Section 9

Mr. Marvel pulled his mouth askew and scratched his cheek and felt his ears glowing. “ What will
_ they be writing next? ” he asked faintly. ‘“* Ostria or America? ”
** Neither,” said the mariner. ‘* Here.”
“Lord! ” said Mr. Marvel, starting.
“When I say here,” said the mariner to Mr.
Oe) Mae aa INVISIBLE MAN
Marvel’s intense relief, “ I don’ t, of course, “mean here in this place, I mean hereabouts.”
»“ An Invisible Man! said Mr. Marvel. ‘ And what’s he been up to? ”
“ Everything,” said the mariner, controlling Marvel with his eye, and then amplifying, every— blessed—thing. af
“T ain’t seen a paper these four days,” said Marvel.
“Tping’s the place he started at,” said the mariner.
“ In-deed! ” said Mr. Marvel.
* He started there. And where he came from nobody don’t seem to know. Here it is: * Pe-cul-iar Story from Iping.’ And it says in this paper that the evidence is extra-ordinary strong, sneielinanzay
* Lord! ” said Mr. Marvel.
* But then it’s a extra-ordinary story. There is a clergyman and a medical gent witnesses—saw ’im all right and proper—or leastways, didn’t see him. He was staying, it says, at the ‘ Coach an’ Horses,’ and no one don’t seem to have been aware of his misfortune, it says, aware of his misfortune, until in an Alteration in the inn, it says, his bandages on his head was torn off. It was then ob-served that his head was invisible, Attempts were At Once made to secure him, but, casting off his garments, it says, he succeeded in escaping, but not until after a desperate struggle, In Which he had inflicted serious injuries, it says, on our worthy and able constable, Mr, J. A. Jaffers. Pretty straight story, eh? Names and everything.”
“Lord!” said Mr. Marvel, looking nervously about him, trying to count the money in his pockets
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AT PORT STOWE 105 by his unaided sense of touch, and full of a strange and novel idea. “ It sounds most astonishing.”
* Don’t it? Extra-ordinary, / call it. Never heard tell of Invisible Men before, I haven’t, but nowadays, one hears such a lot of cotehampporte ee a that
“ That all he did? ” asked Marvel, trying to seem at ease.
It’s enough, ain’t it? * said the mariner. :
** Didn’t go Back by any chance? ” asked Marvel. *¢ Just éscaped, and that’s all, eh?”
~ “ All!” said the mariner. “ Why!—ain’t it enough? ” :
** Quite enough,” said Marvel.
_ *] should think it was enough,” said the mariner. _* T should think it was enough.”
* He didn’t have any pals—it don’t say he had any pals, does it?’ asked Mr. Marvel, anxious.
* Ain’t one of a sort enough for your ” asked the mariner. “No, thank Heaven, as one might say, he didn’t.”
He nodded his head iouty: “It makes me regular uncomfortable, the bare thought of that chap running about the country! He is at present at large, and from certain evidence, it is supposed that he has—taken—took, I suppose they mean—the road to Port Stowe. You see we’re right in it! None of your American wonders this time. And just think of the things he might do! Where’d you be if he took a drop over and above, and had a fancy to go for you? Suppose he wants to rob— who can prevent him? He can trespass, he can burgle, he can walk through a cordon of policemen as easy as me or you could give the slip to a blind
™
106 THE INVISIBLE MAN
man! Easier! For these here blind chaps hear un- common sharp. I’m told. And wherever there was liquor he fancied”
'“ He’s got a tremenjous advantage, certainly,” said Mr. Marvel, “ And—well.. .”
“ You’re right,” said the mariner; “he has.”
All this time Mr, Marvel had been glancing about him intently, listening for faint footfalls, trying to detect imperceptible movements. He seemed on the point of some great resolution; he coughed behind his hand,
He looked about him again—listened—bent towards the mariner, and lowered his voice.
