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The Invisible Man
Chapter 10. IN THE "COACH AND HORSES"
To understand what happened in the inn, we must go back to when Mr. Marvel came into view of Mr. Huxter's window.
At that exact moment Mr. Cuss and Mr. Bunting were in the parlour.
They were seriously looking into the strange events of the morning.
With Mr. Hall's permission, they were making a full examination of the Invisible Man's things.
Jaffers had partly recovered from his fall and had gone home with his kind friends.
Mrs. Hall had taken away the stranger's scattered clothes and cleaned the room.
And on the table under the window where the stranger used to work, Cuss had quickly found three big books written by hand.
They were labelled "Diary."
"Diary!" said Cuss, putting the three books on the table.
"Now, at least, we'll learn something." The Vicar stood with his hands on the table.
"Diary," repeated Cuss, sitting down.
He put two books to support the third and opened it.
"H'm - no name on the first page. Too bad! - it's in code. And numbers."
The vicar came around to look over his shoulder.
Cuss turned the pages over with a face that suddenly looked disappointed.
"I'm - oh dear! It's all in code, Bunting."
"There are no pictures?" asked Mr. Bunting.
"No drawings that help explain -"
"See for yourself," said Mr. Cuss.
"Some of it's math and some of it's Russian or some language like that, to judge by the letters, and some of it's Greek."
"Now the Greek I thought you -"
"Of course," said Mr. Bunting.
He took out his glasses and wiped them.
He suddenly felt very uncomfortable - because he didn't have any Greek left in his mind worth talking about.
"Yes - the Greek, of course, may give us a clue."
"I'll find you a place."
"I'd rather look through the books first," said Mr. Bunting, still wiping.
"A general idea first, Cuss, and then, you know, we can look for clues."
He coughed, put on his glasses, arranged them carefully, coughed again, and wished something would happen to stop the coming discovery.
Then he took the book Cuss handed him in a slow way, and then something did happen.
The door opened suddenly, and a gust of cold air rushed into the room.
Both men jumped strongly, looked around, and felt relieved to see a face with some red colour under a furry silk hat.
"Tap?" asked the face, and stood staring.
"No," said both men at once.
"Over the other side, my man," said Mr. Bunting.
And "Please shut that door," said Mr. Cuss, angrily.
"All right," said the man who came in.
It seemed in a low voice that was strangely different from the rough sound of his first question.
"Right you're," said the man in his first voice.
"Stand clear!" And he disappeared and closed the door.
"A sailor, I think," said Mr. Bunting.
"Funny fellows, they're. Stand clear! indeed. A word from the sea, meaning he's getting back out of the room, I suppose."
"I think so," said Cuss.
"My nerves are all loose today. It really made me jump - the door opening like that."
Mr. Bunting smiled as if he hadn't jumped.
"And now," he said with a sigh, "these books."
Someone sniffed as he did so.
"One thing is certain," said Bunting, pulling up a chair next to Cuss's.
"There have certainly been very strange things happening in Iping during the last few days - very strange."
"I can't of course believe in this silly invisibility story -"
"It's hard to believe," said Cuss - "hard to believe. But the fact remains that I saw - I certainly saw right down his sleeve -"
"But did you - are you sure?"
"Suppose a mirror, for example - people can easily see things that aren't there."
"I don't know if you've ever seen a really good magician -"
"I won't argue again," said Cuss.
"We've talked about that enough, Bunting."
"And right now there are these books - Ah!"
"Here's some of what I think is Greek!"
"Greek letters for sure."
He pointed to the middle of the page.
Mr. Bunting's face got a little red and he brought his face closer.
He seemed to have some trouble with his glasses.
Suddenly he felt a strange feeling at the back of his neck.
He tried to lift his head, and met a strong force that wouldn't move.
The feeling was a strange pressure, the hold of a heavy, firm hand.
It pushed his chin down onto the table.
"Don't move, little men," whispered a voice.
"Or I'll hit you both in the head!" He looked into the face of Cuss, close to his own.
Each saw a frightened picture of his own sick surprise.
"I'm sorry to handle you so roughly," said the Voice, "but it can't be helped."
"Since when did you learn to look into a researcher's private notes?" said the Voice.
And two chins hit the table at the same time.
Two sets of teeth made a noise.
"Since when did you learn to come into the private rooms of a man in trouble?" And the hit was repeated.
"Where have they put my clothes?"
"Listen," said the Voice.
"The windows are locked and I've taken the key out of the door. I'm a fairly strong man,"
And I have the poker ready, and I am invisible.
There's no doubt I could kill you both and leave easily if I wanted to.
"If I let you go, will you promise not to try any tricks and to do what I tell you?" said the Invisible Man.
There's no doubt I could kill you both and leave easily if I wanted to.
"If I let you go, will you promise not to try any tricks and to do what I tell you?" said the Invisible Man.
The vicar and the doctor looked at one another, the doctor made a face.
"Yes," said Mr. Bunting, and the doctor said it again.
Then the pressure on their necks relaxed.
The doctor and the vicar sat up.
Both had very red faces and moved their heads around.
"Please keep sitting where you're," said the Invisible Man.
"Here's the poker, you see."
"When I came into this room," continued the Invisible Man, after showing the poker to the tip of the nose of each of his visitors.
"I didn't expect to find it full of people."
"And I expected to find, in addition to my books of notes, some clothes."
"Where are they?"
"No - don't stand up."
"I can see they're gone."
"Now, right now, although the days are quite warm enough for an invisible man to run around without clothes, the evenings are quite cold."
"I want clothes - and other things to stay in."
"And I must also have those three books."