemp, I must understand a little
• 2:42:08
  Speaker 1: more about this invisibility of yours. He had sat down
• 2:42:11
  Speaker 1: after one nervous glance out of the window with the
• 2:42:13
  Speaker 1: air of a man who has talking to do. His
• 2:42:16
  Speaker 1: doubts of the sanity of the entire business flashed and
• 2:42:19
  Speaker 1: vanished again as he looked across to where Griffin sat
• 2:42:21
  Speaker 1: at the breakfast table, a headless, handless dressing gown, wiping
• 2:42:25
  Speaker 1: unseen lips on a miraculously held serviette. It's simple enough
• 2:42:31
  Speaker 1: and credible enough, said Griffin, putting the serviette aside and
• 2:42:34
  Speaker 1: leaning the invisible head on an invisible hand. No doubt
• 2:42:38
  Speaker 1: to you, but Kemp laughed. Well, yes to me, it
• 2:42:42
  Speaker 1: seemed wonderful at first, no doubt. But now great God,
• 2:42:46
  Speaker 1: but we will do great things. Yet. I came on
• 2:42:49
  Speaker 1: the stuff first at Cheslestone, Cheslestone. I went there after
• 2:42:54
  Speaker 1: I left London, you know, I dropped medicine and took
• 2:42:57
  Speaker 1: up physics. No, well, I did light fascinated me er
• 2:43:03
  Speaker 1: optical density. The whole subject is a network of riddles,
• 2:43:06
  Speaker 1: a network with solutions, glimmering elusively through and being but
• 2:43:11
  Speaker 1: two and twenty and full of enthusiasm, I said, I
• 2:43:13
  Speaker 1: will devote my life to this. This is worth while.
• 2:43:17
  Speaker 1: Do you know what fools we are? Two and twenty fools? Then?
• 2:43:21
  Speaker 1: Are fools? Now, said Kemp, as though knowing could be
• 2:43:24
  Speaker 1: any satisfaction to a man. But I went to work
• 2:43:28
  Speaker 1: like a slave, and I had hardly worked and thought
• 2:43:31
  Speaker 1: about the matter six months before light came through one
• 2:43:33
  Speaker 1: of the meshes. Suddenly, blindingly, I found a general principle
• 2:43:37
  Speaker 1: of pigments and refraction, a formula, a geometrical expression involving
• 2:43:41
  Speaker 1: four dimensions. Fools, common men, even common mathematicians, do not
• 2:43:46
  Speaker 1: know anything of what some general expression may mean to
• 2:43:48
  Speaker 1: the student of molecular physics. In the books, the books
• 2:43:52
  Speaker 1: that Tramp has hidden, there are marvels, miracles. But this
• 2:43:57
  Speaker 1: was not a method. It was an idea that might
• 2:43:59
  Speaker 1: lead to a method by way which it will be
• 2:44:00
  Speaker 1: possible without changing any other property of matter, except in
• 2:44:03
  Speaker 1: some instances colors to lower the refractive index of a
• 2:44:06
  Speaker 1: substance solid or liquid to that of air, so far
• 2:44:09
  Speaker 1: as all practical purposes are concerned. Phew, said Camp. That's odd,
• 2:44:15
  Speaker 1: but still I don't quite see. I can understand that
• 2:44:18
  Speaker 1: thereby you could spoil a valuable stone, but personal invisibility
• 2:44:22
  Speaker 1: is a far cry. Precisely, said Griffin, But consider visibility
• 2:44:28
  Speaker 1: depends on the action of the visible bodies on light.
• 2:44:30
  Speaker 1: Either a body absorbs light, or it reflects or refracts it,
• 2:44:33
  Speaker 1: or it does all these things. If it neither reflects,
• 2:44:36
  Speaker 1: nor refracts, nor absorbs light, it cannot of itself be visible.
• 2:44:41
  Speaker 1: You see an opaque red box, for instance, because the
• 2:44:43
  Speaker 1: color absorbs some of the light and reflects the rest
• 2:44:46
  Speaker 1: or the red part of the light to you. If
• 2:44:48
  Speaker 1: it did not absorb any particular part of the light,
• 2:44:51
  Speaker 1: but reflected it all, then it would be a shining
• 2:44:53
  Speaker 1: white box. Silver. A diamond box would neither absorb much
• 2:44:57
  Speaker 1: of the light nor reflect much from the general surface,
• 2:44:59
  Speaker 1: but just here and there, where the surfaces were favorable,
• 2:45:02
  Speaker 1: the light would be reflected and refracted, so that you
• 2:45:04
  Speaker 1: would get a brilliant appearance of flashing reflections on translucencies,
• 2:45:08
  Speaker 1: a sort of skeleton of light. A glass box would
• 2:45:11
  Speaker 1: not be so brilliant, not so clearly visible as a
• 2:45:13
  Speaker 1: diamond box, because there would be less refraction and reflection.
• 2:45:17
  Speaker 1: You see that from certain points of view you could
• 2:45:19
  Speaker 1: see quite clearly through it. Some kinds of glass would
• 2:45:22
  Speaker 1: be more visible than others. A box of flint glass
• 2:45:24
  Speaker 1: would be brighter than a box of ordinary window glass.
• 2:45:27
  Speaker 1: A box of very thin common glass would be hard
• 2:45:29
  Speaker 1: to see in a bad light because it would absorb
• 2:45:32
  Speaker 1: hardly any light and refract and reflect very little. And
• 2:45:35
  Speaker 1: if you put a sheet of common white glass in water,
• 2:45:38
  Speaker 1: still more, if you put it in some denser liquid
• 2:45:40
  Speaker 1: than water, it would vanish almost altogether. Because light passing
• 2:45:43
  Speaker 1: from water to glass is only slightly reflected or reflected,
• 2:45:47
  Speaker 1: or indeed affected in any way. It is almost as
• 2:45:50
  Speaker 1: invisible as a jet of coal, gas or hydrogen is
• 2:45:52
  Speaker 1: in air. And for precisely the same reason, yes, said Kemp,
• 2:45:57
  Speaker 1: that is pretty plain sailing. And here is another fact
• 2:46:01
  Speaker 1: you will know to be true. If a sheet of
• 2:46:03
  Speaker 1: glass is smashed camp and then beaten into a powder,
• 2:46:05
  Speaker 1: it becomes much more visible. While it is in the air.
• 2:46:08
  Speaker 1: It becomes at least an opaque white powder. This is
• 2:46:12
  Speaker 1: because the powdering multiplies the surfaces of the glass at
• 2:46:14
  Speaker 1: which refraction or reflexion occur. In the sheet of glass,
• 2:46:17
  Speaker 1: there are only two surfaces and the powder. The light
• 2:46:19
  Speaker 1: is reflected or refracted by each grain that passes through,
• 2:46:22
  Speaker 1: and very little gets right through the powder. But if
• 2:46:25
  Speaker 1: the white powdered glass is put into water, it forth
• 2:46:27
  Speaker 1: with vanishes. The powdered glass and water have much the
• 2:46:30
  Speaker 1: same refractive index. That is, the light undergoes very little
• 2:46:32
  Speaker 1: refraction or reflexion in passing from one to the other.
• 2:46:36
  Speaker 1: You make the glass invisible by putting it into a
• 2:46:38
  Speaker 1: liquid of nearly the same refractive index. A transparent thing
• 2:46:41
  Speaker 1: becomes invisible if it is put in any medium of
• 2:46:43
  Speaker 1: almost the same refractive index. And if you will consider
• 2:46:46
  Speaker 1: only a second, you will see also that the powder
• 2:46:49
  Speaker 1: of glass might be made to vanish in air, if
• 2:46:51
  Speaker 1: its refractive index could be made the same as that
• 2:46:53
  Speaker 1: of air. For then there will be no refraction or
• 2:46:56
  Speaker 1: reflexion as the light passed from glass to air. Yes, yes,
• 2:47:00
  Speaker 1: said Kemp, But a man's not powdered glass, No, said Griffin,
• 2:47:06
  Speaker 1: he's more transparent. Nonsense that from a doctor, how one forgets?
• 2:47:13
  Speaker 1: Have you already forgotten your physics? In ten years. Just
• 2:47:16
  Speaker 1: think of all the things that are transparent and seem
• 2:47:19
  Speaker 1: not to be so. Paper, for instance, is made up
• 2:47:21
  Speaker 1: of transparent fibers, and it is white and opaque only
• 2:47:24
  Speaker 1: for the same reason that a powder of glass is
• 2:47:26
  Speaker 1: white and opaque. Oil white paper fill up the instances
• 2:47:30
  Speaker 1: between the particles with oil, so that there is no
• 2:47:32
  Speaker 1: longer refraction or reflection except at the surfaces, and it
• 2:47:35
  Speaker 1: becomes as transparent as glass. Are not only paper, but cotton, fiber, linen, fiber,
• 2:47:40
  Speaker 1: wool fiber, woody fiber, and bone, Kemp, flesh, Kemp hair,
• 2:47:44
  Speaker 1: Kemp nails, and nerves, camps. In fact, the whole fabric
• 2:47:48
  Speaker 1: of a man, except the red of his blood and
• 2:47:50
  Speaker 1: the black pigment of hair, are all made up of transparent,
• 2:47:53
  Speaker 1: colorless tissue, so little surfaces to make us visible one
• 2:47:57
  Speaker 1: to the other. For the most part. The fibers of
• 2:47:59
  Speaker 1: a living manner no more a paque than water. Great Heavens,
• 2:48:04
  Speaker 1: said Kemp. Of course, of course, I was thinking only
• 2:48:07
  Speaker 1: last night of the sea larvae and all jelly fish.
• 2:48:10
  Speaker 1: Now you have me and all that I knew and
• 2:48:13
  Speaker 1: had in mind a year after I left London six
• 2:48:15
  Speaker 1: years ago. But I kept it to myself. I had
• 2:48:19
  Speaker 1: to do my work under frightful disadvantages. Oliver, my professor
• 2:48:23
  Speaker 1: was a scientific bounder, a journalist by instinct, a thief
• 2:48:26
  Speaker 1: of ideas. He was always prying, and you know the
• 2:48:30
  Speaker 1: knavish system of the scientific world. I simply would not
• 2:48:33
  Speaker 1: publish and let him share my credit. I went on working.
• 2:48:37
  Speaker 1: I got nearer and nearer to making my formula in
• 2:48:39
  Speaker 1: an experiment a reality. I told no living soul, because
• 2:48:44
  Speaker 1: I meant to flash my work upon the world with
• 2:48:45
  Speaker 1: crushing effect and become famous. At a blow, I took
• 2:48:49
  Speaker 1: up the question of pigments to fill up certain gaps,
• 2:48:52
  Speaker 1: and suddenly, but by design, not by accident, I made
• 2:48:56
  Speaker 1: a discovery in physiology. Yees, you know the red coloring
• 2:49:01
  Speaker 1: matter of blood. It can be made white, colorless, and
• 2:49:06
  Speaker 1: remain with all the functions it has. Now Kemp gave
• 2:49:09
  Speaker 1: a cry of credulous amazement. The invisible man rose and
• 2:49:13
  Speaker 1: began pacing a little study. You may well exclaim. I
• 2:49:17
  Speaker 1: remember that night. It was late at night. In the daytime,
• 2:49:20
  Speaker 1: one was bothering with the gaping silly students. And I
• 2:49:23
  Speaker 1: worked then sometimes till dawn. It came suddenly splendid and
• 2:49:27
  Speaker 1: complete in my mind. I was alone the laboratory of still,
• 2:49:31
  Speaker 1: with the tall lights burning brightly and silently. In all
• 2:49:35
  Speaker 1: my great moments I have been alone. One could make
• 2:49:38
  Speaker 1: an animal a tissue transparent. One could make it invisible,
• 2:49:42
  Speaker 1: all except the pigments. I could be invisible, I said,
• 2:49:47
  Speaker 1: suddenly realizing what it meant to be an albino. With
• 2:49:49
  Speaker 1: such knowledge it was overwhelming. I left the filtering I
• 2:49:54
  Speaker 1: was doing and went and stared out of the great
• 2:49:56
  Speaker 1: window at the stars. I could be invisible, I repeated.
• 2:50:02
  Speaker 1: To do such a thing would be to transcend magic.
• 2:50:05
  Speaker 1: And I beheld, unclouded by doubt, a magnificent vision of
• 2:50:09
  Speaker 1: all that invisibility might mean to a man, the mystery,
• 2:50:12
  Speaker 1: the power, the freedom, drawbacks. I saw none. You have
• 2:50:16
  Speaker 1: only to think, and I, a shabby, poverty struck hemmed
• 2:50:20
  Speaker 1: in demonstrator teaching fools in a provincial college, might suddenly
• 2:50:24
  Speaker 1: become this. I ask you, Kemp, if you any one,
• 2:50:29
  Speaker 1: I tell you would have flung himself upon that research.
• 2:50:31
  Speaker 1: And I worked three years, and every mountain of difficulty
• 2:50:34
  Speaker 1: I toiled over showed another from its summit, the infinite
• 2:50:38
  Speaker 1: details and the exasperation A professor, a provincial professor, always
• 2:50:43
  Speaker 1: prying when you were going to publish this work of yours,
• 2:50:46
  Speaker 1: with his everlasting question and the students the cramped means
• 2:50:50
  Speaker 1: three years I had of it, and after three years
• 2:50:53
  Speaker 1: of secrecy an exasperation, I found that to complete it
• 2:50:57
  Speaker 1: was impossible. Impossible, how asked Kemp. Money, said the invisible man,
• 2:51:04
  Speaker 1: and went again to stare out of the window. He
• 2:51:07
  Speaker 1: turned round abruptly. I robbed the old man, robbed my father.
• 2:51:14
  Speaker 1: The money was not his, and he shot himself. End
• 2:51:20
  Speaker 1: of Chapter nineteen, Chapter twenty. At the house in Great
• 2:51:25
  Speaker 1: Portland Street. For a moment, Kemp sat in silence, staring
• 2:51:31
  Speaker 1: at the back of the headless figure at the window.
• 2:51:34
  Speaker 1: Then he started, struck by a thought. Rose took the
• 2:51:38
  Speaker 1: invisible man's arm and turned him away from the outlook.
• 2:51:43
  Speaker 1: You are tired, he said, and while I sit you
• 2:51:46
  Speaker 1: walk about. Have my chair. He placed himself between Griffin
• 2:51:51
  Speaker 1: and the nearest window. For a space, Griffin sat silent,
• 2:51:57
  Speaker 1: then he resumed abruptly. I had left the Chesilstowe Cottage already,
• 2:52:02
  Speaker 1: he said. When that happened, it was last December. I
• 2:52:06
  Speaker 1: had taken a room in London, a large, unfurnished room,
• 2:52:09
  Speaker 1: with a big, ill mannaged lodging house in a slum
• 2:52:12
  Speaker 1: near Great Portland Street. The room was soon full of
• 2:52:15
  Speaker 1: the appliances that I had bought with his money, and
• 2:52:17
  Speaker 1: the work was going on steadily, successfully, drawing near an end.
• 2:52:21
  Speaker 1: I was like a man emerging from a thicket and
• 2:52:24
  Speaker 1: suddenly coming on some unmeaning tragedy. I went to bury him.
• 2:52:29
  Speaker 1: My mind was still on this research, and I did
• 2:52:31
  Speaker 1: not lift a finger to save his character. I remember
• 2:52:34
  Speaker 1: the funeral, the chief hears, the scant ceremony, the windy,
• 2:52:38
  Speaker 1: frost bitten hillside, and the old college friend of his
• 2:52:41
  Speaker 1: who read the service over him, a shabby, black, bent
• 2:52:45
  Speaker 1: old man with a snivering cold. I remember walking back
• 2:52:49
  Speaker 1: to the empty house, through the place that had once
• 2:52:52
  Speaker 1: been a village, and was now patched and tinkered by
• 2:52:54
  Speaker 1: the jerry builders, into the ugly likeness of a town.
• 2:52:57
  Speaker 1: Every way the roads ran out at last into the
• 2:53:00
  Speaker 1: desecrated fields and ended in rubble heaps and rank, wet weeds.
• 2:53:05
  Speaker 1: I remembered myself as a gaunt black figure going along
• 2:53:08
  Speaker 1: the slippery, shiny pavement on the strange sense of detachment
• 2:53:12
  Speaker 1: I felt from the squalid respectability, the sordid commercialism of
• 2:53:15
  Speaker 1: the place. I did not feel a bit sorry for
• 2:53:18
  Speaker 1: my father. He seemed to me to be the victim
• 2:53:21
  Speaker 1: of his own foolish sentimentality. The current cant required my
• 2:53:25
  Speaker 1: attendance at his funeral, but it was really not my affair.
• 2:53:30
  Speaker 1: But going along the high Street, my old life came
• 2:53:32
  Speaker 1: back to me for a space for I met the
• 2:53:34
  Speaker 1: girl I had known ten years since our eyes met.
• 2:53:39
  Speaker 1: Something moved me to turn back and talk to her.
• 2:53:43
  Speaker 1: She was a very ordinary person. It was all like
• 2:53:46
  Speaker 1: a dream that visit to the old places. I did
• 2:53:50
  Speaker 1: not feel then that I was lonely, that I had
• 2:53:52
  Speaker 1: come out from the world into a desolate place. I
• 2:53:55
  Speaker 1: appreciated my loss of sympathy, but I put it down
• 2:53:58
  Speaker 1: to the general inanity of things. Re Entering my room
• 2:54:02
  Speaker 1: seemed like the recovery of reality. They were the things
• 2:54:05
  Speaker 1: I knew and loved. There stood the apparatus, the experiments
• 2:54:08
  Speaker 1: arranged and waiting, And now there was scarcely a difficulty
• 2:54:11
  Speaker 1: left beyond the planning of details. I will tell you
• 2:54:15
  Speaker 1: camp sooner or later. All the complicated processes we need
• 2:54:19
  Speaker 1: not go into that now. For the most part, saving
• 2:54:22
  Speaker 1: certain gaps, I chose to remember they are written in
• 2:54:25
  Speaker 1: cipher in those books. The tramp has hidden. We must
• 2:54:28
  Speaker 1: hunt him down. We must get those books again. But
• 2:54:31
  Speaker 1: the essential phase was to place the transparent object, whose
• 2:54:34
  Speaker 1: refractive index was to be lowered between two radiating centers
• 2:54:37
  Speaker 1: of a sort of ethereal vibration of which I will
• 2:54:40
  Speaker 1: tell you more fully later. No, not those oilcan vibrations.
• 2:54:44
  Speaker 1: I don't know that these others of mine have been
• 2:54:46
  Speaker 1: described yet. They are obvious enough. I needed two little dynamos,
• 2:54:51
  Speaker 1: and these I worked with a cheap gas engine. My
• 2:54:54
  Speaker 1: first experiment was with a bit of white wool fabric.
• 2:54:57
  Speaker 1: It was the strangest thing in the world. To see
• 2:54:59
  Speaker 1: it in the flicker of the flashes, soft and white,
• 2:55:02
  Speaker 1: and then to watch it fade like a wreath of
• 2:55:04
  Speaker 1: smoke and vanish. I could scarcely believe I had done it.
• 2:55:08
  Speaker 1: I put my hand into the emptiness, and there was
• 2:55:10
  Speaker 1: the thing, as solid as ever. I felt it awkwardly
• 2:55:13
  Speaker 1: and threw it on the floor. I had a little
• 2:55:16
  Speaker 1: trouble finding it again, and then came a curious experience.
• 2:55:21
  Speaker 1: I heard her meow behind me, and turning saw a
• 2:55:24
  Speaker 1: lean white cat, very dirty on the cistern cover outside
• 2:55:28
  Speaker 1: the window. A thought came into my head. Everything ready
• 2:55:32
  Speaker 1: for you, I said, and I went to the window,
• 2:55:35
  Speaker 1: opened it and called softly. She came in, purring. The
• 2:55:39
  Speaker 1: poor beast was starving, and I gave her some milk.
• 2:55:43
  Speaker 1: All my food was in a cupboard in the corner
• 2:55:45
  Speaker 1: of the room. After that she went smelling round the room,
• 2:55:48
  Speaker 1: evidently with the idea of making herself at home. The
• 2:55:51
  Speaker 1: invisible rag upset her a bit. Who should have seen
• 2:55:53
  Speaker 1: a spit at it? But I made her comfortable on
• 2:55:56
  Speaker 1: the pillow of my truckle bed, and I gave her
• 2:55:58
  Speaker 1: butter to get her to wakh and you processed her.
• 2:56:03
  Speaker 1: I processed her. But giving drugs to a cat is
• 2:56:07
  Speaker 1: no joke, kemp. And the process failed failed in two particulars.
• 2:56:13
  Speaker 1: These were the claws and the pigment stuff. What is
• 2:56:17
  Speaker 1: it at the back of the eye in a cat?
• 2:56:18
  Speaker 1: You know? Tap heatum, Yes, the tap eatum. It didn't go.
• 2:56:24
  Speaker 1: After I'd given the stuff to bleach the blood and
• 2:56:26
  Speaker 1: done certain other things to her, I gave the beast
• 2:56:28
  Speaker 1: opium and put her in the little pillow she was
• 2:56:30
  Speaker 1: sleeping on on the apparatus. And after all the rest
• 2:56:34
  Speaker 1: that faded and vanished. There remained two little ghosts of
• 2:56:37
  Speaker 1: her eyes. Odd. I can't explain it. She was bandaged
• 2:56:42
  Speaker 1: and clamped, of course, so I had her safe. But
• 2:56:45
  Speaker 1: she woke while she was still misty, and meowed dismally,
• 2:56:48
  Speaker 1: and someone came knocking. It was an old woman from
• 2:56:51
  Speaker 1: downstairs who suspected me of vivisecting a drink sodden old
• 2:56:55
  Speaker 1: creature with only a white cat to care for in
• 2:56:58
  Speaker 1: all the world. I whipped, had some chloroform, applied it
• 2:57:01
  Speaker 1: and answered the door. Did I hear a cat? She asked,
• 2:57:05
  Speaker 1: My cat? Not here, said I, very politely. She was
• 2:57:10
  Speaker 1: a little doubtful, and tried to peer past me into
• 2:57:13
  Speaker 1: the room, strange enough to her, no doubt, bare walls,
• 2:57:16
  Speaker 1: uncurtained windows, truckle bed, with the gas engine vibrating, and
• 2:57:19
  Speaker 1: the seethe of the radiant points, and that faint, ghastly
• 2:57:23
  Speaker 1: stinging of chloroform in the air. She had to be
• 2:57:26
  Speaker 1: satisfied at last and went away again. How long did
• 2:57:30
  Speaker 1: it take, asked Ken? Three or four hours? The cat,
• 2:57:34
  Speaker 1: the bones and sign news and the fat were the
• 2:57:36
  Speaker 1: last to go, and the tips of the colored hairs,
• 2:57:40
  Speaker 1: and as I say, the back part of the eye
• 2:57:42
  Speaker 1: tough iridescent stuff that it is wouldn't go at all.
