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The Invisible Man
Chapter 7. THE UNVEILING OF THE STRANGER
The stranger entered the little parlour of the "Coach and Horses" around half-past five in the morning.
He stayed there until nearly midday.
The blinds were down and the door was shut.
After Hall's refusal, no one came near him.
All that time he must have gone without food.
Three times he rang his bell, the third time angrily and without stopping, but no one answered him.
"Him and his 'go to the devil' indeed!" said Mrs. Hall.
Soon a story came about the burglary at the vicarage, and people put two and two together.
Hall, helped by Wadgers, went off to find Mr. Shuckleforth, the magistrate, and ask his advice.
No one dared to go upstairs.
How the stranger spent his time is unknown.
Now and then he walked up and down, twice there were swearing, tearing of paper, and bottles smashed hard.
The little group of scared but curious people grew.
Mrs. Huxter came over, young men in black ready-made jackets and paper ties, for it was Whit Monday, joined with confused questions.
Young Archie Harker made himself noticed by going up the yard and trying to look under the window-blinds.
He could see nothing, but he gave reasons for thinking that he did, and other young people of Iping soon joined him.
It was the best of all possible Whit Mondays.
Down the village street stood a row of nearly a dozen booths and a shooting gallery.
On the grass by the forge were three yellow and chocolate wagons.
Some interesting strangers of both sexes were setting up a coconut shy.
The men wore blue shirts, the women white aprons and quite fashionable hats with heavy feathers.
Wodger, of the "Purple Fawn," and Mr. Jaggers, the shoemaker, were hanging a string of union-jacks and royal flags across the road.
Mr. Jaggers also sold old second-hand ordinary bicycles.
Those flags had first celebrated the first Victorian Jubilee.
The stranger sat in the dark parlour.
Only one thin line of sunlight entered the room.
He was hungry and afraid, hidden in his hot wrappings.
He looked through his dark glasses at his paper.
Sometimes he moved his dirty little bottles.
He swore angrily at the boys outside the windows.
They could be heard but not seen.
In the corner by the fireplace lay the pieces of half a dozen smashed bottles, and a strong smell of chlorine filled the air.
This is what we know from what was heard at the time and from what was later seen in the room.
About noon he suddenly opened his parlour door and stood staring hard at the three or four people in the bar.
"Mrs. Hall," he said.
Someone went nervously and called for Mrs. Hall.
Mrs. Hall appeared after a moment, a little out of breath, but all the angrier for that, Hall was still out.
She had thought about this scene, and she came holding a little tray with an unpaid bill on it.
"Is it your bill you're wanting, sir?" she said.
"Why wasn't my breakfast served? Why haven't you prepared my meals and answered my bell? Do you think I live without eating?"
"Why isn't my bill paid?" said Mrs. Hall.
"That's what I want to know."
"I told you three days ago I was waiting for a payment, "
"I told you two days ago I wasn't going to wait for any payments."
"You can't complain if your breakfast waits a bit, if my bill's been waiting these five days, can you?"
The stranger swore shortly but strongly.
"No, no!" from the bar.
"And I'd thank you kindly, sir, if you'd keep your swearing to yourself, sir," said Mrs. Hall.
The stranger stood looking more like an angry diving-helmet than ever.
Everyone in the bar felt that Mrs. Hall had the better of him, his next words showed that.
"Look here, my good woman, " he began.
"Don't 'good woman' me," said Mrs. Hall.
"I've told you my payment hasn't come."
"Payment indeed!" said Mrs. Hall.
"Still, I suppose in my pocket, "
"You told me three days ago that you had nothing but a sovereign's worth of silver on you."
"Well, I've found some more, "
"Hello!" from the bar.
"I wonder where you found it," said Mrs. Hall.
That seemed to annoy the stranger very much, he stamped his foot.
"What do you mean?" he said.
"That I wonder where you found it," said Mrs. Hall.
You have to tell me one or two things I don't understand.
Nobody understands them, and everyone is very eager to understand them.
I want to know what you've been doing to my chair upstairs.
And I want to know how it's your room was empty, and how you got in again.
People who stay in this house come in by the doors, that's the rule of the house.
And you didn't do that, and what I want to know is how you did come in.
"And I want to know, "
Suddenly the stranger raised his gloved hands closed, stamped his foot, and said, "Stop!" with such great force that he silenced her at once.
"You don't understand,"
He said, "who or what I am. I'll show you. By Heaven!" He put hand over face and took it away.
The centre of his face became a black hole.
"Here," he said.
He stepped forward and gave Mrs. Hall something which she, staring at his changed face, took without thinking.
Then, when she saw what it was, she screamed loudly, dropped it, and stepped back.
The nose, it was the stranger's nose! pink and shining, rolled on the floor.
Then he took off his glasses, and everyone in the bar gasped.
He took off his hat, and with a violent movement tore at his whiskers and bandages.
