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The Invisible Man Chapters 3-4 · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit www dot LibriVox dot org. To day's reading by
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  Speaker 1: Alex Foster www dot Alex Foster dot me dot UK.
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  Speaker 1: The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells, Chapter three, The
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  Speaker 1: thousand and one Bottles. So it was that on the
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  Speaker 1: twenty ninth day of February, at the beginning of the thaw,
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  Speaker 1: this singular person fell out of infinity into Iping village.
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  Speaker 1: Next day his luggage arrived through the slush, and very
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  Speaker 1: remarkable luggage it was. There were a couple of trunks,
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  Speaker 1: indeed such as a rational man might need. But in
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  Speaker 1: addition there were a box of books, big fat books,
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  Speaker 1: of which some were just in an incomprehensible handwriting, and
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  Speaker 1: a dozen or more crates, boxes and cases containing objects
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  Speaker 1: packed in straw. As it seemed a haul tugging with
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  Speaker 1: a casual curiosity at the straw glass bottles. The stranger,
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  Speaker 1: muffled in hat, coat, gloves and wrapper, came out impatiently
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  Speaker 1: to meet Fearnside's cart, while Hall, who was having a
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  Speaker 1: word or so of gossip preparatory to helping them in
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  Speaker 1: out he came, not noticing Fearnside's dog, who was sniffing
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  Speaker 1: in a diletant spirit at Hall's legs. Come along with
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  Speaker 1: those boxes, he said, I've been waiting long enough, and
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  Speaker 1: he came down the steps towards the tail of the cart,
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  Speaker 1: as if to lay hands on the smaller crate. No
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  Speaker 1: sooner had fear Inside's dog caught sight of him, however,
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  Speaker 1: than it began to bristle and growl savagely, and when
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  Speaker 1: he rushed down the steps, it gave an undecided hop
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  Speaker 1: and then sprang straight at his hand. Whew, cried Hall,
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  Speaker 1: jumping back, for he was no hero with dogs, and
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  Speaker 1: fear Inside howled lie down and snatched his whip. They
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  Speaker 1: saw the dog's teeth had slipped the hand, heard a kick,
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  Speaker 1: saw the dog execute a flanking jub and get home
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  Speaker 1: on the stranger's leg, and heard the rip of his trousering.
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  Speaker 1: Then the finer end of Fearnscide's whip reached his property,
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  Speaker 1: and the dog, yelping with dismay, retreated under the wheels
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  Speaker 1: of the wagon. Was all the business of a swift
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  Speaker 1: half minute. No one spoke, everyone shouted, the stranger glanced
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  Speaker 1: swiftly at his torn glove and at his leg, made
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  Speaker 1: as if he would stoop to the latter, then turned
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  Speaker 1: and rushed swiftly up the steps into the inn. They
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  Speaker 1: heard him go headlong across the passage and up the
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  Speaker 1: uncarpeted steps to his bedroom. You brute, you said Feernside,
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  Speaker 1: climbing off the wagon with his whip in his hand,
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  Speaker 1: while the dog watched him through the wheel. Come here,
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  Speaker 1: said Fearnside. You'd better Hall had stood gaping. He was bit,
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  Speaker 1: said Hall, I'd better go to see to him, and
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  Speaker 1: he trotted after the stranger. He met missus Hall in
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  Speaker 1: the passage. Garry his dog, he said, bitten. He went
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  Speaker 1: straight upstairs, and the stranger door being ajar, he pushed
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  Speaker 1: it open and was entering without any ceremony, Being of
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  Speaker 1: a naturally sympathetic turn of mind. The blind was down
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  Speaker 1: and the room dim. He caught a glimpse of a
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  Speaker 1: most singular thing, what seemed a handless arm waving towards him,
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  Speaker 1: and a face of three huge indeterminate spots on white,
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  Speaker 1: very like the face of a pale pansy. Then he
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  Speaker 1: was struck violently in the chest, hurled back and the
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  Speaker 1: door slammed in his face and locked. It was so
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  Speaker 1: rapid that he gave him no time to observe a
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  Speaker 1: waving of indecipherable shapes, a blow, and a concussion. There
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  Speaker 1: he stood on the dark little landing, wondering what it
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  Speaker 1: might have been that he had seen. A couple of
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  Speaker 1: minutes later he rejoined the little group that had formed
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  Speaker 1: outside the coach and horses. There was fear inside, telling
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  Speaker 1: about it all over again for the second time. There
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  Speaker 1: was Missus Hall saying his dog didn't have no business
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  Speaker 1: to bite her guests. There was Huckster, the general dealer
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  Speaker 1: from over the road, interrogative, and sand Wedges from the
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  Speaker 1: forge judicial, besides women and children, all of them saying fatuities.