• 2:57:46
  Speaker 1: It was night outside long before the business was over,
• 2:57:49
  Speaker 1: and nothing was to be seen but the dim eyes
• 2:57:51
  Speaker 1: and the claws. I stopped the gas engine, felt for
• 2:57:55
  Speaker 1: and stroked the beast, which was still insensible, and then,
• 2:57:57
  Speaker 1: being tired, left it sleeping on the envinsible pillow and
• 2:58:01
  Speaker 1: went to bed. I found it hard to sleep. I
• 2:58:04
  Speaker 1: lay awake, thinking weak, aimless stuff, going over the experiment
• 2:58:07
  Speaker 1: over and over again, or dreaming feverishly of things growing
• 2:58:11
  Speaker 1: misty and vanishing about me, until everything the ground I
• 2:58:14
  Speaker 1: stood on vanished, and so I came to that sickly
• 2:58:17
  Speaker 1: falling nightmare. One gets about two. The cat began meowing
• 2:58:21
  Speaker 1: about the room. I tried to hush it by talking
• 2:58:24
  Speaker 1: to it, and then I decided to turn it out.
• 2:58:27
  Speaker 1: I remember the shock when I had striking a light.
• 2:58:30
  Speaker 1: They were just the round eyes, shining green, and nothing
• 2:58:34
  Speaker 1: round them. I would have given it milk, but I
• 2:58:36
  Speaker 1: hadn't any. It wouldn't be quiet. It just sat down
• 2:58:39
  Speaker 1: and meowed at the door. I tried to catch it,
• 2:58:42
  Speaker 1: with the idea of putting it out of the window,
• 2:58:43
  Speaker 1: but it wouldn't be caught. It vanished then it began
• 2:58:47
  Speaker 1: meowing in different parts of the room. At last I
• 2:58:50
  Speaker 1: opened the window and made a bustle. I suppose it
• 2:58:53
  Speaker 1: went out. At last I never saw any more of it. Then,
• 2:58:57
  Speaker 1: Heaven knows why I fell thinking my father's funeral again
• 2:59:01
  Speaker 1: in the dismal, windy hillside until the day had come
• 2:59:05
  Speaker 1: I found sleeping, was hopeless and locking my door after
• 2:59:08
  Speaker 1: me wandered out into the morning streets. You don't mean
• 2:59:12
  Speaker 1: to say there's an invisible cast at large, said Kemp.
• 2:59:16
  Speaker 1: If it hasn't been killed, said the invisible man. Why not?
• 2:59:20
  Speaker 1: Why not? Said Kemp. I didn't mean to interrupt. It's
• 2:59:25
  Speaker 1: very probably been killed. It was alive. Four days afterwards,
• 2:59:29
  Speaker 1: I know, and down a grating in Great Titchfield Street
• 2:59:31
  Speaker 1: because I saw a crowd round the place trying to
• 2:59:33
  Speaker 1: see whence the me owing came. He was silent for
• 2:59:37
  Speaker 1: the best part of a minute, then he resumed abruptly.
• 2:59:41
  Speaker 1: I remember that morning before the change very vividly. I
• 2:59:44
  Speaker 1: must have gone up Great Portland Street. I remember the
• 2:59:47
  Speaker 1: barracks in Albany Street and the horse soldiers coming out,
• 2:59:51
  Speaker 1: And at last I found the summit of Primrose Hill.
• 2:59:54
  Speaker 1: It was a sunny day, in January, one of those sunny,
• 2:59:57
  Speaker 1: frosty days that come before the snow this year, my
• 3:00:01
  Speaker 1: weary brain tried to formulate the position, to plot out
• 3:00:03
  Speaker 1: a plan of action. I was surprised to find now
• 3:00:07
  Speaker 1: that the prize was within my grasp, how inconclusive its
• 3:00:10
  Speaker 1: attainment seemed. As a matter of fact, I was worked out.
• 3:00:14
  Speaker 1: The intense stress of nearly four years continuous work left
• 3:00:17
  Speaker 1: me incapable of any strength or feeling. I was apathetic,
• 3:00:21
  Speaker 1: and I tried in vain to recover the enthusiasm of
• 3:00:23
  Speaker 1: my first inquiries, the passion of discovery that had enabled
• 3:00:26
  Speaker 1: me to compass even the downfall of my father's gray hairs.
• 3:00:30
  Speaker 1: Nothing seemed to matter. I saw pretty clearly this was
• 3:00:34
  Speaker 1: a transient mood due to overwork and want of sleep,
• 3:00:37
  Speaker 1: and that either by drugs or rest, it would be
• 3:00:38
  Speaker 1: possible to recover my energies. All I could think clearly
• 3:00:42
  Speaker 1: was that the thing had to be carried through. The
• 3:00:45
  Speaker 1: fixed idea still ruled me, and soon for the money
• 3:00:48
  Speaker 1: I had was almost exhausted. I looked about me at
• 3:00:52
  Speaker 1: the hillside, with children playing and girls watching them, and
• 3:00:55
  Speaker 1: tried to think of all the fantastic advantages an invisible
• 3:00:58
  Speaker 1: man would have in the world. After a time, I
• 3:01:01
  Speaker 1: crawled home, took some food and a strong dose of strychnine,
• 3:01:04
  Speaker 1: and went to sleep in my clothes on my unmade bed.
• 3:01:08
  Speaker 1: Strychnine is a grand tonic kenp to take the flabbiness
• 3:01:11
  Speaker 1: out of a man. It's the devil, said kepis the
• 3:01:14
  Speaker 1: Paleolithic in a bottle. I awoke vastly invigorated and rather irritable.
• 3:01:20
  Speaker 1: You know, I know the stuff. And there was someone
• 3:01:24
  Speaker 1: rapping at the door. It was my landlord, with threats
• 3:01:27
  Speaker 1: and inquiries, an old Polish jew in a long gray
• 3:01:30
  Speaker 1: coat and greasy slippers. I had been tormenting a cat
• 3:01:33
  Speaker 1: in the night. He was sure the old woman's tongue
• 3:01:36
  Speaker 1: had been busy. He insisted on knowing all about it.
• 3:01:39
  Speaker 1: The laws in this country against vivisection were very severe.
• 3:01:42
  Speaker 1: He might be liable. I denied the cat. Then the
• 3:01:46
  Speaker 1: vibration of the little gas engine could be felt all
• 3:01:49
  Speaker 1: over the house. He said, that was true. Certainly. He
• 3:01:53
  Speaker 1: edged around me into the room, peering about over his
• 3:01:56
  Speaker 1: German silver spectacles, and a sudden dread came into my
• 3:01:59
  Speaker 1: mind that he might to carry away something of my secret.
• 3:02:03
  Speaker 1: I tried to keep between him and the concentrating apparatus
• 3:02:05
  Speaker 1: I had arranged, and that only made him more curious.
• 3:02:09
  Speaker 1: What was I doing? Why was I always alone and secretive?
• 3:02:11
  Speaker 1: Was it legal? Was it dangerous? I paid nothing but
• 3:02:15
  Speaker 1: the usual rent. His had always been a most respectable
• 3:02:18
  Speaker 1: house in a disreputable neighborhood. Suddenly my temper gave way.
• 3:02:23
  Speaker 1: I told him to get out. He began to protest,
• 3:02:26
  Speaker 1: to jabber of his right of entry. In a moment
• 3:02:28
  Speaker 1: I had him by the collar. Something ripped and he
• 3:02:31
  Speaker 1: went spinning out into his own passage. I slammed and
• 3:02:34
  Speaker 1: locked the door and sat down quivering. He made it
• 3:02:37
  Speaker 1: fuss outside, which I disregarded, and after time he went away.
• 3:02:42
  Speaker 1: But this brought matters to a crisis. I did not
• 3:02:46
  Speaker 1: know what he would do, nor even what he had
• 3:02:48
  Speaker 1: power to do. To move to fresh apartments would have
• 3:02:51
  Speaker 1: meant delay Altogether. I had barely twenty pounds left in
• 3:02:54
  Speaker 1: the world, for the most part in a bank, and
• 3:02:56
  Speaker 1: I could not afford that vanish, who was irri resistible.
• 3:03:01
  Speaker 1: Then there would be an inquiry. The sacking of my room.
• 3:03:05
  Speaker 1: At the thought of the possibility of my work being
• 3:03:07
  Speaker 1: exposed or interrupted, its very climax. I became angry and active.
• 3:03:12
  Speaker 1: I hurried out with my three books of notes, my
• 3:03:14
  Speaker 1: check book. The tramp has them now and directed them
• 3:03:18
  Speaker 1: from the nearest post office to a house of call
• 3:03:20
  Speaker 1: for letters and parcels in Great Portland Street. I tried
• 3:03:23
  Speaker 1: to go out noiselessly. Coming in, I found my landlord
• 3:03:27
  Speaker 1: going quietly upstairs. He had heard the door close. I
• 3:03:29
  Speaker 1: suppose you would have laughed to see him jump aside
• 3:03:33
  Speaker 1: on the landing as I came tearing up after him.
• 3:03:36
  Speaker 1: He glad me As I went by him, and I
• 3:03:37
  Speaker 1: made the house quiver with my slamming of the door.
• 3:03:40
  Speaker 1: I heard him come shuffling up to my floor, hesitate,
• 3:03:43
  Speaker 1: and go down. I set to work upon my preparations forthwith.
• 3:03:48
  Speaker 1: It was all done that evening and night. While I
• 3:03:51
  Speaker 1: was still sitting under the sickly drowsy influence of the
• 3:03:53
  Speaker 1: drugs that decolorized blood, there came a repeated knocking at
• 3:03:57
  Speaker 1: the door. It ceased, footsteps went away and returned, and
• 3:04:01
  Speaker 1: the knocking was resumed. There was an attempt to push
• 3:04:04
  Speaker 1: something under the door, a blue paper. Then, in a
• 3:04:08
  Speaker 1: fit of irritation, I arose and went and flung the
• 3:04:10
  Speaker 1: door wide open. Now, then I said it was my landlord,
• 3:04:14
  Speaker 1: with a notice of ejectment or something. He held it
• 3:04:17
  Speaker 1: out to me. Saw something odd about my hands, I expected,
• 3:04:20
  Speaker 1: and lifted his eyes to my face. For a moment
• 3:04:24
  Speaker 1: he gaped. Then he gave a sort of inarticulate cry,
• 3:04:27
  Speaker 1: dropped candle and writ together, and went blundering down the
• 3:04:29
  Speaker 1: dark passage to the stairs. I shut the door, locked it,
• 3:04:34
  Speaker 1: and went to the looking glass. Then I understood his terror.
• 3:04:39
  Speaker 1: My face was white like white stone, but it was
• 3:04:43
  Speaker 1: all horrible. I had not expected the suffering. A night
• 3:04:46
  Speaker 1: of racking, anguish, sickness and fainting. I set my teeth,
• 3:04:50
  Speaker 1: though my skin was presently a fire. All my body afire.
• 3:04:53
  Speaker 1: But I lay there like grim death. I understood now
• 3:04:57
  Speaker 1: how it was that the cat had howled until I
• 3:04:59
  Speaker 1: chloroformed it. Lucky it was. I lived alone and untended
• 3:05:02
  Speaker 1: in my room. There were times when I sobbed and
• 3:05:05
  Speaker 1: groaned and talked, but I stuck to it. I became
• 3:05:08
  Speaker 1: insensible and woke languid in the darkness. The pain had passed.
• 3:05:14
  Speaker 1: I thought I was killing myself, and I did not care.
• 3:05:16
  Speaker 1: I shall never forget that dawn and the strange horror
• 3:05:20
  Speaker 1: of seeing that my hands had become as clouded glass,
• 3:05:23
  Speaker 1: and watching them grow clearer and thinner as the day
• 3:05:25
  Speaker 1: went by, until at last I could see the sickly
• 3:05:28
  Speaker 1: disorder of my room through them. Though I closed my
• 3:05:31
  Speaker 1: transparent eyelids, my limbs became glassy, the bones and arteries faded, vanished,
• 3:05:39
  Speaker 1: and the little white nerves went last. I gritted my
• 3:05:43
  Speaker 1: teeth and stayed there to the end. At last, only
• 3:05:46
  Speaker 1: the dead tips of the finger nails remained pallid and white,
• 3:05:49
  Speaker 1: and the brown stain of some acid upon my fingers.
• 3:05:54
  Speaker 1: I struggled up. At first, I was as incapable as
• 3:05:57
  Speaker 1: a swathed infant, stepping with limbs I could not see.
• 3:06:01
  Speaker 1: I was weak and very hungry. I went and stared
• 3:06:04
  Speaker 1: at nothing in my shaving glass, at nothing save where
• 3:06:07
  Speaker 1: an attenuated pigment still remained behind the retina of my eyes,
• 3:06:10
  Speaker 1: fainter than mist. I had to hang on to the
• 3:06:14
  Speaker 1: table and press my forehead against the glass. It was
• 3:06:17
  Speaker 1: only by frantic effort of will that I dragged myself
• 3:06:20
  Speaker 1: back to the apparatus and completed the process. I slept
• 3:06:24
  Speaker 1: during the forenoon, pulling the sheet over my eyes to
• 3:06:27
  Speaker 1: shut out the light, and about mid day I was
• 3:06:29
  Speaker 1: awakened again by a knocking. My strength had returned. I
• 3:06:34
  Speaker 1: sat up and listened and heard a whispering. I sprang
• 3:06:37
  Speaker 1: to my feet, and as noiselessly as possible, began to
• 3:06:39
  Speaker 1: datch the connections of my apparatus and to distribute it
• 3:06:42
  Speaker 1: about the room, so as to destroy the suggestions of
• 3:06:44
  Speaker 1: its arrangement. Presently, the knocking was renewed, and voices called,
• 3:06:49
  Speaker 1: first my landlords, and then two others. To gain time,
• 3:06:53
  Speaker 1: I answered them. The invisible rag and pillow came to hand,
• 3:06:57
  Speaker 1: and I opened the window and pitched them out onto
• 3:06:59
  Speaker 1: the cistern cuff. As the window opened, a heavy crash
• 3:07:02
  Speaker 1: came at the door. Some one had charged it with
• 3:07:05
  Speaker 1: the idea of smashing the lock, but the stout bolts
• 3:07:08
  Speaker 1: I had screwed up some days before stopped him. That
• 3:07:11
  Speaker 1: startled me made me angry. I began to tremble and
• 3:07:15
  Speaker 1: do things hurriedly. I tossed together some loose paper, straw,
• 3:07:19
  Speaker 1: packing paper, and so forth in the middle of the room,
• 3:07:21
  Speaker 1: and turned on the gas. Heavy blows began to rain
• 3:07:24
  Speaker 1: upon the door. I could not find the matches. I
• 3:07:27
  Speaker 1: beat my hands on the wall. With rage, I turned
• 3:07:30
  Speaker 1: the gas again, stepped out of the window on the
• 3:07:32
  Speaker 1: cistern cover. They softly lowered the sash and sat down,
• 3:07:36
  Speaker 1: secure and invisible, but quivering with anger to watch events.
• 3:07:40
  Speaker 1: They split a panel I saw, and in another moment
• 3:07:42
  Speaker 1: they had broken away the staples of the bolts and
• 3:07:44
  Speaker 1: stood in the open doorway. It was the landlord and
• 3:07:48
  Speaker 1: his two step sons, sturdy young men of three or four,
• 3:07:50
  Speaker 1: and twenty behind them fluttered the old hag of a
• 3:07:53
  Speaker 1: woman from downstairs. You may imagine their astonishment to find
• 3:07:58
  Speaker 1: the room empty. One of the younger men rushed to
• 3:08:01
  Speaker 1: the window at once, flung it up and stared out
• 3:08:04
  Speaker 1: his staring eyes and thick lipped, bearded face came afoot
• 3:08:07
  Speaker 1: from my face. I was half minded to hit his
• 3:08:10
  Speaker 1: silly countenance, but I arrested my doubled fist. He stared
• 3:08:14
  Speaker 1: right through me, so did the others, as they joined him.
• 3:08:17
  Speaker 1: The old man went and peered under the bed, and
• 3:08:20
  Speaker 1: they all made a rush for the cupboard. They had
• 3:08:23
  Speaker 1: to argue about it in length in Yiddish and cogny English.
• 3:08:26
  Speaker 1: They concluded I had not answered them, that their imagination
• 3:08:30
  Speaker 1: had deceived them. A feeling of extraordinary elation took the
• 3:08:33
  Speaker 1: place of my anger as I sat outside the window
• 3:08:36
  Speaker 1: and watched these four people. For the old lady came in,
• 3:08:39
  Speaker 1: glancing suspiciously about like a cat, trying to understand the
• 3:08:43
  Speaker 1: riddle of my behavior. The old man, so far as
• 3:08:48
  Speaker 1: I could understand his patois, agreed with the old lady
• 3:08:51
  Speaker 1: that I was a vivisectionist. The sons protested in garbled
• 3:08:55
  Speaker 1: English that I was an electrician, and appealed to the
• 3:08:57
  Speaker 1: dynamos and radiators. They were all nervous about my arrival,
• 3:09:01
  Speaker 1: although I found subsequently that they had bolted the front door.
• 3:09:05
  Speaker 1: The old lady peered into the cupboard and under the bed,
• 3:09:08
  Speaker 1: and one of the young men pushed up the register
• 3:09:10
  Speaker 1: and stared up the chimney. One of my fellow lodgers,
• 3:09:14
  Speaker 1: a costermonger who shared the opposite room with a butcher,
• 3:09:16
  Speaker 1: appeared on the landing, and he was called in and
• 3:09:18
  Speaker 1: told incoherent things. It occurred to me that the radiators,
• 3:09:23
  Speaker 1: if they fell into the hands of some acute, well
• 3:09:25
  Speaker 1: educated person, would give me away too much, And watching
• 3:09:29
  Speaker 1: my opportunity, I came into the room and tilted one
• 3:09:32
  Speaker 1: of the little dynamos off its fellow on which it
• 3:09:34
  Speaker 1: was standing and smashed both apparatus. Then, while they were
• 3:09:38
  Speaker 1: trying to explain the smash, I dodged out of the
• 3:09:40
  Speaker 1: room and went softly downstairs. I went into one of
• 3:09:44
  Speaker 1: the sitting rooms and waited until they came down, still
• 3:09:46
  Speaker 1: speculating an argumentative, all a little disappointed at finding no horrors,
• 3:09:51
  Speaker 1: and all a little puzzled how they stood legally towards me.
• 3:09:55
  Speaker 1: Then I slipped up again with a box of matches,
• 3:09:57
  Speaker 1: fired my heap of paper and rubbish, put the ch
• 3:10:00
  Speaker 1: and bedding, thereby led the gas to the affair by
• 3:10:02
  Speaker 1: the means of an India rubber tube, and waving a
• 3:10:05
  Speaker 1: farewell to the room, left it for the last time.
• 3:10:09
  Speaker 1: You fired the house, exclaimed Kemp. Fired the house. It
• 3:10:14
  Speaker 1: was the only way to cover my trail, and no
• 3:10:17
  Speaker 1: doubt it was inshored. I slipped the bolts of the
• 3:10:20
  Speaker 1: front door quietly and went out into the street. I
• 3:10:23
  Speaker 1: was invisible, and I was only just beginning to realize
• 3:10:25
  Speaker 1: the extraordinary advantage my invisibility gave me. My head was
• 3:10:30
  Speaker 1: already teeming with plans of all the wild and wonderful
• 3:10:32
  Speaker 1: things I now had impunity to do end of Chapter
• 3:10:39
  Speaker 1: twenty Chapter twenty one in Oxford Street. In going downstairs
• 3:10:46
  Speaker 1: the first time, I found an unexpected difficulty because I
• 3:10:49
  Speaker 1: could not see my feet. Indeed, I stumbled twice, and
• 3:10:53
  Speaker 1: there was an unaccustomed clumsiness in gripping the bolt. By
• 3:10:57
  Speaker 1: not looking down. However, I managed to walk on the
• 3:10:59
  Speaker 1: level pass well. My mood, I say, was one of exultation.
• 3:11:04
  Speaker 1: I felt as a seeing man might do with padded
• 3:11:07
  Speaker 1: feet and noiseless clothes in a city of the blind.
• 3:11:11
  Speaker 1: I experienced a wild impulse to jest, to startle people,
• 3:11:15
  Speaker 1: to clap men on the back, fling people's hats astray,
• 3:11:17
  Speaker 1: and generally revel in my extraordinary advantage. But hardly had
• 3:11:22
  Speaker 1: I emerged upon Great Portland Street, however, my lodging was
• 3:11:26
  Speaker 1: close to the Big Draper's shop there when I heard
• 3:11:28
  Speaker 1: a clashing concussion and was hit violently behind and turning
• 3:11:32
  Speaker 1: saw a man carrying a basket of soda water siphons
• 3:11:35
  Speaker 1: and looking in amazement at his burden. Although the blow
• 3:11:38
  Speaker 1: had really hurt me, I found something so irresistible in
• 3:11:41
  Speaker 1: his astonishment that I laughed aloud. The devil's in the basket.
• 3:11:46
  Speaker 1: I said, and suddenly twisted it out of his hand.
• 3:11:49
  Speaker 1: He let go incontinently, and I swung the whole weight
• 3:11:51
  Speaker 1: into the air. But a fool of a cabman standing
• 3:11:55
  Speaker 1: outside a public house made a sudden rush for this,
• 3:11:58
  Speaker 1: and his extending fingers took me with excrewciating violence under
• 3:12:01
  Speaker 1: the ear. I let the hole down with a smash
• 3:12:04
  Speaker 1: on the cabman, and then with shouts and the clatter
• 3:12:06
  Speaker 1: of feet about me, people coming out of shops, vehicles
• 3:12:09
  Speaker 1: pulling up. I realized what I had done for myself,
• 3:12:12
  Speaker 1: and cursing my folly backed against a shop window and
• 3:12:15
  Speaker 1: prepared dodge out of the confusion. In a moment, I
• 3:12:18
  Speaker 1: should be wedged into a crowd, and inevitably discovered. I
• 3:12:23
  Speaker 1: pushed by a butcher boy, who luckily did not turn
• 3:12:25
  Speaker 1: to see the nothingness that shoved him aside, and dodged
• 3:12:28
  Speaker 1: behind the cabman's four wheeler. I do not know how
• 3:12:31
  Speaker 1: they settled the business. I hurried straight across the road,
• 3:12:34
  Speaker 1: which was happily clear and hardly heeding, which when I
• 3:12:37
  Speaker 1: went in the fright of detection the incident had given
• 3:12:39
  Speaker 1: me plunged into the afternoon throng of Oxford Street. I
• 3:12:44
  Speaker 1: tried to get into the stream of people, but they
• 3:12:46
  Speaker 1: were too thick for me, and in a moment my
• 3:12:48
  Speaker 1: heels were being trodden upon. I took to the gutter,
• 3:12:51
  Speaker 1: the roughness of which I found painful to my feet,
• 3:12:54
  Speaker 1: and forthwith the shaft of a crawling hansom dug me
• 3:12:57
  Speaker 1: forcibly under the shoulder blade, reminding me that I was
• 3:13:00
  Speaker 1: already bruised severely. I staggered out of the way of
• 3:13:03
  Speaker 1: the cab, avoided a perambulator by a convulsive movement, and
• 3:13:07
  Speaker 1: found myself behind the hansom. A happy thought saved me,
• 3:13:11
  Speaker 1: and as this drove slowly along, I followed in its
• 3:13:14
  Speaker 1: immediate wake, trembling and astonished at the turn of my adventure,
• 3:13:18
  Speaker 1: and not only trembling, but shivering. It was a bright
• 3:13:21
  Speaker 1: day in January, and I was stark naked, and the
• 3:13:24
  Speaker 1: thin slime of mud that covered the road was freezing. Foolish,
• 3:13:28
  Speaker 1: as it seems to me now, I had not reckoned that.
