Section 3

** Certainly,” said the oe * certainly; but as-a rule I like to be alone and undisturbed.”
He turned round with his back to the fireplace, - and put his hands behind his back. “ And pre-
sently,” he said, “‘ when the clock-mending is over,
MR. TEDDY HENFREY’S FIRST IMPRESSIONS 31__ I think I should like to have some tea. sacs not till the clock-mending is over.’
Mrs. Hall was about to leave the ioehcwe made mo conversational advances this time, because she did not want to be snubbed in front of Mr. Henfrey —when her visitor asked her if she had made any __ arrangements about his boxes at Bramblehurst. She _/told him she had mentioned the matter to the post- man, and that the carrier could bring them over - on the morrow.
You are certain that is the earliest? ” he said.
“She was’ certain, with a marked coolness.
* I should explain,” he added, “ what I was really too cold and fatigued to do before, that I am an experimental. investigator.”
** Indeed, sir,” said Mrs. Hall, much impressed.
** And my baggage contains apparatus and appliances.”
“Very useful things ‘aden they are, sir,” said Mrs. Hall.
“ And Pm naturally anxious to get on with my re
inquiries.”
_ “ Of course, sir.’ ** My reason for coming to Iping,” he proceeded, hy with a certain deliberation of manner, “ was .... — a desire tor solitude. I do not wish to be dis-
turbed in my work. Im addition to my work, an _ accident 45
“I thought as much,” said Mrs. Hall to herself. ** Necessitates a certain retirement. My eyes are sometimes so weak and painful that I have to shut myself up in the dark for hours together—lock myself up. Sometimes—now and then. Not at present, certainly. At such times the slightest disturb-
32 THE INVISIBLE MAN z
ance, the entry of a stranger into the rooni, is a source of excruciating annoyance to me... . It is well these things should be understood.”
* Certainly, sir,” said Mrs. Hall. “And if I might make so bold as to ask——”
“That, I think, is all,” said the stranger, with that quietly irresistible air of finality he could assume at will. Mrs. Hall reserved her question and sympathy for a better occasion.
After Mrs. Hall had lett the room he remained standing in front of the fire, glaring, so Mr. Hentrey puts it, at the clock-mending. Mr. Henfrey worked with the lamp close to him, and the green shade . threw a brilliant light upon his hands and upon the frame and wheels, and left the rest of the room ' shadowy. When he looked up coloured patches swam in his eyes. Being constitutionally ot a curious nature, he had removed the works—a quite un- necessary proceeding—with the idea of delaying his _ departure and perhaps talling into conversation_ with the stranger. But the stranger stood there, pertectly silent and still. So still—it got on Henfrey’s nerves. He felt alone in the room and looked up, and there, grey and dim, was the bandaged head and huge, dark lenses, staring fixedly, with a mist of green spots drifting in tront ot them. It was so uncanny to Hentrey that tor a minute they remained staring blankly at one another. Then Henfrey looked down again. Very uncomfortable position! One would like to say something. Should he remark . that the weather was very cold for the time ot the
ear? .
He looked up as if to take aim with that imtro-
ductory shot. “ The weather——” he began.
MR. TEDDY HENFREY’S FIRST IMPRESSIONS 33
* Why don’t you finish and go?” said the rigid figure, evidently in a state of painfully suppressed rage. “ All you’ve got to do is to fix the hour hand on its—axle. You’re simply humbugging.”
* Certainly, sir—one minute more. I. over- looked...” And Mr. Henfrey finished and went.
But he went off feeling excessively annoyed. « Daman it!” said Mr. Henfrey to himself, trudging down the village through the falling snow, “a man must do a clock at times, sure-/y.”
And again, “ Can’t a man look at you? Ugly!”
And yet again, “Seemingly not. If the police was wanting you, you couldn’t be more wrapped and bandaged.”
