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The Invisible Man
Chapter 11. The Invisible Man Loses His Temper
It's hard to continue the story here, for a painful reason that'll soon be clear.
These things were happening in the parlour.
Mr. Huxter watched Mr. Marvel smoke his pipe against the gate while Mr. Hall and Teddy Henfrey talked nearby.
They were discussing the one topic in Iping with confused minds.
Suddenly there was a loud thud against the door of the parlour, a sharp cry, and then silence.
"Hello!" said Teddy Henfrey.
"Hello!" from the Tap.
Mr. Hall understood things slowly but surely.
"That's not right," he said, and came from behind the bar towards the parlour door.
He and Teddy approached the door together, with serious faces, they looked at it.
"Something's wrong," said Hall, and Henfrey nodded.
They smelled an unpleasant chemical odour, and there was a quiet sound of talking, very fast and low.
"Are you all right in there?" asked Hall, knocking.
The quiet talking stopped suddenly, and the room fell into a heavy, strange silence.
For a moment there was silence, then the talking started again in hissing whispers, then a sharp cry of "No!"
"No, you don't!" There was a sudden movement and a chair fell over, a short struggle.
Silence fell again, a heavy, nervous quiet settling over the small room.
"What the devil?" said Henfrey, very quietly.
"Are you all right in there?" asked Mr. Hall, sharply, again.
The Vicar's voice answered with a strange, jerking sound, "Quite ri-right. Please don't interrupt."
"That's odd," said Mr. Henfrey.
"That's odd," said Mr. Hall.
"He says, 'Don't interrupt,'" said Henfrey.
"I heard him," said Hall.
"And a sniff," said Henfrey.
They kept listening, the talking was fast and low.
"I can't," said Mr. Bunting, his voice rising.
"I tell you, sir, I won't."
"What was that?" asked Henfrey.
"He says he won't," said Hall.
"He wasn't talking to us, was he?"
"Disgraceful!" said Mr. Bunting, inside.
"'Disgraceful,'" said Mr. Henfrey.
"I heard it clearly."
"Who's speaking now?" asked Henfrey.
"Mr. Cuss, I suppose," said Hall.
"Can you hear anything?"
Silence, the sounds inside were unclear and confusing.
"It sounds like throwing the tablecloth around," said Hall.
Mrs. Hall appeared behind the bar.
Hall made signs for her to be quiet and come closer.
This made Mrs. Hall angry as a wife.
"Why are you listening there, Hall?" she asked.
"Don't you have anything better to do on a busy day like this?"
Hall tried to explain everything with his face and gestures, but Mrs. Hall wouldn't listen, she raised her voice.
So Hall and Henfrey, looking a bit embarrassed, walked quietly back to the bar, making signs to explain to her.
At first she refused to see anything important in what they had heard.
Then she insisted that Hall stay quiet while Henfrey told her his story.
She thought the whole thing was probably nothing.
Maybe they were just moving furniture.
"I heard him say 'disgraceful,' I did," said Hall.
"I heard that too, Mrs. Hall," said Henfrey.
"Probably," began Mrs. Hall.
"Shh!" said Mr. Teddy Henfrey.
"Didn't I hear the window?"
"What window?" asked Mrs. Hall.
"The parlour window," said Henfrey.
Everyone stood listening carefully, Mrs. Hall's eyes looked straight ahead.
She saw the bright shape of the inn door, the white road, and Huxter's shop front shining in the June sun.
Suddenly Huxter's door opened and Huxter appeared.
His eyes were wide with excitement, and he was waving his arms.
"Yap!" cried Huxter.
"Stop thief!" He ran across the road towards the yard gates and disappeared.
At the same time, there was a loud noise from the parlour and the sound of windows closing.
Hall, Henfrey, and the people from the Tap ran out quickly into the street.
They saw someone turn the corner towards the road, and Mr. Huxter jump in the air in a strange way.
He landed on his face and shoulder.
Down the street, people stood in surprise or ran towards them.
Mr. Huxter was stunned, lying on the ground and rubbing his head.
Henfrey stopped to help him, but Hall and the two workers from the Tap ran to the corner, shouting unclear things.
They saw Mr. Marvel disappear around the corner of the church wall.
They seemed to think, wrongly, that this was the Invisible Man who had suddenly become visible.
They ran along the lane to catch him.
