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The Invisible Man
Chapter 21. IN THE EMPORIUM
Last January, a snowstorm was beginning.
If it settled on me, it would betray me!
I was weary, cold, and in pain.
I was terribly unhappy and still only half sure of my invisible state.
Then I began this new life that I'm now living.
I had no shelter, no tools, no person in the world that I could trust.
To tell my secret would have given me away - made me a simple show and a strange thing.
Still, I was half ready to speak to some passer-by and ask for his help.
But I knew too well the fear and cruel anger my approach would cause.
I made no plans in the street.
My only aim was to find shelter from the snow, to get myself covered and warm, then I could hope to plan.
But even to me, an Invisible Man, the rows of London houses stood locked, barred, and bolted strongly.
"Only one thing could I see clearly before me - the cold exposure and misery of the snowstorm and the night".
"And then I had a wonderful idea".
I turned down a road from Gower Street to Tottenham Court Road.
I found myself outside Omniums, the big store where everything is sold.
You know the place, meat, food, cloth, furniture, clothes, even oil paintings.
It's a huge, winding collection of shops rather than a single shop.
I had thought I should find the doors open.
But they were closed, As I stood in the wide entrance, a carriage stopped outside.
A man in uniform opened the door.
You know the kind of person with 'Omnium' on his cap.
I managed to enter, I walked down the shop to a department selling ribbons, gloves, stockings, and similar items.
Then I came to a larger area for picnic baskets and wicker furniture.
I didn't feel safe there, People were going back and forth, and I moved about restlessly.
I came upon a huge section on an upper floor with many bedsteads.
I climbed over these and found a resting-place among a big pile of folded flock mattresses.
The place was already lit and pleasantly warm.
I decided to stay where I was.
I kept a careful eye on the groups of shopmen and customers walking through.
I waited until closing time came.
Then I could steal food and clothes, disguise myself, look at the goods, and maybe sleep on the bedding.
That seemed a good plan, I planned to get clothes.
This would make me a covered but acceptable figure.
I also needed money, then I'd get my books and parcels where they waited.
I'd take a room somewhere, then I'd make careful plans.
I still thought my invisibility gave me advantages over other people.
"Closing time came quickly enough".
It could not have been more than an hour after I took my place on the mattresses.
Then I noticed the window blinds being pulled down and customers being led to the door.
And then a number of quick young men began with great speed to tidy up the goods that were still out.
I left my hiding-place as the crowds got smaller, and moved carefully out into the less empty parts of the shop.
I was really surprised to see how fast the young men and women took down the goods for sale during the day.
All the boxes of goods and hanging fabrics were taken down.
The strings of lace and boxes of sweets were folded up and put into tidy containers.
Everything that couldn't be taken down had rough cloth thrown over them.
Finally all the chairs were turned up onto the counters, leaving the floor clear.
As soon as each young person had finished, he or she went quickly to the door.
They had a lively look I have rarely seen on a shop assistant.
Then came a lot of young people spreading sawdust and carrying buckets and brooms.
I had to move quickly to get out of the way, and as it was, my ankle got stung with the sawdust.
For some time, walking through the covered and darkened departments, I could hear the brooms at work.
And at last a good hour or more after the shop had been closed, came a noise of locking doors.
Silence came upon the place, and I found myself walking through the huge and complicated shops, galleries, show-rooms of the place, alone.
It was still. I remember passing a Tottenham Court Road entrance and listening to the tapping of boot-heels of passers-by.
"My first visit was to the place where I had seen stockings and gloves for sale".
It was dark, and I had a terrible time searching for matches, which I found at last in the drawer of the little cash desk.
Then I had to get a candle.
I had to tear down wraps and search many boxes and drawers.
At last I found what I wanted, the box label called them lambswool pants and lambswool vests.
I got socks and a thick scarf.
Then I went to the clothing store.
I bought trousers, a lounge jacket, an overcoat, and a slouch hat.
That hat is like a priest's, with the brim turned down.
I began to feel like a human being again, and my next thought was food.
"Upstairs was a food department, and there I got cold meat".
There was coffee still in the urn.
And I lit the gas and warmed it up again, and altogether I didn't do badly.
I walked through the place looking for blankets.
I finally settled for a pile of down quilts.
Then I found a food section with lots of chocolate and candied fruits.
There was also some white wine.
And near that was a toy department, and I had a wonderful idea.
I found some artificial noses - fake noses, you know, and I thought of dark glasses.
But Omniums had no glasses department.
My nose had been a problem indeed - I had thought of paint.
But the discovery set my mind running on wigs and masks and the like.
Finally I went to sleep in a pile of down quilts, very warm and comfortable.
