Free The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells Page B

shut up I shall twist your wrist again," said the
Invisible Man. "I want to think."
    Presently two oblongs of yellow light appeared through the trees,
and the square tower of a church loomed through the gloaming. "I
shall keep my hand on your shoulder," said the Voice, "all through
the village. Go straight through and try no foolery. It will be the
worse for you if you do."
    "I know that," sighed Mr. Marvel, "I know all that."
    The unhappy-looking figure in the obsolete silk hat passed up the
street of the little village with his burdens, and vanished into
the gathering darkness beyond the lights of the windows.

Chapter XIV - At Port Stowe
*
    Ten o'clock the next morning found Mr. Marvel, unshaven, dirty, and
travel-stained, sitting with the books beside him and his hands deep
in his pockets, looking very weary, nervous, and uncomfortable, and
inflating his cheeks at infrequent intervals, on the bench outside
a little inn on the outskirts of Port Stowe. Beside him were the
books, but now they were tied with string. The bundle had been
abandoned in the pine-woods beyond Bramblehurst, in accordance with
a change in the plans of the Invisible Man. Mr. Marvel sat on the
bench, and although no one took the slightest notice of him, his
agitation remained at fever heat. His hands would go ever and again
to his various pockets with a curious nervous fumbling.
    When he had been sitting for the best part of an hour, however, an
elderly mariner, carrying a newspaper, came out of the inn and sat
down beside him. "Pleasant day," said the mariner.
    Mr. Marvel glanced about him with something very like terror.
"Very," he said.
    "Just seasonable weather for the time of year," said the mariner,
taking no denial.
    "Quite," said Mr. Marvel.
    The mariner produced a toothpick, and (saving his regard) was
engrossed thereby for some minutes. His eyes meanwhile were at
liberty to examine Mr. Marvel's dusty figure, and the books beside
him. As he had approached Mr. Marvel he had heard a sound like the
dropping of coins into a pocket. He was struck by the contrast of
Mr. Marvel's appearance with this suggestion of opulence. Thence
his mind wandered back again to a topic that had taken a curiously
firm hold of his imagination.
    "Books?" he said suddenly, noisily finishing with the toothpick.
    Mr. Marvel started and looked at them. "Oh, yes," he said. "Yes,
they're books."
    "There's some extra-ordinary things in books," said the mariner.
    "I believe you," said Mr. Marvel.
    "And some extra-ordinary things out of 'em," said the mariner.
    "True likewise," said Mr. Marvel. He eyed his interlocutor, and
then glanced about him.
    "There's some extra-ordinary things in newspapers, for example,"
said the mariner.
    "There are."
    "In
this
newspaper," said the mariner.
    "Ah!" said Mr. Marvel.
    "There's a story," said the mariner, fixing Mr. Marvel with an eye
that was firm and deliberate; "there's a story about an Invisible
Man, for instance."
    Mr. Marvel pulled his mouth askew and scratched his cheek and felt
his ears glowing. "What will they be writing next?" he asked
faintly. "Ostria, or America?"
    "Neither," said the mariner. "
Here
."
    "Lord!" said Mr. Marvel, starting.
    "When I say
here
," said the mariner, to Mr. Marvel's intense
relief, "I don't of course mean here in this place, I mean
hereabouts."
    "An Invisible Man!" said Mr. Marvel. "And what's
he
been up to?"
    "Everything," said the mariner, controlling Marvel with his eye,
and then amplifying, "every—blessed—thing."
    "I ain't seen a paper these four days," said Marvel.
    "Iping's the place he started at," said the mariner.
    "In-
deed
!" said Mr. Marvel.
    "He started there. And where he came from, nobody don't seem to
know. Here it is: 'Pe-culiar Story from Iping.' And it says in this
paper that the evidence is extra-ordinary strong—extra-ordinary."
    "Lord!" said Mr. Marvel.
    "But then, it's an extra-ordinary story. There is a clergyman and a
medical gent witnesses—saw 'im all right and