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The Invisible Man
Chapter 16. DR. KEMP'S VISITOR
Dr. Kemp had continued writing in his study until the shots woke him up.
Crack, crack, crack, they came one after the other.
"Hullo!" said Dr. Kemp, putting his pen into his mouth again and listening.
"Who's letting off revolvers in Burdock? What are the fools doing now?"
He went to the south window and opened it.
Leaning out, he stared down at the town at night.
He saw windows, gas-lamps, shops, and dark spaces of roof and yard.
"It looks like a crowd down the hill," he said, "by 'The Cricketers,'" and he kept watching.
Then his eyes moved over the town to the distant ships whose lights shone, and the pier glowed like a yellow jewel.
The moon in its first quarter hung over the westward hill, and the stars were clear and almost tropically bright.
Dr. Kemp's mind travelled into a faraway thought about the social conditions of the future.
It lost itself over time, he woke up with a sigh, pulled down the window, and returned to his writing desk.
It must have been about an hour after this that the front-door bell rang.
He had been writing slowly, and with moments of not paying attention, since the shots.
He sat listening, he heard the servant answer the door, and waited for her feet on the stairs, but she didn't come.
"I wonder what that was," said Dr. Kemp.
He tried to start writing again but failed and got up.
He went downstairs to the landing, rang, and called over the railing to the housemaid as she appeared below.
"Was that a letter?" he asked.
"Only a runaway ring, sir," she answered.
"I'm restless tonight," he said to himself.
He went back to his study, and this time he started working again with determination.
He was working hard again, the only sounds in the room were the clock ticking and his pen hurrying.
The pen moved in the center of the light circle from his lampshade.
It was two o'clock before Dr. Kemp had finished his work for the night.
He got up, yawned, and went downstairs to bed.
He had already taken off his coat and vest, when he noticed that he was thirsty.
He took a candle and went down to the dining-room to look for a soda siphon and whiskey.
Dr. Kemp's scientific work had made him very observant.
As he crossed the hall again, he noticed a dark spot by the mat at the foot of the stairs.
He went on upstairs, and then it suddenly occurred to him to ask himself what the spot on the floor might be.
It seemed that some part of his mind was working without him knowing.
At any rate, he turned with his things, went back to the hall, put down the siphon and whiskey, and bending down, touched the spot.
Without much surprise he found that it had the stickiness and color of drying blood.
He picked up his things again, and returned upstairs, looking around him and trying to understand the blood-spot.
On the landing he saw something and stopped, surprised.
The door-handle of his own room was covered with blood.
He looked at his own hand.
His hand was quite clean.
Then he remembered the door had been open when he came down from his study, and he had not touched the handle.
He went straight into his room, his face quite calm, maybe a little more determined than usual.
His eyes, looking around curiously, fell on the bed.
On the bedcover there was a mess of blood, and the sheet had been torn.
He hadn't noticed this before because he had walked straight to the dressing-table.
On the far side the bedclothes were pushed down as if someone had been sitting there recently.
Then he had a strange feeling that he had heard a low voice say, "Good Heavens!. Kemp!" But Dr. Kemp didn't believe in voices.
He stood staring at the messy sheets.
Was that really a voice? He looked around again, but didn't notice anything more than the messy and blood-stained bed.
Then he clearly heard a movement across the room, near the wash-stand.
All men, however educated, keep some superstitious feelings.
The feeling that's called "eerie" came over him.
He closed the door of the room, came forward to the dressing-table, and put down his things.
Suddenly, with a start, he saw a rolled and blood-stained bandage of cloth hanging in mid-air, between him and the wash-stand.
He stared at this in amazement.
It was an empty bandage, a bandage properly tied but quite empty.
He'd have stepped forward to grab it, but a touch stopped him, and a voice speaking quite close to him.
"Kemp!" said the Voice.
"Eh?" said Kemp, with his mouth open.
"Keep calm," said the Voice.
"I'm an Invisible Man."
Kemp didn't answer for a moment, just stared at the bandage.
"Invisible Man," he said.
"I'm an Invisible Man," repeated the Voice.
The story that he had been eager to laugh at only that morning rushed through Kemp's brain.
He doesn't seem to have been either very frightened or very surprised at that moment, Understanding came later.