For a moment they didn't come off.
A flash of terrible fear passed through the bar.
"Oh, my God!" said someone.
Then off they came, bandages and false hair flying across the passage into the bar.
It was worse than anything they had imagined before that frightening moment.
Mrs. Hall, standing with her mouth open and shocked, screamed at what she saw, and ran for the door of the house.
Everyone began to move, they were ready for scars, disfigurements, real horrors, but nothing!
The bandages and false hair flew across the passage into the bar, making a young man jump to avoid them.
Everyone fell on top of each other down the steps.
The man shouting an unclear explanation saw a solid figure to his coat collar, then nothing, no visible thing!
People down the village heard shouts and screams, and looking up the street saw the "Coach and Horses" violently sending out its people.
Mrs. Hall fell down, Mr. Teddy Henfrey jumped to avoid falling over her.
Then they heard Millie's terrible screams.
She had come from the kitchen at the noise and found the headless stranger from behind, these grew louder at once.
The sweet seller, coconut shy owner, and his helper all ran towards the inn.
The swing man, little boys and girls, country dandies, and pretty girls followed.
Old men in smocks and gypsies in aprons joined them.
In a very short time, a crowd of about forty people gathered.
The crowd quickly grew, moving and shouting in front of Mrs. Hall's place.
Everyone seemed eager to talk at once, and the result was confusion.
A small group supported Mrs. Hall, who was picked up in a state of collapse.
There was a discussion, and the unbelievable story of a loud eye-witness.
"O Bogey!" "What's he been doing, then?" "Hasn't hurt the girl, has he?"
"Ran at him with a knife, I believe." "No head, I tell you. I don't mean no way of speaking."
"I mean a man without a head!" "Nonsense! It's some magic trick." "Took off his wrappings, he did,"
Trying to see through the open door, the crowd formed a loose wedge with the bravest nearest the inn.
"He stood for a moment, I heard the girl scream, and he turned."
"I saw her skirts move, and he went after her."
"Didn't take ten seconds."
"Back he comes with a knife in his hand and a loaf, stood just as if he was staring."
"Not a moment ago."
"Went in that there door."
"I tell you, he hasn't got no head at all."
"You just missed him,"
A disturbance came from behind, the speaker stopped and stepped aside for a small group marching firmly toward the house.
First came Mr. Hall, very red and determined.
Then came Mr. Bobby Jaffers, the village policeman.
Finally came the careful Mr. Wadgers.
They had come now with a legal order.
People shouted different information about what had just happened.
"Head or no head," said Jaffers, "I have to arrest him, and arrest him I'll."
Mr. Hall marched up the steps, marched straight to the door of the parlour and threw it open.
"Constable," he said, "do your duty."
Jaffers marched in, Hall next, Wadgers last.
In the dim light they saw the headless figure, a bitten bread in one gloved hand and cheese in the other.
"That's him!" said Hall.
"What the devil's this?" came in a tone of angry complaint from above the collar of the figure.
"You're a very strange customer, mister," said Mr. Jaffers.
"But head or no head, the order says 'body,' and duty's duty, "
"Keep off!" said the figure, moving back.
Suddenly he threw down the bread and cheese, and Mr.
Hall just caught the knife on the table in time to save it.
Hall just caught the knife on the table in time to save it.
Off came the stranger's left glove and was slapped in Jaffers' face.
In another moment Jaffers, stopping some statement about a warrant, had grabbed him by the handless wrist and caught his invisible throat.
He got a hard kick on the shin that made him shout, but he kept his hold.
Hall sent the knife sliding along the table to Wadgers.
Wadgers acted as goalkeeper for the attack.
Then Hall stepped forward as Jaffers and the stranger moved and fell towards him.
They were grabbing and hitting, a chair stood in the way, and went aside with a crash as they came down together.
"Get the feet," said Jaffers between his teeth.
Mr. Hall tried to follow the instructions.
He received a hard kick in the ribs that stopped him for a moment.
Mr. Wadgers saw the headless stranger roll over and get on top of Jaffers.
He moved back towards the door, knife in hand.
He hit Mr. Huxter and the Sidderbridge carter, who were coming to help law and order.
At the same moment down came three or four bottles from the cabinet and sent a strong smell into the air of the room.
"I'll give up," cried the stranger.
He had Jaffers down, In another moment he stood up breathing hard.
He was a strange figure, headless and handless.
He had pulled off his right glove now as well as his left.
"It's no good," he said, as if crying for breath.
It was the strangest thing in the world to hear that voice come from empty space.
But the Sussex country people are maybe the most practical people under the sun.
Jaffers got up also and took out a pair of handcuffs, then he stared.
"I say!" said Jaffers, stopped short by a dim understanding of the strangeness of the whole thing.
"Damn it! Can't use them as I can see."
The stranger ran his arm down his waistcoat, and as if by a miracle the buttons to which his empty sleeve pointed became undone.