• 3:13:30
  Speaker 1: Transparent or not, I was still amenable to the weather
• 3:13:33
  Speaker 1: and all its consequences. Then suddenly a bright idea came
• 3:13:38
  Speaker 1: into my head. I ran round and got into the cab,
• 3:13:41
  Speaker 1: and so shivering, scared and sniffing with the first intimations
• 3:13:44
  Speaker 1: of a cold, and with the bruises in the small
• 3:13:47
  Speaker 1: of my back growing upon my attention. I drove slowly
• 3:13:50
  Speaker 1: along Oxford Street and passed Tottenham Court Road. My mood
• 3:13:54
  Speaker 1: was as different from that in which I had sallied
• 3:13:56
  Speaker 1: forth ten minutes ago as it is possible to imagine
• 3:13:59
  Speaker 1: this in visibility. Indeed, the one thought that possessed me
• 3:14:03
  Speaker 1: was how was I to get out of the scrape
• 3:14:05
  Speaker 1: I was in. We crawled past Moody's, and there a
• 3:14:09
  Speaker 1: tall woman with five or six yellow labeled books hailed
• 3:14:11
  Speaker 1: my cab, and I sprang out just in time to
• 3:14:14
  Speaker 1: escape her, shaving a railway van narrowly in my flight.
• 3:14:18
  Speaker 1: I made off up the roadway to Bloomsbery Square, intending
• 3:14:21
  Speaker 1: to strike north past the museum and so get into
• 3:14:23
  Speaker 1: the quiet district. I was now cruelly chilled, and the
• 3:14:27
  Speaker 1: strangeness of my situation so unnerved me that I whimpered.
• 3:14:30
  Speaker 1: As I ran. At the northward corner of the square,
• 3:14:33
  Speaker 1: a little white dog ran out of the Pharmaceutical Society's
• 3:14:36
  Speaker 1: offices and incontinently made for me nose down. I had
• 3:14:41
  Speaker 1: never realized it before, but the nose is to the
• 3:14:44
  Speaker 1: mind of a dog what the eye is to the
• 3:14:46
  Speaker 1: mind of a seeing man. Dogs perceived the scent of
• 3:14:49
  Speaker 1: a man moving as men perceive his vision. This brute
• 3:14:52
  Speaker 1: began barking and leaping, showing, as it seemed to me,
• 3:14:55
  Speaker 1: only too plainly, that he was aware of me. I
• 3:14:58
  Speaker 1: crossed Great Russell Street, glancing over my shoulder as I
• 3:15:01
  Speaker 1: did so, and went somewhere along Montague Street before I
• 3:15:03
  Speaker 1: realized what I was running towards. Then I became aware
• 3:15:07
  Speaker 1: of a blair of music, and looking along the street,
• 3:15:10
  Speaker 1: saw a number of people advancing out of Russell Square,
• 3:15:13
  Speaker 1: red shirts and the banner of the Salvation Army to
• 3:15:15
  Speaker 1: the fore. Such a crowd chanting in the roadway and
• 3:15:18
  Speaker 1: scoffing on the pavement, I could not hope to penetrate,
• 3:15:22
  Speaker 1: and dreading to go back and further from home again,
• 3:15:24
  Speaker 1: and deciding on the spur of the moment, I ran
• 3:15:27
  Speaker 1: up the white steps of a house facing the museum railings,
• 3:15:29
  Speaker 1: and stood there until the crowd should have passed. Happily,
• 3:15:33
  Speaker 1: the dog stopped at the noise of the band, too, hesitated,
• 3:15:36
  Speaker 1: and turned tail, running back to Bloomsbury Square again. On
• 3:15:41
  Speaker 1: came the band bawling with unconscious irony, some hymn about
• 3:15:45
  Speaker 1: when shall we see his face? And it seemed an
• 3:15:48
  Speaker 1: interminable time to me before the tide of the crowd
• 3:15:51
  Speaker 1: washed along the pavement. But by me third third thud
• 3:15:54
  Speaker 1: came the drum with a vibrating resonance, and for the
• 3:15:57
  Speaker 1: moment I did not notice two urchins stopping at the rain.
• 3:16:00
  Speaker 1: Me see em, said one, see what, said the other?
• 3:16:06
  Speaker 1: Why them footmarks? Bear? Look what he makes in mud.
• 3:16:11
  Speaker 1: I looked down and saw the youngsters had stopped and
• 3:16:14
  Speaker 1: were gaping at the muddy footmarks I had left behind
• 3:16:16
  Speaker 1: me up the newly whitened steps. The passing people elbowed
• 3:16:19
  Speaker 1: and jostled them, but their confounded intelligence was arrested. Third, third, third,
• 3:16:24
  Speaker 1: when thud, shall we see thud his face? Thud, thud?
• 3:16:28
  Speaker 1: There's a bare footman gone at them steps or I
• 3:16:31
  Speaker 1: don't know, nahing, said one. And he ain't never come
• 3:16:33
  Speaker 1: down again, and his foot was a bleedin'. The thick
• 3:16:37
  Speaker 1: of the crowd had already passed. Look here, ted quoth
• 3:16:41
  Speaker 1: one of the younger of the detectives, with a sharpness
• 3:16:43
  Speaker 1: of surprise in his voice, and pointed straight to my feet.
• 3:16:47
  Speaker 1: I looked down and saw at once the dim suggestion
• 3:16:49
  Speaker 1: of their outline sketched in splashes of mud. For a
• 3:16:52
  Speaker 1: moment I was paralyzed. Why that's rum, said the elder
• 3:16:57
  Speaker 1: dashed rum. It's like the gust of a foot, ain't it.
• 3:17:01
  Speaker 1: He hesitated and advanced with outstretched hand. A man pulled
• 3:17:04
  Speaker 1: up short to see what he was catching, and then
• 3:17:06
  Speaker 1: a girl. In another moment, he would have touched me.
• 3:17:10
  Speaker 1: Then I saw what to do. I made a step.
• 3:17:13
  Speaker 1: The boy started back with an exclamation, and with a
• 3:17:15
  Speaker 1: rapid movement, I swung myself over into the portico of
• 3:17:18
  Speaker 1: the next house. But the smaller boy was sharp eyed
• 3:17:21
  Speaker 1: enough to follow the movement, and before I was well
• 3:17:23
  Speaker 1: down the steps and upon the pavement, he had recovered
• 3:17:26
  Speaker 1: from his momentary astonishment and was shouting out that the
• 3:17:28
  Speaker 1: feet had gone over the wall. They rushed round and
• 3:17:32
  Speaker 1: saw my new footmarks flash into being upon the lower
• 3:17:35
  Speaker 1: step and upon the pavement. What's up? Asked some one?
• 3:17:39
  Speaker 1: Fat look fat running. Everybody in the road except my
• 3:17:43
  Speaker 1: three pursuers, was pouring along after the Salvation army, and
• 3:17:47
  Speaker 1: this blow not only impeded me but them. There was
• 3:17:50
  Speaker 1: an eddy of surprise and interrogation at the cost of
• 3:17:54
  Speaker 1: bowling over one young fellow. I got through, and in
• 3:17:56
  Speaker 1: another moment I was rushing headlong round the circuit of
• 3:17:59
  Speaker 1: Russell Square, with six or seven astonished people following my footmarks.
• 3:18:04
  Speaker 1: There was no time for explanations, or else the whole
• 3:18:06
  Speaker 1: host would have been after me. Twice, I doubled round corners, thrice,
• 3:18:10
  Speaker 1: I crossed the road and came back upon my tracks.
• 3:18:12
  Speaker 1: And then, as my feet grew hot and dry, the
• 3:18:15
  Speaker 1: damp impressions began to fade. At last I had her
• 3:18:18
  Speaker 1: breathing space, and rubbed my feet clean with my hands,
• 3:18:21
  Speaker 1: and so got away altogether. The last I saw of
• 3:18:24
  Speaker 1: the chase was a little group of a dozen people,
• 3:18:26
  Speaker 1: perhaps studying with infinite perplexity a slowly drying footprint that
• 3:18:30
  Speaker 1: had resulted from a puddle in Tavistock Square, a footprint
• 3:18:33
  Speaker 1: as isolated and incomprehensible to them a scrusoe's solitary discovery.
• 3:18:41
  Speaker 1: This running warmed me to a certain extent, and I
• 3:18:43
  Speaker 1: went on with a better courage to the maze of
• 3:18:45
  Speaker 1: less frequented roads that runs hereabouts. My back had now
• 3:18:50
  Speaker 1: become very stiff and sore, my tonsils were painful from
• 3:18:53
  Speaker 1: the cabman's fingers, and the skin of my neck had
• 3:18:55
  Speaker 1: been scratched by his nails. My feet hurt exceedingly, and
• 3:18:59
  Speaker 1: I was lame for a little cut on one foot.
• 3:19:02
  Speaker 1: I saw in time a blind ban approaching me and fled,
• 3:19:05
  Speaker 1: limping for I feeled his subtle intuitions. Once or twice,
• 3:19:09
  Speaker 1: accidental collisions occurred, and I left people amazed with unaccountable
• 3:19:13
  Speaker 1: curses ringing in their ears. And then something silent and
• 3:19:16
  Speaker 1: quiet against my face, and across the square fell a
• 3:19:19
  Speaker 1: thin veil of slowly falling flakes of snow. I had
• 3:19:22
  Speaker 1: caught a cold, and do as I would, I could
• 3:19:24
  Speaker 1: not avoid an occasional sneeze, and every dog that came
• 3:19:28
  Speaker 1: in sight, with its pointed nose and curious sniffing, was
• 3:19:31
  Speaker 1: a terror to me. Then came men and boys, running,
• 3:19:34
  Speaker 1: first one and then others, and shouting as they ran.
• 3:19:37
  Speaker 1: It was a fire. They ran in the direction of
• 3:19:40
  Speaker 1: my lodging, and looking back down a street, I saw
• 3:19:42
  Speaker 1: a mass of black smoke streaming up above roofs and
• 3:19:44
  Speaker 1: telephone wires. It was my lodging, burning my clothes, my apparatus,
• 3:19:50
  Speaker 1: all my resources, indeed, except my check book, and the
• 3:19:52
  Speaker 1: three volumes of memoranda that awaited me in Great Portland
• 3:19:55
  Speaker 1: Street were there burning. I had burnt my boats. If
• 3:19:59
  Speaker 1: ever a man did, the place was blazing. The invisible
• 3:20:04
  Speaker 1: man paused and thought, Kemp glanced nervously out of the window. Yes,
• 3:20:10
  Speaker 1: he said, go on chapter twenty two in the Emporium.
• 3:20:19
  Speaker 1: So last January, with the beginning of a snow storm
• 3:20:22
  Speaker 1: in the air about me, and if it settled on
• 3:20:24
  Speaker 1: me it would betray me. Weary, cold, painful, inexpressibly wretched,
• 3:20:30
  Speaker 1: and still, but half convinced of my invisible quality, I
• 3:20:34
  Speaker 1: began this new life to which I am committed. I
• 3:20:37
  Speaker 1: had no refuge, no appliances. No human being in the
• 3:20:40
  Speaker 1: world in whom I could confide to have told my
• 3:20:43
  Speaker 1: secret would have given me away, made a mere show
• 3:20:46
  Speaker 1: and rarity of me. Nevertheless, I was half minded to
• 3:20:49
  Speaker 1: accost some passer by and throw myself upon his mercy.
• 3:20:52
  Speaker 1: But I knew too clearly the terror and brutal cruelty
• 3:20:55
  Speaker 1: my advances would evoke. I made no plans in the street.
• 3:21:00
  Speaker 1: My sole object was to get shelter from the snow,
• 3:21:03
  Speaker 1: to get myself covered and warm. Then I might hope
• 3:21:06
  Speaker 1: to plan. But even to me an invisible man, the
• 3:21:10
  Speaker 1: rows of London houses stood latched, barred and bolted impregnably.
• 3:21:16
  Speaker 1: Only one thing could I see clearly before me, the cold,
• 3:21:19
  Speaker 1: exposure and misery of the snow storm and night. And
• 3:21:23
  Speaker 1: then I had a brilliant idea. I turned down one
• 3:21:26
  Speaker 1: of the roads leading from Gower Street to Tottenham Court
• 3:21:28
  Speaker 1: Road and found myself outside Omium's, a big establishment where
• 3:21:32
  Speaker 1: everything is to be bought, you know the place, meat, grocery, linen, furniture, clothing, oil, paintings,
• 3:21:38
  Speaker 1: even a huge, meandering collection of shops rather than a shop.
• 3:21:43
  Speaker 1: I thought I should find the doors open, but they
• 3:21:45
  Speaker 1: were closed. And as I stood in the wide entrance,
• 3:21:47
  Speaker 1: a carriage stopped outside, and a man in uniform you know,
• 3:21:50
  Speaker 1: the kind of personage with Omnium on his cap, flung
• 3:21:54
  Speaker 1: open the door. I contrived to enter, and walking down
• 3:21:58
  Speaker 1: the shop it was a department where they were selling
• 3:22:00
  Speaker 1: ribbons and gloves and stockings in that kind of thing,
• 3:22:03
  Speaker 1: came to a more spacious region, diverted to picnic baskets
• 3:22:05
  Speaker 1: and wicker furniture. I did not feel safe there, however,
• 3:22:10
  Speaker 1: people were going to and fro, and I prowled restlessly
• 3:22:13
  Speaker 1: until I came about a huge section in an upper
• 3:22:15
  Speaker 1: floor containing multitudes of bedsteads, and over these I clambered
• 3:22:19
  Speaker 1: and found a resting place at last, among a huge
• 3:22:21
  Speaker 1: pile of folded flock mattresses. The place was already lit
• 3:22:25
  Speaker 1: up and agreeably warm, and I decided to remain where
• 3:22:28
  Speaker 1: I was, keeping a cautious eye on the two or
• 3:22:30
  Speaker 1: three sets of shopmen and customers who were meriandering through
• 3:22:33
  Speaker 1: the place until closing time came. Then I should be able,
• 3:22:37
  Speaker 1: I thought, to rob the place for food and clothing,
• 3:22:40
  Speaker 1: and disguised prowl through it and examine its resources, perhaps
• 3:22:43
  Speaker 1: sleep on some of the bedding. That seemed an acceptable plan.
• 3:22:47
  Speaker 1: My idea was to procure clothing, to make myself a
• 3:22:50
  Speaker 1: muffled but acceptable figure, to get money, and then to
• 3:22:53
  Speaker 1: recover my books and parcels where they awaited me, take
• 3:22:55
  Speaker 1: a lodging somewhere, and elaborate plans for the complete realization
• 3:22:59
  Speaker 1: of the advantages of my life. Visibility gave me, as
• 3:23:01
  Speaker 1: I still imagined over my fellow men. Closing time arrived
• 3:23:07
  Speaker 1: quickly enough. It could not have been more than an
• 3:23:10
  Speaker 1: hour after I took up my position on the mattress.
• 3:23:13
  Speaker 1: Before I noticed the blinds of the windows being drawn
• 3:23:15
  Speaker 1: and customers being marched doorward. And then a number of
• 3:23:19
  Speaker 1: brisk young men began with remarkable alacrity to tidy up
• 3:23:22
  Speaker 1: the goods that remained disturbed. I left my lair as
• 3:23:25
  Speaker 1: the crowds diminished and prowled cautiously out into the less
• 3:23:28
  Speaker 1: desolate parts of the shop. I was really surprised to
• 3:23:31
  Speaker 1: observe how rapidly the young men and women whipped away
• 3:23:34
  Speaker 1: the goods displayed for sale during the day. All the
• 3:23:37
  Speaker 1: boxes of goods, the hanging fabrics, the festoons of lace,
• 3:23:40
  Speaker 1: the boxes of sweets in the grocery section, the displays
• 3:23:43
  Speaker 1: of this and that were being whipped down, folded up,
• 3:23:46
  Speaker 1: slapped into tidy receptacles, and everything that could not be
• 3:23:49
  Speaker 1: taken down and put away had sheets of some coarse
• 3:23:51
  Speaker 1: stuff like sacking flung over them. Finally, all the chairs
• 3:23:55
  Speaker 1: were turned up on the counters, leaving the floor clear.
• 3:23:58
  Speaker 1: Directly each of these young people had done, he or
• 3:24:01
  Speaker 1: she made promptly for the door with such an expression
• 3:24:03
  Speaker 1: of animation as I have rarely observed in a shop assistant. Before.
• 3:24:07
  Speaker 1: Then came a lot of youngsters scattering sawdust and carrying
• 3:24:10
  Speaker 1: pails and brooms. I had dodged to get out of
• 3:24:13
  Speaker 1: the way, and as it was my ankle got stung
• 3:24:16
  Speaker 1: with the sawdust. For some time, wandering through the swathed
• 3:24:19
  Speaker 1: and darkened apartments, I could hear the brooms at work,
• 3:24:22
  Speaker 1: and at last, a good hour or more after the
• 3:24:24
  Speaker 1: shop had been closed, came a noise of locking doors.
• 3:24:28
  Speaker 1: Silence came upon the place, and I find myself wandering
• 3:24:31
  Speaker 1: through the vast and intricate shops, galleries, showrooms of the
• 3:24:34
  Speaker 1: place alone. It was very still. In one place. I
• 3:24:38
  Speaker 1: remember passing near one of the Tottenham Court Road entrances
• 3:24:41
  Speaker 1: and listening to the tapping of boot heels of the
• 3:24:43
  Speaker 1: passers by. My first visit was to the place where
• 3:24:47
  Speaker 1: I had seen stockings and gloves for sale. It was
• 3:24:50
  Speaker 1: dark and I had the devil of a hunt after matches,
• 3:24:53
  Speaker 1: which I found at last in the drawer of the
• 3:24:54
  Speaker 1: little cash desk. Then I had to get a candle.
• 3:24:57
  Speaker 1: I had to tear down wrappings and ransack a number
• 3:24:59
  Speaker 1: of boxes and drawers, but at last I managed to
• 3:25:02
  Speaker 1: turn out what I sought. The box label called them
• 3:25:05
  Speaker 1: Lamb's wool pants and Lamb's wool vests. Then socks, a
• 3:25:09
  Speaker 1: thick comforter. And then I went to the clothing place
• 3:25:11
  Speaker 1: and got trousers, a lounge jacket, an overcoat, and a
• 3:25:14
  Speaker 1: slouch hat, a clerical sort of hat with the brim
• 3:25:17
  Speaker 1: turned down. I began to feel a human being again,
• 3:25:21
  Speaker 1: and my next thought was food. Upstairs was a refreshment department,
• 3:25:25
  Speaker 1: and there I got cold meat. There was coffee still
• 3:25:28
  Speaker 1: in the urn, and I lit the gas and warmed
• 3:25:30
  Speaker 1: it up again, and altogether I did not do badly. Afterwards,
• 3:25:34
  Speaker 1: prowling through the place in search of blankets, I had
• 3:25:37
  Speaker 1: to put up at last with a heap of down quilts.
• 3:25:39
  Speaker 1: I came upon a grocery section with a lot of
• 3:25:41
  Speaker 1: chocolate and candied fruits more than was good for me, indeed,
• 3:25:44
  Speaker 1: and some white burgundy. And near that was a toy department,
• 3:25:48
  Speaker 1: and I had a brilliant idea. I found some artificial noses,
• 3:25:51
  Speaker 1: dummy noses, you know, and I thought of dark spectacles,
• 3:25:55
  Speaker 1: but omniums had no optical department. My nose had been
• 3:25:59
  Speaker 1: a difficulty. Indeed, I had thought of paint. But the
• 3:26:02
  Speaker 1: discovery set my mind running on wigs and masks and
• 3:26:04
  Speaker 1: the like. Finally I went asleep in a heap of
• 3:26:07
  Speaker 1: down quilts, very warm and comfortable. My last thoughts before
• 3:26:12
  Speaker 1: sleeping were the most agreeable I had had since the change.
• 3:26:15
  Speaker 1: I was in a state of physical serenity, and that
• 3:26:17
  Speaker 1: was reflected in my mind. I thought that I should
• 3:26:20
  Speaker 1: be able to slip out unobserved in the morning, with
• 3:26:22
  Speaker 1: my clothes upon me, muffling my face with a white
• 3:26:25
  Speaker 1: wrapper I had taken, purchased with the money I had taken,
• 3:26:27
  Speaker 1: spectacles and so forth, and so complete my disguise. I
• 3:26:31
  Speaker 1: lapsed into disorderly dreams of all the fantastic things that
• 3:26:34
  Speaker 1: had happened during the last few days. I saw the
• 3:26:37
  Speaker 1: ugly little jew of a landlord vociperating in his rooms.
• 3:26:40
  Speaker 1: I saw his two sons marveling, and the wrinkled old
• 3:26:42
  Speaker 1: woman's gnarled face as she asked for her cat. I
• 3:26:45
  Speaker 1: experienced again the strange sensation of seeing the cloth disappear.
• 3:26:49
  Speaker 1: And so I came round the windy hillside, and the
• 3:26:51
  Speaker 1: sniffing old clergyman mumbling earth to earth, ashes to ashes,
• 3:26:55
  Speaker 1: dust to dust. At my father's open grave, you also
• 3:27:00
  Speaker 1: said a voice, and suddenly I was being forced towards
• 3:27:02
  Speaker 1: the grave. I struggled shouted, appealed to the mourners, but
• 3:27:06
  Speaker 1: they continued stonily following the service. The old clergyman too,
• 3:27:09
  Speaker 1: never faltering, droning and sniffling through the ritual. I realized
• 3:27:13
  Speaker 1: I was invisible and inaudible, that overwhelming forces had their
• 3:27:17
  Speaker 1: grip on me. I struggled in vain. I was forced
• 3:27:20
  Speaker 1: over the brink. The coffin rang hollow as I fell
• 3:27:23
  Speaker 1: upon it, and the gravel came flying after me in spadefuls.
