Section 11

* The cur!
** I was furious. I should have killed him——”
“ Where did you get the money? ” asked Kemp abruptly.
The Invisible Man was silent for a space. “I can’t tell you to-night.” | He groaned suddenly and leaned forward,
supporting his invisible head on invisible hands.
“ Kemp,” he said, “ I’ve had no sleep for near three days, except a couple of dozes of an hour or so. I must sleep soon.” °
* Well, have my room—have this room.” :
“But how can I sleep? If I sleep—he will get away. Ugh! What does it matter? ”
* What’s the shot wound? ” asked Kemp.
* Nothing—scratch and blood. Oh, God! How I want sleep! ”
“ Why not? ”
The Invisible Man appeared to be regarding Kemp. “ Because I’ve a particular objection to being caught by my fellow-men,” he said slowly.
Kemp started.
“Fool that I am!” said the Invisible Man, striking the table smartly. “I’ve put the idea into your head.”
.. >on
18 The Invisible Man Sleeps
| eopaph and wounded as the Invisible Man was,
he refused to accept Kemp’s word that his freedom should be respected. He examined the two windows of the bedroom, drew up the blinds and opened the sashes to confirm Kemp’s statement that a retreat by them would be possible. Outside the night was very quiet and still, and the new moon was setting over the down. Then he examined the keys of the bedroom and the two dressing-room doors, to satisfy himself that these also could be made an assurance of freedom. Finally he expressed himself satisfied. He stood on the hearthrug and Kemp heard the sound of a yawn.
“I’m sorry,” said the Invisible Man, “ if I cannot tell you all that I have done to-night. But I am worn out. It’s grotesque, no doubt. It’s horrible! — But, believe me, Kemp, in spite of your arguments of this morning, it is quite a possible thing. I have made a discovery. I meant to keep it to myself. I can’t. I must have a partner. And you... We can do such things... But to-morrow. Now, Kemp, I feel as though I must sleep or perish.”
Kemp stood in the middle of the room staring at the headless garment. “I suppose I must leave you,” he said, “ It’s—incredible. Three things happening like this, overturning all my preconcep-
129 LM.
130 _ “THE INVISIBLE MAN « : tions—would make me insane. But it’s real! ‘ls _ there anything more that I can get you? ” _“ Only bid me good-night,” said Griffin, anita! -night,”’ said Kemp, and shook an invisible - hand. He walked sideways to the door.
Suddenly the dressing-gown walked quickly to- wards him. “ Understand me!” said the dressing- gown. “ No attempts to hamper me or capture me! Or. "
Kemp’s face changed a little. “I thought I gave you my word,” he said.
Kemp closed the door softly behind him, and the key was turned upon him forthwith. Then as he stood with an expression of passive amazement on— his face, the rapid feet came to the door of the dressing-room, and that too was locked. Kemp slapped his brow with his hand. “ Am I dreaming? — _Has the world gone mad, or have I? ”
He laughed, and put his hand to the locked door, © ‘Barred out of my own bedroom by a flagrant absurdity! ” he said.
He walked to the head of the staircase, turned, — and stared at the locked doors. “ It’s fact,” he said. He put his fingers to his slightly bruised neck. — * Undeniable fact! |
“ But——” He shook his head hopelessly, turned, © and went downstairs. | _ He lit the dining-room lamp, got out a cigar, and — began pacing the room, ejaculating. Now and then he would argue with himself.
* Invisible! ” he said.
* Ts there such a thing as an invisible animal! ..._ In the sea, yes. Thousands—millions. All the larve, all the little nauplii and tornarias, all the |
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+ THE INVISIBLE MAN SLEEPS 131 microscopic things—the jelly-fish! In the sea there are more things invisible than visible! I never thought of that before. .. . And in the ponds too! All those little pond-life things—specks of colourless, translucent jelly! ... But in air! No!
“It can’t be.” —
* But after all—why not?
“If a man were made of glass he would still be visible.”
His meditation became profound. The bulk of three cigars had diffused as a white ash over the carpet before he spoke again. Then it was merely an exclamation. He turned aside, walked out of the room, went into his little consulting-room and lit the gas there. It was a little room, because Dr. Kemp did not live by practice, and in it were the day’s newspapers. The morning’s paper lay care-
lessly opened and thrown aside. He caught it up, © ~
turned it over, and read the account of a “ Strange Story from Iping ” that the mariner at Port Stowe had spelt over so painfully to Marvel. Kemp read it swiftly.
“Wrapped up!” said Kemp. ‘“ Disguised! Hiding it! ‘No one seems to have been aware of his misfortune.’ What the devil is his game? ”
He dropped the paper and his eye went seeking. “Ah!” he said, and caught up the St. James’s Gazette, lying folded up as it arrived. ‘“* Now we shall get at the truth,” said Dr. Kemp. He rent the paper open. A couple of columns confronted him. “ An Entire Village in Sussex goes Mad,” was the heading.