At Gleeson’s corner he saw Hall, who had recently married the stranger’s hostess at the “ Coach and Horses,” and who now drove the Iping conveyance, when occasional people required it, to Sidderbridge Junction, coming towards him on his return from that place. Hall had evidently been “ stopping a bit” at Sidderbridge, to judge by his driving. *°Ow do, Teddy? ” he said, passing.
“You got a rum un up home!” said Teddy.
Hall very sociably pulled up. ‘“ What’s that? ” he asked.
* Rum-looking customer stopping at the ‘ Coach and Horses,’ ” said Teddy. ‘‘ My sakes! ”
And he proceeded to give Hall a vivid description of his wife’s grotesque guest. “ Looks a bit like a disguise, don’t it? I’d like to see a man’s face if I had him stopping in my place,” said Henfrey. * But women are that trustful—where strangers are concerned. He’s took your rooms, and he ain’t even given a name, Hall.” aw LLM.
Pa SBN one RS ORT RA A Le TEL ND Leas, WR om Oe eS. wr aoe a
34 “THE INVISIBLE MAN Nie
** You don’t say so,” said Hall, who was a man of sluggish apprehension. : .
“Yes,” said Teddy. “ By the week. Whatever he is, you can’t get rid of him under the week. And he’s got a lot of luggage coming to-morrow, so he _says. Let’s hope it won’t be stones in boxes, Hall.”
He told Hall how his aunt at Hastings had been swindled by a stranger with empty portmanteaux. Altogether he left Hall vaguely suspicious. “ Get up, old girl,” said Hall. “I ’spose I must see ’bout this.” E Teddy trudged on his way with his mind con- siderably relieved.
Instead of “ seeing bout it,”? however, Hall, on his return, was severely rated by his wife on the length of time he had spent in Sidderbridge, and his mild inquiries were answered snappishly and in a manner not to the point. But the seed of suspicion Teddy had sown germinated in the mind of Mr. Hall in spite of these discouragements. “‘ You wim? don’t know everything,” said Mr. Hall, resolved to ascertain more about the personality of his guest at the earliest possible opportunity. And after the stranger had gone to bed, which he did about half- past nine, Mr. Hall went aggressively into the parlour, and looked very hard at his wife’s turniture, just to show that the stranger wasn’t master there, and scrutinised a little contemptuously a sheet of _ mathematical computations the stranger had left. When retiring for the night, he instructed Mrs. Hall to look very closely at the stranger’s luggage when it came next day.
“You mind your own business, Hall,” said Mrs, Hall, “ and I’ll mind mine.”
Dey al Ae Nol Ca aaa
‘MR..TEDDY HENFREY’S FIRST IMPRESSIONS 35 She was all the more inclined to snap at Hall because the stranger was undoubtedly an unusually strange sort of stranger, and she was by no means assured about him in her own mind. In the middle of the night she woke up dreaming of huge, white heads like turnips, that came trailing after her, at the end of interminable necks, and with vast black eyes. But being a sensible woman, she subdued her terrors, and turned over and went to sleep again.
~
oe era
3 The Thousand and One Bottles
S° it was that on the 9th day of February, at the beginning of the thaw, this singular person fell out of infinity into Iping village. Next day his luggage arrived through the slush—and very remarkable luggage it. was. There were a couple of trunks, indeed, such as a rational man might have, but in
addition there were a box of books—big, fat books,
crate.
- of which some were just in an incomprehensible handwriting—and a dozen or more crates, boxes, and cases, containing objects packed in straw—glass bottles, as it seemed to Hall, tugging with a casual - curiosity at the straw. The stranger, muffled in hat, coat, gloves, and wrapper, came out impatiently to meet Fearenside’s cart, while Hall was having a word or so of gossip preparatory to helping bring them in. Out he came, not noticing Fearenside’s dog, who was sniffing in a dilettante spirit at Hall’s legs. “Come along with those boxes,” he said. “ Ive been waiting long enough.” - And he came down the steps towards the tail of the wagon, as if to lay hands on the smaller
No sooner had Fearenside’s dog caught jek of him, however, than it began to bristle and growl savagely, and when he rushed down the steps it gave an undecided hop, and then sprang straight at his
eae ;
THE THOUSAND AND ONE BOTTLES 37 hand. “ Whup! ” cried Hall, jumping back, for he was no hero with dogs, and Fearenside howled, ** Lie down! ” and snatched his whip.
