The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells Page A

that had closed round his wrist with his disengaged
fingers, and his fingers 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, 'arf
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're quite right, and it's not quite 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. "Howjer manage it! How the dooce is it done?"
    "It's too long a story. And besides—"
    "I tell you, the whole business fairly 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 tizzy. 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, 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 experience 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