• 3:27:27
  Speaker 1: Nobody heeded me, nobody's aware of me. I made convulsive
• 3:27:30
  Speaker 1: struggles and awoke. The pale London dawn had come. The
• 3:27:36
  Speaker 1: place was full of a chilly gray light that filtered
• 3:27:38
  Speaker 1: around the edges of the window blinds. I sat up,
• 3:27:41
  Speaker 1: and for a time I could not think where this
• 3:27:43
  Speaker 1: ample apartment, with its counters, its piles of rolled stuff,
• 3:27:46
  Speaker 1: its help of quilts and cushions, its iron pillars, might be. Then,
• 3:27:50
  Speaker 1: as recollection came back to me, I heard voices in conversation. Then,
• 3:27:54
  Speaker 1: far down the place, in the brighter light of some
• 3:27:56
  Speaker 1: department which had already raised its blinds, I saw two
• 3:27:59
  Speaker 1: men approaching. I scrambled to my feet, looking about me
• 3:28:02
  Speaker 1: for some way of escape, and even as I did so,
• 3:28:04
  Speaker 1: the sound of my movement made them aware of me.
• 3:28:08
  Speaker 1: I suppose they saw merely a figure moving quietly and
• 3:28:10
  Speaker 1: quickly away. Who's that? Cried one? And stop there, cried
• 3:28:14
  Speaker 1: the other. I dashed around a corner and came full
• 3:28:16
  Speaker 1: tilt a face's figure, mind you, on a lanky lad
• 3:28:19
  Speaker 1: of fifteen. He yelled, and I bowled him over, rushed
• 3:28:23
  Speaker 1: past him, turned another corner, and by happy inspiration, threw
• 3:28:26
  Speaker 1: myself behind a counter. In another moment, feet went running past,
• 3:28:30
  Speaker 1: and I heard voices shouting, all hands to the doors,
• 3:28:33
  Speaker 1: asking what was up, and giving another advice how to
• 3:28:35
  Speaker 1: catch me lying on the ground. I felt scared out
• 3:28:39
  Speaker 1: of my wits, But odd as it may seem, it
• 3:28:42
  Speaker 1: did not occur to me at that moment to take
• 3:28:44
  Speaker 1: off my clothes as I should have done. I had
• 3:28:46
  Speaker 1: made up my mind I suppose to get away in them,
• 3:28:48
  Speaker 1: and that ruled me. And then down the vista of
• 3:28:51
  Speaker 1: the counters came a bawling of here he is. I
• 3:28:54
  Speaker 1: sprang to my feet, whipped a chair off the counter
• 3:28:56
  Speaker 1: and sent it whirling at the fool who had shouted. Turned,
• 3:29:00
  Speaker 1: came into another round a corner, sent him spinning and
• 3:29:02
  Speaker 1: rushed up the stairs. He kept his footing, gave a
• 3:29:05
  Speaker 1: view Halloo, and came up the staircase hot after me.
• 3:29:09
  Speaker 1: Up the staircase were piled a multitude of those bright
• 3:29:12
  Speaker 1: colored pot things. What are they? Art pots, suggested Kemp.
• 3:29:16
  Speaker 1: That's it art pots. Well. I turned at the top
• 3:29:18
  Speaker 1: step and swung round, plucked one out of a pile,
• 3:29:21
  Speaker 1: and smashed it on his silly head. As he came
• 3:29:22
  Speaker 1: at me. The whole pile of pots went headlong, and
• 3:29:25
  Speaker 1: I heard shouting and footsteps running from all parts. I
• 3:29:28
  Speaker 1: made a mad rush for the refreshment place, and there
• 3:29:31
  Speaker 1: was a man in white, like a man cook, who
• 3:29:33
  Speaker 1: took up the chase. I made one last desperate turn
• 3:29:36
  Speaker 1: and found myself among lamps and iron mungery. I went
• 3:29:39
  Speaker 1: behind the counter of this and waited for my cook,
• 3:29:41
  Speaker 1: And as he bolted in at the head of the chase,
• 3:29:43
  Speaker 1: I doubled him up with a lamp. Down he went,
• 3:29:46
  Speaker 1: and I crouched down behind the counter and began whipping
• 3:29:48
  Speaker 1: off my clothes as fast as I could. Coat, jacket, trousers,
• 3:29:51
  Speaker 1: shoes were all right, but a lambs will vest fits
• 3:29:54
  Speaker 1: a man like a skin. I heard more men coming.
• 3:29:57
  Speaker 1: My cook was lying quiet on the other side of
• 3:29:59
  Speaker 1: the counter, stuck und or scared speechless, and I had
• 3:30:02
  Speaker 1: to make another dash for it, like a rabbit hunted
• 3:30:04
  Speaker 1: out of a woodpile. This way policemen. I heard someone shouting,
• 3:30:08
  Speaker 1: and I found myself in my bedsteads storeroom again, and
• 3:30:11
  Speaker 1: at the end of a wilderness of wardrobes. I rushed
• 3:30:14
  Speaker 1: among them, went flat, got rid of my vest after
• 3:30:16
  Speaker 1: infinite wriggling, and stood a free man again, panting and scared.
• 3:30:21
  Speaker 1: As the policemen and three of the shopmen came round
• 3:30:23
  Speaker 1: the corner, they made a rush for the vest and
• 3:30:25
  Speaker 1: pants and collared the trousers. He's dropping his plunder, said
• 3:30:29
  Speaker 1: one of the young men. He must be somewhere here,
• 3:30:32
  Speaker 1: But they did not find me all the same. I
• 3:30:36
  Speaker 1: stood watching them hunt for me for a time and
• 3:30:38
  Speaker 1: cursing my ill luck in losing the clothes. Then I
• 3:30:41
  Speaker 1: went into the refreshment room, drank a little milk I
• 3:30:44
  Speaker 1: found there, and sat down by the fire to consider
• 3:30:46
  Speaker 1: my position. In a while, two assistants came in and
• 3:30:51
  Speaker 1: began to talk over the business, very excitedly, and like
• 3:30:54
  Speaker 1: the fools they were, I heard a magnified account of
• 3:30:58
  Speaker 1: my depredations and other specky relations as to my whereabouts.
• 3:31:02
  Speaker 1: Then I fell to scheming again. The insurmountable difficulty of
• 3:31:05
  Speaker 1: the place, especially now it was alarmed, was to get
• 3:31:08
  Speaker 1: any plunder out of it. I went down into the
• 3:31:10
  Speaker 1: warehouse to see if there was any chance of packing
• 3:31:12
  Speaker 1: and addressing a parcel, but I could not understand the
• 3:31:15
  Speaker 1: system of checking. About eleven o'clock the snow. Having thought
• 3:31:19
  Speaker 1: as it fell, and the day being finer and a
• 3:31:21
  Speaker 1: little warmer than the previous one, I decided that the
• 3:31:24
  Speaker 1: emporium was hopeless and went out again, exasperated my want
• 3:31:28
  Speaker 1: of success, with only the vaguest plans of action in
• 3:31:31
  Speaker 1: my mind. End of Chapter twenty two, Chapter twenty three
• 3:31:38
  Speaker 1: in Dreary Lane. But you begin now to realize, said
• 3:31:43
  Speaker 1: the invisible man, the full disadvantage of my condition. I
• 3:31:47
  Speaker 1: had no shelter, no covering, to get clothing, was to
• 3:31:50
  Speaker 1: forego all my advantage to make myself a strange and
• 3:31:53
  Speaker 1: terrible thing. I was fasting for to eat, to fill
• 3:31:57
  Speaker 1: myself with unassimilated matter, would be become grotesquely visible. Again.
• 3:32:02
  Speaker 1: I never thought of that, said Kemp, nor had I,
• 3:32:06
  Speaker 1: and the snow had warned me of other dangers. I
• 3:32:08
  Speaker 1: could not go abroad in snow. It would settle on
• 3:32:11
  Speaker 1: me and expose me. Rain too, would make me a
• 3:32:14
  Speaker 1: water outline, a glistening surface of a man, a bubble
• 3:32:18
  Speaker 1: and fog. I should be like a fainter bubble in
• 3:32:20
  Speaker 1: a fog, a surface, a greasy glimmer of humanity. Moreover,
• 3:32:25
  Speaker 1: as I went abroad in the London air, I gathered
• 3:32:27
  Speaker 1: dirt about my ankles, floating smuts and dust upon my skin.
• 3:32:31
  Speaker 1: I did not know how long it would be before
• 3:32:33
  Speaker 1: I should come visible from that cause also, but I
• 3:32:36
  Speaker 1: saw clearly it could not be for long, not in
• 3:32:39
  Speaker 1: London at any rate. I went into the slums towards
• 3:32:43
  Speaker 1: Great Portland Street and found myself at the end of
• 3:32:45
  Speaker 1: the street in which I had lodged. I did not
• 3:32:47
  Speaker 1: go that way because of the crowd. Halfway down it opposite,
• 3:32:50
  Speaker 1: Still looking at the smoking ruins of the house I
• 3:32:52
  Speaker 1: had fired, my most immediate problem was to get clothing.
• 3:32:56
  Speaker 1: What to do with my face puzzled me. Then I
• 3:32:59
  Speaker 1: saw or one of those little miscellaneous shops news sweet toys, stationary,
• 3:33:03
  Speaker 1: Belated Christmas, tom Fulu and so forth, and a ray
• 3:33:06
  Speaker 1: of masks and noses. I realized the problem was solved.
• 3:33:11
  Speaker 1: In a flash, I saw my course. I turned about,
• 3:33:13
  Speaker 1: no longer aimless, and went securitously in order to avoid
• 3:33:17
  Speaker 1: their busy ways towards the back streets north of the strand,
• 3:33:21
  Speaker 1: for I remembered, though not very distinctly, ware that some
• 3:33:24
  Speaker 1: theatrical costumiers had shops in that district. The day was cold,
• 3:33:30
  Speaker 1: with a nipping wind down the northward running streets. I
• 3:33:34
  Speaker 1: walked fast to avoid being overtaken. Every crossing was a danger,
• 3:33:38
  Speaker 1: every passenger a thing to wash alertly. One man I
• 3:33:41
  Speaker 1: was about to pass him at the top of Bedford Street,
• 3:33:44
  Speaker 1: turned upon me abruptly and came into me, sending me
• 3:33:46
  Speaker 1: into the road and almost under the wheel of a
• 3:33:48
  Speaker 1: passing hansom. The verdict of the cab rank was that
• 3:33:52
  Speaker 1: he had some sort of stroke. I was so unnerved
• 3:33:55
  Speaker 1: by this encounter that I went into Covent Garden Market
• 3:33:59
  Speaker 1: and sat down for some time in a quiet corner
• 3:34:01
  Speaker 1: by a stall of violets, panting and trembling. I found
• 3:34:05
  Speaker 1: I had caught a fresh cold and had to turn
• 3:34:07
  Speaker 1: out after time lest my sneezes should attract attention. At last,
• 3:34:13
  Speaker 1: I reached the object of my quest a dirty, flyblown
• 3:34:16
  Speaker 1: little shop in a byway near Drury Lane, with a
• 3:34:18
  Speaker 1: window full of tinsel, robes, sham, jewels, wigs, slippers, dominoes,
• 3:34:22
  Speaker 1: and theatrical photographs. The shop was old fashioned and low
• 3:34:27
  Speaker 1: and dark, and the house rose above it for four stories,
• 3:34:30
  Speaker 1: dark and dismal. I peered through the window, and, seeing
• 3:34:33
  Speaker 1: no one within, entered. The opening of the door set
• 3:34:36
  Speaker 1: a clanking bell ringing. I left it open and walked
• 3:34:40
  Speaker 1: around a bare costume, stand into a corner behind a
• 3:34:42
  Speaker 1: cheval glass. For a minute or two, no one came.
• 3:34:46
  Speaker 1: Then I heard heavy feet striding across a room, and
• 3:34:49
  Speaker 1: a man appeared down the shop. My plans were now
• 3:34:52
  Speaker 1: perfectly definite. I proposed to make my way into the house,
• 3:34:56
  Speaker 1: secrete myself upstairs, watched my opportunity, and when everything was quiet,
• 3:35:01
  Speaker 1: rummage out a wig, masked spectacles and costume and go
• 3:35:04
  Speaker 1: into the world, perhaps a grotesque, but still a credible figure.
• 3:35:08
  Speaker 1: And incidentally, of course, I could rob the house of
• 3:35:10
  Speaker 1: any available money. The man who had just entered the
• 3:35:15
  Speaker 1: shop was a short, slight hunched, beetle browed man with
• 3:35:18
  Speaker 1: long arms and very short bandy legs. Apparently I had
• 3:35:22
  Speaker 1: interrupted a meal. He stared about the sharp with an
• 3:35:25
  Speaker 1: expression of expectation. This gave way to surprise and then
• 3:35:29
  Speaker 1: to anger as he saw the shop empty. Damn the boys,
• 3:35:32
  Speaker 1: he said. He went a stare up and down the street.
• 3:35:35
  Speaker 1: He came in again in a minute, kicked the door
• 3:35:37
  Speaker 1: too with his foot spitefully, and went muttering back to
• 3:35:40
  Speaker 1: the house door. I came forward to follow him, and
• 3:35:44
  Speaker 1: at the noise of my movement, he stopped dead. I
• 3:35:47
  Speaker 1: did so, too, Startled by his quickness of ear, he
• 3:35:51
  Speaker 1: slammed the house door in my face. I stood hesitating.
• 3:35:56
  Speaker 1: Suddenly I heard his quick footsteps returning, and the door reopened.
• 3:36:00
  Speaker 1: He stood looking about the shop like one who was
• 3:36:02
  Speaker 1: still not satisfied. Then murmuring to himself, he examined the
• 3:36:07
  Speaker 1: back of the counter and peered behind some fixtures. Then
• 3:36:10
  Speaker 1: he stood doubtful. He had left the house door open,
• 3:36:14
  Speaker 1: and I slipped into the inner room. It was a
• 3:36:17
  Speaker 1: queer little room, poorly furnished, and with a number of
• 3:36:20
  Speaker 1: big masks. In the corner. On the table was his
• 3:36:23
  Speaker 1: belated breakfast, and it was confoundedly exasperating for me Kemp
• 3:36:27
  Speaker 1: to have to sniff his coffee and stand watching while
• 3:36:30
  Speaker 1: he came in and resumed his meal, and his table
• 3:36:33
  Speaker 1: manners were irritating. Three doors opened into the little room,
• 3:36:37
  Speaker 1: one going upstairs and one down, but they were all shut.
• 3:36:41
  Speaker 1: I could not get out of the room while he
• 3:36:42
  Speaker 1: was there. I could scarcely move because of his alertness,
• 3:36:46
  Speaker 1: and there was a draft down my back. Twice I
• 3:36:49
  Speaker 1: strangled a sneeze just in time. The spectacular quality of
• 3:36:54
  Speaker 1: my sensations was curious and novel. But for all that,
• 3:36:57
  Speaker 1: I was heartily tired and angry long before he had
• 3:36:59
  Speaker 1: done his ear. But at last he made an end,
• 3:37:02
  Speaker 1: and putting his beggarly crockery on the black tin tray
• 3:37:05
  Speaker 1: upon which he had his teapot, and gathering all the
• 3:37:07
  Speaker 1: crumbs up on the mustard stained cloth, he took the
• 3:37:10
  Speaker 1: whole lot of things after him. His burden prevented his
• 3:37:14
  Speaker 1: shutting the door behind him, as he would have done.
• 3:37:16
  Speaker 1: I had never seen such a man for shutting doors,
• 3:37:19
  Speaker 1: and I followed him into a very dirty underground kitchen
• 3:37:22
  Speaker 1: and scullery. I had the pleasure of seeing him begin
• 3:37:25
  Speaker 1: to wash up, and then finding no good in keeping
• 3:37:28
  Speaker 1: down there, and the brick floor being coal on my feet,
• 3:37:32
  Speaker 1: I returned upstairs and sat in his chair by the fire.
• 3:37:35
  Speaker 1: It was burning low, and scarcely, thinking I put on
• 3:37:39
  Speaker 1: a little coal. The noise of this brought him up
• 3:37:41
  Speaker 1: at once, and he stood a glare. He peered about
• 3:37:44
  Speaker 1: the room and was within an ace of touching me.
• 3:37:47
  Speaker 1: Even after that examination, he scarcely seemed satisfied. He stopped
• 3:37:52
  Speaker 1: in the doorway and took a final inspection before he
• 3:37:54
  Speaker 1: went down. I waited in the little parlor for an age,
• 3:37:58
  Speaker 1: and at last he came up unopened the upstairs door.
• 3:38:01
  Speaker 1: I just managed to get by him on the staircase.
• 3:38:05
  Speaker 1: He stopped suddenly, so that I very nearly blundered into him.
• 3:38:08
  Speaker 1: He stood looking right back into my face and listening.
• 3:38:12
  Speaker 1: I could have sworn, he said. His long, hairy hand
• 3:38:15
  Speaker 1: pulled at his lower lip. His eye went up and
• 3:38:18
  Speaker 1: down the staircase. Then he grunted and went on up again.
• 3:38:23
  Speaker 1: His hand was on the handle of a door, and
• 3:38:25
  Speaker 1: then he stopped again, with the same puzzled anger on
• 3:38:27
  Speaker 1: his face. He was becoming aware of the faint sounds
• 3:38:31
  Speaker 1: of my movements about him. The man must have had
• 3:38:34
  Speaker 1: diabolically acute hearing. He suddenly flashed into rage. If there's
• 3:38:39
  Speaker 1: any one in this house, he cried with an oath,
• 3:38:41
  Speaker 1: and left the threat unfinished. He put his hand in
• 3:38:45
  Speaker 1: his pocket, failed to find what he wanted, and, rushing
• 3:38:48
  Speaker 1: past me, went blundering noisily and pugnaciously downstairs. But I
• 3:38:52
  Speaker 1: did not follow him. I sat on the head of
• 3:38:54
  Speaker 1: the staircase until his return. Presently he came up again,
• 3:38:59
  Speaker 1: still muttering. He opened the door of the room, and
• 3:39:02
  Speaker 1: before I could enter, slammed it in my face. I
• 3:39:06
  Speaker 1: resolved to explore the house, and spent some time in
• 3:39:08
  Speaker 1: doing it so as noiselessly as possible. The house was
• 3:39:12
  Speaker 1: very old and tumble down, damp, so that the paper
• 3:39:15
  Speaker 1: in the attics was peeling from the walls, and rat infested.
• 3:39:19
  Speaker 1: Some of the door handles were stiff, and I was
• 3:39:21
  Speaker 1: afraid to turn them. Several rooms I did inspect were unfurnished,
• 3:39:25
  Speaker 1: and others were littered with theatrical lumber brought second hand,
• 3:39:29
  Speaker 1: I judged from its appearance. In one room next to his,
• 3:39:32
  Speaker 1: I found a lot of old clothes. I began rooting
• 3:39:35
  Speaker 1: among these, and in my eagerness forgot again the evident
• 3:39:38
  Speaker 1: sharpness of his ears. I heard a stealthy footstep, and
• 3:39:43
  Speaker 1: looking up just in time, saw him peering in at
• 3:39:46
  Speaker 1: the tumbled heap and holding an old fashioned revolver in
• 3:39:49
  Speaker 1: his hand. I stood perfectly still while he stared about,
• 3:39:53
  Speaker 1: open mouthed and suspicious. It must have been her, he said, slowly,
• 3:39:57
  Speaker 1: damn her. He shut the door quiet and immediately I
• 3:40:01
  Speaker 1: heard the key turn in the lock. Then his footsteps retreated.
• 3:40:05
  Speaker 1: I realized abruptly that I was locked in for a moment.
• 3:40:09
  Speaker 1: I did not know what to do. I walked from
• 3:40:12
  Speaker 1: door to window and back and stood perplexed. A gust
• 3:40:15
  Speaker 1: of anger came upon me, but I decided to inspect
• 3:40:18
  Speaker 1: the clothes before I did anything further, and my first
• 3:40:21
  Speaker 1: attempt brought down a pile from an upper shelf. This
• 3:40:25
  Speaker 1: brought him back, more sinister than ever. That time he
• 3:40:29
  Speaker 1: actually touched me, jumped back with amazement, and stood astonished
• 3:40:32
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the room. Presently he calmed, A
• 3:40:36
  Speaker 1: little rats, he said, in an undertone, fingers on lips.
• 3:40:42
  Speaker 1: He was evidently a little scared. I edged quietly out
• 3:40:45
  Speaker 1: of the room, but a plank creaked. Then the infernal
• 3:40:49
  Speaker 1: little brute started going all over the house, revolver in
• 3:40:52
  Speaker 1: hand and locking door after door and pocketing the keys.
• 3:40:56
  Speaker 1: When I realized what he was up to, I had
• 3:40:58
  Speaker 1: a fit of rage. I could hardly control myself sufficiently
• 3:41:01
  Speaker 1: to watch my opportunity. By this time I knew he
• 3:41:05
  Speaker 1: was alone in the house, and so I made no
• 3:41:07
  Speaker 1: more ado, but knocked him on the head. Knocked him
• 3:41:11
  Speaker 1: on the head, exclaimed Kemp. Yes, stunned him as he
• 3:41:15
  Speaker 1: was going downstairs, hit him from behind with a stool
• 3:41:18
  Speaker 1: that stood on the landing. He went downstairs like a
• 3:41:21
  Speaker 1: bag of old boots. But I say, the common conventions
• 3:41:26
  Speaker 1: of humanity are all very well for common people. But
• 3:41:30
  Speaker 1: the point was, Kemp, that I had to get out
• 3:41:32
  Speaker 1: of that house in a disguise without his seeing me,
• 3:41:35
  Speaker 1: and I couldn't think of another way of doing it.
• 3:41:38
  Speaker 1: And then I gagged him with a Louis Cator's vest
• 3:41:41
  Speaker 1: and tied him up in a sheet. Tied him up
• 3:41:43
  Speaker 1: in a sheet, I made a sort of bag of it.
• 3:41:47
  Speaker 1: It was rather a good idea to keep the idiot
• 3:41:49
  Speaker 1: scared and quiet, and a devilish hard thing to get
• 3:41:51
  Speaker 1: out of head away from the string. My dear Kemp,
• 3:41:55
  Speaker 1: it's no good you sitting glaring at me as though
• 3:41:57
  Speaker 1: I was a murderer. It had to be done. He
• 3:42:00
  Speaker 1: had his revolver, if once he saw me he would
• 3:42:02
  Speaker 1: be able to describe me. But still, said Kemp, in
• 3:42:06
  Speaker 1: England to day, and the man was in his own house,
• 3:42:09
  Speaker 1: and you were well, robbing, robbing, confound it. You'll call
• 3:42:15
  Speaker 1: me a thief next, surely, Kemp, you're not fool enough
• 3:42:18
  Speaker 1: to dance on the old strings. Can't you see my position?
• 3:42:22
  Speaker 1: And here's too, said Kemp. The invisible man stood up sharply.
• 3:42:27
  Speaker 1: What do you mean to say? Kemp's frace grew a
• 3:42:30
  Speaker 1: trifle hard. He was about to speak, and checked himself.