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  Speaker 1: I wouldn't let him bite me. I knows tasn't right
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  Speaker 1: to have such dogs. What'd he bitin' for? Then and
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  Speaker 1: so forth Missus Hall, staring at them from the steps
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  Speaker 1: and listening, found it incredible that he had seen anything
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  Speaker 1: so very remarkable happen, Nut says. Besides, his vocalary was
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  Speaker 1: altogether too limited to express his impressions. He don't want
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  Speaker 1: no help, he says, he said, in answer to his
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  Speaker 1: wife's inquiry. We'd better be taken of his luggage in
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  Speaker 1: your tabit cauterized at once, said mister Huckster. Especially if
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  Speaker 1: it's all inflamed, I'd shoot, and That's what I'd do,
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  Speaker 1: said a lady in the group. Suddenly the dog began
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  Speaker 1: growling again. Come along, cried an angry voice in the doorway,
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  Speaker 1: and there stood the muffled stranger, with his collar turned
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  Speaker 1: up and his hat brim bent down. The sooner you
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  Speaker 1: get those things in, the better I'll be pleased. It
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  Speaker 1: is stated by an anonymous bystander that his trousers and
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  Speaker 1: gloves had been changed. Was you urt, sir, said Feirnside.
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  Speaker 1: I'm rare sorry the dog not a bit, said the stranger.
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  Speaker 1: Never broke the skin. Hurry up with those things, he
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  Speaker 1: then swore to himself, said mister Hall asserts directly. The
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  Speaker 1: first crate was in in accordance with his directions, carried
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  Speaker 1: into the parlor. The stranger flung himself upon it with
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary eagerness and began to unpack it, scattering the straw
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  Speaker 1: with an utter disregard of missus Hall's carpet, and from
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  Speaker 1: it he began to produce bottles. Little fat bottles containing powders,
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  Speaker 1: small and slender bottles containing colored and white fluids, fluted
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  Speaker 1: blue bottles, labeled poison, bottles with round bodies and slender necks,
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  Speaker 1: large green glass bottles, large white glass bottles, bottles with
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  Speaker 1: glass stoppers and frosted labels, bottles with fine corks, bottles
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  Speaker 1: with bungs, bottles with wooden caps, wine bottles, salad oil bottles,
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  Speaker 1: putting them in rows on the chiffonnier, on the mantle,
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  Speaker 1: on the table, under the window, round the floor, on
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  Speaker 1: the bookshelf, everywhere. The chemist's shop in Bramblehurst could not
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  Speaker 1: boast half so many. Quite a sight. It was crate
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  Speaker 1: after crate yielded bottles, until all six were empty and
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  Speaker 1: the table high with straw. The only things that came
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  Speaker 1: out of these crates beside the bottles were a number
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  Speaker 1: of test tubes and a carefully packed balance, And directly
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  Speaker 1: the crates were unpacked. The stranger went to the window
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  Speaker 1: and set to work, not troubling in the least about
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  Speaker 1: the litter of straw, the fire which had gone out,
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  Speaker 1: the box of books outside, nor for the trunks and
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  Speaker 1: other luggage that had gone upstairs. When missus Hall took
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  Speaker 1: his dinner to him. He was already so absorbed in
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  Speaker 1: his work pouring little drops out of the bottles in
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  Speaker 1: test tubes, that he did not hear her until she
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  Speaker 1: had swept away the bulk of the straw and put
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  Speaker 1: the tray on the table with some little emphasis, perhaps
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  Speaker 1: seeing the state that her floor was in. Then he
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  Speaker 1: half turned his head and immediately turned it away again.
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  Speaker 1: But she saw he had removed his glasses. They were
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  Speaker 1: beside him on the table, and it seemed to her
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  Speaker 1: that his eye sockets were extraordinarily hollow. He put on
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  Speaker 1: his spectacles again, and then turned and faced her. She
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  Speaker 1: was about to complain of the straw on the floor
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  Speaker 1: when he anticipated her. I wish you wouldn't come in
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  Speaker 1: without knocking, he said, in the tone of abnormal exasperation
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  Speaker 1: that seemed so characteristic of him. I knocked, but seemingly
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  Speaker 1: perhaps you did. But in my investigations, my really very
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  Speaker 1: urgent and necessary investigations, the slightest disturbance the jar of
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  Speaker 1: a door. I must ask you, certainly, sir, you can
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  Speaker 1: turn the lock if you're like that, You know, any
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  Speaker 1: time A very good idea, said the stranger. This straw, sir,
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  Speaker 1: if I can be so bold as to remark, don't
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  Speaker 1: if the straw makes trouble, put it down in the bill.
