Section 10

* He’s not in the kitchen,” said the barman. * 'There’s two women there, and I’ve stabbed every inch of it with this little beef slicer. And they don’t think he’s come in. They have noticed. _** Have you fastened it? ” asked the first cabman.
* T’m out of frocks,” said the barman. -
The man with the beard replaced his revolver. And even as he did so the flap of the bar was shut down and the bolt clicked, and then with a tremendous thud the catch of the door snapped and the bar-parlour door burst open. They heard ’ Marvel squeal like a caught leveret, and forthwith - they were clambering over the bar to his rescue.
The bearded man’s revolver cracked, and the looking-glass at the back of the parlour see and came smashing and tinkling down.
As the barman entered the room, he saw Marvel curiously crumpled up and struggling against the door that led to the yard and kitchen. The door
_ flew open while the barman hesitated, and Marvel
was lugged into the kitchen. There was a scream and a clatter of pans. Marvel, head down, and lugging back obstinately, was forced to suck, kitchen: door, and the bolts were drawn. The policeman, who had been trying to pass the barman, rushed in, followed by one of the cabmen,,
IN THE ‘‘ JOLLY CRICKETERS ”’ 117
gripped the wrist of the invisible hand that collared Marvel, was hit in the face and went reeling back. The door opened, and Marvel made a frantic effort to obtain a lodgment behind it. Then the cabman clutched something.
‘I got him,” said the cabman.
The barman’s red hands came clawing at the unseen.
** Here he is! ” said the barman.
Mr. Marvel, released, suddenly dropped to the ground, and made an attempt to crawl behind the legs of the fighting men. The struggle blundered round the edge of the door. The voice of the Invisible Man was heard for the first time, yelling out sharply as the policeman trod on his foot. Then he cried out passionately, and his fists flew round like flail. The cabman suddenly whooped and doubled up, kicked under the diaphragm. The doors into the bar-parlour from the kitchen slammed and covered Mr. Marvel’s retreat. The men in the kitchen found themselves clutching at and struggling with empty air.
“Where’s he gone?” cried the man with the beard. “ Out?” ,
“This way,” said the policeman, stepping into the yard and stopping.
A piece of tile whizzed by his head, and smashed among the crockery on the kitchen table.
“Pll show him,” shouted the man with the black beard, and suddenly a steel barrel shone over the policeman’s shoulder, and five bullets had followed one another into the twilight whence the missile had come. As he fired, the man with the beard moved his hand in a horizontal curve, so that his shots
« ‘eo 1 7 SSS eae
17 Dr. Kemp's Visitor
D* Kemp had continued writing in his study until the shots aroused him. Crack, crack, crack, they came one after the other. :
“ Hullo! ” said Dr. Kemp, putting his pen into his mouth again and listening. “ Who’s letting off revolvers in Burdock? What are the asses at now? ”
He went to the south window, threw it up, and leaning out stared down on the network of windows, beaded gas-lamps and shops with black interstices of roof and yard that made up the town at night. ** Looks like a crowd down the hill,” he said, “ by * The Cricketers,’ ” and remained watching. Thence his eyes wandered over the town to far away where the ships’ lights shone and the pier glowed—a little illuminated, faceted pavilion like a gem of yellow light. The moon in its first quarter hung over the westward hill, and the stars were clear and almost, tropically bright.
After ‘five minutes, during which his mind had travelled into a remote speculation of social con- ditions of the future, and lost itself at last over the time dimension, Dr. Kemp roused himself with a sigh, pulled down the window again, and returned to his writing-desk.
It must have been about an hour after this that the front-door bell rang. He had been writing
‘slackly, and with intervals of abstraction, since the 119
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120 THE INVISIBLE MAN)
shots. He sat listening. He heard the servant answer the door, and waited for her feet on the staircase, but she did not come. “ Wonder what that was? ” said Dr. Kemp.
He tried to resume his work, failed, got up, went downstairs from his study to the landing, rang, and called over the balustrade to the housemaid, as she appeared in the hall below. “ Was that a letter? ” he asked. ae
. * Only a runaway ring, sir,” she answered.
* I'm restless to-night,” he said to himself. He went back to his study, and this time attacked his work resolutely.
In a little while he was hard at work again, and the only sounds in the room were the ticking of the clock and the subdued shrillness of his quill, hurrying in the very centre of the circle of light his lampshade threw on his table.
It was two-o’clock before Dr. Kemp had finished his work for the night. He rose, yawned, and went upstairs to bed. He had already removed his coat and vest, when he noticed that he was thirsty. He _ took a candle and went down to the dining-room
In search of a siphon and whisky.
Dr. Kemp’s scientific pursuits had made him a very observant man, and as he re-crossed the hall he noticed a dark spot on the linoleum near the mat at the foot of the stairs. He went on upstairs, and then it suddenly occurred to him to ask himself what the spot on the linoleum might be. Apparently some sub-conscious element was at work. At any. rate, he turned with his burden, went back to the | _ hall, put down the siphon and whisky, and, bending down, touched the spot. Without any great surprise,
_ DR. KEMP’S VISITOR 121 he found it had the stickiness and colour of drying | blood.