• 3:42:34
  Speaker 1: I suppose, after all, he said, with a sudden change
• 3:42:37
  Speaker 1: of manner, the thing had to be done. You were
• 3:42:39
  Speaker 1: in a fix. But still, of course I was in
• 3:42:42
  Speaker 1: a fix, an infernal fix. And he made me wild too,
• 3:42:46
  Speaker 1: hunting me about the house, falling about with his revolver,
• 3:42:48
  Speaker 1: locking and unlocking doors. He was simply exasperating. You don't
• 3:42:52
  Speaker 1: blame me, do you? You don't blame me. I never
• 3:42:56
  Speaker 1: blame any one, said Kemp. It's quite out of fashion.
• 3:43:00
  Speaker 1: What did you do next? I was hungry downstairs. I
• 3:43:05
  Speaker 1: found a loaf and some rank cheese, more than sufficient
• 3:43:07
  Speaker 1: to satisfy my hunger. I took some brandy and water,
• 3:43:11
  Speaker 1: and then went up past my impromptu bag. He was
• 3:43:13
  Speaker 1: lying quite still, to the room containing the old clothes.
• 3:43:17
  Speaker 1: This looked out upon the street. Two lace curtains, brown
• 3:43:20
  Speaker 1: with dirt, guarding the window. I went and peered out
• 3:43:23
  Speaker 1: through their interstices. Outside, the day was bright, by contrast
• 3:43:28
  Speaker 1: with the brown shadows of the dismal house in which
• 3:43:30
  Speaker 1: I found myself dazzlingly bright. A brisk traffic was going
• 3:43:34
  Speaker 1: by fruit carts, a handsome a four wheeler with a
• 3:43:37
  Speaker 1: pile of boxes, a fishmonger's cart. I turned, with spots
• 3:43:41
  Speaker 1: of color swimming before my eyes, to the shadowy fixtures
• 3:43:43
  Speaker 1: behind me. My excitement was giving place to a clear
• 3:43:47
  Speaker 1: apprehension of my position. Again. The room was full of
• 3:43:50
  Speaker 1: a faint scent of benzoline, used I supposed in cleaning
• 3:43:53
  Speaker 1: the garments. I began a systematic search of the place
• 3:43:59
  Speaker 1: I should judge them. The hunchback had been alone in the
• 3:44:01
  Speaker 1: house for some time. He was a curious person. Everything
• 3:44:05
  Speaker 1: that could possibly be of service to me I collected
• 3:44:07
  Speaker 1: in the clothes storeroom. Then I made a deliberate selection.
• 3:44:11
  Speaker 1: I found a handbag. I thought a suitable possession, and
• 3:44:14
  Speaker 1: some powder, rouge and sticking plaster. I had thought of
• 3:44:18
  Speaker 1: painting and powdering my face and all that there was
• 3:44:20
  Speaker 1: to show of me, in order to render myself visible.
• 3:44:23
  Speaker 1: But the disadvantage of this lay in the fact that
• 3:44:25
  Speaker 1: I should require turpentine and other appliances, and a considerable
• 3:44:29
  Speaker 1: amount of time before I could vanish again. Finally, I
• 3:44:33
  Speaker 1: chose a mask of the better type, slightly grotesque, but
• 3:44:36
  Speaker 1: not more so than many human beings. Dark glasses, grayish whiskers,
• 3:44:40
  Speaker 1: and a wig. I could find no underclothing, but that
• 3:44:43
  Speaker 1: I could buy. Subsequently, and for the time, I swathed
• 3:44:46
  Speaker 1: myself in calico dominoes and some white cashmere scarves. I
• 3:44:50
  Speaker 1: could find no socks, but the hunchback's boots were rather
• 3:44:53
  Speaker 1: a loose fit and sufficed. In a desk in the
• 3:44:57
  Speaker 1: shop were three sovereigns at about thirty shillings worth of silk,
• 3:45:00
  Speaker 1: and in a locked cupboard I burst in in the
• 3:45:02
  Speaker 1: inner room were eight pounds in gold. I could go
• 3:45:06
  Speaker 1: forth into the world again equipped. Then came a curious hesitation,
• 3:45:12
  Speaker 1: with my appearance really credible. I tried myself with a
• 3:45:16
  Speaker 1: little bedroom looking glass, inspecting myself from every point of
• 3:45:19
  Speaker 1: view to discover any forgotten chink. But it all seemed sound.
• 3:45:24
  Speaker 1: I was grotesque to the theatrical pitch, a stage miser,
• 3:45:28
  Speaker 1: but I was certainly not a physical impossibility. Gaining confidence,
• 3:45:33
  Speaker 1: I took my looking glass down into the shop, pulled
• 3:45:35
  Speaker 1: down the shop blinds, and surveyed myself from every point
• 3:45:38
  Speaker 1: of view with the help of the cheval glass in
• 3:45:40
  Speaker 1: the corner. I spent some moments screwing up my courage,
• 3:45:45
  Speaker 1: and then unlocked the shop door and marched out into
• 3:45:48
  Speaker 1: the street, leaving the little man to get out of
• 3:45:50
  Speaker 1: his sheet again when he liked. And five minutes a
• 3:45:53
  Speaker 1: dozen turnings intervened between me and the costumious shop. No
• 3:45:57
  Speaker 1: one appeared to notice me. Very pointedly, I last difficulty
• 3:46:00
  Speaker 1: seemed overcome. He stopped again, and you troubled. No more
• 3:46:06
  Speaker 1: about the hunchback, said Kemp. No said the invisible man,
• 3:46:10
  Speaker 1: Nor have I heard what became of him. I suppose
• 3:46:13
  Speaker 1: he untied himself or kicked himself out. The knots were
• 3:46:16
  Speaker 1: pretty tight. He became silent and went to the window
• 3:46:20
  Speaker 1: and stared out what happened when he went out into
• 3:46:23
  Speaker 1: the strand. Oh, disillusionment again, I thought my troubles were over. Practically,
• 3:46:29
  Speaker 1: I thought I had impunity to do whatever I chose,
• 3:46:32
  Speaker 1: everything save to give away my secret. So I thought
• 3:46:36
  Speaker 1: whatever I did, whatever the consequences might be, was nothing
• 3:46:39
  Speaker 1: to me. I had merely to fling aside my garments
• 3:46:42
  Speaker 1: and vanish. No person could hold me. I could take
• 3:46:46
  Speaker 1: my money where I found it. I decided to treat
• 3:46:49
  Speaker 1: myself to a sumptuous feast and then put up at
• 3:46:51
  Speaker 1: a good hotel and accumulate a new outfit of property.
• 3:46:55
  Speaker 1: I felt amazingly confident. It's not particularly pleasant recalling that
• 3:46:59
  Speaker 1: I was an ass. I went into a place and
• 3:47:01
  Speaker 1: was already ordering lunch when it occurred to me that
• 3:47:04
  Speaker 1: I could not eat unless I exposed my invisible face.
• 3:47:08
  Speaker 1: I finished ordering the lunch, told the man I should
• 3:47:10
  Speaker 1: be back in ten minutes, and went out, exasperating. I
• 3:47:14
  Speaker 1: don't know if you have ever been disappointed in your appetite.
• 3:47:18
  Speaker 1: Not quite so badly, said Kemp, But I can imagine it.
• 3:47:22
  Speaker 1: I could have smashed the silly devils at last. Faint
• 3:47:25
  Speaker 1: with the desire for tasteful food, I went into another
• 3:47:27
  Speaker 1: place and demanded a private room. I am disfigured, I said, badly.
• 3:47:33
  Speaker 1: They looked at me curiously, but of course it was
• 3:47:34
  Speaker 1: not their affair, and so at last I got my lunch.
• 3:47:38
  Speaker 1: I was not particularly well served, but it sufficed. And
• 3:47:41
  Speaker 1: when I had it, I sat over a cigar, trying
• 3:47:44
  Speaker 1: to plan my line of action, and outside a snow
• 3:47:47
  Speaker 1: storm was beginning. The more I thought it over Kemp,
• 3:47:52
  Speaker 1: the more I realized what a helpless, absurdity and invisible
• 3:47:54
  Speaker 1: man was in a cold and dirty climate and a crowded,
• 3:47:58
  Speaker 1: civilized city. Before I made this mad experiment, I had
• 3:48:02
  Speaker 1: dreamt of a thousand advantages. That afternoon it seemed all disappointment.
• 3:48:07
  Speaker 1: I went over the heads of the things a man
• 3:48:09
  Speaker 1: reckons desirable, No doubt, invisibility made it possible to get them,
• 3:48:14
  Speaker 1: but it made it impossible to enjoy them when they
• 3:48:17
  Speaker 1: are got ambition. What is the good of pride of
• 3:48:20
  Speaker 1: place when you cannot appear there? What is the good
• 3:48:23
  Speaker 1: of the love of a woman when her name must
• 3:48:25
  Speaker 1: needs be Delilah? I have no taste for politics, for
• 3:48:29
  Speaker 1: the blaggardisms of fame, for philanthropy, for sport. What was
• 3:48:34
  Speaker 1: I to do? And for this I had become a
• 3:48:37
  Speaker 1: wrapped up mystery, a swathed and bandaged caricature of a man.
• 3:48:42
  Speaker 1: He paused, and his attitude suggested a roving glance at
• 3:48:45
  Speaker 1: the window. But how did you get to Iping? Said Kemp,
• 3:48:49
  Speaker 1: anxious to keep his guest busy talking. I went there
• 3:48:53
  Speaker 1: to work. I had one hope it was a half idea.
• 3:48:57
  Speaker 1: I have it still. It is a full blown idea now,
• 3:48:59
  Speaker 1: a way of getting back, of restoring what I have
• 3:49:02
  Speaker 1: done when I choose, when I have done all I
• 3:49:06
  Speaker 1: mean to do invisibly. And that is what I chiefly
• 3:49:08
  Speaker 1: want to talk to you about. Now. You went straight
• 3:49:12
  Speaker 1: to Iping. Yes, I had simply to get my three
• 3:49:15
  Speaker 1: volumes of memoranda, and my check book, my luggage and underclothing,
• 3:49:19
  Speaker 1: order a quantity of chemicals to work out this idea
• 3:49:22
  Speaker 1: of mine. I will show you the calculations as soon
• 3:49:24
  Speaker 1: as I get my books. And then I started. Jove,
• 3:49:28
  Speaker 1: I remember the snowstorm now and the accursed bother. It
• 3:49:31
  Speaker 1: was to keep the snow from damping my pasteboard nose
• 3:49:35
  Speaker 1: at the end, said Kemp. The day before yesterday, when
• 3:49:38
  Speaker 1: they found you out, you rather to judge by the
• 3:49:41
  Speaker 1: papers I did? Rather? Did I kill that fool of
• 3:49:45
  Speaker 1: a constable? No, said Kemp. He's expected to recover. That's
• 3:49:51
  Speaker 1: his luck. Then I clean lost my temper. The fools.
• 3:49:54
  Speaker 1: Why couldn't they leave me alone? And that grosser lout
• 3:49:59
  Speaker 1: There are no oh, deaths expected, said Kemp. I don't
• 3:50:04
  Speaker 1: know about that tramp of mine, said the invisible man,
• 3:50:06
  Speaker 1: with an unpleasant laugh. By heaven, Kemp, you don't know
• 3:50:09
  Speaker 1: what rage is to have worked for years, to have
• 3:50:12
  Speaker 1: planned and plotted, and then to get some fumbling, purblind
• 3:50:16
  Speaker 1: idiot messing across your course. Every conceivable sort of silly
• 3:50:20
  Speaker 1: creature that has ever been created has been sent to
• 3:50:23
  Speaker 1: cross me. If I have much more of it, I
• 3:50:25
  Speaker 1: shall go wild. I shall stop mowing em as it is.
• 3:50:29
  Speaker 1: They've made things a thousand times more difficult. No doubt
• 3:50:33
  Speaker 1: it's exasperating, said Kemp dryly, end of chapter twenty three,
• 3:50:40
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty four. The plan that failed. But now, said Kemp,
• 3:50:46
  Speaker 1: with a side glance out of the window, what are
• 3:50:49
  Speaker 1: we to do? He moved near his guest as he spoke,
• 3:50:53
  Speaker 1: in such a manner as to prevent the possibility of
• 3:50:55
  Speaker 1: a sudden glimpse of the three men who were advancing
• 3:50:57
  Speaker 1: up the hill road with an intolerable slowness. It seemed
• 3:51:01
  Speaker 1: to Kemp, What were you planning to do when you
• 3:51:04
  Speaker 1: were heading for Port Burdock? Had you any plan? I
• 3:51:07
  Speaker 1: was going to clear out of the country, but I
• 3:51:10
  Speaker 1: have altered that plan rather since seeing you. I thought
• 3:51:13
  Speaker 1: it would be wise, now that the weather is hot
• 3:51:15
  Speaker 1: and invisibility possible, to make for the south, especially as
• 3:51:19
  Speaker 1: my secret was known and everybody would be on the
• 3:51:21
  Speaker 1: lookout for a masked and muffled man. You have a
• 3:51:25
  Speaker 1: line of steamers from here to France. My idea was
• 3:51:27
  Speaker 1: to get a board one and run the risks of
• 3:51:29
  Speaker 1: the passage. Thence I could go by train into Spain
• 3:51:32
  Speaker 1: or Elsecat to Algiers. It would not be difficult there
• 3:51:36
  Speaker 1: a man might always be invisible and yet live and
• 3:51:39
  Speaker 1: do things. I was using that tramp as a money
• 3:51:42
  Speaker 1: box and luggage carrier until I decided how to get
• 3:51:45
  Speaker 1: my books and things sent over to meet me. That's clear,
• 3:51:49
  Speaker 1: and then the filthy brute must needs try to rob me.
• 3:51:52
  Speaker 1: He has hidden my books, Kep, hidden my books. If
• 3:51:55
  Speaker 1: I can lay my hands on him, best plan to
• 3:51:58
  Speaker 1: get the books out of him first. But where is he?
• 3:52:02
  Speaker 1: Do you know? He's in the town police station, locked
• 3:52:05
  Speaker 1: up by his own request. In strongest selling the place,
• 3:52:08
  Speaker 1: cur said the invisible man. But that hangs up your
• 3:52:12
  Speaker 1: plans a little. We must get those books. Those books
• 3:52:15
  Speaker 1: are vital, certainly, said Kemp, a little nervously, wondering if
• 3:52:19
  Speaker 1: he heard footsteps outside. Certainly we must get those books.
• 3:52:23
  Speaker 1: But that won't be difficult if he doesn't know they're
• 3:52:25
  Speaker 1: for you. No, said the invicible man, and thought Kemp
• 3:52:29
  Speaker 1: tried to think of something to keep the talk going,
• 3:52:32
  Speaker 1: but the invisible Man resumed of his own accord. Blundering
• 3:52:35
  Speaker 1: into your house, Kemp, changes all my plans for you
• 3:52:38
  Speaker 1: are a man that can understand. In spite of all
• 3:52:41
  Speaker 1: that has happened, in spite of this publicity, of the
• 3:52:44
  Speaker 1: loss of my books, of what I have suffered, there
• 3:52:46
  Speaker 1: still remain great possibilities, huge possibilities. You have told no
• 3:52:51
  Speaker 1: one that I am here, he asked abruptly. Camp hesitated,
• 3:52:55
  Speaker 1: that was implied, he said, no one insisted Griffin, not
• 3:53:00
  Speaker 1: a soul. Ah. Now the invisible Man stood up, and,
• 3:53:05
  Speaker 1: sticking his arms, Akimbo began to pace the study. I
• 3:53:09
  Speaker 1: made a mistake, Kemp, A huge mistake in carrying this
• 3:53:12
  Speaker 1: thing through alone. I have wasted strength, time, opportunities alone.
• 3:53:17
  Speaker 1: It is wonderful, how little a man can do alone,
• 3:53:20
  Speaker 1: to rob a little, to hurt a little, And there
• 3:53:22
  Speaker 1: is the end. What I want, Kemp, is a goalkeeper,
• 3:53:26
  Speaker 1: a helper, and a hiding place, an arrangement whereby I
• 3:53:29
  Speaker 1: can sleep and eat and rest in peace and unsuspected.
• 3:53:33
  Speaker 1: I must have a confederate, with a confederate, with food
• 3:53:36
  Speaker 1: and rest. A thousand things are possible. Hitherto I have
• 3:53:40
  Speaker 1: gone on vague lines. We have to consider all that
• 3:53:43
  Speaker 1: invisibility means, all that it does not mean. It means
• 3:53:47
  Speaker 1: little advantage for eavesdropping and so forth. One makes sounds.
• 3:53:51
  Speaker 1: It's of little help, A little help perhaps in housebreaking
• 3:53:54
  Speaker 1: and so forth. Once you have caught me, you could
• 3:53:56
  Speaker 1: easily imprison me. But on the other hand, I am
• 3:53:59
  Speaker 1: hard to catch. This Invisibility, in fact, is only good
• 3:54:02
  Speaker 1: in two cases. Is useful in getting away, It's useful
• 3:54:06
  Speaker 1: in approaching. It's particularly useful therefore, in killing. I can
• 3:54:10
  Speaker 1: walk round a man, whatever weapon he has, choose my point,
• 3:54:14
  Speaker 1: strike as I like, dodge, as I like escape, as
• 3:54:17
  Speaker 1: I like. Kemp's hand went to his mustache. Was that
• 3:54:21
  Speaker 1: a movement downstairs? And it is killing? We must do, Kemp.
• 3:54:27
  Speaker 1: It is killing we must do, repeated Kemp. I am
• 3:54:30
  Speaker 1: listening to your plan, Griffin, but I'm not agreeing. Mind
• 3:54:34
  Speaker 1: why killing, not wanton killing, but a judicious slaying. The
• 3:54:40
  Speaker 1: point is they know there is an invisible man as
• 3:54:44
  Speaker 1: well as we know there is an invisible man. And
• 3:54:47
  Speaker 1: that invisible man, Kemp, must now establish a reign of terror. Yes,
• 3:54:52
  Speaker 1: no doubt, it's startling, but I mean it, a reign
• 3:54:56
  Speaker 1: of terror. He must take some town like your Burdock
• 3:54:59
  Speaker 1: and terrify and dominate it. He must issue his orders.
• 3:55:02
  Speaker 1: He can do that in a thousand ways. Scraps of
• 3:55:05
  Speaker 1: paper thrust under doors would suffice and all who disobey
• 3:55:08
  Speaker 1: his orders, he must kill and kill all who would
• 3:55:10
  Speaker 1: defend them. Humph, said Kemp, no longer listening to Griffin,
• 3:55:15
  Speaker 1: but to the sound of his front door opening and closing.
• 3:55:19
  Speaker 1: It seems to me, Griffin, he said, to cover his
• 3:55:21
  Speaker 1: wandering attention, that your confederate would be in a difficult position.
• 3:55:26
  Speaker 1: No one would know he was a confederate, said the
• 3:55:28
  Speaker 1: invisible man eagerly, And then suddenly, hush, what's that downstairs? Nothing,
• 3:55:34
  Speaker 1: said Kemp, and suddenly began to speak loud and fast.
• 3:55:36
  Speaker 1: I don't agree to this griffin, he said, understand me.
• 3:55:39
  Speaker 1: I don't agree to this. Why dream of playing a
• 3:55:41
  Speaker 1: game against the race. How can you hope to gain happiness?
• 3:55:45
  Speaker 1: Don't be a lone wolf. Publish your results. Take the world,
• 3:55:48
  Speaker 1: take the nation at least into your confidence. Think what
• 3:55:51
  Speaker 1: you might do with a million helpers. The invisible man interrupted,
• 3:55:55
  Speaker 1: arm extended. There are footsteps coming upstairs, he said in
• 3:55:59
  Speaker 1: a low voice. Nonsense, said Kemp. Let me see, said
• 3:56:03
  Speaker 1: the invisible man, and advanced. Arm extended to the door,
• 3:56:08
  Speaker 1: and then things happened very swiftly. Kemp hesitated for a
• 3:56:12
  Speaker 1: second and then moved to intercept him. The invisible man
• 3:56:15
  Speaker 1: started and stood still. Traitor cried the voice, and suddenly
• 3:56:19
  Speaker 1: the dressing gown opened, and, sitting down, the unseen began
• 3:56:22
  Speaker 1: to disrobe. Kemp made three swift steps to the door
• 3:56:26
  Speaker 1: and forthwith the invisible man. His legs had vanished, sprang
• 3:56:29
  Speaker 1: to his feet. With a shout, Kemp flung the door open.
• 3:56:34
  Speaker 1: As it opened, there came a sound of hurrying feet
• 3:56:36
  Speaker 1: downstairs and voices. With a quick movement, Kemp thrust the
• 3:56:40
  Speaker 1: invisible man back, sprang aside, and slammed the door. The
• 3:56:43
  Speaker 1: key was outside and ready. In another moment, Griffin would
• 3:56:47
  Speaker 1: have been alone in the belvedere study a prisoner, save
• 3:56:50
  Speaker 1: for one little thing. The key had been slipped in
• 3:56:52
  Speaker 1: hastily that morning. As Kemp slammed the door, it fell
• 3:56:55
  Speaker 1: noisily upon the carpet. Kemp's face became white. He tried
• 3:57:00
  Speaker 1: to grip the door handle with both hands. For a
• 3:57:03
  Speaker 1: moment he stood lugging. Then the door gave six inches,
• 3:57:07
  Speaker 1: but he got it closed again. The second time, it
• 3:57:09
  Speaker 1: was jerked a foot wide, and the dressing gown came
• 3:57:11
  Speaker 1: wedging itself into the opening. His throat was gripped by
• 3:57:14
  Speaker 1: invisible fingers, and he left his hold on the handle
• 3:57:17
  Speaker 1: to defend himself. He was forced back, tripped, and pitched
• 3:57:21
  Speaker 1: heavily into the corner of the landing. The empty dressing
• 3:57:24
  Speaker 1: gown was flung on top of him. Half Way up
• 3:57:28
  Speaker 1: the staircase was Colonel Adye, the recipient of Kemp's letter,
• 3:57:31
  Speaker 1: the chief of the Burdock Police. He was staring aghast
• 3:57:34
  Speaker 1: at the sudden appearance of Kemp, followed by the extraordinary
• 3:57:37
  Speaker 1: sight of the clothing tossing empty in the air. He
• 3:57:41
  Speaker 1: saw Kemp felled and struggling to his feet. He saw
• 3:57:43
  Speaker 1: him rush forward and go down again, felled like an ox.