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  Speaker 1: And he mumbled at her words suspiciously like curses. He
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  Speaker 1: was so odd standing there, so aggressive and explosive, bottle
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  Speaker 1: in one hand and test tube in the other, that
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  Speaker 1: Missus Hall was quite alarmed. But she was a resolute woman,
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  Speaker 1: in which case I should like to know, sir, what
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  Speaker 1: you consider a shilling. Put down a shilling. Surely a
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  Speaker 1: shilling's enough, So be it, said missus Hall, taking up
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  Speaker 1: the tablecloth and beginning to spread it over the table.
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  Speaker 1: If you're satisfied, of course, he turned and sat down
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  Speaker 1: with his coat collar to water her. All the afternoon
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  Speaker 1: he worked with the door locked, and, as missus Hall testifies,
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  Speaker 1: for the most part, in silence. But once there was
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  Speaker 1: a concussion and a sound of bottles ringing together as
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  Speaker 1: though the table had been hit, and the smash of
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  Speaker 1: a bottle flung violently down, and then a rapid pacing
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  Speaker 1: athwart the room. Fearing something was the matter, she went
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  Speaker 1: to the door and listened, not caring to knock. I
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  Speaker 1: can't go on, he was raving, I can't go on
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  Speaker 1: three hundred thousand, four hundred thousand, the huge multitude cheating
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  Speaker 1: all my life. It may take me patience, patience indeed
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  Speaker 1: full fool. There was a noise of hob nails on
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  Speaker 1: the bricks in the bar, and missus Hall had very
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  Speaker 1: reluctantly to leave the rest of his soliloquy. When she returned,
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  Speaker 1: the room was silent again, save for the faint crepitation
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  Speaker 1: of his chair and the occasional clink of a bottle.
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  Speaker 1: It was all over. The stranger had resumed his work.
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  Speaker 1: When she took in his tea, she saw broken glass
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  Speaker 1: in the corner of the room, under the concave mirror,
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  Speaker 1: and a golden stain that had been carelessly wiped. She
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  Speaker 1: called attention to it. Put it down in the bill,
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  Speaker 1: snapped her visitor. For God's sake, don't worry me if
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  Speaker 1: there's damage done, put it down in the bill, and
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  Speaker 1: he went on ticking a list in the exercise book
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  Speaker 1: before him. I'll tell you something, said Fernside, mysteriously. It
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  Speaker 1: was late in the afternoon, and they were in a
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  Speaker 1: little beer shop of eyeping Hanger. Well, said Teddy Henry,
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  Speaker 1: this chap you're speaking of what my dog bit. Well,
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  Speaker 1: he's black leastways his legs are. I see through the
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  Speaker 1: tear of his trousers and the tear of his glove.
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  Speaker 1: You'd have expected a sort of pinky to show, wouldn't you. Well,
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  Speaker 1: there wasn't none, just blackness. I tell you, he's as
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  Speaker 1: black as my hat, my sex, said Henfrey. It's a
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  Speaker 1: rummy case altogether. Why his nose is as pink as paint,
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  Speaker 1: that's true, said Ferenscide. I knows that, And I tell
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  Speaker 1: you why. I'm thinking that man's a pie bold teddy,
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  Speaker 1: black here and white there in patches, and he's ashamed
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  Speaker 1: of it. He's a kind of arf breed, and the
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  Speaker 1: color's come off patchy instead of mixing. I've heard of
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  Speaker 1: such things before, and it's the common way with horses,
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  Speaker 1: as any one can see. Chapter four, Mister Cuss interviews
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  Speaker 1: the Stranger. I have told the circumstances of the Stranger's
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  Speaker 1: arrival in Iping with a certain fullness of detail, in
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  Speaker 1: order that the curious impression he created may be understood
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  Speaker 1: by the reader. But excepting two odd incidents, the circumstances
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  Speaker 1: of his stay until the extraordinary day of the Club
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  Speaker 1: Festival may be passed over very cursorily. There were a
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  Speaker 1: number of skirmishes with Missus Hall on matters of domestic discipline,
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  Speaker 1: but in every case until late April, when the first
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  Speaker 1: signs of penury began, he overwrote her by the easy
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  Speaker 1: expedient of an extra payment. Hall did not like him,
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  Speaker 1: and whenever he dared he talked of the advisability of
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  Speaker 1: getting rid of him. But he showed his dislike chiefly
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  Speaker 1: by concealing it ostentatiously and avoiding his visitor as much
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  Speaker 1: as possible. Wait till the summer, said Missus Hall, sagely,
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  Speaker 1: when the artists are beginning to come. Then we'll see.
