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The Invisible Man
Chapter 22. IN DRURY LANE
"But you begin now to realise," said the Invisible Man.
"The full disadvantage of my condition."
"I had no shelter - no covering - to get clothing was to lose all my advantage, to make myself a strange and terrible thing."
"I was hungry, for to eat, to fill myself with food that wouldn't become part of me, would be to become visibly strange again."
"I never thought of that," said Kemp.
"Nor had I".
And the snow had warned me of other dangers.
I couldn't go outside in snow - it would settle on me and show me.
Rain, too, would make me a watery shape, a shining surface of a man - a bubble.
And fog - I should be like a weaker bubble in a fog, a surface, a greasy shine of humanity.
Also, as I went outside - in the London air - I collected dirt around my ankles, floating bits of dirt and dust on my skin.
I didn't know how long it would be before I should become visible from that cause too.
But I saw clearly it couldn't be for long.
"Not in London at any rate".
"I went into the poor streets towards Great Portland Street, and found myself at the end of the street in which I had stayed".
I didn't go that way because of the crowd down opposite the smoking ruins of the house I had set on fire.
My most immediate problem was to get clothing.
What to do with my face puzzled me.
Then I saw one of those little shops that sell many things, newspapers, sweets, toys, and stationery.
Inside it was a collection of masks and noses.
I realised that problem was solved.
In a moment I saw my way.
I turned around, I no longer felt without purpose.
I went in a roundabout way to avoid the busy streets.
I headed towards the back streets north of the Strand.
I remembered that some theatre costume shops were in that area, though not very clearly where.
"The day was cold, with a sharp wind down the northward running streets".
I walked fast to avoid being caught.
Every crossing was a danger, every person a thing to watch carefully.
One man turned upon me suddenly as I was about to pass him at the top of Bedford Street.
He came into me, sending me into the road and almost under the wheel of a passing horse carriage.
The people at the cab rank said that he had had some kind of sudden illness.
I was so shaken by this meeting that I went into Covent Garden Market and sat down for some time.
I sat in a quiet corner by a stall of violets, breathing hard and shaking.
I found I had caught a new cold, and had to leave after a time so that my sneezes wouldn't draw attention.
At last I reached the place I was looking for.
It was a dirty, fly-covered little shop in a side street near Drury Lane.
The window was full of shiny robes, fake jewels, wigs, slippers, masks and theatre photographs.
The shop was old-fashioned and low and dark, and the house rose above it for four floors, dark and sad.
I looked through the window and, seeing no one inside, entered.
The opening of the door set a loud bell ringing.
I left it open, and walked around a bare costume stand, into a corner behind a large mirror.
For a minute or so no one came.
Then I heard heavy feet walking across a room, and a man came down the shop.
"My plans were now very clear".
I planned to make my way into the house.
I'd hide myself upstairs and watch my chance.
When everything was quiet, I'd search out a wig, mask, glasses, and costume.
Then I'd go into the world, perhaps a strange but still believable figure.
And of course I could also steal any money from the house.
"The man who had just entered the shop was a short, thin, bent man with a heavy forehead, with long arms and very short bowed legs".
It seemed I had interrupted a meal.
He looked around the shop with an expression of expectation.
This changed to surprise, and then to anger, as he saw the shop empty.
'Damn the boys!' he said, he went to look up and down the street.
He came in again in a minute, kicked the door shut with his foot angrily, and went back to the house door, talking to himself.
"I came forward to follow him, and at the noise of my movement he stopped completely".
I did so too, surprised by how quick his hearing was.
He slammed the house door in my face.
"I stood there not sure what to do".
Suddenly I heard his quick footsteps returning, and the door opened again.
He stood looking around the shop like someone who was still not satisfied.
Then, talking to himself, he examined the back of the counter and looked behind some shelves.
Then he stood there unsure, he had left the house door open and I slipped into the inner room.
"It was a strange little room, poorly furnished and with a number of big masks in the corner".
On the table was his late breakfast.
And it was annoying for me, Kemp, to smell his coffee and stand watching as he came in and ate.
And his table manners were irritating.
Three doors opened into the little room, one going upstairs and one down, but they were all shut.
I couldn't get out of the room while he was there.
I could hardly move because of his careful attention, and there was a cold wind down my back.
Twice I stopped a sneeze just in time.
"The strange quality of my feelings was curious and new, but for all that I was very tired and angry long before he had finished eating".
At last he finished, he put his poor dishes on the black metal tray that had held his teapot.
He gathered all the crumbs up on the dirty cloth.
Then he took the whole lot of things with him.
His load stopped him from shutting the door behind him - as he'd have done.
I never saw such a man for shutting doors - and I followed him into a very dirty underground kitchen and washing room.
I had the pleasure of seeing him begin to wash the dishes.
Then, finding no good in staying down there, I went back upstairs.
The brick floor was cold on my feet.
I sat in his chair by the fire.
It was burning low, and hardly thinking, I put on a little coal.
The noise of this brought him up at once, and he stood staring.
He looked around the room and was very close to touching me.
Even after that examination, he hardly seemed satisfied.
