The Invisible Man

“Any one could see that. There is no need for you to be so confounded impatient, mister. Now, then. Give us a notion. How are you hid?”

“I’m invisible. That’s the great point. And what I want you to understand is this—”

“But whereabouts?” interrupted Mr. Marvel.

“Here—six yards in front of you.”

“Oh, come! I ain’t blind. You’ll be telling me next you’re just thin air. I’m not one of your ignorant tramps—”

“Yes. I am—thin air. You’re looking through me.”

“What! Ain’t there any stuff to you? Vox et—20 what is it?—jabber. Is it that?”

“I am just a human being—solid, needing food and drink, needing covering, too… But I’m invisible. You see? Invisible. Simple idea. Invisible.”

“What, real like?”

“Yes, real.”

“Let’s have a hand of you,” said Marvel, “if you are real. It won’t be so darn out–of–the–way like, then—21

“Lord!” he said, “how you made me jump!—gripping me like that!”

He felt the hand that had closed round his wrist with his disengaged fingers, and his touch went timorously up the arm, patted a muscular chest, and explored a bearded face. Marvel’s face was astonishment.

“I’m dashed!” he said. “If this don’t beat cock–fighting! Most remarkable!—And there I can see a rabbit clean through you arf22 a mile away! Not a bit of you visible—–except—”

He scrutinised the apparently empty space keenly. “You ’aven’t been eatin’ bread and cheese?” he asked, holding the invisible arm.

“You are quite right. It’s not assimilated into the system.”

“Ah!” said Mr. Marvel. “Sort of ghostly, though.”

“Of course, all this isn’t half so wonderful as you think.”

“It’s quite wonderful enough for my modest wants,” said Mr. Thomas Marvel. “Howjer23 manage it? How the dooce is it done?”24

“It’s too long a story. And besides—”

“I tell you, the whole business fair25 beats me,” said Mr. Marvel.

“What I want to say at present is this: I need help. I have come to that. I came upon you suddenly. I was wandering, mad with rage, naked, impotent, I could have murdered… And I saw you—”

“Lord!” said Mr. Marvel.

“I came up behind you—hesitated—went on.”

Mr. Marvel’s expression was eloquent.

“Then stopped. ’Here,’ I said ’is an outcast like myself. This is the man for me.’ So I turned back and came to you. You. And—”

“Lord!” said Mr. Marvel. “But I’m all in a dizzy.26 May I ask: How is it?—and what you may be requiring in the way of help? Invisible!”

“I want you to help me get clothes and shelter, and then with other things. I’ve left them long enough. If you won’t—well! . .. But you will—must.”

“Look here,” said Mr. Marvel. “I’m too flabbergasted. Don’t knock me about any more. And leave me go. I must get steady a bit. And you’ve pretty near broken my toe. It’s all so unreasonable. Empty downs, empty sky. Nothing visible for miles except the bosom of Nature. And then comes a voice. A voice out of heaven! And stones. And a fist. Lord!”

“Pull yourself together,” said the Voice, “for you have to do the job I’ve chosen for you.”

Mr. Marvel blew out his cheeks, and his eyes were round.

“I’ve chosen you,” said the Voice. “You are the only man, except some of those fools down there, who knows there is such a thing as an Invisible Man. You have to be my helper. Help me—and I will do great things for you. An Invisible Man is a man of power.” He stopped for a moment to sneeze violently.

“But if you betray me,” he said, “if you fail to do as I direct you—”

He paused and tapped Mr. Marvel’s shoulder smartly. Mr. Marvel gave a yelp of terror at the touch. “I don’t want to betray you,” said Mr. Marvel, edging away from the direction of the fingers. “Don’t you go a–thinking that, whatever you do. All I want to do is to help you—just tell me what I got to do. (Lord!) Whatever you want done, that I’m most willing to do.”

CHAPTER X MR. MARVEL’S VISIT TO IPING

After the first gusty panic had spent itself, Iping became argumentative. Scepticism suddenly reared its head—rather nervous scepticism, not at all assured of its back,1 but scepticism nevertheless. It is so much easier not to believe in an Invisible Man, and those who had actually seen him dissolve into air or felt the strength of his arm could be counted on the fingers of two hands. And of these witnesses, Mr. Wadgers was presently missing, having retired impregnably behind the bolts and bars of his own house, and Jaffers was lying stunned in the parlour of the “Coach and Horses.” Great and strange ideas transcending experience2 often have less effect upon men and women than smaller, more tangible considerations. Iping was gay with bunting, and everybody was in gala dress. Whit Monday had been looked forward to for a month or more. By the afternoon even those who believed in the Unseen were beginning to resume their little amusements in a tentative fashion, on the supposition that he had quite gone away, and with the sceptics he was already a jest. But people—sceptics and believers alike—were remarkably sociable all that day.