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  Speaker 1: He may be a bit overbearing, But Bill's settled punctual.
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  Speaker 1: Is Bill settled punctual? Whatever you'd like to say. The
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  Speaker 1: stranger did not go to church, and indeed made no
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  Speaker 1: difference between Sunday and the irreligious days, even in costume.
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  Speaker 1: He worked as Missus Hall thought, very fit. Some days
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  Speaker 1: he would come down early and be continuously busy. On
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  Speaker 1: others he would rise late, pace his room, fretting audibly
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  Speaker 1: for hours together, smoke, sleep in the armchair by the fire.
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  Speaker 1: Communication with the world beyond the village. He had none
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  Speaker 1: his temper continued very uncertain. For the most part, his
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  Speaker 1: manner was that of a man suffering under almost unendurable provocation,
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  Speaker 1: and once or twice things were snapped, torn, crushed, or
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  Speaker 1: broken in spasmodic gusts of violence. He seemed under a
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  Speaker 1: chronic irritation of the greatest intensity. His habit of talking
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  Speaker 1: to himself in a low voice grew steadily upon him.
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  Speaker 1: But though missus Hall listened conscientiously, as she could make
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  Speaker 1: neither head nor tail of what she heard. He rarely
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  Speaker 1: went abroad by daylight, but at twilight he would go out,
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  Speaker 1: muffled up invisibly, whether the weather were cold or not,
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  Speaker 1: and he chose the loneliest paths and those most overshadowed
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  Speaker 1: by trees and banks. His goggling spectacles and ghastly bandaged
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  Speaker 1: face under the penthouse of his hat came with a
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  Speaker 1: disagreeable suddenness out of the darkness upon one or two
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  Speaker 1: home going laborers, and Teddy Henry, tumbling out of the
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  Speaker 1: scarlet coat one night at half past nine, was scared
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  Speaker 1: shamefully by the stranger's skull like head. He was walking,
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  Speaker 1: hat in hand, lit by the sudden light of the
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  Speaker 1: opened inn door. Such children as saw him at nightfall
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  Speaker 1: dreamt of bogies, and it seemed doubtful whether he disliked
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  Speaker 1: boys more than they disliked him, or the reverse, But
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  Speaker 1: there was certainly a vivid enough dislike on either side.
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  Speaker 1: It was inevitable that a person of so remarkable an
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  Speaker 1: appearance and bearing should form a frequent topic in such
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  Speaker 1: a village as iping opinion was greatly divided about his occupation.
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  Speaker 1: Missus Hall was sensitive on the point. When questioned, she
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  Speaker 1: explained very carefully that he was an experimental investigator, going
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  Speaker 1: gingerly over the syllables as one who dreads pitfalls. When
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  Speaker 1: asked what an experimental investigator was, she would say, with
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  Speaker 1: a touch of superiority, that most educated people knew such
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  Speaker 1: things as that, and would thus explain that he'd discovered things.
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  Speaker 1: Her visitor had had an accident, she said, which temporarily
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  Speaker 1: discolored his face and hands, and being of a sensitive disposition,
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  Speaker 1: he was averse to any public notice of the fact.
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  Speaker 1: Out of her hearing, there was a view largely entertained
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  Speaker 1: that he was a criminal trying to escape from justice
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  Speaker 1: by wrapping himself up so as to conceal himself altogether
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  Speaker 1: from the eye of the police. This idea sprang from
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  Speaker 1: the brain of mister Teddy Henfrey. No crime of any
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: magnitude dating from the middle or end of February was
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  Speaker 1: known to have occurred. Elaborated in the imagination of mister Gould,
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  Speaker 1: the probationary assistant in the National School, this theory took
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  Speaker 1: the form that the stranger was an anarchist in disguise
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  Speaker 1: preparing explosives, and he resolved to undertake such detective operations
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  Speaker 1: as his time permitted. These consisted, for the most part,
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  Speaker 1: in looking very hard at the stranger whenever they met,
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  Speaker 1: or in asking people who had never seen the stranger
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  Speaker 1: leading questions about him, but he detected nothing. Another school
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  Speaker 1: of opinion followed mister Fernside and either accepted the Piebald
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  Speaker 1: view or some modification of it, as for instance, Silas Durgan,
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  Speaker 1: who was heard to assert, if he chose to show
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  Speaker 1: himself at fairs, he'll make his fortune in no time,
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  Speaker 1: and being a bit of a theologian, compared the stranger
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  Speaker 1: to the man with the one talent. Yet another view
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  Speaker 1: explained the entire man by regarding the stranger as a
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  Speaker 1: harmless lunatic that had the advantage of accounting for everything straightway.