• 3:57:47
  Speaker 1: Then suddenly he was struck violently by nothing. A vast weight,
• 3:57:51
  Speaker 1: it seemed, leaped upon him, and he was hurled headlong
• 3:57:53
  Speaker 1: down the staircase, with a grip on his throat and
• 3:57:55
  Speaker 1: a knee in his groin. An invisible foot trod on
• 3:57:58
  Speaker 1: his back. A ghostly pata passed downstairs. He heard the
• 3:58:01
  Speaker 1: two police officers in the hall shout and run, and
• 3:58:04
  Speaker 1: the front door of the house slammed violently. He rolled
• 3:58:08
  Speaker 1: over and sat up, staring. He saw staggering down the
• 3:58:11
  Speaker 1: staircase Kemp, dusty and disheveled, one side of his face
• 3:58:15
  Speaker 1: white from a blow, his lip bleeding, and a pink
• 3:58:18
  Speaker 1: dressing gown and some underclothing held in his arms. My God,
• 3:58:22
  Speaker 1: cried Kemp. The game's up, He's gone. Chapter twenty five,
• 3:58:29
  Speaker 1: The Hunting of the Invisible Man. For a space, Kemp
• 3:58:34
  Speaker 1: was too inarticulate to make aid I understand the swift
• 3:58:37
  Speaker 1: things that had just happened. They stood on the landing,
• 3:58:40
  Speaker 1: Kemp speaking swiftly, the grotesque swathings of Griffin still on
• 3:58:44
  Speaker 1: his arm. But presently aid I began to grip something
• 3:58:47
  Speaker 1: of the situation. He is mad, said Kemp. Inhuman, he
• 3:58:51
  Speaker 1: is pure selfishness. He thinks of nothing but his own advantage,
• 3:58:55
  Speaker 1: his own safety. I have listened to such a story
• 3:58:57
  Speaker 1: this morning of brutal self seeking. He has wounded men.
• 3:59:01
  Speaker 1: He will kill them. Unless we can prevent him, he
• 3:59:03
  Speaker 1: will create a panic. Nothing can stop him. He is
• 3:59:06
  Speaker 1: going out now, furious. He must be caught, said Adey.
• 3:59:11
  Speaker 1: That is certain, But how cried Kemp, and suddenly became
• 3:59:15
  Speaker 1: full of ideas. You must begin at once. You must
• 3:59:18
  Speaker 1: set every available man to work. You must prevent his
• 3:59:20
  Speaker 1: living this district. Once he gets away, he may go
• 3:59:23
  Speaker 1: through the countryside as he wills, killing and maiming. He
• 3:59:26
  Speaker 1: dreams of a reign of terror, a reign of terror.
• 3:59:29
  Speaker 1: I tell you must set a watch on trains and
• 3:59:31
  Speaker 1: roads and shipping. The garrison must help, you must wire
• 3:59:35
  Speaker 1: for help. The only thing that may keep him here
• 3:59:37
  Speaker 1: is the thought of recovering some books of notes he
• 3:59:39
  Speaker 1: counts of value. I will tell you of that. There
• 3:59:42
  Speaker 1: is a man in your police station marvel. I know,
• 3:59:45
  Speaker 1: said Ady, I know these books. Yes, But the tramp,
• 3:59:50
  Speaker 1: he says, he hasn't got his books. But he thinks
• 3:59:52
  Speaker 1: the tramp has, and you must prevent him from eating
• 3:59:55
  Speaker 1: or sleeping day and night. The country must be astir
• 3:59:57
  Speaker 1: for him. Food must be locked up and secured, all food,
• 4:00:00
  Speaker 1: so that he will have to break his way to it.
• 4:00:02
  Speaker 1: The houses everywhere must be barred against him. Heavens send
• 4:00:06
  Speaker 1: us cold knights and rain. The whole countryside must begin
• 4:00:08
  Speaker 1: hunting and keep hunting. I tell you, Adi, he is
• 4:00:11
  Speaker 1: a danger, a disaster unless he is pinned and secured.
• 4:00:15
  Speaker 1: It is frightful to think of the things that may happen.
• 4:00:19
  Speaker 1: What else can we do? Said Adi? I must go
• 4:00:22
  Speaker 1: down at once and begin organizing. But why not come? Yes,
• 4:00:25
  Speaker 1: you come too, Come and we must hold a sort
• 4:00:27
  Speaker 1: of council of war. Get hops to help, and the
• 4:00:30
  Speaker 1: railway managers. By jove, it's urgent. Come along. Tell me
• 4:00:35
  Speaker 1: as we go what else is there we can do?
• 4:00:37
  Speaker 1: Put that stuff down. In another moment, Adi was leaning
• 4:00:41
  Speaker 1: the way downstairs. They found the front door open and
• 4:00:44
  Speaker 1: the policeman standing outside staring at empty air. He's got away, sir,
• 4:00:49
  Speaker 1: said one. We must go to the central station at once,
• 4:00:52
  Speaker 1: said aid I. One of you go on down and
• 4:00:54
  Speaker 1: get a cab to come up and meet us quickly.
• 4:00:56
  Speaker 1: And now Kemp. What else, dogs, said Kep. Get dogs.
• 4:01:01
  Speaker 1: They don't see him, but they win him. Get dogs. Good,
• 4:01:06
  Speaker 1: said Adi. It's not generally known, but the prison officials
• 4:01:09
  Speaker 1: over at Halstead know a man with bloodhounds dogs. What
• 4:01:13
  Speaker 1: else bear in mind, said Kemp. His food shows after eating.
• 4:01:18
  Speaker 1: His food shows until it is assimilated, so that he
• 4:01:21
  Speaker 1: has to hide after eating. You must keep on beating
• 4:01:25
  Speaker 1: every thicket, every quiet corner, and put all weapons, all
• 4:01:29
  Speaker 1: implements that might be weapons away. He can't carry such
• 4:01:32
  Speaker 1: things for long, and what he can snatch up and
• 4:01:34
  Speaker 1: strike men with must be hidden away. Good again, said Adi.
• 4:01:39
  Speaker 1: We shall have him yet, and on the roads, said Kemp.
• 4:01:42
  Speaker 1: And hesitated, yes, said Adi. Powdered glass, said Kemp. It's cruel,
• 4:01:48
  Speaker 1: I know, but think of what he may do. Adi
• 4:01:52
  Speaker 1: drew the breath in sharply between his teeth. It's unsportsmanlike.
• 4:01:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know, but I'll have powdered glass got ready.
• 4:02:01
  Speaker 1: If he goes too far. The man's become inhuman, I
• 4:02:04
  Speaker 1: tell you, said Kemp. I am sure he will establish
• 4:02:07
  Speaker 1: a reign of terror so soon as he has got
• 4:02:10
  Speaker 1: over the emotions of this escape. As I am sure,
• 4:02:12
  Speaker 1: I am talking to you. Our only chance is to
• 4:02:16
  Speaker 1: be ahead. He has cut himself off from his kind.
• 4:02:19
  Speaker 1: His blood be upon his own head. Chapter twenty six,
• 4:02:26
  Speaker 1: The Wixteed Murder. The Invisible Man seems to have rushed
• 4:02:31
  Speaker 1: out of Kemp's house in a state of blind fury.
• 4:02:34
  Speaker 1: A little child playing near Kemp's gateway was violently caught
• 4:02:37
  Speaker 1: up and thrown aside, so that its ankle was broken,
• 4:02:41
  Speaker 1: And thereafter for some hours the Invisible Man passed out
• 4:02:44
  Speaker 1: of human perceptions. No one knows where he went, nor
• 4:02:47
  Speaker 1: what he did, but one can imagine him hurrying through
• 4:02:50
  Speaker 1: the hot June forenoon up the hill and on to
• 4:02:53
  Speaker 1: the open downland behind Port Burdock, raging and despairing at
• 4:02:57
  Speaker 1: his intolerable fate, and sheltering at last, heated and weary,
• 4:03:01
  Speaker 1: amid the thickets of Hinton, Dean to piece together again
• 4:03:04
  Speaker 1: his shattered schemes against his species. That seems to most
• 4:03:09
  Speaker 1: probable refuge for him, for there it was he reasserted
• 4:03:13
  Speaker 1: himself in a grimly tragical manner about two in the afternoon.
• 4:03:18
  Speaker 1: One wonders what his state of mind may have been
• 4:03:20
  Speaker 1: during that time, and what plans he devised. No doubt
• 4:03:24
  Speaker 1: he was almost ecstatically exasperated by Kemp's treachery, And though
• 4:03:28
  Speaker 1: we may be able to understand the motives that led
• 4:03:31
  Speaker 1: to that deceit, we may still imagine and even sympathize
• 4:03:35
  Speaker 1: a little with the fury the attempted surprise must have occasioned.
• 4:03:39
  Speaker 1: Perhaps something of the stunned astonishment of his Oxford Street
• 4:03:42
  Speaker 1: experiences may have returned to him, for he had evidently
• 4:03:45
  Speaker 1: counted on Kemp's co operation in his brutal dream of
• 4:03:48
  Speaker 1: a terrorized world. At any rate, he vanished from human
• 4:03:52
  Speaker 1: ken about mid day, and no living witness can tell
• 4:03:55
  Speaker 1: what he did until about half past two. It was
• 4:03:58
  Speaker 1: a fortunate thing, perhaps for humanity, but for him it
• 4:04:02
  Speaker 1: was a fatal inaction. During that time, a growing multitude
• 4:04:07
  Speaker 1: of men scattered over the countryside were busy. In the morning,
• 4:04:10
  Speaker 1: he had still been simply a legend a terror. In
• 4:04:13
  Speaker 1: the afternoon, by virtue, chiefly of Kemp's dryly worded proclamation,
• 4:04:18
  Speaker 1: he was presented as a tangible antagonist to be wounded, captured,
• 4:04:22
  Speaker 1: or overcome, and the countryside began organizing itself with inconceivable rapidity.
• 4:04:28
  Speaker 1: By two o'clock. Even he might still have removed himself
• 4:04:31
  Speaker 1: out of the district by getting a board a train,
• 4:04:33
  Speaker 1: but after two that became impossible. Every passenger train along
• 4:04:37
  Speaker 1: the lines on a great parallelogram between Southampton, Manchester, Brighton
• 4:04:41
  Speaker 1: and Horsham traveled with locked doors, and the goods traffic
• 4:04:45
  Speaker 1: was almost entirely suspended, and in a great circle of
• 4:04:49
  Speaker 1: twenty miles around Port Burdock, men armed with guns and
• 4:04:52
  Speaker 1: bludgeons were presently setting out in groups of three and
• 4:04:55
  Speaker 1: four with dogs to beat the roads and fields. Mounted
• 4:04:59
  Speaker 1: police Eastmen rode along the country lanes, stopping at every
• 4:05:02
  Speaker 1: cottage and warning the people to lock up their houses
• 4:05:05
  Speaker 1: and keep indoors unless they were armed. And all the
• 4:05:08
  Speaker 1: elementary schools had broken up by three o'clock and the children,
• 4:05:12
  Speaker 1: scared and keeping together in groups, were hurrying home. Kemp's proclamation,
• 4:05:17
  Speaker 1: signed indeed by Adai, was posted over almost the whole
• 4:05:20
  Speaker 1: district by four or five o'clock in the afternoon. It
• 4:05:24
  Speaker 1: gave briefly but clearly all the conditions of the struggle,
• 4:05:27
  Speaker 1: the necessity of keeping the invisible man from food and sleep,
• 4:05:30
  Speaker 1: the necessity for incessant watchfulness and for a prompt attention
• 4:05:34
  Speaker 1: to any evidence of his movements, and so swift and
• 4:05:37
  Speaker 1: decided was the action of the authorities, so prompt and
• 4:05:40
  Speaker 1: universal was the belief in this strange being that before
• 4:05:43
  Speaker 1: nightfall an area of several hundred square miles was in
• 4:05:46
  Speaker 1: a stringent state of siege, and before nightfall two a
• 4:05:51
  Speaker 1: thrill of horror went through the whole watching nervous countryside.
• 4:05:55
  Speaker 1: Going from whispering Mouth to mouth, swift and certain over
• 4:05:58
  Speaker 1: the length and breadth of the country passed the story
• 4:06:01
  Speaker 1: of the murder of mister Wicksteed. If our supposition that
• 4:06:06
  Speaker 1: the invisible Man's refuge was the Hintondean thickets, we must
• 4:06:10
  Speaker 1: suppose that in the early afternoon he sallied out again,
• 4:06:13
  Speaker 1: bent upon some project that involved the use of a weapon.
• 4:06:17
  Speaker 1: We cannot know what that project was, but the evidence
• 4:06:20
  Speaker 1: that he had the iron rod in hand before he
• 4:06:22
  Speaker 1: met Wicksteed is to me at least overwhelming. Of course,
• 4:06:27
  Speaker 1: we can know nothing of the details of that encounter.
• 4:06:30
  Speaker 1: It occurred on the edge of a gravel pit, not
• 4:06:33
  Speaker 1: two hundred yards from Lord Burdock's lodge gate. Everything points
• 4:06:37
  Speaker 1: to a desperate struggle. The trampled ground, the numerous wounds
• 4:06:41
  Speaker 1: mister Wixteed received, his splintered walking stick. But why the
• 4:06:45
  Speaker 1: attack was made save in a murderous frenzy, it is
• 4:06:48
  Speaker 1: impossible to imagine. Indeed, the theory of madness is almost unavoidable.
• 4:06:55
  Speaker 1: Mister Wicksteed was a man of forty five or forty six,
• 4:06:58
  Speaker 1: steward to Lord Burdock, of inoffensive habits and appearance, the
• 4:07:02
  Speaker 1: very last person in the world to provoke such a
• 4:07:04
  Speaker 1: terrible antagonist against him. It would seem the invisible man
• 4:07:09
  Speaker 1: used an iron rod dragged from a broken piece of fence.
• 4:07:13
  Speaker 1: He stopped this quiet man going quietly home to his
• 4:07:15
  Speaker 1: midday meal, attacked him, beat down his feeble defenses, broke
• 4:07:20
  Speaker 1: his arm, felt him, and smashed his head to a jelly.
• 4:07:25
  Speaker 1: Of course, he must have dragged this rod out of
• 4:07:27
  Speaker 1: the fencing before he met his victim. He must have
• 4:07:30
  Speaker 1: been carrying it ready in his hand. Only two details,
• 4:07:34
  Speaker 1: beyond what has already been stated, seemed to bear on
• 4:07:36
  Speaker 1: the matter. One is the circumstance that the gravel pit
• 4:07:39
  Speaker 1: was not in mister Wicksteed's direct path home, but nearly
• 4:07:42
  Speaker 1: a couple of hundred yards out of his way. The
• 4:07:45
  Speaker 1: other is the assertion of a little girl to that
• 4:07:47
  Speaker 1: effect that going to her afternoon school, She saw the
• 4:07:51
  Speaker 1: murdered man trotting in a peculiar manner across a field
• 4:07:53
  Speaker 1: towards the gravel pit. Her pantomime of his action suggests
• 4:07:58
  Speaker 1: a man pursuing something on the ground before him and
• 4:08:01
  Speaker 1: striking at it ever and again with his walking stick.
• 4:08:04
  Speaker 1: She was the last person to see him alive. He
• 4:08:08
  Speaker 1: passed out of her sight to his death, the struggle
• 4:08:11
  Speaker 1: being hidden from her only by a clump of beech
• 4:08:13
  Speaker 1: trees and a slight depression in the ground. Now, this,
• 4:08:18
  Speaker 1: to the present writer's mind, at least lifts the murder
• 4:08:21
  Speaker 1: out of the realm of the absolutely wanton. We may
• 4:08:24
  Speaker 1: imagine that Griffin had taken the rod as a weapon indeed,
• 4:08:28
  Speaker 1: but without any deliberate intention of using it in murder.
• 4:08:32
  Speaker 1: Weiksteed may then have come by and noticed this rod
• 4:08:35
  Speaker 1: inexplicably moving through the air without any thought of the
• 4:08:39
  Speaker 1: invisible man. For Port Burdock is ten miles away, he
• 4:08:43
  Speaker 1: may have pursued it. It is quite conceivable that he
• 4:08:46
  Speaker 1: may not even have heard of the invisible man. One
• 4:08:49
  Speaker 1: can then imagine the invisible man making off quietly in
• 4:08:53
  Speaker 1: order to avoid discovering his presence in the neighborhood, and
• 4:08:56
  Speaker 1: wig Steed, excited and curious, pursuing this unaccount be locomotive object,
• 4:09:01
  Speaker 1: finally striking at it. No doubt, the invisible man could
• 4:09:06
  Speaker 1: easily have distanced his middle aged pursuer under ordinary circumstances,
• 4:09:10
  Speaker 1: but the position in which Wigsted's body was found suggests
• 4:09:14
  Speaker 1: that he had had the ill luck to drive his
• 4:09:16
  Speaker 1: quarry into a corner between a drift of stinging nettles
• 4:09:18
  Speaker 1: and the gravel pit. To those who appreciate the extraordinary
• 4:09:22
  Speaker 1: irascibility of the invisible man, the rest of the encounter
• 4:09:26
  Speaker 1: will be easy to imagine, but this is pure hypothesis.
• 4:09:31
  Speaker 1: The only undeniable facts for stories of children are often unreliable.
• 4:09:36
  Speaker 1: Of the discovery of Wicksteed's body done to death, and
• 4:09:39
  Speaker 1: of the bloodstained iron rod flung among the nettles. The
• 4:09:43
  Speaker 1: abandonment of the rod by Griffin suggests that, in the
• 4:09:45
  Speaker 1: emotional excitement of the affair, the purpose for which he
• 4:09:48
  Speaker 1: took it, if he had a purpose, was abandoned. He
• 4:09:52
  Speaker 1: was certainly an intensely egotistical and unfeeling man, but the
• 4:09:56
  Speaker 1: sight of his victim, his first victim, bloody and pitiful
• 4:09:59
  Speaker 1: at his feet heat may have released some long pent
• 4:10:02
  Speaker 1: fountain of remorse, which for a time may have flooded
• 4:10:04
  Speaker 1: whatever scheme of action he had contrived. After the murder
• 4:10:09
  Speaker 1: of mister Wicksteed, he would seem to have struck across
• 4:10:12
  Speaker 1: the country towards the Downland. There is a story of
• 4:10:15
  Speaker 1: a voice heard about sunset by a couple of men
• 4:10:17
  Speaker 1: in a field near fern Bottom. It was wailing and laughing,
• 4:10:22
  Speaker 1: sobbing and groaning, and ever and again it shouted. It
• 4:10:25
  Speaker 1: must have been a queer hearing it, drove up across
• 4:10:28
  Speaker 1: the middle of a clover field and died away towards
• 4:10:31
  Speaker 1: the hills. That afternoon, the invisible man must have learnt
• 4:10:36
  Speaker 1: something of the rapid use Kemp had made of his confidences.
• 4:10:39
  Speaker 1: He must have found houses locked and secured. He may
• 4:10:42
  Speaker 1: have loitered about railway stations and prowled about inns, and
• 4:10:45
  Speaker 1: no doubt he read the proclamations and realized something of
• 4:10:48
  Speaker 1: the nature of the campaign against him. And as the
• 4:10:51
  Speaker 1: evening advanced, the fields became dotted here and there with
• 4:10:54
  Speaker 1: groups of three or four men, and noisy with the
• 4:10:57
  Speaker 1: yelping of dogs. These men hunt had peculiar instructions. In
• 4:11:02
  Speaker 1: the case of an encounter as to the way they
• 4:11:03
  Speaker 1: should support one another, but he avoided them all. We
• 4:11:08
  Speaker 1: may understand something of his exasperation, and it could have
• 4:11:11
  Speaker 1: been none the less because he himself had supplied the
• 4:11:14
  Speaker 1: information that was being used, though remorselessly against him. For
• 4:11:18
  Speaker 1: that day at least he lost heart for nearly twenty
• 4:11:21
  Speaker 1: four hours saved when he turned on Wicksteed. He was
• 4:11:24
  Speaker 1: a hunted man. In the night he must have eaten
• 4:11:27
  Speaker 1: and slept, for in the morning he was himself again, active, powerful,
• 4:11:31
  Speaker 1: angry and malignant, prepared for his last great struggle against
• 4:11:35
  Speaker 1: the world. End of Chapter twenty six. Chapter twenty seven,
• 4:11:42
  Speaker 1: The Siege of Kemp's house. Kemp read a strange missive
• 4:11:49
  Speaker 1: written in pencil on a greasy sheet of paper. You
• 4:11:52
  Speaker 1: have been amazingly energetic and clever. This letter ran, though
• 4:11:56
  Speaker 1: what you stand again by it, I cannot imagine you
• 4:11:59
  Speaker 1: are against me For a whole day. You have chased me.
• 4:12:02
  Speaker 1: You have tried to rob me of a night's rest.
• 4:12:05
  Speaker 1: But I have had food in spite of you. I
• 4:12:07
  Speaker 1: have slept in spite of you. And the game is
• 4:12:09
  Speaker 1: only beginning. The game is only beginning. There is nothing
• 4:12:14
  Speaker 1: for it but to start the terror. This announces the
• 4:12:17
  Speaker 1: first day of the terror. Port Burdock is no longer
• 4:12:20
  Speaker 1: under the Queen. Tell your colonel of police and the
• 4:12:23
  Speaker 1: rest of them, it is under me the terror. This
• 4:12:28
  Speaker 1: is day one of year one of the new Epoch,
• 4:12:31
  Speaker 1: the epoch of the Invisible Man. I am invisible man,
• 4:12:34
  Speaker 1: the first to begin with. The rule will be easy.
• 4:12:39
  Speaker 1: The first day there will be one execution. For the
• 4:12:41
  Speaker 1: sake of example, a man named Kemp, Death starts for
• 4:12:46
  Speaker 1: him to day. He may lock himself away, hide himself away,
• 4:12:50
  Speaker 1: get guards about him, put on armor. If he likes death.
• 4:12:54
  Speaker 1: The unseen death is coming. Let him take precautions. It
• 4:12:58
  Speaker 1: will impress my people. Death starts from the pillar box.
• 4:13:03
  Speaker 1: By midday the letter will fall in as the postman
• 4:13:05
  Speaker 1: comes along. Then off the game begins. Death starts. Help him,
• 4:13:09
  Speaker 1: not my people. Let death fall upon you also. To
• 4:13:13
  Speaker 1: day Kemp is to die. Kemp read this letter twice.
• 4:13:20
  Speaker 1: It's no hoax, he said. That's his voice, and he
• 4:13:23
  Speaker 1: means it. He turned the folded sheet over and saw
• 4:13:26
  Speaker 1: on the addressed side of it the postmark Hinton Dean
• 4:13:29
  Speaker 1: and the prosaic detail two pence to pay. He got up, slowly,
• 4:13:35
  Speaker 1: leaving his lunch unfinished the letter had come by the
• 4:13:37
  Speaker 1: one o'clock post, and went into his study. He rang
• 4:13:41
  Speaker 1: for his housekeeper and told her to go round the
• 4:13:43
  Speaker 1: house at once, examining all the fastenings of the windows
• 4:13:47
  Speaker 1: and closing all the shutters. He closed the shutters of
• 4:13:50
  Speaker 1: his study himself from a lock straw in his bedroom,
• 4:13:54
  Speaker 1: he took a little revolver, examined it carefully, and put
• 4:13:57
  Speaker 1: it into the pocket of his lounge jacket. Wrote a
• 4:14:00
  Speaker 1: number of brief notes, one to Colonel Adye, gave them
• 4:14:04
  Speaker 1: to his servant to take with explicit instructions as to
• 4:14:06
  Speaker 1: her way of leaving the house. There is no danger,
• 4:14:09
  Speaker 1: he said, and added a mental reservation to you. He
• 4:14:14
  Speaker 1: remained meditative for a space after doing this, and then
• 4:14:17
  Speaker 1: returned to his cooling lunch. He ate with gaps of thought.