They saw the dog’s teeth had slipped the hand, heard a kick, saw the dog execute a flanking jump and get home on the stranger’s leg, and heard the rip of his trousering. Then the finer end of Fearen- side’s whip reached his property, and the dog, yelping with dismay, retreated under the wheels of the wagon. It was all the business of a swift half minute. No one spoke, everyone shouted. The stranger glanced swiftly at his torn glove and at his leg, made as if he would stoop to the latter, then turned and rushed up the steps into the inn. They heard him go headlong across the passage and up the uncarpeted stairs to his bedroom.
“ You brute, you! ” said Fearenside, climbing off the wagon with his whip in his hand, while the dog © watched him through the wheel.
Come here!” said Fearenside. . . « “You'd better.”
Hall had stood gaping. ** He wuz bit,” said Hall. ** I'd better go an’ see to en.” And he trotted after the stranger. He met Mrs. Hall in the passage. ** Carrier’s darg,”’ he said, “ bit en.”
He went straight upstairs, and the stranger’s door being ajar, he pushed it open, and was entering without any ceremony, being of a naturally sym- — pathetic turn of mind.
The blind was down and the room dim. He caught a glimpse of a mast singular thing, what seemed a
-handless arm waving towards him, and a face of three huge, indeterminate spots on white, very like the face of a pale pansy. Then he was struck
ae oi
38 PHE INVISIBLE MAN
violently in the chest, hurled back, and the door slammed in his face, and locked. It was so rapid
that it gave him no time to observe. A waving of indecipherable shapes, a blow and a concussion.
There he stood on the dark little landing, wondering what it might be that he had seen.
After a couple of minutes he rejoined the little group that had formed outside the “ Coach and Horses.” ‘There was Fearenside telling about it all over again for the second time; there was Mrs. Hall saying his dog didn’t have no business to bite her guests; there was Huxter; the general dealer from over the road, interrogative: and Sandy Wadgers from the forge, judicial; besides women and children, all of them saying fatuities: “ Wouldn’t Tet en bite me, I knows”; “ *Tasn’t right have such dargs”’; “ What ’e bite *n for; then?” and so forth. ;
_ Mr. Hall, staring at them from the steps and listening, found it incredible that he had seen any- thing so very remarkable happen upstairs. Besides, his vocabulary was altogether too limited for his
: impressions.
“ He don’t want no help, he says,” he said in answer to his wife’s inquiry. “ We’d better be a-takin’ of his luggage in.” ‘
* He ought to have it cauterised at once,” said Mr. Huxter, “ especially if it’s at all inflamed.”
** 1’d shoot en, that’s what I’d do,” said a lady
in the group. -
Suddenly the dog began growling again.
“ Come along,” cried an angry voice in the door- way, and there stood the muffled stranger, with his collar turned up and his hat brim bent down. “ * ‘The
_THE THOUSAND AND ONE BOTTLES 39
sooner you get those things in the better I’ll be pleased.” It is stated by an anonymous bystander that his trousers and gloves had been changed,
Was you hurt, sir?” said Fearenside. “Tm rare sorry the darg——”
“Not a bit,” said the stranger. ‘Never broke the skin. Hurry up with those things.” ~ He then swore to himself, so Mr. Hall asserts.