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  Speaker 1: Between these main groups, there were waverers and compromises. Sussex
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  Speaker 1: folk have few superstitions, and it was only after the
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  Speaker 1: events of early April that the thought of the supernatural
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  Speaker 1: was first whispered in the village. Even then it was
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  Speaker 1: only credited among the women folk. But whatever they thought
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  Speaker 1: of him, people in iping on the whole agreed in
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  Speaker 1: disliking him. His irritability, though it might have been comprehensible
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  Speaker 1: to an urban brain worker, was an amazing thing to
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  Speaker 1: these quiet Sussex villages. The frantic gesticulations they surprised now
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  Speaker 1: and then, the headlong pace after nightfall that swept him
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  Speaker 1: upon them round quiet corners, the inhuman bludgeoning of all
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  Speaker 1: tensative advances of curiosity, the taste for twilight that led
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  Speaker 1: to the closing of doors, the pulling of blinds, the
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  Speaker 1: extinction of candles and lamps. Who could agree with such
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  Speaker 1: goings on, they drew aside as he passed down the village,
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  Speaker 1: and when he had gone by, young humorists would go
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  Speaker 1: up with coat collars and down with hat brims, and
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  Speaker 1: go pacing nervously after him, in imitation of his occult bearing.
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  Speaker 1: There was a song popular at that time called the
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  Speaker 1: bogey Man. Miss Satchell sang it in the school room
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  Speaker 1: concert in aid of the church lamps, and thereafter, whenever
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  Speaker 1: one of the two villages were gathered together and the
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  Speaker 1: stranger appeared, a bar or so of this tune, more
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  Speaker 1: or less sharp or flat, was whistled in the midst
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  Speaker 1: of them. Also, belated little children would call ogieman after
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  Speaker 1: him and make off tremulously elated, Cuss, the general practitioner,
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  Speaker 1: was devoured by curiosity. The bandages excited his professional interest.
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  Speaker 1: The report of the thousand and one bottles aroused his
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  Speaker 1: jealous regard. All through April and May, he coveted an
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  Speaker 1: opportunity of talking to the stranger, and at last, towards whitsuntide,
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  Speaker 1: he could stand it no longer, but hit upon the
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  Speaker 1: subscription list for a village nurse as an excuse. He
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  Speaker 1: was surprised to find that mister Hall did not know
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  Speaker 1: his guest's name. He give a name, said missus Hall,
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  Speaker 1: an assertion which was quite unfounded. But I didn't rightly
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  Speaker 1: hear it. She thought it seemed so silly not to
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  Speaker 1: know the man's name. Cuss rapped at the parlor door
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  Speaker 1: and entered. There was a fairly audible imprecation from within.
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  Speaker 1: Pardon my intrusion, said Cuss, and then the door closed
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  Speaker 1: and cut missus Hall off from the rest of the conversation.
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  Speaker 1: She could hear the murmur of voices for the next
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  Speaker 1: ten minutes. Then a cry of surprise, a stirring of feet,
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  Speaker 1: a chair flung aside, a bark of laughter. Quick steps
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  Speaker 1: to the door, and Cuss appeared, his face white, his
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  Speaker 1: eyes staring over his shoulder. He left the door open
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  Speaker 1: behind him, and without looking at her, strode across the
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  Speaker 1: hall and went down the steps, and she heard his
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  Speaker 1: feet hurrying along the road. He carried his hat in
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  Speaker 1: his hand. She stood behind the door, looking at the
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  Speaker 1: open door of the parlor. Then she heard the stranger
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  Speaker 1: laughing quietly, and his footsteps came across the room. She
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  Speaker 1: could not see his face where she stood. The parlor
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  Speaker 1: door slammed and the place was silent again. Cuss went
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: straight up to the village to bunting the vicar. Am
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: I mad? Cuss began abruptly as he entered the shabby
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: little study. Do I look like an insane person? What's happened?