• 4:14:23
  Speaker 1: Finally he struck the table sharply. We will have him,
• 4:14:26
  Speaker 1: he said, and I am the bait. He will come
• 4:14:30
  Speaker 1: too far. He went up to the belvidere, carefully shutting
• 4:14:34
  Speaker 1: every door after him. It's a game, he said, an
• 4:14:37
  Speaker 1: odd game, but the chances are all for me, mister Griffin,
• 4:14:40
  Speaker 1: in spite of your invisibility, Gryffin contremundum with a vengeance.
• 4:14:47
  Speaker 1: He stood at the window, staring at the hot hillside.
• 4:14:50
  Speaker 1: He must get food every day, and I don't envy him.
• 4:14:54
  Speaker 1: Did he really sleep last night out in the open,
• 4:14:57
  Speaker 1: somewhere secure from collisions? I wish we could get some good, cold,
• 4:15:01
  Speaker 1: wet weather instead of the heat. He may be watching
• 4:15:06
  Speaker 1: me now. He went to close the window. Something rapped
• 4:15:10
  Speaker 1: smartly against the brickwork over the frame and made him
• 4:15:13
  Speaker 1: start violently back. I'm getting nervous, said Kemp. But it
• 4:15:18
  Speaker 1: was five minutes before he went to the window again.
• 4:15:22
  Speaker 1: It must have been a sparrow, he said. Presently, he
• 4:15:26
  Speaker 1: heard the front door bell ringing, and hurried downstairs. He
• 4:15:29
  Speaker 1: unbolted and unlocked the door, examined the chain, put it up,
• 4:15:32
  Speaker 1: and opened cautiously, without showing himself. A familiar voice hailed him.
• 4:15:38
  Speaker 1: It was aide. Your servant's been assaulted, Kemp, he said,
• 4:15:42
  Speaker 1: round the door, what exclaimed Kemp? Had that note of
• 4:15:47
  Speaker 1: yours taken away from her? He's close about here. Let
• 4:15:50
  Speaker 1: me in. Kemp released the chain and aid I entered
• 4:15:54
  Speaker 1: through as narrow an opening as possible. He stood in
• 4:15:57
  Speaker 1: the hall, looking with infinite relief at Kemp refastening the door.
• 4:16:02
  Speaker 1: Note was snatched out of her hand. Scared horribly, she's
• 4:16:05
  Speaker 1: down at the station hysterics. He's close here. What was
• 4:16:10
  Speaker 1: it about? Kemp swore? What a fool I was, said Kemp.
• 4:16:15
  Speaker 1: I might have known. It's not an hour's walk from
• 4:16:18
  Speaker 1: Hinton Dean already. What's up? Said ad I. Look here,
• 4:16:23
  Speaker 1: said Kemp, and led the way into his study. He
• 4:16:26
  Speaker 1: handed Ady the Invisible Man's letter. Adi read it and
• 4:16:29
  Speaker 1: whistled softly. And you, said ad I proposed a trap
• 4:16:35
  Speaker 1: like a fool, said Kemp, and sent my proposal out
• 4:16:37
  Speaker 1: by a maid servant to him. Ade I followed Kemp's profanity.
• 4:16:43
  Speaker 1: He'll clear out, said ad I. Not, he said Kemp.
• 4:16:48
  Speaker 1: A resounding smash of glass came from upstairs. Adi had
• 4:16:53
  Speaker 1: a silvery glimpse of a little revolver half out of
• 4:16:55
  Speaker 1: Kemp's pocket. It's a window upstairs, said Kemp, and led
• 4:16:59
  Speaker 1: the way up. There came a second smash while they
• 4:17:02
  Speaker 1: were still on the staircase. When they reached the study,
• 4:17:05
  Speaker 1: they found two of the three windows smashed, half the
• 4:17:08
  Speaker 1: room littered with splendid glass, and one big flint lying
• 4:17:11
  Speaker 1: on the writing table. The two men stopped in the doorway.
• 4:17:15
  Speaker 1: Contemplating the wreckage, Kemp swore again, and as he did so,
• 4:17:19
  Speaker 1: the third window went with a snap like a pistol,
• 4:17:21
  Speaker 1: hung starred for a moment, and collapsed in jagged, shivering
• 4:17:25
  Speaker 1: triangles into the room. What's this for, said Adi. It's
• 4:17:31
  Speaker 1: a beginning, said Kemp. There's no way of climbing up here,
• 4:17:36
  Speaker 1: not for a cat, said Kemp. No shutters, not here
• 4:17:41
  Speaker 1: all the downstairs room. Hullo smash and then whack of
• 4:17:46
  Speaker 1: boards hit hard came from downstairs. Confound him, said Kemp.
• 4:17:51
  Speaker 1: That must be yes, it's one of the bedrooms. He's
• 4:17:54
  Speaker 1: going to do all the house. But he's a fool.
• 4:17:58
  Speaker 1: The shutters are up and the glass were four outside.
• 4:18:01
  Speaker 1: He'll cut his feet. Another window proclaimed its destruction. The
• 4:18:06
  Speaker 1: two men stood on the landing, perplexed. I have it,
• 4:18:10
  Speaker 1: said Ade, Let me have a stick or something. I'll
• 4:18:12
  Speaker 1: go down to the station and get their bloodhounds put on.
• 4:18:15
  Speaker 1: That ought to settle him. They're hard. By not ten minutes,
• 4:18:19
  Speaker 1: another window went the way of its fellows. You haven't
• 4:18:22
  Speaker 1: a revolver, asked ad I. Kemp's hand went to his pocket,
• 4:18:27
  Speaker 1: then he hesitated, I haven't one. At least to spare.
• 4:18:32
  Speaker 1: I'll bring it back, said Ade. You'll be safe here. Kemp,
• 4:18:36
  Speaker 1: ashamed of his momentary lapse from truthfulness, handed him the weapon.
• 4:18:42
  Speaker 1: Now for the door, said ad I. As they stood
• 4:18:45
  Speaker 1: hesitating in the hall, they heard one of the first
• 4:18:48
  Speaker 1: floor bedroom windows crack and clash. Kemp went to the
• 4:18:51
  Speaker 1: door and began to slip the bolts as silently as possible.
• 4:18:55
  Speaker 1: His face was a little paler than usual. You must
• 4:18:58
  Speaker 1: step straight out, said Kemp. In another moment, ad I
• 4:19:02
  Speaker 1: was on the doorstep and the bolts were dropping back
• 4:19:04
  Speaker 1: into the stables. He hesitated for a moment, feeling more
• 4:19:08
  Speaker 1: comfortable with his back against the door. Then he marched
• 4:19:12
  Speaker 1: upright and square down the steps. He crossed the lawn
• 4:19:15
  Speaker 1: and approached the gate. A little breeze seemed to ripple
• 4:19:18
  Speaker 1: over the grass. Something moved near him. Stop a bit,
• 4:19:24
  Speaker 1: said a voice, and ad I stopped dead, and his
• 4:19:28
  Speaker 1: hand tightened on the revolver. Well, said Ada, white and
• 4:19:32
  Speaker 1: grim and every nerve tense, oblige me by going back
• 4:19:38
  Speaker 1: to the house, said the voice, as tense and grim
• 4:19:41
  Speaker 1: as aide's sorry, said Ady a little hoarsely, and moistened
• 4:19:46
  Speaker 1: his lips with his tongue. The voice was on his
• 4:19:49
  Speaker 1: left front. He thought, supposed he were to take his
• 4:19:51
  Speaker 1: luck with a shot. What are you going for? Said
• 4:19:54
  Speaker 1: the voice, and there was a quick movement of the
• 4:19:57
  Speaker 1: two and a flash of sunlight from the open lip
• 4:19:59
  Speaker 1: of Ada's pocket. Ad I desisted and thought, where I go?
• 4:20:06
  Speaker 1: He said, slowly is my own business. The words were
• 4:20:10
  Speaker 1: still on his lips when an arm came round his neck.
• 4:20:13
  Speaker 1: His back fell to knee, and he was sprawling backward.
• 4:20:16
  Speaker 1: He drew clumsily and fired absurdly, and in another moment
• 4:20:19
  Speaker 1: he was struck in the mouth and the revolver rested
• 4:20:22
  Speaker 1: from his grip. He made a vain clutch at a
• 4:20:25
  Speaker 1: slippery limb, tried to struggle up and fell back. Damn,
• 4:20:29
  Speaker 1: said Ada. The voice laughed, I'd kill you now if
• 4:20:33
  Speaker 1: it wasn't the waist of a bullet, he said. He
• 4:20:36
  Speaker 1: saw the revolver in mid air six feet off, covering
• 4:20:38
  Speaker 1: him well, said ad. I sitting up, Get up, said
• 4:20:44
  Speaker 1: the voice. Ada stood up attention, said the voice, and
• 4:20:49
  Speaker 1: then fiercely. Don't try any games. Remember I can see
• 4:20:53
  Speaker 1: your face. If you can't see mine, You've got to
• 4:20:57
  Speaker 1: go back to the house. He won't let me in,
• 4:21:01
  Speaker 1: said ady. That's a pity, said the invisible man. I've
• 4:21:06
  Speaker 1: got no quarrel with you. Adai moistened his lips again.
• 4:21:11
  Speaker 1: He glanced away from the barrel of the revolver and
• 4:21:13
  Speaker 1: saw the sea far off, very blue and dark under
• 4:21:16
  Speaker 1: the midday sun, the smooth green down, the white cliff
• 4:21:20
  Speaker 1: of the head, and the multitudinous town, and suddenly he
• 4:21:23
  Speaker 1: knew that life was very sweet. His eyes came back
• 4:21:26
  Speaker 1: to this little metal thing hanging between heaven and earth,
• 4:21:29
  Speaker 1: six yards away. What am I to do? He said, sullenly.
• 4:21:34
  Speaker 1: What am I to do? Asked the invisible man. You
• 4:21:37
  Speaker 1: will get help. The only thing is for you to
• 4:21:39
  Speaker 1: go back. I will try if he lets me in.
• 4:21:44
  Speaker 1: Will you promise not to rush the door. I've got
• 4:21:47
  Speaker 1: no quarrel with you, said the voice. Kemp had hurried
• 4:21:52
  Speaker 1: upstairs after letting Ade out, and now crouching among the
• 4:21:56
  Speaker 1: broken glass and peering cautiously over the edge of the
• 4:21:58
  Speaker 1: study window sill, he saw Adi stand parleying with the unseen.
• 4:22:03
  Speaker 1: Why doesn't he fire, whispered Kemp to himself. Then the
• 4:22:07
  Speaker 1: revolver moved a little, and the glint of the sunlight
• 4:22:10
  Speaker 1: flashed in Kemp's eyes. He shaded his eyes and tried
• 4:22:13
  Speaker 1: to see the source of the blinding beam. Surely, he said,
• 4:22:17
  Speaker 1: Adi has given up the revolver. Promise not to rush
• 4:22:21
  Speaker 1: the door. Adi was saying, don't push a winning game
• 4:22:24
  Speaker 1: too far. Give a man a chance. You go back
• 4:22:28
  Speaker 1: to the house. I tell you flatly, I will not
• 4:22:31
  Speaker 1: promise anything. Adi's decision seemed suddenly made. He turned towards
• 4:22:36
  Speaker 1: the house, walking slowly with his hands behind him. Kemp
• 4:22:40
  Speaker 1: watched him, puzzled. The revolver vanished, flashed again into sight,
• 4:22:44
  Speaker 1: vanished again, and became evident on a closer scrutiny as
• 4:22:47
  Speaker 1: a little dark object following Adi. Then things happened very quickly.
• 4:22:53
  Speaker 1: Aid I leapt backwards, swung around, clutched at this little object,
• 4:22:56
  Speaker 1: missed it, threw up his hands and fell forward on
• 4:22:59
  Speaker 1: his face, a little puff of blue in the air.
• 4:23:02
  Speaker 1: Kemp did not hear the sound of the shot. Adi writhed,
• 4:23:07
  Speaker 1: raised himself on one arm, fell forward, and lay still
• 4:23:15
  Speaker 1: for a space. Kemp remained staring at the quiet carelessness
• 4:23:19
  Speaker 1: of Ady's attitude. The afternoon was very hot, and still
• 4:23:23
  Speaker 1: nothing seemed stirring in all the world save a couple
• 4:23:26
  Speaker 1: of yellow butterflies chasing each other through the shrubbery between
• 4:23:28
  Speaker 1: the house and the road gate. Aid I lay on
• 4:23:31
  Speaker 1: the lawn near the gate. The blinds of all the
• 4:23:35
  Speaker 1: villas down the hill road were drawn, but in one
• 4:23:37
  Speaker 1: little green summer house was a white figure, apparently an
• 4:23:40
  Speaker 1: old man asleep. Kemp scrutinized the surroundings of the house
• 4:23:44
  Speaker 1: for a glimpse of the revolver, but it had vanished.
• 4:23:48
  Speaker 1: His eyes came back to Adi. The game was opening well.
• 4:23:56
  Speaker 1: Then came a ringing and knocking at the front door
• 4:23:58
  Speaker 1: that grew at last two months, but pursuant to Kemp's instructions,
• 4:24:02
  Speaker 1: the servant had locked themselves into their rooms. This was
• 4:24:06
  Speaker 1: followed by a silence. Kemp sat listening, and then began
• 4:24:10
  Speaker 1: peering cautiously out of the three windows one after another.
• 4:24:14
  Speaker 1: He went to the staircase head and stood listening uneasily.
• 4:24:18
  Speaker 1: He armed himself with his bedroom poker and went to
• 4:24:21
  Speaker 1: examine the interior fastenings of the ground floor windows. Again
• 4:24:25
  Speaker 1: everything was safe and quiet. He returned to the Belvidere
• 4:24:30
  Speaker 1: ad I lay motionless over the edge of the gravel,
• 4:24:32
  Speaker 1: just as he had fallen coming along the road. By
• 4:24:35
  Speaker 1: the villas with a house maid and two policemen. Everything
• 4:24:39
  Speaker 1: was deadly still. The three people seemed very slow in approaching.
• 4:24:44
  Speaker 1: He wondered what his antagonist was doing. He started, there
• 4:24:49
  Speaker 1: was a smash from below. He hesitated and went downstairs again.
• 4:24:54
  Speaker 1: Suddenly the house resounded with heavy blows and the splintering
• 4:24:56
  Speaker 1: of wood. He heard a smash and the destructive clang
• 4:25:00
  Speaker 1: of the iron fastenings of the shutters. He turned the
• 4:25:03
  Speaker 1: key and opened the kitchen door. As he did so,
• 4:25:06
  Speaker 1: the shutters split and splintering came flying inward. He stood aghast.
• 4:25:11
  Speaker 1: The window frame, save for one crossbar, was still intact,
• 4:25:14
  Speaker 1: but only little teeth of glass remained in the frame.
• 4:25:18
  Speaker 1: The shutters had been driven in with an axe, and
• 4:25:20
  Speaker 1: now the axe was descending in sweeping blows upon the
• 4:25:23
  Speaker 1: window frame and the iron bars defending it. Then suddenly
• 4:25:27
  Speaker 1: it leaped aside and vanished. He saw the revolver lying
• 4:25:31
  Speaker 1: on the path outside, and then the little weapon sprang
• 4:25:34
  Speaker 1: into the air. He dodged back. The revolver cracked just
• 4:25:38
  Speaker 1: too late, and a splinter from the edge of the
• 4:25:40
  Speaker 1: closing door flashed over his head. He slammed and locked
• 4:25:44
  Speaker 1: the door, and as he stood outside. He heard Griffin
• 4:25:46
  Speaker 1: shouting and laughing. Then the blows of the axe, with
• 4:25:49
  Speaker 1: its splitting and smashing consequences, were resumed. Kemp stood in
• 4:25:55
  Speaker 1: the passage, trying to think. In a moment, the invisible
• 4:25:59
  Speaker 1: man would be in the kitchen. This door would not
• 4:26:02
  Speaker 1: keep him a moment, and then a ringing came at
• 4:26:05
  Speaker 1: the front door. Again it would be the policeman. He
• 4:26:09
  Speaker 1: ran into the hall, put up the chain and drew
• 4:26:11
  Speaker 1: the bolts. He made the girl speak before he dropped
• 4:26:14
  Speaker 1: the chain, and the three people blundered into the house
• 4:26:16
  Speaker 1: in a heap, and Kemp slammed the door again. The
• 4:26:18
  Speaker 1: invisible man said Kemp, he has a revolver with two
• 4:26:22
  Speaker 1: shots left. He's killed ADEI shot him anyhow, didn't you
• 4:26:26
  Speaker 1: see him on the lawn? He's lying there? Who said
• 4:26:30
  Speaker 1: one of the policemen. A die, said Kemp. We came
• 4:26:35
  Speaker 1: in the back way, said the girl. What's that smashing?
• 4:26:38
  Speaker 1: Asked one of the policemen. He's in the kitchen, or
• 4:26:41
  Speaker 1: will be. He's found an axe. Suddenly the house was
• 4:26:45
  Speaker 1: full of the invisible Man's resounding blows on the kitchen door.
• 4:26:48
  Speaker 1: The girl stared towards the kitchen shuddered and retreated into
• 4:26:52
  Speaker 1: the dining room. Kemp tried to explain in broken sentences.
• 4:26:56
  Speaker 1: They heard the kitchen door. Give this way, said Kemp,
• 4:27:00
  Speaker 1: starting into activity, and bundled the policeman into the dining room.
• 4:27:03
  Speaker 1: Doorway poker, said Kemp, and rushed to the fender. He
• 4:27:07
  Speaker 1: handed the poker he had carried to the policeman and
• 4:27:09
  Speaker 1: the dining room one to the other. He suddenly flung
• 4:27:12
  Speaker 1: himself backward. Whoop, said one policeman ducked and caught the
• 4:27:16
  Speaker 1: axe on his poker. The pistol snapped his penultimate shot
• 4:27:20
  Speaker 1: and ripped a valuable Sidney Cooper. The second policeman brought
• 4:27:23
  Speaker 1: his poker down on the little weapon as one might
• 4:27:26
  Speaker 1: knock down a wasp, and sent it rattling to the floor.
• 4:27:31
  Speaker 1: At the first clash, the girl screamed, stood screaming for
• 4:27:34
  Speaker 1: a moment by the fireplace, and then ran to open
• 4:27:36
  Speaker 1: the shutters, possibly with an idea of escaping by the
• 4:27:39
  Speaker 1: shattered window. The axe receded into the passage and fell
• 4:27:43
  Speaker 1: to a position about two feet from the ground. They
• 4:27:47
  Speaker 1: could hear the invisible man breathing, stand away, you two,
• 4:27:51
  Speaker 1: I want that man, Kemp, we want you, said the
• 4:27:56
  Speaker 1: first policeman, making a quick step forward and wiping with
• 4:27:58
  Speaker 1: his poker at the voice. The invisible man must have
• 4:28:02
  Speaker 1: started back, and he blundered into the umbrella stand. Then,
• 4:28:06
  Speaker 1: as the policeman staggered with the swing of the blow
• 4:28:08
  Speaker 1: he had aimed, the invisible man countered with the axe.
• 4:28:11
  Speaker 1: The helmet crumbled like paper, and the blow sent the
• 4:28:13
  Speaker 1: man spinning to the floor at the head of the
• 4:28:15
  Speaker 1: kitchen stairs. But the second policeman, aiming behind the axe
• 4:28:20
  Speaker 1: with his poker, hid something soft that snapped. There was
• 4:28:24
  Speaker 1: a sharp exclamation of pain, and then the axe fell
• 4:28:26
  Speaker 1: to the ground. The policeman wiped again at vacancy and
• 4:28:30
  Speaker 1: hid nothing. He put his foot on the axe and
• 4:28:32
  Speaker 1: struck again. Then he stood poker clubbed, listening intent for
• 4:28:37
  Speaker 1: the slightest movement. He heard the dining room window open
• 4:28:42
  Speaker 1: and a quick rush of feet within. His companion rolled
• 4:28:46
  Speaker 1: over and sat up, with blood running down between his
• 4:28:48
  Speaker 1: eye and ear. Where is he asked the man on
• 4:28:51
  Speaker 1: the floor. Don't know I've hit him. He's standing somewhere
• 4:28:56
  Speaker 1: in the hall unless he slipped past you, Doctor Kemp.
• 4:28:59
  Speaker 1: Sir pause, Doctor Kemp, cried the policeman again. The second
• 4:29:07
  Speaker 1: policeman began struggling to his feet. He stood up. Suddenly,
• 4:29:12
  Speaker 1: the faint pad of bare feet on the kitchen stairs
• 4:29:14
  Speaker 1: could be heard. Yap, cried the first policeman, and incontinently
• 4:29:18
  Speaker 1: flung his poker. It smashed a little gas bracket. He
• 4:29:23
  Speaker 1: made as if he would pursue the invisible man downstairs.
• 4:29:26
  Speaker 1: Then he thought better of it and stepped into the
• 4:29:28
  Speaker 1: dining room. Doctor Kemp, he began, and stopped short. Doctor
• 4:29:35
  Speaker 1: Kemp's a hero, he said, as his companion looked over
• 4:29:37
  Speaker 1: his shoulder. The dining room window was wide open, and
• 4:29:42
  Speaker 1: neither housemaid nor Kemp was to be seen. The second
• 4:29:46
  Speaker 1: Policeman's opinion of Kemp was terse and vivid. Chapter twenty eight.
• 4:29:56
  Speaker 1: The Hunter hunted. Mister Helas, mister Kemp's nearest neighbor among
• 4:30:04
  Speaker 1: the villa holders, was asleep in his summer house when
• 4:30:06
  Speaker 1: the siege of Kemp's house began. Mister Helas was one
• 4:30:10
  Speaker 1: of the sturdy minority who refused to believe in all
• 4:30:13
  Speaker 1: this nonsense about an invisible man. His wife. However, as
• 4:30:18
  Speaker 1: he was subsequently to be reminded, did he insisted on
• 4:30:23
  Speaker 1: walking about his garden just as if nothing was the matter,
• 4:30:26
  Speaker 1: and he went asleep in the afternoon. In accordance with
• 4:30:28
  Speaker 1: the custom of years, he slept through the smashing of
• 4:30:31
  Speaker 1: the windows, and then woke up suddenly, with a curious
• 4:30:34
  Speaker 1: persuasion of something wrong. He looked across at Kemp's house,
• 4:30:38
  Speaker 1: rubbed his eyes, and looked again. Then he put his
• 4:30:41
  Speaker 1: feet to the ground and sat listening. He said he
• 4:30:44
  Speaker 1: was damned, but still the strange thing was visible. The
• 4:30:47
  Speaker 1: house looked as though it had been deserted for weeks
• 4:30:49
  Speaker 1: after a violent riot. Every window was broken, and every
• 4:30:53
  Speaker 1: window save those of the belvedere study was blinded by
• 4:30:56
  Speaker 1: the internal shutters. I could have sworn it was all
• 4:31:00
  Speaker 1: a right. He looked at his watch twenty minutes ago
• 4:31:05
  Speaker 1: he became aware of a measured concussion and the clash
• 4:31:08
  Speaker 1: of glass far away in the distance. And then, as
• 4:31:11
  Speaker 1: he sat open mouthed, came a still more wonderful thing.