But Hall hadn't run more than a dozen yards before he shouted in surprise and fell sideways.
He grabbed one of the workers and pulled him to the ground.
Someone had charged him like a football player.
The second worker stopped, stared, and thought that Hall had fallen by himself.
He turned to continue the chase, but someone tripped him by the ankle, just like Huxter.
Then, as the first worker got up, he was kicked sideways by a blow that could have knocked down an ox.
As he fell, people from the village green came around the corner.
The first to appear was the owner of the coconut shy, a big man in a blue shirt.
He was surprised to see the lane empty except for three men lying on the ground in a strange way.
Then something hit his back foot, and he fell forward and rolled sideways.
He just missed the feet of his brother and partner, who were following behind.
The two were then kicked, knelt on, fallen over, and cursed by many people who were in too much of a hurry.
Now when Hall, Henfrey, and the workers ran out of the house, Mrs. Hall stayed in the bar near the money box.
She had learned from years of experience.
Suddenly the parlour door opened, and Mr. Cuss appeared.
Without looking at her, he ran quickly down the steps towards the corner.
"Stop him!" he cried.
"Don't let him drop that parcel."
He knew nothing about Marvel, the Invisible Man had given the books and bundle to Marvel in the yard.
Mr. Cuss's face was angry and determined, but his clothes weren't right.
He was wearing a loose white skirt that would only be acceptable in Greece.
"Stop him!" he shouted.
"He's got my trousers! And all of the Vicar's clothes!"
"I'll help you in a minute!" he cried to Henfrey as he passed the fallen Huxter.
He came around the corner to join the fight, but someone knocked him off his feet.
He fell in an awkward way.
Someone running fast stepped heavily on his finger.
He yelled, tried to get up, was knocked against and fell on his hands and knees again.
He realized that he wasn't in a capture but a retreat.
Everyone was running back to the village.
He got up again and was hit hard behind the ear.
He staggered and ran back to the "Coach and Horses" quickly, jumping over Huxter, who was now sitting up.
When he was halfway up the inn steps, he heard a sudden yell of anger.
It came out of the confused cries, and he heard a loud slap on someone's face.
He knew the voice was the Invisible Man's.
The sound was of a man suddenly made very angry by a painful blow.
A moment later, Mr. Cuss was back in the parlour.
"He's coming back, Bunting!" he said, rushing in.
"Save yourself!"
Mr. Bunting was standing at the window.
He was trying to dress himself in the hearth-rug and a West Surrey Gazette.
"Who's coming?" he said.
He was so surprised that his costume almost fell apart.
"The Invisible Man," said Cuss, and ran to the window.
"We'd better get out of here! He's fighting mad! Mad!"
A moment later, he was out in the yard.
"Good heavens!" said Mr. Bunting.
He couldn't decide between two terrible choices.
He heard a terrible struggle in the passage of the inn, and he made his decision.
He climbed out of the window, fixed his costume quickly, and ran up the village as fast as his short, fat legs could carry him.
The Invisible Man screamed with anger and Mr. Bunting made his famous run up the village.
After that it was not possible to give a clear account of what happened in Iping.
Perhaps the Invisible Man's first plan was just to help Marvel escape with the clothes and books.
But his temper, which was never very good, seems to have broken completely after some accidental blow.
He began to hit and knock things over, just for the pleasure of hurting.
You must imagine the street full of running people, doors slamming, and fights for hiding places.
You must imagine the sudden noise hitting old Fletcher's unsteady planks and two chairs, with terrible results.
You must imagine a frightened couple caught sadly in a swing.
And then the whole wild rush has passed.
The Iping street, with its bright decorations and flags, is empty except for the still angry unseen man.
It's covered with coconuts, fallen canvas screens, and the scattered goods of a sweet stall.
Everywhere there's the sound of closing shutters and pushing bolts.
The only visible people are an occasional eye looking from under a raised eyebrow at a window.
The Invisible Man amused himself for a while by breaking all the windows in the "Coach and Horses."
Then he pushed a street lamp through the parlour window of Mrs. Gribble.
He must have been the one who cut the telegraph wire to Adderdean, just beyond Higgins' cottage on the Adderdean road.
And after that, because of his special abilities, he passed out of human perception completely.
He wasn't heard, seen, or felt in Iping anymore, he disappeared completely.
But it was nearly two hours before anyone dared to come out again into the empty Iping street.