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: Said the vicar, putting the ammonite on the loose sheets
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: of his forthcoming sermon the chap at the inn. Well,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: give me something to drink, said Casson. He sat down
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: when his nerves had been steadied by a glass of
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: cheap sherry, the only drink the good vicar had available.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: He told him of the interview he had just had.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Went in. He gasped and began to demand a subscription
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: for that nurse fund. He'd stuck his hands in his
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: pockets as I came in, and he sat down lumpily
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: in his chair, sniffed. I told him I'd heard he
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: took an interest in scientific things. He said yes, sniffed again,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: kept on sniffing all the time, evidently recently caught an
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: infernal cold. When no wonder wrapped up like that, I
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: developed the nurse idea, and all the while kept my
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: eyes open. Bottles chemicals everywhere, balance test tubes in stands,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: and a smell of evening primrose. Would he subscribe? Said
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: he'd considered him. Asked him point blank was he researching?
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Said he was a long research. Got quite cross, a
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: damnable research, said he blowing the cork out, so to speak. Oh,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: said I, and out came the grievance. The man was
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: just on the boil, and my question boiled him over.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: He had been given a prescription, a most valuable prescription,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: although what for he wouldn't say. Was it medical? Damn you?
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: What are you fishing? After I apologize, dignified sniff and cough,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: he resumed he'd read it five ingredients, put it down,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: turned his head. Draft of air from window, lifted the
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: paper swish rustle. He was working in a room with
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: an open fireplace. He saw saw a flicker, and there
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: was the prescription burning and lifting chimney wood rushed towards it,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: just as it whisked up the chimney. So just at
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: that point, to illustrate his story, out came his arm. Well,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: no hand, just an empty sleeve. Lord. I thought, that's
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: a deformity. Got a cork arm, I suppose, and has
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: taken it off. Then I thought, there's something odd in that.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: What the devil keeps the sleeve up and open if
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: there's nothing in it. There was nothing in it, I
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: tell you, nothing down it right down to the joint.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: I could see right down it to the elbow, and
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: there was a glimmer of light shining in through a
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: tear of cloth. Good God, I said. Then he stopped,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: stared at me with those black goggles of his, and
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: then at his sleeve. Well that's all. He never said
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: a word, just glared and put his sleeve back in
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: his pocket. Quietly, I was saying, said he that there
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: was the prescription burning, wasn't I interrogative? Cough? Ha how
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: the devil said, I can you move an empty sleeve
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: like that? Empty sleeve? Yes, said I, an empty sleeve.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: It's an empty sleeve, is it? You saw it as
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: an empty sleeve? He stood up right away. I stood
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: up too. He came towards me in three very slow steps,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: and stood quite close sniffed venomously. I didn't flinch, though
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: I'm hanged if that bandage knob of his and those
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: blinkers aren't enough to unnerve any one coming quietly up
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: to you. You said it was an empty sleeve, he said, certainly,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: I said, at staring and saying nothing, A bare faced man,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: unspectacled starts scratch. Then very quietly he pulled his sleeve
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: out of his pocket again and raised his arm towards me,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: as though he would show it to me again. He
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: did it, very, very slowly. I looked at it. Seemed
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: an age, well, said I, clearing my throat. There's nothing
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: in it. I had to say something. I was beginning
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: to feel frightened. I could see right down it. He
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: extended it straight towards me, slowly, slowly, just like that,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: until the cuff was six inches from my face. Queer things,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: see an empty sleeve come at you like that, And
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: then well, something exactly like a finger and thumb. It
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: felt nipped my nose bunting. Began to laugh. There wasn't
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: anything there, said Cuss, his voice running up into a
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: shriek at the there. It's all very well for you
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: to laugh, But I tell you, I was so startled.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: I hit his cuff hard and turned around and cut
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: out of the room. I left him. Cuss stopped. There
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: was no mistaking the sincerity of his panic. He turned
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: round in a helpless way and took a second glass
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: of the excellent Vicars very inferior sherry. When I hit
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: his cuff, said Cuss, I tell you, it felt exactly
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: like hitting an arm. And there wasn't an arm. There
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: wasn't the ghost of an arm. Mister Bunting thought it over.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: He looked suspiciously at Cuss. It's a most remarkable story,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: he said. He looked very wise and grave. Indeed, it's really,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: said mister Bunting, with judoeial emphasis, a most remarkable story,
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: end of Chapter four. Recorded in Nottingham, England, on the
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: thirteenth of March twenty o six by Alex Foster www
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: dot Alex Foster dot me dot uk.