He took up his burden again, and returned upstairs looking about him and trying to account for-the blood spot. On the landing he saw something, and stopped astonished. The door-handle of: his room was bloodstained. is _ He looked at his own hand. It was quite clean, -and then he remembered that the door of his room had been open when he came down from his study, and that consequently he had not touched the
handle at all. He went straight into his own room, his face quite calm—perhaps a trifle more resolute. than usual. His glance, wandering inquisitively, fell on the bed. On the counterpane was a mess of
blood, and the sheet had been torn. He had not -—
noticed this when he had entered the room before, because then he had walked straight to the dressing- table. On the farther side the bed-clothes were depressed as if someone had recently been. vos there.
Then he had an odd impression that he at
heard a low voice say, “ Good heavens!—Kemp! ” But Dr. Kemp was no believer in voices.
He stood staring at the tumbled sheets. Was te really a voice? He looked about again, but noticed nothing further than the disordered and. blood- ° stained bed. Then he distinctly heard a movement across the room, near the washhand-stand. All men, however highly educated, retain some superstitious inklings. The feeling that is called “ eerie” came upon him. He closed the door of the room, came
forward to the dressing-table, and put down his ‘burden. Suddenly, with a start, he perceived a
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122 THE INVISIBLE MAN Se
coiled and blood-stained bandage of linen rag hanging in mid-air, between him and the washhand- stand,
He stared at this in amazement. It was an empty bandage—a bandage properly tied, but quite empty. He would have advanced to grasp it, but a touch arrested him and a voice speaking quite close to him.
* Kemp! ” said the Voice.
* Eh? ” said Kemp, with his mouth open.
** Keep your nerve,” said the Voice. “I’m an Invisible Man.”
Kemp made no answer for a space, simply stared at the bandage. “ Invisible Man? ” he said.
* IT am an Invisible Man,” repeated the Voice.
The story he had been active to ridicule only that morning rushed through Kemp’s brain. He does not appear to have been either very much frightened © or very greatly surprised at the moment. Realisation came later.
** T thought it was all a lie,” he said. The thought uppermost in his mind was the reiterated arguments of the morning. ‘“ Have you a bandage on? ’” he asked.
* Yes,” said the Invisible Man.
* Oh!” said Kemp, and then roused himself. * T say!” he said. “‘ But this is nonsense. It’s some trick.” He stepped forward suddenly and his hand extended towards the bandage met invisible fingers.
He recoiled at the touch, and his colour changed.
** Keep steady, Kemp, for God’s sake! I want help badly. Stop! ”
The band gripped his arm. He situdk at it.
DR. KEMP’S VISITOR 12g
“ Kemp! ” cried the Voice. “ Kemp, keep steady! ”
and the grip tightened.
A frantic desire to free himself took possession of Kemp. The hand of the bandaged arm gripped his shoulder, and he was suddenly tripped and flung backwards upon the bed. He opened his mouth to shout, and the corner of the sheet was thrust between — his teeth. The Invisible Man had him down grimly, but his arms were free, and he struck and tried to
kick savagely.
“Listen to reason, will you?” said the Invisible Man, sticking to him in spite of a pounding in the ribs. “* By heaven, you’ll madden me in a minute!
“ Lie still, you fool!” bawled the Invisible Man in Kemp’s ear. ;
Kemp struggled for another moment, and tien lay still.
*‘ If you shout, I°ll smash your face,” ‘gata the Invisible Man, relieving his mouth. “I’m an Invisible Man. It is no foolishness and no magic. I am really an Invisible Man. And I want your
help. I don’t want to hurt you, but if you behave like a frantic rustic I must. Don’t you remember me, Kemp? Griffin, of University College.”
** Let me get up,” said Kemp. “ I'll stop where Iam. And let me sit quiet for a minute.” i
He sat up and felt his neck.
“1 am Griffin, of University College, and I have made myself invisible. I am just an ordinary man > —a man you have known—made invisible,”
_ “ Griffin? ” said Kemp.
** Griffin,” answered the Voice. “A younger student than you were, almost an albino, six feet —
124 THE INVISIBLE MAN
high, and broad—with a pink and white fact and red eyes, who won the medal for chemistry.”
“T’m confused,” said Kemp. “ My brain is rioting. What has this to do with Griffin? ”
“I am Griffin.”
Kemp thought. “It’s horrible,” he said. “ But what devilry must happen to make a man invisible?”
“It’s no devilry. It’s a process, sane and in- telligible enough
“It’s really horrible!” said Kemp. “ How on earth: re - “It’s horrible enough. But I’m wounded and in pain, and tired... Great God! Kemp, you are a man. Take it steady. Give me some food and drink, and let me sit down here.”
Kemp stared at the bandage as it moved across the room, then saw a basket chair dragged along the floor and come to rest near the bed. It creaked, and the seat was depressed a quarter of an inch or so. He rubbed his eyes and felt his neck ‘again. “This beats ghosts,” he said, and laughed stupidly.
“ That’s better. Thank heaven, you’re getting sensible! ”
“ Or silly,” said Kemp, and knuckled his eyes.