“ The fact of it is, I happen—to know just a thing or two about this Invisible Man. From private sources.”
“Oh! ” said the mariner. “ You?”
Yes,” said Mr. Marvel—* me.”
“Indeed!” said the mariner, “And may I ask——? ”
“ You'll be astonished,” said Mr. Marvel, behind his hand, “ It’s tremenjous.”
** Indeed! ” said the mariner.
“The fact is,” began Mr. Marvel eagerly, in a confidential undertone. Suddenly his expression changed marvellously. “Ow!” he said. He rose stiffly in his seat; his face was eloquent of physical suffering. “ Wow!” he said,
_ “ What’s up? ” said the mariner, concerned.
“ Toothache,” said Mr. Marvel, and put his hand to his ear. He caught hold of his books. “ I must be getting on, I think,” he said. He edged in a curious way along the seat away from his inter- locutor,
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AT PORT STOWE ples sy)
“But you was just a-going to tell me about this here Invisible Man,” protested the mariner.
Mr. Marvel seemed to consult with himself.
* Hoax,” said a Voice.
** It’s a hoax,” said Mr. Marvel.
* But it’s in the paper,” said the mariner.
* Hoax all the same,” said Marvel. “ I know the chap that started the lie. There ain’t no Invisible
~ Man whatsoever. . . . Blimey.” * But how het his paper? D’you mean to say Lacs
** Not a word: of it,” said Mr. Marvel stoutly. The mariner stared, paper in hand. Mr. Marvel _ jerkily faced about. “ Wait a bit,” said the mariner, rising and speaking slowly. “ D’you mean to say——? ** I do,” said Mr. Marvel. * Then why did you let me go on and tell you all this Blarsted stuff, then? What d’yer mean by letting a man make a fool of himself like that for; eh? 99 Mr. Marvel blew out his cheeks. The mariner was suddenly very red indeed; he clenched his hands. “I been talking here this ten minutes,” he said; “ and you, you little pot-bellied, leathery-faced son of an old boot, couldn’ t have the elementary .manners——”" ** Don’t you come bandying words with me,” said Mr. Marvel. * Bandying words! I’ve a jolly good sein _* Come up,” said a Voice, and Mr. Marvel was suddenly whirled about and started marching off in a curious, spasmodic manner. “ You’d better move on,” said the mariner. “ Who’s moving on?” said
108 THE INVISIBLE MAN oR Mr. Marvel. He was receding obliquely with a curious, hurrying gait, with occasional violent jerks forward. Some way along the road he began a muttered monologue, protests and recriminations,
* Silly devil,” said the mariner, legs wide apart, arms akimbo, watching the receding figure. “ Ill show you, you silly fool, hoaxing me! Ii’s here in the paper! ”
Mr. Marvel petnried incoherently, and receding was hidden by a bend in the road; but the mariner still stood magnificent in the midst of the way, until the approach of a butcher’s cart dislodged him, Then he turned himself towards Port Stowe. “ Full of extra-ordinary fools,” he said softly to himself. “Just to take me down a bit—that was his silly game. ... It’s on the paper!”
And there was another extraordinary thing he was presently to hear that had happened quite close to him. And that was a vision of a “ fist full of money * (no less) travelling without visible agency, along by the wall at the corner of St. Michael’s Lane. A brother mariner had seen this wonderful sight that very morning. He had snatched the money forthwith, and had been knocked headlong, and when he had got to his feet the butterfly money had vanished. Our mariner was in the mood to believe anything, he declared, but that was a bit. too stiff. Afterwards, however, he began to think things over.
_ The story of the flying money was true. And all about that neighbourhood, even from the august London and County Banking Company, from the tills of shops and inns—doors standing that sunny weather entirely open—money had-been quietly and
-Touleaux, ure aot aes “se walls and Sok peisces, dodging quickly from the approaching eyes —
of men. And it had, though no man had traced it, invariably ended its mysterious. flight in the pocket _ _ of that agitated gentleman i in the obsolete silk hat, — _ sitting outside the little inn on the outskirts of Port _ _ Stowe.