Directly the first crate was, in accordance with his directions, carried into the parlour, the stranger flung himself upon it with extraordinary eagerness
and began.to unpack it, scattering the straw with
an utter disregard of Mrs. Hall’s carpet, and from it he began to produce bottles—little fat bottles containing powders, small and slender bottles con- taining coloured and white fluids, fluted blue bottles ‘labelled poison, bottles with round bodies and slender necks, large green glass bottles, large white glass bottles, bottles with glass stoppers and frosted labels, bottles with fine corks, bottles with bungs, bottles with wooden caps, wine bottles, salad-oil bottles— putting them in rows on the chiffonier, on the mantle, on the table under the window, round the floor, on the book-shelf—everywhere. The chemist’s shop in Bramblehurst could not boast half so many. Quite a sight it was. Crate after crate yielded bottles, until all six were empty and the table high with straw; the only things that came out of these crates besides the bottles were a number of test tubes and a carefully packed balance.
And directly the crates were unpacked the stranger went to the window and set to work, not troubling in the least about the litter of straw, the fire which had gone out, the box of books outside,
SAO oes «ae INVISIBLE MAN 9 5 nor for the trunks and other luggage that had gone upstairs.
When Mrs. Hall took his dinner in to him, he was already so absorbed in his work, pouring little drops out of the bottles into test tubes, that he did not hear her until she had swept away the bulk of the straw and put the tray on the table, with some little emphasis perhaps, seeing the state that the floor was in. Then he half turned his head, and immediately turned it away again. But she saw he had removed his glasses; they were beside him on the table, and it seemed to her that his eye sockets were extraordinarily hollow. He put on his spectacles again, and then turned and faced her. She was about to complain of the straw on the floor
when he anticipated her.
-** T wish you wouldn’t come in without knocking? e he said, in the tone of abnormal exasperation that seemed so characteristic of him.
‘* I knocked, but seemingly ——”
** Perhaps you did. But in my investigations—my really very urgent and necessary investigations—the slightest disturbance, the jar of a door. .. . I must ask you——”
** Certainly, sir. You can turn the lock if you’re
like that, you know. Any time.”
** A very good idea,” said the stranger.
* This stror, sir. If I might make so bold as to
remark: 4
** Don’t. If the straw makes trouble, put it down in the bill.” And he mumbled at her—words
suspiciously like curses.
He was so odd, standing there, so aggressive and
explosive, bottle in one hand and test tube in the
far Bat
“THE THOUSAND AND ONE BOTTLES 4l other, that Mrs. Hall was quite alarmed. But she was a resolute woman. “ In which case, I should like to know, sir, what you consider 3
“A shilling—put down a shilling. Surely a
_ shilling’s enough? ”
*° So be it,” said Mrs. Hall, taking up the table- cloth and beginning to- spread it over the table. ** If you’re satisfied, of course——”
_ He turned and sat down with his coat collar towards her.
All the afternoon he worked with the door locked, and, as Mrs. Hall testifies, for the most part in silence. But once there was a concussion and a sound of bottles ringing together, as though the table had been hit, and the smash of glass flung — violently down, and then a rapid pacing athwart
the room. Fearing something was the matter, she went to the door and listened, not caring to knock.
** I can’t go on,” he was raving; “I can’t go on! Three hundred thousand, four hundred thousand! The huge multitude! Cheated! All my life it may take me! .. . Patience! Patience, indeed! ... Fool! fool! ” :
_ There was a noise of hobnails on the bricks in the
bar, and Mrs: Hall very reluctantly had to leave
the rest of his soliloquy. When she returned the
room was silent again, save for the faint crepitation
of his chair and the occasional clink of a bottle, It was all over; the stranger had resumed work.
- When she took in his tea she saw broken glass in
the corner of the room under the concave mirror, __
and a golden stain that had been carelessly wiped. She called attention to it. “Put it down in the bill,” snapped her visitor.
42 THE INVISIBLE MAN - . “ For God’s sake don’t worry me! If there’s damage — done, put it down in the bill,” and he went on ticking a list in the exercise-book before him.