"I thought it was all a lie," he said.
The thought that was most important in his mind was the repeated arguments of the morning.
"Do you have a bandage on?" he asked.
"Yes," said the Invisible Man.
"Oh!" said Kemp, and then he pulled himself together.
"I say!" he said.
"But this is nonsense. It's some trick." He stepped forward suddenly, and his hand, reaching towards the bandage, met invisible fingers.
He pulled back at the touch and his face changed color.
"Stay calm, Kemp, for God's sake! I need help badly. Stop!"
The hand grabbed his arm, he hit at it.
"Kemp!" cried the Voice.
"Kemp! Stay calm!" and the grip tightened.
A strong desire to free himself took hold of Kemp.
The hand of the bandaged arm grabbed his shoulder, and he was suddenly tripped and thrown backwards onto the bed.
He opened his mouth to shout, and the corner of the sheet was pushed between his teeth.
The Invisible Man had him down firmly, but his arms were free and he hit and tried to kick wildly.
"Listen to reason, will you?" said the Invisible Man, holding onto him even though he was being hit in the ribs.
"By Heaven! you'll make me crazy in a minute"!
"Lie still, you fool!" shouted the Invisible Man in Kemp's ear.
Kemp struggled for another moment and then lay still.
"If you shout, I'll smash your face," said the Invisible Man, freeing his mouth.
"I'm an Invisible Man."
"It's no foolishness, and no magic."
"I really am an Invisible Man."
"And I want your help."
"I don't want to hurt you, but if you act like a crazy country man, I must."
"Don't you remember me, Kemp?"
"Griffin, of University College?"
"Let me get up," said Kemp.
"I'll stay where I'm. And let me sit quietly for a minute."
He sat up and felt his neck.
"I'm Griffin, of University College, and I have made myself invisible. I'm just an ordinary man, a man you have known, made invisible."
"Griffin?" said Kemp.
"Griffin," answered the Voice.
A younger student than you were, almost white, six-foot and broad, with a pink face, red eyes, who won the chemistry medal.
"I'm confused," said Kemp.
"My brain is going wild. What does this have to do with Griffin?"
"I'm Griffin."
Kemp thought for a long moment, his mind racing with fear and wonder.
"It's horrible," he said.
"But what devilry must happen to make a man invisible?"
"It's no devilry. It's a process, sane and understandable enough, "
"It's horrible!" said Kemp.
"How on earth, ?"
It's horrible enough. But I'm wounded, in pain, and tired. Kemp, you're a man. Stay calm. Give me food and drink, let me sit here.
Kemp stared at the bandage as it moved across the room.
Then saw a basket chair dragged across the floor and come to rest near the bed.
It made a noise, and the seat went down about a quarter of an inch.
He rubbed his eyes and felt his neck again.
"This beats ghosts," he said, and laughed stupidly.
"That's better. Thank Heaven, you're getting sensible!"
"Or silly," said Kemp, and rubbed his eyes.
"Give me some whiskey. I'm nearly dead."
It didn't feel so. Where are you? If I get up will I run into you? All right. Whiskey here. Where give it?
The chair made a noise and Kemp felt the glass taken away from him.
He let go with an effort, his instinct was all against it.
It came to rest about twenty inches above the front edge of the seat of the chair.
He stared at it in great confusion.
"This is, this must be, hypnotism. You have suggested that you're invisible."
"Nonsense," said the Voice.
"It's crazy."
"Listen to me."
"I proved clearly this morning," began Kemp, "that invisibility, "
"Never mind what you proved!. I'm starving," said the Voice, "and the night is cold for a man without clothes."
"Food?" said Kemp.
The glass of whiskey tilted itself.
"Yes," said the Invisible Man putting it down.
"Do you have a dressing-gown?"
Kemp made some sound under his breath.
He walked to a wardrobe and took out a robe of dark red.
"Will this do?" he asked.
The robe was taken from him by an invisible hand in midair.
It hung loose for a moment in mid-air, moved strangely, stood full and proper as it buttoned itself, and sat down in his chair.
"Underwear, socks, slippers would be nice," said the Unseen, shortly.
"And food."
"Anything. But this is the craziest thing I have ever been in, in my life!"
He searched his drawers for the items, and then went downstairs to look through his food cupboard.