Then he said something about his shin, and bent down.
He seemed to be feeling for his shoes and socks.
"Why!" said Huxter, suddenly.
"That's not a man at all. It's just empty clothes. Look! You can see down his collar and the linings of his clothes. I could put my arm, "
He reached out his hand, it seemed to meet something in the air, and he pulled it back with a sharp cry.
"I wish you'd keep your fingers out of my eye," said the voice from the air, in a tone of angry complaint.
"The fact is, I'm all here, head, hands, legs, and all the rest of it, but it happens I'm invisible."
"It's a terrible nuisance, but I'm."
"That's no reason why I should be poked to pieces by every stupid country person in Iping, is it?"
The suit of clothes, now all unbuttoned and hanging loosely on its unseen supports, stood up, hands on hips.
Several other of the men had now entered the room, so that it was very crowded.
"Invisible, eh?" said Huxter, ignoring the stranger's angry words.
"Who ever heard of such a thing?"
"It's strange, perhaps, but it's not a crime. Why am I attacked by a policeman in this way?"
"Ah! That's a different matter," said Jaffers.
"No doubt you're a bit hard to see in this light, but I have a warrant and it's all correct."
"What I'm after isn't invisibility, it's burglary."
"There's a house been broken into and money taken."
"Well?"
"And the facts certainly point, "
"Stuff and nonsense!" said the Invisible Man.
"I hope so, sir, but I've got my orders."
"Well," said the stranger, "I'll come. I'll come. But no handcuffs."
"It's the usual thing," said Jaffers.
"No handcuffs," said the stranger firmly.
"Excuse me," said Jaffers.
Suddenly the figure sat down, and before anyone could understand what was happening, the slippers, socks, and trousers had been kicked off under the table.
Then he jumped up again and threw off his coat.
"Here, stop that," said Jaffers, suddenly realizing what was happening.
He grabbed at the waistcoat, it moved, and the shirt slipped out of it and left it soft and empty in his hand.
"Hold him!" said Jaffers, loudly.
"Once he gets the things off, "
"Hold him!" cried everyone, and there was a rush at the moving white shirt which was now all that could be seen of the stranger.
The shirt-sleeve hit Hall's face with a hard blow.
It stopped his open-armed advance and sent him backward into old Toothsome the sexton.
Then the shirt was lifted up.
It became shaking and loosely moving about the arms, like a shirt being pulled over a man's head.
Jaffers grabbed at it, and only helped to pull it off.
He was hit in the mouth out of the air.
He immediately threw his stick and hit Teddy Henfrey hard on the top of his head.
"Look out!" said everybody, hitting at random and hitting nothing.
"Hold him! Shut the door! Don't let him go! I've got something! Here he's!" A perfect confusion of noises they made.
Everyone seemed to be hit all at once.
Sandy Wadgers, clever as ever and wits sharpened by a terrible blow to the nose, opened the door and led the escape.
The others, following at once, were stuck for a moment in the corner by the doorway.
The hitting continued, Phipps, the Unitarian, had a front tooth broken, and Henfrey was hurt in the cartilage of his ear.
Jaffers was hit under the jaw and, turning, caught something between him and Huxter that stopped them meeting.
He felt a muscular chest, and in another moment the whole mass of struggling, excited men shot out into the crowded hall.
"I've got him!" shouted Jaffers, choking and moving unsteadily through them all, and fighting with purple face and swelling veins against his unseen enemy.
Men fell right and left as the strange fight moved toward the house door and spun down the inn's six steps.
Jaffers cried in a choked voice, holding tight, anyway, and using his knee, spun around, and fell heavily with his head on the ground.
Only then did his fingers let go.
There were excited cries of "Hold him!"
"Invisible!" and so forth, people cried.
"A young stranger rushed in, caught something, missed his hold, and fell over the policeman's lying body."
Half-way across the road, a woman screamed as something pushed past her.
A dog, as if kicked, yelped and ran howling into Huxter's yard, with that the passing of the Invisible Man was done.
For a moment people stood amazed, moving their hands, then panic sent them running through the village like wind scattering dead leaves.
But Jaffers lay quite still, face upward and knees bent, at the foot of the steps of the inn.
The eighth chapter is very short.
It tells about Gibbons, the amateur naturalist of the area.
He was lying out on the wide open downs.
He thought no one was within a couple of miles of him.
He was almost sleeping, then he heard a sound close to him.
It was like a man coughing, sneezing, and swearing angrily.
He looked but saw nothing, yet the voice was clear.
It continued to swear with that width and variety that marks the swearing of an educated man.
It reached a loud peak, grew quieter, and died away toward Adderdean, as it seemed to him.
It rose to a sudden sneeze and ended.
Gibbons had heard nothing of the morning's events.
But the thing was so striking and disturbing that his calm thinking left him.
He got up quickly and hurried down the steep hill towards the village, as fast as he could go.