’ Tt was ten days after—and indeed only when the _ Burdock story was already old—that the mariner collated these facts and began to understand how oe near he had been to the wonderful Invi Paibte tees »
“ 15 The Man Who Was Running
cr the early evening time Dr. Kemp was sitting in his study in the belvedere on the hill overlooking Burdock. It was a pleasant little room, with three windows—north, west, and south—and bookshelves crowded with books and scientific publications, and a broad writing-table, and, under the north window, a microscope, glass slips, minute instruments, some cultures, and scattered bottles of reagents. Dr. Kemp’s solar lamp was lit, albeit the sky was still bright with the sunset light, and his blinds were up because there was no offence of peering outsiders to require them pulled down. Dr. Kemp was a tall and slender young man, with flaxen hair and a moustache almost white, and the work he was upon would earn him, he hoped, the fellowship of the
Royal Society, so highly did he think of it. And his eye, presently wandering from his work, ' caught the sunset blazing at the back of the hill that is over against his own. For a minute, perhaps, he sat, pen in mouth, admiring the rich golden colour above the crest, and then his attention was attracted by the little figure of a man, inky black, running over the hill brow towards him. He was a shortish little fellow, and he wore a high hat, and he was running so fast that his legs verily twinkled. ‘* Another of those asses,” said Dr. Kemp. “ Like
that ass who ran into me this morning round a IIo
~
THE MAN WHO WAS RUNNING ttt corner, with his ‘ *Visible Man a-coming, sir!’ I can’t imagine what possesses people. One might think we were in the thirteenth century.”
He got up, went to the window, and stared at the dusky hillside and the dark little figure tearing down it. ‘“ He seems in a confounded hurry,” said Dr. Kemp, “ but he doesn’t seem to be getting on. If his pockets were full of lead, he couldn’t run heavier.
** Spurted, sir! * said Dr. Kemp.
In another moment the higher of the villas that had clambered up the hill from Burdock had occulted the running figure. He was visible again for a moment, and again and then again, three times between the three detached houses that came next,
| and then the terrace hid him.
* Asses! * said Dr. Kemp, swinging round on his heel and walking back to his writing-table.
But those who saw the fugitive nearer, and perceived the abject terror on his perspiring face, being themselves in the open roadway, did not share in the doctor’s contempt. By the man pounded, and as he ran he chinked like a well-filled purse that is tossed to and fro, He looked neither to the right nor left, but his dilated eyes stared straight down hill to where the lamps were being lit and the people were crowded in the street. And _ his. ill-shaped mouth fell apart, and a glairy foam lay on his lips, and his breath came hoarse and noisy. All he passed stopped and began staring up the road and down, — and interrogating one another with an inkling of discomfort for the reason of his haste.
_ And then presently, far up the hill, a dog plies in the road yelped and ran under a gate, and as they still wondered, something—a wind—a pad,
112 THE INVISIBLE MAN sag ee
pad, pad, a sound like a panting breathing, rushed by. | _ People screamed. People sprang off the pavement. It passed in shouts, it passed by instinct down the hill. They were shouting in the street before Marvel was half-way there. They were bolting into houses and slamming the doors behind them, with the news. He heard it, and made one last desperate spurt. Fear came striding by, rushed ahead of him, and in a moment had seized the town. “The Invisible Man is coming! The Invisible Man!”
16 In the * Folly Cricketers *
7 ape “Jolly Cricketers * is just at the bottom of the
‘hill, where the tram-lines begin. The barman leant his fat red arms on the counter and talked of ‘horses with an anemic cabman, while a_ black- bearded man in grey snapped up biscuit and cheese, drank Burton, and conversed in American with a policeman off duty.