He came back with some cold cutlets and bread, pulled up a small table, and placed them before his guest.
"Never mind knives," said his visitor, and a cutlet hung in mid-air, with a sound of chewing.
"Invisible!" said Kemp, and sat down on a bedroom chair.
"I always like to have something on me before I eat," said the Invisible Man, with his mouth full, eating greedily.
"Strange habit!"
"I suppose that wrist is all right," said Kemp.
"Trust me," said the Invisible Man.
"Of all the strange and wonderful, "
"Exactly."
"But it's strange that I came into your house to get my bandage."
"I meant to sleep here tonight, and you must accept that, because my blood is showing, there is quite a clot over there."
"It is only the living tissue I have changed for as long as I am alive, and I have been in the house three hours".
"But how is it done?" began Kemp, in a tone of annoyance.
"Confound it! The whole thing, it's unreasonable from beginning to end."
"Quite reasonable," said the Invisible Man.
"Perfectly reasonable."
He reached over and took the whiskey bottle.
Kemp stared at the eating dressing gown.
A ray of candle-light coming through a torn patch in the right shoulder, made a triangle of light under the left ribs.
"What were the shots?" he asked.
"How did the shooting start?"
"There was a real fool of a man, a sort of partner of mine, curse him, who tried to steal my money."
"He has done it."
"Is he invisible too?"
"No."
"Well?"
"Can't I have some more to eat before I tell you all that? I'm hungry, in pain. And you want me to tell stories!"
Kemp got up and crossed the room to fetch more food downstairs.
"You didn't do any shooting?" he asked.
"Not me," said his visitor.
Some fool I'd never seen fired at random, many were scared of me. Curse them! I want more to eat than this, Kemp.
"I'll see what there's to eat downstairs," said Kemp.
"Not much, I'm afraid."
After he had finished eating, and he ate a lot, the Invisible Man asked for a cigar.
He bit the end angrily before Kemp could find a knife, and cursed when the outer leaf came loose.
It was strange to see him smoking, his mouth, and throat, and nose became visible as a sort of turning smoke came out.
"This blessed gift of smoking!" he said, and puffed strongly.
"I'm lucky to have found you, Kemp."
"You must help me."
"Imagine meeting you just now!"
"I'm in a terrible situation."
"I've been crazy, I think."
"The things I have been through!"
"But we'll do things yet."
"Let me tell you,"
He helped himself to more whiskey and soda.
Kemp got up, looked around him, and brought a glass from his spare room.
"It's wild, but I suppose I may drink."
"You haven't changed much, Kemp, these dozen years."
"You fair men don't."
"Cool and methodical, after the first shock."
"I must tell you."
"We'll work together!"
"But how was it all done?" said Kemp, "and how did you become like this?"
"For God's sake, let me smoke in peace for a little while! And then I'll begin to tell you."
But the story wasn't told that night.
The Invisible Man's wrist was becoming painful, and he was feverish and exhausted.
His mind came around to think about his chase down the hill and the struggle at the inn.
He spoke in pieces about Marvel, he smoked faster, his voice became angry.
Kemp tried to understand what he could.
"He was afraid of me, I could see that he was afraid of me," said the Invisible Man many times.
"He meant to get away from me, he was always planning"!
What a fool I was, running after him without a clear plan at all!
"The coward"!
"I should have killed him!"
"Where did you get the money?" asked Kemp, suddenly.
The Invisible Man was silent for a moment.
"I can't tell you tonight," he said.
He groaned suddenly and leaned forward, supporting his invisible head on invisible hands.
"Kemp," he said, "I haven't slept for nearly three days, except for a couple of short sleeps of an hour or so. I must sleep soon."
"Well, take my room, take this room."
"But how can I sleep? If I sleep, he'll get away. Ugh! What does it matter?"
"What about the shot wound?" asked Kemp, suddenly.
"Nothing, a scratch and blood. Oh, God! How I want sleep!"
"Why not?"
The Invisible Man seemed to be looking at Kemp.
"Because I have a particular objection to being caught by other men," he said slowly.
Kemp started, his hand going to his heart as he looked at Griffin.
"Fool that I'm!" said the Invisible Man, hitting the table sharply.
"I've put the idea into your head."