He stopped in the doorway and took a final look before he went down.
"I waited in the little sitting room for a very long time, and at last he came up and opened the upstairs door".
I just managed to get past him.
"On the stairs he stopped suddenly, so that I very nearly ran into him".
He stood looking back right into my face and listening.
'I could have sworn,' he said.
His long hairy hand pulled at his lower lip.
His eye went up and down the stairs.
Then he made a sound and went on up again.
"His hand was on the handle of a door, and then he stopped again with the same puzzled anger on his face".
He was becoming aware of the soft sounds of my movements around him.
The man must have had very sharp hearing.
He suddenly became very angry, 'If there's anyone in this house -' he cried with a curse, and left the threat unfinished.
He put his hand in his pocket, didn't find what he wanted, and rushing past me went noisily and angrily downstairs.
But I didn't follow him, I sat on the top of the stairs until his return.
"Soon he came up again, still talking to himself".
He opened the door of the room, and before I could enter, slammed it in my face.
"I decided to explore the house, and spent some time doing so as quietly as possible".
The house was old and falling apart, damp so paper in the top rooms came off the walls, and full of rats.
Some of the door handles were stiff and I was afraid to turn them.
Several rooms I did look at had no furniture, and others were filled with theatre things, bought second-hand, I thought, from their look.
In one room next to his I found a lot of old clothes.
I began searching among these, and in my eagerness forgot again how sharp his ears were.
I heard a soft footstep and, looking up in time, saw him at the messy pile holding an old gun.
I stood completely still while he stared open-mouthed and suspicious.
'It must have been her,' he said slowly, 'Damn her!'
"He shut the door quietly, and immediately I heard the key turn in the lock".
Then his footsteps went away, I realised suddenly that I was locked in.
For a minute I didn't know what to do.
I walked from door to window and back, and stood there confused.
A feeling of anger came upon me.
But I decided to look at the clothes before I did anything else, and my first try brought down a pile from an upper shelf.
This brought him back, more threatening than ever.
That time he actually touched me, jumped back with surprise and stood amazed in the middle of the room.
"Soon he calmed a little. 'Rats,' he said in a low voice, fingers on lips."
"He was clearly a little scared."
"I moved quietly out of the room, but a floorboard made a noise."
"Then the little devil started going all over the house, gun in hand and locking door after door and putting the keys in his pocket."
"When I realised what he was doing I had a fit of anger - I could hardly control myself enough to watch my chance."
"By this time I knew he was alone in the house, and so I didn't wait any longer, but hit him on the head."
"Hit him on the head?" shouted Kemp.
"Yes - stunned him - as he was going downstairs."
"Hit him from behind with a stool that stood on the landing."
"He went downstairs like a bag of old boots."
"But - I say! The usual rules of human behaviour -"
"Are all very well for ordinary people."
"But the point was, Kemp, that I had to get out of that house in a disguise without him seeing me."
"I couldn't think of any other way of doing it."
"And then I put a cloth in his mouth and tied him up in a sheet."
"Tied him up in a sheet!"
"Made a kind of bag of it."
"It was rather a good idea to keep the idiot scared and quiet, and a very hard thing to get out of - head away from the string."
"My dear Kemp, it's no good your sitting there staring as though I was a murderer."
"It had to be done."
"He had his gun."
"If once he saw me he'd be able to describe me -"
"But still," said Kemp, "in England - today. And the man was in his own house, and you were - well, stealing."
"Stealing! Damn it! You'll call me a thief next! Surely, Kemp, you're not stupid enough to dance on the old strings. Can't you see my position?"
"And his too," said Kemp.
The Invisible Man stood up sharply.
"What do you mean to say?"
Kemp's face became a little hard.
He was about to speak and stopped himself.
"I suppose, after all,"
He said with a sudden change of manner, "the thing had to be done. You were in a difficult situation. But still -".
"Of course I was in a difficult situation - a terrible one."
"And he made me angry too - hunting me around the house, playing about with his gun, locking and unlocking doors."
"He was simply annoying."
"You don't blame me, do you?"
"You don't blame me?"
"I never blame anyone," said Kemp.
"It's quite out of fashion. What did you do next?"
"I was hungry".
Downstairs I found a loaf and some bad cheese - more than enough to satisfy my hunger.
I took brandy and water, went up past my bag - he was lying still - to the room with the old clothes.
This looked out onto the street, two lace curtains brown with dirt covering the window.
I went and looked out through their holes.
Outside the day was bright - by contrast with the brown shadows of the sad house in which I found myself, very bright.
A busy traffic was going by, fruit carts, a horse carriage, a four-wheeler with a pile of boxes, a fish seller's cart.
I turned with spots of colour swimming before my eyes to the shadowy shelves behind me.
My excitement was giving way to a clear understanding of my position again.
The room was full of a weak smell of cleaning fluid, used, I suppose, in cleaning the clothes.
"I began a careful search of the place".
I should think the hunchback had been alone in the house for some time, he was a strange person.
Everything that could possibly be of use to me I collected in the clothes storeroom, and then I made a careful choice.
