him, or to be exact, didn’t see him. He was staying, it says, at the ‘Coach and Horses,’ and no one was aware of his misfortune, until his bandages on his head were torn off. It was then observed that his head was invisible. They tried to catch him, but casting off his garments, he succeeded in escaping. And he had seriously wounded our constable, Mr. J. A. Jaffers. What a story, eh?”
“Lord!” said Mr. Marvel, looking nervously about him, trying to count the money in his pockets. “It sounds most astonishing.”
“Indeed! Extraordinary, I call it. I have never heard of Invisible Men before.”
“And that’s all what he did?” asked Marvel.
“It’s enough, isn’t it?” said the mariner.
“Did he go back to Iping?” asked Marvel. “Just escaped and that’s all, eh?”
“All!” said the mariner. “Why! Isn’t it enough?”
“Quite enough,” said Marvel.
“I should think it was enough,” said the mariner. “I should think so.”
“He didn’t have any pals-it doesn’t say he had any pals, does it?” asked Mr. Marvel, anxious.
“You want more of them?” asked the mariner. “No, thank Heaven, he didn’t.”
He nodded his head slowly.
“It makes me uncomfortable, the thought of that chap running about the country! He is free. And they say he may go to Port Stowe. Just think of the things he might do! Let’s suppose he wants to rob-who can prevent him? He can trespass, he can burgle, he could walk through a cordon of policemen! And wherever there was wine he liked-”
“He’s got an advantage, certainly,” said Mr. Marvel.
“You’re right,” said the mariner. “He has.”
Mr. Marvel looked about him, listened, bent towards the mariner, and lowered his voice:
“The fact is-I know something about this Invisible Man. From private sources.”
“Oh!” said the mariner, interested. “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 tremendous.”
“Indeed!” said the mariner.
“The fact is,” began Mr. Marvel in a confidential tone. Suddenly his expression changed marvellously. “Oh!” he said. His face was eloquent of physical suffering.
“Wow!” he said.
“What’s up?” said the mariner.
“Toothache,” said Mr. Marvel, and put his hand to his cheek. He took his books. “I must go, I think,” he said.
“But you were going to tell me about this Invisible Man!” protested the mariner.
“Hoax,” said a Voice.
“It’s a hoax,” said Mr. Marvel.
“But it’s in the paper,” said the mariner.
“Hoax, I tell you,” said Marvel. “I know the chap that told this lie. There is no Invisible Man whatsoever.”
“But how about this paper? Do you mean to say-?”
“The paper lies,” said Marvel, stoutly.
The mariner stared, paper in hand.
“Wait a bit,” said the mariner, rising and speaking slowly, “Do you mean to say-?”
“I do,” said Mr. Marvel.
“Then why did you listen to me? Why didn’t you stop me? Eh?”
Mr. Marvel blew out his cheeks. The mariner was suddenly very red indeed; he clenched his hands.
“I have been talking here for ten minutes,” he said; “and you, you little pig, couldn’t have the elementary manners-”
“Come up,” said a Voice, and Mr. Marvel was suddenly stood up in a curious spasmodic manner.
“You’d better get away,” said the mariner.
Mr. Marvel went away, but the mariner still stood for some time. Then he turned himself towards Port Stowe.
And there was another extraordinary thing he heard, that had happened quite close to him. That was a vision of a “fist full of money” travelling along by the wall. Another mariner had seen this wonderful sight that morning. He had tried to catch the money and had been knocked down. The story of the flying money was true. And all about that neighbourhood, money had been floating quietly along by walls and shady places. And then the money had ended its mysterious flight in the pocket of the gentleman in the obsolete silk hat, sitting outside the little inn on the outskirts of Port Stowe.
It was ten days after-and the mariner collated these facts and began to understand how near he had been to the wonderful Invisible Man.
Chapter XV
The Man Who Was Running
In the evening 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 covered with books and scientific publications, and a broad writing-table, and, under the north window, a microscope, minute instruments, and scattered bottles of reagents. Dr. Kemp’s lamp was lit, albeit the sky was still bright. Dr. Kemp was a tall and slender young man, with flaxen hair and a moustache almost white. His work would earn him, he hoped, the fellowship of the Royal Society, so highly did he think of it.
His eye caught the sunset blazing at the back of the hill. 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, running towards him. He was a short little man, and he wore a high hat, and he was running very fast.
“Another of those fools,” said Dr. Kemp. “Like that ass who ran into me this morning round a corner, with the ‘‘The Invisible Man is coming, sir!’ One might think we were in the thirteenth century.”
He got up, went to the window, and stared at the dark little figure.
“He is in a hurry,” said Dr. Kemp, “but he doesn’t seem to succeed. Asses!”
Dr. Kemp walked back to his writing-table.
But those who saw the fugitive nearer, and perceived the terror on his face, did not share in the doctor’s contempt. As the man ran he chinked like a well-filled purse. He looked neither to the right nor the left, but his eyes stared straight downhill to where the lamps were being lit, and the people were crowded in the street. A foam lay on his lips, and his breath came hoarse and noisy.
And then presently, far up the hill, a dog playing in the road yelped and ran under a gate. Then something-a wind-a pad, pad, pad, – a sound like a panting breathing, rushed by.
People screamed. They were shouting in the street before Marvel was halfway there. They were slamming the doors behind them, with the news. In a moment, fear had seized the town.
“The Invisible Man is coming! The Invisible Man!”
Chapter XVI
In the “Jolly Cricketers”
The “Jolly Cricketers” is just at the bottom of the hill, where the tram-lines begin. The barman talked of horses with an anaemic cabman, while a black-beared man in gray ate biscuit and cheese, drank beer, and conversed with a policeman off duty.
“What’s the shouting about?” said the anaemic cabman.
Somebody ran by outside.
“Fire, perhaps,” said the barman.
Footsteps approached, running heavily, the door was pushed open violently, and Marvel, weeping