"My last thoughts before sleeping were the most pleasant I had had since the change".
I was in a state of physical peace, and that was reflected in my mind.
I thought I could slip out unseen in the morning.
I'd wear my clothes and cover my face with a white wrapper I had taken.
With the money I had taken, I'd buy glasses and other items, this would complete my disguise.
I fell into confused dreams of all the strange things that had happened during the last few days.
I saw the ugly little Jewish landlord shouting in his rooms.
I saw his two sons wondering, and the wrinkled old woman's rough face as she asked for her cat.
I felt again the strange feeling of seeing the cloth disappear.
I came to the windy hillside and the sniffing old priest.
He mumbled, "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," at my father's open grave.
"'You also,' said a voice, and suddenly I was being pushed towards the grave".
I struggled, shouted, called to the mourners.
But they continued stonily following the service, the old priest, too, never stopped droning and sniffing through the ritual.
I realized I was invisible and couldn't be heard, that strong forces had their hold on me.
I struggled in vain, was pushed over the edge, the coffin rang hollow as I fell and gravel flew after me.
Nobody noticed me, nobody was aware of me.
I made violent struggles and woke up.
"The pale London dawn had come, the place was full of a cold grey light that came around the edges of the window blinds".
I sat up and, for a time, could not think where I was.
The large room had counters, piles of rolled stuff, a heap of quilts and cushions, and iron pillars.
Then, as memory came back to me, I heard voices in conversation.
"Then far down the place, in the brighter light of some department which had already raised its blinds, I saw two men coming".
I stood up, looked for a way to escape, and my movement made them notice me.
I suppose they saw only a figure moving quietly and quickly away.
'Who's that?' cried one, and 'Stop there!' shouted the other.
I ran around a corner and came full force - a faceless figure, mind you! - on a thin boy of fifteen.
He yelled and I knocked him over, ran past him, turned another corner, and by a happy thought threw myself behind a counter.
In another moment feet went running past.
I heard voices shouting, 'All hands to the doors!' asking what was 'up,' and giving one another advice how to catch me.
"Lying on the ground, I felt scared out of my mind".
But - strange as it may seem - it didn't occur to me at the moment to take off my clothes as I should have done.
I had made up my mind, I suppose, to get away in them, and that ruled me.
And then down the line of the counters came a shouting of 'Here he's!'
"I jumped to my feet, took a chair off the counter, and sent it flying at the fool who had shouted."
"I turned, came around another corner, sent him spinning, and ran up the stairs."
"He kept his footing, gave a shout, and came up the staircase hot after me."
"Up the staircase were piled a lot of those bright-coloured pot things - what are they?"
"Art pots," suggested Kemp.
"That's it"!
Art pots, bright coloured vases for show that people put on shelves.
I turned at the top step, grabbed one from the pile, and smashed it on his head as he came at me.
The whole pile of pots fell down, and I heard shouting and footsteps running from all parts.
I made a mad rush for the food place.
And there was a man in white like a man cook, who took up the chase.
I made one last desperate turn and found myself among lamps and metal goods.
I went behind the counter, waited for the cook, and as he ran in leading chase, I hit him with a lamp.
Down he went, and I crouched down behind the counter and began taking off my clothes as fast as I could.
Coat, jacket, trousers, shoes were all right, but a lambswool vest fits a man like a skin.
I heard more men coming, My cook was lying quiet on the other side of the counter.
He was stunned or scared speechless.
I had to make another dash for it, like a rabbit hunted out of a wood-pile.
"'This way, policeman!' I heard someone shouting".
I found myself in my bedstead storeroom again, and at the end of a large number of wardrobes.
I ran among them and went flat.
After much wriggling, I got rid of my vest.
I stood a free man again, breathing hard and scared.
The policeman and three shopmen came around the corner.
They made a rush for the vest and pants, and grabbed the trousers.
'He's dropping his stolen goods,' said one of the young men, 'He must be somewhere here.'
"But they didn't find me all the same".
"I stood watching them hunt for me for a time, and cursing my bad luck in losing the clothes".
Then I went into the food-room, drank a little milk I found there, and sat down by the fire to think about my situation.
"In a little while two assistants came in and began to talk about the business very excitedly and like the fools they were".
I heard a bigger account of my thefts, and other guesses as to where I was.
Then I began to plan again.
The main problem of the place, especially now it was alarmed, was to get any stolen goods out of it.
I went down into the warehouse to see if there was any chance of packing and addressing a parcel.
But I couldn't understand the system of checking.
About eleven o'clock, the snow melted as it fell.
The day was finer and a little warmer than the previous one.
I decided the Emporium was hopeless.
I went out again, angry at my lack of success.
I had only the vaguest plans of action in my mind.