I found a handbag I thought a good thing to have, and some powder, red colour, and sticky plaster.
I thought of painting and powdering my face to make myself visible.
But I'd need turpentine and other supplies.
It would also take a lot of time to become invisible again.
Finally I chose a good mask, strange but like many people, dark glasses, grey whiskers, and a wig.
I could find no underclothes in the room, so I wrapped myself in cloth.
But I could buy those later, and for the time I wrapped myself in cloth costumes and some white soft scarves.
I could find no socks, but the hunchback's boots were rather loose and good enough.
In a desk in the shop were three gold coins and about thirty shillings of silver.
In a locked cupboard I broke open in the inner room were eight pounds in gold.
I could go out into the world again, prepared.
"Then came a strange hesitation".
Was my appearance really believable to people who saw me on the street?
I tested myself with a small bedroom mirror, looking from every side for any forgotten opening, but it all looked fine.
I was strange to the theatre level, a stage miser, but I was certainly not a physical impossibility.
Gaining confidence, I took my mirror down into the shop and pulled down the blinds.
I then looked at myself from every angle with the help of the large mirror in the corner.
"I spent a few minutes building my courage."
"I unlocked the shop door and walked out into the street, leaving the little man to get out of his sheet again when he liked."
"In five minutes a dozen turnings were between me and the costume shop."
"No one seemed to notice me very much."
"My last difficulty seemed solved."
He stopped again, his face showing thought as if something had gone wrong.
"And you didn't worry any more about the hunchback?" said Kemp.
"No," said the Invisible Man.
"Nor have I heard what happened to him. I suppose he untied himself or kicked himself out. The knots were pretty tight."
He became quiet and went to the window and stared out.
"What happened when you went out into the Strand?"
"Oh! - disappointment again."
"I thought my troubles were over."
"I thought I could do whatever I chose, everything - except give away my secret."
"So I thought."
"Whatever I did, whatever the results might be, was nothing to me."
"I had only to throw off my clothes and disappear."
"No person could hold me."
"I could take my money where I found it."
"I decided to treat myself to a big meal, and then stay at a good hotel, and get a new set of things."
"I felt very confident, it's not very pleasant remembering that I was a fool."
"I went into a place and was already ordering lunch, when it came to me that I couldn't eat unless I showed my invisible face."
"I finished ordering the lunch, told the man I should be back in ten minutes, and went out annoyed."
"I don't know if you have ever been disappointed in your hunger."
"Not quite so badly," said Kemp, "but I can imagine it."
"I could have broken the silly devils".
At last, weak with the desire for good food, I went into another place and asked for a private room.
I'm disfigured, I said, showing the ugly bandages around my face.
'Badly.' They looked at me curiously, but of course it wasn't their business - and so at last I got my lunch.
It wasn't very well served, the food was cold and the plates were untidy.
But it was enough, and when I had had it, I sat over a cigar, trying to plan my next move.
And outside a snowstorm was beginning.
The more I thought, Kemp, the more I saw how helpless an Invisible Man is in a cold, dirty climate and crowded city.
"Before I made this crazy experiment I had dreamed of a thousand advantages."
"That afternoon it seemed all disappointment."
"I went over the heads of the things a person wants."
"No doubt invisibility made it possible to get them, but it made it impossible to enjoy them when they're got."
"Ambition - what's the good of pride of position when you can't appear there?"
"What's the good of the love of a woman when her name must needs be Delilah?"
"I have no taste for politics, for the dirty things of fame, for helping others, for sport."
"What was I to do?"
"And for this I had become a wrapped-up mystery, a covered and bandaged joke of a man!"
He paused, and his attitude suggested a moving look at the window.
"But how did you get to Iping?" said Kemp, wanting to keep his guest busy talking.
"I went there to work."
"I had one hope."
"It was a half idea!"
"I have it still."
"It's a full idea now."
"A way of getting back!"
"Of fixing what I have done."
"When I choose."
"When I have done all I mean to do invisibly."
"And that's what I mainly want to talk to you about now."
"You went straight to Iping?"
"Yes, I had to get my three books of notes and my cheque-book."
"I also needed my luggage and underclothes and ordered chemicals to work out my idea."
"I'll show you the sums when I get my books, then I started. I remember the snowstorm and keeping snow from wetting my paper nose".
"At the end," said Kemp, "the day before yesterday, when they found you out, you rather - to judge by the newspapers -"
"I did. Rather. Did I kill that stupid policeman?"
"No," said Kemp.
"He's expected to get better."
"That's his luck, then. I completely lost my temper, the fools! Why couldn't they leave me alone? And that shopkeeper?"
"There are no deaths expected," said Kemp.
"I don't know about that homeless man of mine," said the Invisible Man, with an unpleasant laugh.
"By Heaven, Kemp, you don't know what anger is! ".
To have worked for years, to have planned and plotted, and then to get some stupid blind idiot messing across your path! .
Every possible kind of silly creature that has ever been created has been sent to cross me.
"If I have much more of it, I shall go wild - I shall start cutting them down".
"As it's, they've made things a thousand times more difficult."
"No doubt it's annoying," said Kemp, dryly.