“Good Heavens! ” said Kemp, reading eagerly
an incredulous account of the events in Iping of the
A32 THE INVISIBLE MAN © s or
previous afternoon, that have already been dacebed. | - Over the leaf the report in the morning paper had been re-printed. | He re-read it, “ Ran through the streets striking right and ‘left. Jaffers insensible. Mr. Huxter in great pain—still unable to describe what he saw. Painful humiliation—vicar. Woman ill with terror. Windows smashed. This extraordinary story probably a fabrication. Too good not to print— cum grano.” 7 He dropped the paper and stared blankly in front of him. “ Probably a fabrication! ” He caught up the paper again, and re-read the whole business, ) “ But when does the Tramp come in? Why the deuce was he chasing a tramp? ” | He sat down abruptly on the surgical couch. } *“ He’s not only ees he said, _ “but he’s — mad! Homicidal! .. .” _. When dawn came to mingle its pallor with the lamplight and cigar-smoke of the dining-room, Kemp was still pacing up and down, trying to grasp the incredible, . He was altogether too excited to sleep. His servants, descending sleepily, discovered him, and were inclined to think that over-study had worked this ill on him. He gave them extraordinary but quite explicit instructions to lay breakfast for two in the belvedere study, and then to confine them- selves to the basement and ground floor. Then he continued to pace the dining-room until the morn- ing’s paper came. That had much to say and little to tell, beyond the confirmation of the evening © before, and a very badly written account of another
THE INVISIBLE. MAN SLEEPS 133
remarkable tale from Port Burdock. This gave Kemp the essence of the happenings at the “ Jolly Cricketers,” and the name of Marvel. “He has made me keep with him twenty-four hours,” Marvel. testified. Certain minor facts were added to the Iping story, notably the cutting of the village telegraph wire. But there was nothing to throw light on the connection between the Invisible Man | and the tramp—for Mr. Marvel had supplied no information about the three books or the money with which he was lined. ‘The incredulous tone had vanished, and a shoal of reporters and inquirers were already at work elaborating the matter.
Kemp read every scrap of the report, and sent his housemaid out to get every one of the morning papers she could. These also he devoured.
“He is invisible!” he said. “ And it reads like rage growing to mania! The things he may do! The things he may do! And he’s upstairs free as the air. What on earth ought I to do?
“For instance, would it be a breach of faith if—— No.”
He went to a little untidy desk in the corner, and © began a note. He tore this up half written, and wrote another. He read it over and considered it. Then he took an envelope and addressed it to * Colonel Adye, Port Burdock.”
The Invisible Man awoke even as Kemp was doing this. He awoke in an evil temper, and Kemp, alert for every sound, heard his pattering feet rush suddenly across the bedroom overhead. Then a chair was flung over and the washhand-stand tumbler smashed. Kemp hurried upstairs and tapped eagerly.
19 Certain First Principles
HAT’s the matter? ” asked Kemp, when the Invisible Man admitted him, * Nothing,” was the answer. ** But, confound it! The smash? ” '“ Fit of temper,” said the Invisible Man. “ Forgot this arm; and it’s sore.” ** You’ re rather liable to that sort of as “Tam. Kemp walked across the room and picked up the fragments of broken glass. ‘ All the facts are out about you,” said Kemp, standing up with the glass
in his hand. “ All that happened in Iping and down —
the hill, The world has become aware of its invisible citizen. But no one knows you are here.”
The Invisible Man swore.
“ The secret’s out. I gather it was a secret. I don’t know what your plans are, but, of course, I’m anxious to help you.” _
The Invisible Man sat down on the bed.
* There’s breakfast upstairs,” said Kemp, speaking as easily as possible, and he was delighted to find his
strange guest rose willingly. Kemp led the way up —
the narrow staircase to the belvedere, “ Before we can do-anything else,” said Kemp,
“I must understand a little more about this in- visibility of yours.” He had sat down, after one
134
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—— ee ee ee Oe ee
CERTAIN FIRST PRINCIPLES 135 nervous glance out of the window, with the air of
a‘man who has talking to do. His doubts of the
sanity of the entire business flashed and vanished again as he looked across to where Griffin sat at the breakfast-table, a headless, handless dressing-gown, wiping unseen lips on a miraculously held serviette.
“ It’s simple enough—and credible enough,” said Griffin, putting the serviette aside.
** No doubt to you, but *? Kemp laughed.
* Well, yes, to me it seemed wonderful at first, no doubt. But now, Great God! ..,, But we will do great things yet! 1 came on the stuff first at Chesilstowe.”
“ Chesilstowe? ”
**T went there after I left London. You know I dropped medicine and took up — No; well, I did. Light fascinated me.”
66 Ah! 9
* Optical density! The whole subject is a neerork of riddles—a network with solutions glimmering elusively through. And being but two-and-twenty and full of enthusiasm, I said: ‘I will devote my
life to this. This is worth while.’ You know what
fools we are at two-and-twenty? ss
“ Fools then or fools now,” said Kemp.