** Give me some whisky. I’m near dead.
** I didn’t feel so. Where are you? If I get up shall I run into you? There! All right. Whisky.
. Here. Where shall I give it you? ”
The chair creaked, and Kemp felt the glass drawn away from him. He let it go by an effort; his instinct was all against it. It came to rest poised twenty inches above the front edge of the chair. He stared at it in infinite perplexity.
DR. KEMP’S VISITOR 125
“ This is—this must be—hypnotism. You must have suggested you are invisible.”
** Nonsense! ” said the Voice.
“It’s frantic! ”
* Listen to me.”
I demonstrated conclusively this morning,” began Kemp, “ that invisibility
_“ Never mind what you’ve demonstrated! I’m starving,” said the Voice, “ and the night is chilly to a man without clothes.”
* Food? ” said Kemp.
_The tumbler of whisky tilted itself. ‘ Yes,” said the Invisible Man, rapping it down. “ Have ate -got a dressing-gown? ”
Kemp made some exclamation in an starlet: He walked to a wardrobe, and produced a robe of dingy scarlet. “ This do?” he asked. It was taken from him. It hung limp for a moment in mid-air, fluttered weirdly, stood full and decorous buttoning ‘itself, and sat down in his chair.
“ Drawers, socks, slippers would be a comfort,” said the Unseen curtly. “ And food.”
ad Anything. But this is the insanest thing I was ever in, in my life! ”
He turned out his drawers for the articles, cial then went downstairs to ransack his larder. He came back with some cold cutlets and bread, pulled up a light table, and placed them before his guest.
“Never mind knives,” said his visitor, and a cutlet hung in mid-air with a sound of gnawing.
“I always like to get something about me before ‘I eat,” said the Invisible Man, with a full mouth, eating greedily. “‘ Queer fancy.”
_ “TI suppose that wrist is all right?’ said Kemp.
126° > THE INVISIBLE MAN
* Trust me,” said the Invisible Man.
** Of all the strange and wonderful——”
** Exactly. But it’s odd I should blunder into ‘your house to get my bandaging. My first stroke of luck! Anyhow, I meant to sleep in this house to-night. You must stand that! It’s a filthy nuisance, my blood showing, isn’t it? Quite a clot over there. Gets visible as it coagulates, I see. It’s only the living tissue I’ve changed, and only for as long as I’m alive. . .. I’ve been in the house three hours.”
** But how’s it done? ” began Kemp, in a tone of exasperation. “ Confound it! The whole business— it’s unreasonable from beginning to end.”
** Quite reasonable,” said the Invisible Man; ** perfectly reasonable.” \
He reached over and secured the whisky bottle. Kemp stared at the devouring dressing-gown. A ray of candle-light penetrating a torn patch in the right shoulder made a triangle of light under the left ribs.
‘** What were the shots? ” he asked. ‘ How did the shooting begin? ” !
** There was a fool of a man—a sort of confederate of mine, curse him!—who tried to steal my money.
_ Has done so.”
“Ts he invisible, too? ”
66 No. 39
Well? ”
“ Can’t I have some more to eat before I tell all that? I’m hungry—in pain. And you want me to tell stories! ”
Kemp got up. “ You didn’t do any shooting? ” he asked.
** Not me,” said his visitor. “ Some fool I’d never
DR. KEMP'S VISITOR 127 seen fired at random. A lot of them got scared. They all got scared at me. Cursethem! I say—I want more to eat than this, Kemp.” :
* Pll see what there is more to eat downstairs,” said Kemp. “ Not much, I’m afraid.”
After he had done eating—and he made a heavy meal—the Invisible Man demanded a cigar. He bit the end savagely, before Kemp could find a — knife, and cursed when the outer leaf loosened. It was strange to see him smoking; his mouth and throat, pharynx and nares, became visible as a sort of whirling smoke cast.
“This blessed gift of smoking,” he said, and puffed vigorously. “I’m lucky to have fallen upon you, Kemp. You must help me. Fancy tumbling — on you just now! I’m-in a devilish scrape—l’ve been mad, I think. The things I have been through! But we will do things yet, let me tell you.”
- He helped himself to more whisky and soda. Kemp got up, looked about him, and fetched himself a glass from his spare room.
* Tt’s wild—but I suppose I may drink.”
“You haven’t changed much, Kemp, these dozen years. You fair men don’t. Cool and methodical. ee J must tell you. We will work together! ”
* But how was it all done?” said Kemp, “ and how did you get like this? ”
“For God’s sake let me smoke in peace for a little while, and. then I will begin to tell you.”
But the story was not told that night. The Invisible Man’s wrist was growing painful; he was feverish, exhausted, and his mind came round to brood upon his chase down the hill and the struggle about the
‘inn, He began his story and fell away from it. He
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128 THE INVISIBLE MAN a
spoke in fragments of Marvel, he smoked faster, his voice grew angry. Kemp tried to gather what he could.
“ He was afraid of me—I could see he was afraid of me,” said the Invisible Man many times over. “He meant to give me the slip—he was always casting about! What a fool I was!