• 4:31:15
  Speaker 1: The shutters of the drawing room window were flung open violently,
• 4:31:18
  Speaker 1: and the housemaid, in her outdoor hat and garments, appeared,
• 4:31:21
  Speaker 1: struggling in a frantic manner to throw up the sash.
• 4:31:24
  Speaker 1: Suddenly a man appeared beside her, helping her. Doctor Kemp
• 4:31:28
  Speaker 1: in another moment, the window was open and the housemaid
• 4:31:31
  Speaker 1: was struggling out. She pitched forward and vanished among the shrubs.
• 4:31:34
  Speaker 1: Mister Helas stood up, exclaiming vaguely and vehemently, at all
• 4:31:38
  Speaker 1: these wonderful things. He saw Kemp stand on the sill,
• 4:31:42
  Speaker 1: spring from the window and reappear almost instantaneously, running along
• 4:31:46
  Speaker 1: a path in the shrubbery, and stooping as he ran
• 4:31:49
  Speaker 1: like a man who evades observation. He vanished behind a
• 4:31:53
  Speaker 1: laburnum and appeared again, clambering over a fence that had
• 4:31:56
  Speaker 1: butted on the open down. In a second he had
• 4:31:59
  Speaker 1: tumbled over and was running at a tremendous pace down
• 4:32:01
  Speaker 1: the slope towards mister Helas. Lord cried, mister Helas struck
• 4:32:07
  Speaker 1: with an idea. It's that invisible man, brute. It's right
• 4:32:11
  Speaker 1: after all with mister Helas. To think things like that
• 4:32:17
  Speaker 1: was to act. And his cook, watching him from the
• 4:32:19
  Speaker 1: top window, was amazed to see him come pelting towards
• 4:32:21
  Speaker 1: the house at a good nine miles an hour. There
• 4:32:24
  Speaker 1: was a slamming of doors, a ringing of bells, and
• 4:32:26
  Speaker 1: the voice of mister Helas bellowing like a bull. Shut
• 4:32:30
  Speaker 1: the doors shut, the windows, shut everything. The invisible man
• 4:32:33
  Speaker 1: is coming Instantly. The house was full of screams and
• 4:32:37
  Speaker 1: directions and scurrying feet. He ran himself to shut the
• 4:32:40
  Speaker 1: French windows that opened on the verandah. As he did so,
• 4:32:44
  Speaker 1: Kemp's head and shoulders and knee appeared over the edge
• 4:32:46
  Speaker 1: of the garden fence. In another moment, Kemp had plowed
• 4:32:50
  Speaker 1: through the asparagus and was running across the tennis lawn
• 4:32:52
  Speaker 1: to the house. You can't come in, said mister Helas,
• 4:32:56
  Speaker 1: shutting the bolts. I'm very sorry if he's after you,
• 4:32:59
  Speaker 1: but you can come in. Kemp appeared with a face
• 4:33:03
  Speaker 1: of terror, close to the glass, rapping and then shaking
• 4:33:06
  Speaker 1: frantically at the French window. Then, seeing his efforts were useless,
• 4:33:11
  Speaker 1: he ran along the verandah, vaulted the end and went
• 4:33:13
  Speaker 1: a hammer at the side door. Then he ran around
• 4:33:16
  Speaker 1: by the side gate to the front of the house
• 4:33:18
  Speaker 1: and so into the hill road. And mister Helas, staring
• 4:33:21
  Speaker 1: from his window a face of horror, had scarcely witnessed
• 4:33:26
  Speaker 1: Kemp vanish ere. The asparagus was being trampled this way
• 4:33:29
  Speaker 1: and that by feet unseen. At that mister Helas fled
• 4:33:34
  Speaker 1: precipitately upstairs and the rest of the chases beyond his purview.
• 4:33:39
  Speaker 1: But as he passed the staircase window he heard the
• 4:33:41
  Speaker 1: side gate slam. Emerging into the hill road, Kemp naturally
• 4:33:47
  Speaker 1: took the downward direction, and so it was he came
• 4:33:50
  Speaker 1: to run in his own person the very race he
• 4:33:52
  Speaker 1: had washed with such a critical eye from the Belvedere
• 4:33:54
  Speaker 1: study only four days ago. He ran it well for
• 4:33:58
  Speaker 1: a man out of training, and though his face was
• 4:34:00
  Speaker 1: white and wet, his wits were cool to the last.
• 4:34:04
  Speaker 1: He ran with wide strides, and wherever a patch of
• 4:34:07
  Speaker 1: rough ground intervened, wherever there came a patch of raw
• 4:34:10
  Speaker 1: flints or a bit of broken glass shone dazzling, he
• 4:34:12
  Speaker 1: crossed it and left the bare, invisible feet that followed
• 4:34:15
  Speaker 1: to take what line they would. For the first time
• 4:34:20
  Speaker 1: in his life, Kemp discovered that the hill road was
• 4:34:23
  Speaker 1: indescribably vast and desolate, and that the beginnings of the
• 4:34:27
  Speaker 1: town far below at the hill foot were strangely remote.
• 4:34:31
  Speaker 1: Never had there been a slower or more painful method
• 4:34:33
  Speaker 1: of progression than running. All the gaunt villas sleeping in
• 4:34:37
  Speaker 1: the afternoon sun looked locked and barred. No doubt they
• 4:34:40
  Speaker 1: were locked and barred by his own orders, but at
• 4:34:45
  Speaker 1: any rate they might have kept a lookout for an
• 4:34:46
  Speaker 1: eventuality like this. The town was rising up now, the
• 4:34:51
  Speaker 1: sea had dropped out of sight behind it, and people
• 4:34:53
  Speaker 1: down below were stirring. A tram was just arriving at
• 4:34:57
  Speaker 1: the hill. Foot beyond that was the p police station.
• 4:35:02
  Speaker 1: Was that footsteps he heard behind him spurret. The people
• 4:35:07
  Speaker 1: below were staring at him, One or two were running,
• 4:35:10
  Speaker 1: and his breath was beginning to soar in his throat.
• 4:35:13
  Speaker 1: The tram was quite near now, and the Jolly Cricketers
• 4:35:16
  Speaker 1: was noisily barring its doors. Beyond the tram were posts
• 4:35:20
  Speaker 1: and heaps of gravel the drainage works. He had a
• 4:35:23
  Speaker 1: transitory idea of jumping into the tram and slamming the doors,
• 4:35:26
  Speaker 1: and then he resolved to go for the police station.
• 4:35:30
  Speaker 1: In another moment, he had passed the door of the
• 4:35:31
  Speaker 1: Jolly Cricketers and was in the blistering fag end of
• 4:35:34
  Speaker 1: the street, with human beings about him. The tram driver
• 4:35:37
  Speaker 1: and his helper, arrested by the sight of his furious haste,
• 4:35:41
  Speaker 1: stood staring with the tram horses unhitched further on the
• 4:35:45
  Speaker 1: astonished features of navvies appeared above the mounds of gravel.
• 4:35:49
  Speaker 1: His pace broke a little, and then he heard the
• 4:35:52
  Speaker 1: swift pad of his pursuer, and leaped forward again the
• 4:35:55
  Speaker 1: invisible man. He cried to the navvies with a vague
• 4:35:58
  Speaker 1: indicative gesture, and by an inspiration leapt the excavation and
• 4:36:02
  Speaker 1: placed a burly group between him and the chase. Then,
• 4:36:05
  Speaker 1: abandoning the idea of the police station, he turned into
• 4:36:08
  Speaker 1: a little side street, rushed by a green grocer's cart,
• 4:36:11
  Speaker 1: hesitated for the tenth of a second at the door
• 4:36:13
  Speaker 1: of a sweet stuff shop, and then made for the
• 4:36:15
  Speaker 1: mouth of an alley that ran back into the main
• 4:36:17
  Speaker 1: hill street again. Two or three little children were playing
• 4:36:21
  Speaker 1: here and shrieked and scattered at his apparition, and forthwith
• 4:36:24
  Speaker 1: doors and windows opened, and excited mothers revealed their hearts out.
• 4:36:29
  Speaker 1: He shot into Hill Street again, three hundred yards from
• 4:36:32
  Speaker 1: the tram line end, and immediately he became aware of
• 4:36:35
  Speaker 1: a tumultuous vociferation and running people. He glanced up the
• 4:36:41
  Speaker 1: street towards the hill. Hardly a dozen yards off ran
• 4:36:45
  Speaker 1: a huge navvy, cursing in fragments and slashing viciously with
• 4:36:48
  Speaker 1: a spade, and hard behind him came the tram conductor
• 4:36:51
  Speaker 1: with his fists clenched up the street. Others followed these two,
• 4:36:55
  Speaker 1: striking and shouting down towards the town. Men and women
• 4:36:59
  Speaker 1: were running, and he noticed clearly one man coming out
• 4:37:02
  Speaker 1: of a shop door with a stick in his hand,
• 4:37:04
  Speaker 1: spread out, spread out, cried some one. Kemp suddenly grasped
• 4:37:08
  Speaker 1: the altered condition of the chase. He stopped and looked around, panting,
• 4:37:13
  Speaker 1: He's close here, he cried, form a line across. He
• 4:37:17
  Speaker 1: was hit hard under the ear and went reeling, trying
• 4:37:20
  Speaker 1: to face round towards his unseen antagonist. He just managed
• 4:37:23
  Speaker 1: to keep his feet and he struck a vain counter
• 4:37:26
  Speaker 1: in the air. Then he was hit again under the
• 4:37:29
  Speaker 1: jaw and sprawled headlong on the ground. In another moment,
• 4:37:32
  Speaker 1: a knee compressed his diaphragm, and a couple of eager
• 4:37:35
  Speaker 1: hands gripped his throat, but the grip of one was
• 4:37:38
  Speaker 1: weaker than the other. He grasped the wrists, heard a
• 4:37:41
  Speaker 1: cry of pain from his assailant, and then the spade
• 4:37:44
  Speaker 1: of the navvy came whirling through the air above him
• 4:37:47
  Speaker 1: and struck something with a dull thud. He felt a
• 4:37:50
  Speaker 1: drop of moisture on his face. The grip at his
• 4:37:53
  Speaker 1: throat suddenly relaxed, and with a convulsive effort, Kemp loosened himself,
• 4:37:58
  Speaker 1: grasped a limp shoulder, and rolled uppermost. He gripped the
• 4:38:02
  Speaker 1: unseen elbows near the ground. I've got him, screamed Kemp,
• 4:38:07
  Speaker 1: help help hold he's down, hold his feet. In another
• 4:38:12
  Speaker 1: second there was a simultaneous rush upon the struggle, and
• 4:38:16
  Speaker 1: a stranger coming into the road suddenly might have thought
• 4:38:18
  Speaker 1: an exceptionally savage game of rugby football was in progress.
• 4:38:22
  Speaker 1: And there was no shouting after Kemp's cry, only a
• 4:38:26
  Speaker 1: sound of blows and feet and heavy breathing. Then came
• 4:38:30
  Speaker 1: a mighty effort, and the invisible man threw off a
• 4:38:33
  Speaker 1: couple of his antagonists and rose to his knees. Kemp
• 4:38:36
  Speaker 1: clung to him in front like a hound to a stag,
• 4:38:38
  Speaker 1: and a dozen hands gripped, clutched, and tore at the unseen.
• 4:38:42
  Speaker 1: The tram conductor suddenly got the neck and shoulders and
• 4:38:45
  Speaker 1: lugged him back down, went to the heap of struggling
• 4:38:49
  Speaker 1: men again and rolled over. There was I am afraid
• 4:38:52
  Speaker 1: some savage kicking, and then suddenly a wild scream of mercy,
• 4:38:57
  Speaker 1: mercy that died down swiftly to a like choking. Get back,
• 4:39:02
  Speaker 1: you fools, cried the muffled voice of Kemp, and there
• 4:39:05
  Speaker 1: was a vigorous shoving back of stalwart forms. He's hurt,
• 4:39:09
  Speaker 1: I tell you stand back. There was a brief struggle
• 4:39:13
  Speaker 1: to clear a space, and then the circle of eager
• 4:39:16
  Speaker 1: faces saw the doctor kneeling as it seemed fifteen inches
• 4:39:20
  Speaker 1: in the air and holding invisible arms to the ground.
• 4:39:24
  Speaker 1: Behind him, a constable gripped in visible ankles. Don't you leave, goavin,
• 4:39:29
  Speaker 1: cried the big navvy, holding a blood stained spade. He's shamming.
• 4:39:34
  Speaker 1: He's not shamming, said the doctor, cautiously raising his knee,
• 4:39:38
  Speaker 1: and I'll hold him. His face was bruised and already
• 4:39:41
  Speaker 1: going red. He spoke thickly because of a bleeding lip.
• 4:39:45
  Speaker 1: He released one hand and seemed to be feeling at
• 4:39:47
  Speaker 1: the face. The mouth's all wet, he said, and then
• 4:39:52
  Speaker 1: good God. He stood up abruptly and then knelt down
• 4:39:58
  Speaker 1: on the ground by the side of the thing. Un
• 4:40:01
  Speaker 1: there was a pushing and shuffling, a sound of heavy
• 4:40:03
  Speaker 1: feet as fresh people turned up to increase the pressure
• 4:40:06
  Speaker 1: of the crowd. People were coming out of the houses.
• 4:40:09
  Speaker 1: Now the doors of the jolly cricketers stood suddenly wide open.
• 4:40:15
  Speaker 1: Very little was said. Kemp felt about his hand, seeming
• 4:40:21
  Speaker 1: to pass through empty air. He's not breathing, he said,
• 4:40:26
  Speaker 1: And then I can't feel his heart his side. Uugh. Suddenly,
• 4:40:34
  Speaker 1: an old woman, peering under the arm of the big navvy, screamed, sharply.
• 4:40:38
  Speaker 1: Lookye there, she said, and thrust out a wrinkled finger,
• 4:40:43
  Speaker 1: And looking where she pointed, every one saw faint and transparent,
• 4:40:47
  Speaker 1: as though it were made of glass, so that veins
• 4:40:49
  Speaker 1: and arteries, and bones and nerves could be distinguished. The
• 4:40:53
  Speaker 1: outline of a hand, a hand, limp and prone. It
• 4:40:58
  Speaker 1: grew clouded and opaque. Even as they stared. Hallo cried
• 4:41:03
  Speaker 1: the constable. Here is his feet are showing, and so slowly,
• 4:41:10
  Speaker 1: beginning at his hands and feet, and creeping along his
• 4:41:12
  Speaker 1: limbs to the vital centers of his body. That strange
• 4:41:16
  Speaker 1: change continued. It was like the slow spreading of a poison.
• 4:41:21
  Speaker 1: First came the little white nerves, a hazy gray sketch
• 4:41:24
  Speaker 1: of a limb, Then the glassy bones and intricate arteries,
• 4:41:28
  Speaker 1: then the flesh and skin, first a faint fogginess, and
• 4:41:31
  Speaker 1: then growing rapidly dense and opaque. Presently they could see
• 4:41:35
  Speaker 1: his crushed chest and his shoulders, and the dim outline
• 4:41:39
  Speaker 1: of his drawn and battered features. When at last the
• 4:41:43
  Speaker 1: crowd made way for camp to stand erect, there lay,
• 4:41:46
  Speaker 1: naked and pitiful on the ground, the bruised and broken
• 4:41:49
  Speaker 1: body of a young man about thirty. His hair and
• 4:41:53
  Speaker 1: brow were white, not gray with age, but white with
• 4:41:56
  Speaker 1: the whiteness of albinism, and his eyes were like His
• 4:42:01
  Speaker 1: hands were clenched, his eyes wide open, and his expression
• 4:42:05
  Speaker 1: was one of anger and dismay. Cover's face, said a man,
• 4:42:10
  Speaker 1: For God's sake, cover that face. And three little children,
• 4:42:14
  Speaker 1: pushing forward through the crowd, were suddenly twisted round and
• 4:42:18
  Speaker 1: sent packing off again. Some one brought a sheet from
• 4:42:23
  Speaker 1: the jolly cricketers, and having covered him, they carried him
• 4:42:26
  Speaker 1: into the house. And there it was, on a shabby bed,
• 4:42:30
  Speaker 1: in a tawdry, ill lighted bedroom, surrounded by a crowd
• 4:42:33
  Speaker 1: of ignorant and excited people, broken and wounded, betrayed and unpitied,
• 4:42:39
  Speaker 1: that Gryffin the first of all men to make himself invisible. Gryffin,
• 4:42:45
  Speaker 1: the most gifted physicist the world has ever seen, ended
• 4:42:49
  Speaker 1: in infinite disaster his strange and terrible career. The epilog
• 4:43:01
  Speaker 1: so ends the story of the strange and evil experiments
• 4:43:04
  Speaker 1: of the Invisible Man. And if you would learn more
• 4:43:07
  Speaker 1: of him, you must go to a little inn near
• 4:43:09
  Speaker 1: Port Stow and talk to the Landlord. The sign of
• 4:43:12
  Speaker 1: the inn is an empty board save for a hat
• 4:43:14
  Speaker 1: and boots, and the name is the title of this story.
• 4:43:18
  Speaker 1: The landlord is a short and corpulent little man, with
• 4:43:21
  Speaker 1: a nose of cylindrical proportions, wiry hair, and a sporadic
• 4:43:24
  Speaker 1: rosiness of visage. Drink generously, and he will tell you
• 4:43:28
  Speaker 1: generously of all the things that happened to him after
• 4:43:30
  Speaker 1: that time, and of how the lawyers tried to do
• 4:43:33
  Speaker 1: him out of the treasure found upon him when they
• 4:43:36
  Speaker 1: found they couldn't prove whose money was. Which I'm blessed,
• 4:43:39
  Speaker 1: he says, if they didn't try to make me out
• 4:43:41
  Speaker 1: a blooming treasure trove, do I look like a treasure trove?
• 4:43:44
  Speaker 1: And then a gentleman gave me a guinea a night
• 4:43:46
  Speaker 1: to tell a story at the Empire Music all just
• 4:43:48
  Speaker 1: to tell him all in my own words, barring one.
• 4:43:52
  Speaker 1: And if you want to cut off the flow of
• 4:43:53
  Speaker 1: his reminiscences abruptly, you can always do so by asking
• 4:43:58
  Speaker 1: if there weren't three manuscript books in the story. He
• 4:44:02
  Speaker 1: admits there were, and proceeds to explain with asseverations that
• 4:44:05
  Speaker 1: everybody thinks he hasn't, but bless you, he hasn't. The
• 4:44:08
  Speaker 1: invisible man it was took him off to Adam when
• 4:44:11
  Speaker 1: I cut and ran for Portstow. Is that mister Kemp
• 4:44:14
  Speaker 1: put people on with the idea of may avindom. And
• 4:44:18
  Speaker 1: then he subsides into a pensive state, watches you furtively,
• 4:44:22
  Speaker 1: bustles nervously with glasses, and presently leaves the bar. He
• 4:44:27
  Speaker 1: is a bachelor man, his tastes were ever bachelor, and
• 4:44:31
  Speaker 1: there are no women folk in the house. Outwardly he buttons,
• 4:44:35
  Speaker 1: it is expected of him, but in his more vital privacies,
• 4:44:38
  Speaker 1: in the manner of braces, for examples, he still turns
• 4:44:41
  Speaker 1: to string. He conducts his house without enterprise, but with
• 4:44:45
  Speaker 1: eminent decorum. His movements are slow, and he is a
• 4:44:48
  Speaker 1: great thinker. But he has a reputation for wisdom and
• 4:44:52
  Speaker 1: for a respectable parsimoney in the village, and his knowledge
• 4:44:55
  Speaker 1: of the roads of the south of England would beat
• 4:44:57
  Speaker 1: Cobbet on Sunday mornings, every Sunday morning all the year
• 4:45:03
  Speaker 1: round while he is close to the outer world. And
• 4:45:06
  Speaker 1: every night after ten he goes into his bar parlor
• 4:45:10
  Speaker 1: bearing a glass of gin faintly tinged with water, and
• 4:45:13
  Speaker 1: having placed this down, he locks the door and examines
• 4:45:16
  Speaker 1: the blinds, and even looks under the table, and then,
• 4:45:20
  Speaker 1: being satisfied of his solitude, he unlocks the cupboard, and
• 4:45:23
  Speaker 1: a box in the cupboard, and a drawer in that box,
• 4:45:26
  Speaker 1: and produces three volumes, bound in brown leather, and places
• 4:45:29
  Speaker 1: them solemnly in the middle of the table. The covers
• 4:45:33
  Speaker 1: are weather worn and tinged with an algal green, for
• 4:45:36
  Speaker 1: once they sojourned in a ditch, and some of the
• 4:45:39
  Speaker 1: pages have been washed blank by dirty water. The landlord
• 4:45:43
  Speaker 1: sits down in an arm chair fills a long clay pipe,
• 4:45:47
  Speaker 1: slowly gloating over the books the while. Then he pulls
• 4:45:52
  Speaker 1: one towards him and opens him and begins to study it,
• 4:45:56
  Speaker 1: turning over the leaves backwards and forwards. His brows are
• 4:46:00
  Speaker 1: knit and his lips move painfully. X A little two
• 4:46:05
  Speaker 1: up in the air cross and a fiddle de dee Lord,
• 4:46:09
  Speaker 1: what a one he was for intellect. Presently, he relaxes
• 4:46:15
  Speaker 1: and leans back and blinks through his smoke across the
• 4:46:18
  Speaker 1: room at things invisible to other eyes. Full of secrets,
• 4:46:22
  Speaker 1: he says, wonderful secrets. Once I get a whore of them. Short,
• 4:46:31
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't do what he did. I just well, He
• 4:46:38
  Speaker 1: pulls at his pipe, so he lapses into a dream,
• 4:46:43
  Speaker 1: the undying, wonderful dream of life. And though Kemp has
• 4:46:47
  Speaker 1: fished unceasingly, no human being save the Landlord knows those
• 4:46:51
  Speaker 1: books are there, with the subtle secret of invisibility, and
• 4:46:55
  Speaker 1: a dozen other strange secrets written therein, and none other
• 4:46:59
  Speaker 1: will know of them until he dies. End of the
• 4:47:05
  Speaker 1: Invisible Man by H. G. Wells