* As though knowing could be any satisfaction to a man!
“ But I went to work—like a nigger. And I had hardly worked and thought about the matter six months before light came through one of the meshes suddenly—blindingly! I found a general principle of pigments and refraction—a formula, a geometrical expression involving four dimensions. Fools, com-
mon men—even common mathematicians, do not ©
at eo = cs ‘ A . em
Pe EE EE ag ae eee ke aa aS ee er
136 THE INVISIBLE MAN .
know anything of what some general expression may ean to the student of molecular physics. In the books—the books that tramp has hidden—there are marvels, miracles! But this was not a method, it -was an idea that might lead to a method by which it would be possible without changing any other property of matter—except in some instances colours—to lower the refractive index of a substance, . solid or liquid, to that of air, so far as all practical purposes are concerned.” “ Phew! ” said Kemp. “ That’s odd! But still I
don’t see quite .. . I can understand that thereby you could spoil a valuable stone, but personal invisibility is a far cry.”
“ Precisely,” said Griffin. “ But consider, visibility depends on the action of the visible bodies-on light. Let me put the elementary facts to you as if you
did not know. It will make my meaning clearer. — You know quite well that either a body absorbs light or it reflects or refracts it or does all these things. If it neither reflects nor refracts nor absorbs _ light, it cannot of itself be visible. You see an _ Opaque red box, for instance, because the colour absorbs some of the light and reflects the rest, all the red part of the light to you. If it did not absorb — _ any particular part of the light, but reflected it all, then it would be a shining white box. Silver! A diamond box would neither absorb much of the light nor reflect much from the general surface, but _ just here and there where the surfaces are favourable _- the light would be reflected and refracted, so that | you would get a brilliant appearance of flashing © reflections and translucencies. A sort of skeleton of | light. A ede box would not be so brilliant, not so
\
CERTAIN FIRST PRINCIPLES 137 |
clearly visible as a diamond box, because there —
would be less refraction and reflection. See that? =
From certain points of view you would see quite
clearly through it. Some kinds of glass would be a
more visible than others—a box of flint glass would be brighter than a box of ordinary window glass. A box of very thin, common glass would be hard to see in a bad light, because it would absorb hardly any light and refract and reflect very little. And if you put a sheet of common white glass in water, still more if you put it in some denser liquid than water, it-would vanish almost altogether, because light passing from water to glass is only slightly refracted or reflected, or, indeed, affected in any way. It is almost as invisible as a jet of coal gas or hydrogen is in air. And for precisely the same reason! ”
© Yes,” said Kemp, “ that is plain sailing. Any © schoolboy nowadays knows all that.”
“And here is another fact any schoolboy will know. If a sheet of glass is smashed; Kemp, and | beaten into a powder, it becomes much more visible while it is in the air; it becomes at last an opaque, white powder. This is because the powdering multiplies the surfaces of the glass at which refraction and reflection occur. In the sheet of glass there are _ only two surfaces, in the powder the light is reflected or refracted by each grain it passes through, and very little gets right through the powder. But if the white, powdered glass is put into water it forthwith vanishes. The powdered glass and water have much the same refractive index, that is, the light under- goes very little refraction or reflection in passing from one to the other.
138 THE INVISIBLE MAN ™ * |
“ You make the glass invisible by putting it into’ a liquid of nearly the same refractive index, a transparent thing becomes invisible if it is put in any medium of almost the same refractive index. And if you will consider only a second, you will see - also that the powder of glass might be made to vanish in air, if its refractive index could be made the same as that of air. For then there would be no refraction or reflection as the light passed from glass to air.”
* Yes, yes,” said Kemp. ‘But a man’s not powdered glass!” - .
“No,” said Griffin. “ He’s more transparent! ”° . * Nonsense! ”
* That’s from a doctor! How one forgets! Have you already forgotten your physics in ten years? Just think of all the things that are transparent and seem not to be so! Paper, for instance, is made up of transparent fibres, and it is white and ee only for the same reason that a powder or glass is white and opaque. Oil white paper, fill up the interstices between the particles with oil, so that there is no longer refraction or reflection except at the surfaces, and it becomes as transparent as glass. | And .not only paper, but cotton fibre, linen fibre, wool fibre, woody fibre, and bone, Kemp, flesh, Kemp, | hair, Kemp, natls and nerves, Kemp; in fact, the whole fabric of a man, except the red of his blood and the dark pigment of hair, are all made up of | transparent, colourless tissue—so little suffices to make us visible one to the other. For the most part, — the fibres of a living creature are no more opaque than water.” }
** Of course, of course!” cried Kemp. “I was |
y
CERTAIN FIRST PRINCIPLES 199 °°:
thinking only last night of the sea larve and jelly- fish! ””