“ What’s the shouting about?” said the anemic cabman, going off at a tangent, trying to see up the hill over the dirty yellow blind in the low window of the inn. Somebody ran by outside.
“ Fire, perhaps,” said the barman.
Footsteps approached, running heavily, the door was pushed open violently, and Marvel, weeping and dishevelled, his hat gone, the neck of his coat torn open, rushed in, made a convulsive turn, and. attempted to shut the door. It was held half open by a strap.
*“ Coming! ” he bawled, his voice shrieking with terror. “ He’s coming. The ’Nvisible Man! After me. For Gawd’s sake. ’Elp! ’Elp! *Elp!” —
** Shut the doors,” said the policeman. ‘“ Who’s coming? What’s the row?” He went to the door, released the strap, and it slammed. The American closed the other door.
“Lemme go inside,” said Marvel, ee and hie
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Tig : THE INVISIBLE MAN
weeping, but still clutching the books. “‘ Lemme go
inside. Lock me in—somewhere. I tell you he’s
after me. I give him the slip. He said he’d kill me, _and he will.”
“ You're safe,”’ said the man with the black beard. “ The door’s shut. What’s it all about? ”
“ Lemme go inside,” said Marvel, and shaken aloud as a blow suddenly made the fastened door shiver, and was followed by a hurried rapping and a shouting outside.
“ Hullo,” cried the policeman, “ who’s there? ”
Mr. Marvel began to make frantic dives at panels that looked like doors. “ He’ll kill me—he’s got a
- knife or something. For Gawd’s sake——! ”
“Here you are,” said the barman. “ Come in here.” And he held up the flap of the bar.
Mr. Marvel rushed behind the bar as the sum- mons outside was repeated. “ Don’t open the door,” he screamed. ‘“‘ Please don’t open the door. Where shall I hide?”
“ This, this Invisible Man, then? ” asked the man with the black beard with one hand behind him, “I guess it’s about time we saw him.”
The window of the inn was suddenly smashed in, and there was a screaming and running to and fro in the street. The policeman had been standing on the settee staring out, craning to see who was at the door. He got down with raised Srey a It’s that,” he said. |
The barman stood in front oF the bar-parlo door, which was now locked on Mr.Marvel, sored at the smashed window, and came round to-
two other men Everything was suddenly quiet. “I wish I had |
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IN THE “‘ JOLLY CRICKETERS ” 115. my truncheon,” said the policeman, going irresolutely to the door. “ Once we open, in he comes. There’s no stopping him.”
“Don’t you be in too much hurry about that door,” said the anemic cabman anxiously.
“ Draw the bolts,” said the man with the black beard, “ and if he comes .. .””’ He showed a revolver in his hand.
“That won’t do,” said the policeman, “ that’s murder.”
“ T know what country I’m in,” said the man with the beard. “I’m going to let off at his legs. Draw the bolts.”
“ Not with that thing going off behind me,” said the barman, craning over the blind.
“Very well,” said the man with the black beard, and stooping down, revolver ready, drew them himself. Barman, cabman, and policeman faced about.
“Come in,” said the bearded man in an under- tone, standing back and facing the unbolted doors with his pistol behind him. No one came in, the door remained closed.
Five minutes afterwards, when a second cabman pushed his head in cautiously, they were still waiting, and an anxious face, peered out of the bar-parlour and supplied information.
“ Are all the doors of the house shut?” asked Marvel. “ He’s going ‘Tound—prowling round, He’s as artful as the devil.”
“ Good Lord! ” said the burly barman. “ There’s the back! Just watch them doors! I say-——!” He looked about him helplessly. The bar-parlour door slammed and they heard the key turn, “ There's
116 | | HE INVISIBLE MAN = the yard door and the private door. ‘The yard 1 door. 39
He rushed out of the bar.”
In a minute he reappeared with a carving knife -in his hand. “ The yard door was open,” he said, and his fat underlip dropped.
“He may be in the house now,” said the first cabman. :