CHAPTER XIV
AT PORT STOWE
Ten o'clock the next morning found Mr. Marvel, unshaven, dirty, andtravel-stained, sitting with the books beside him and his hands deepin his pockets, looking very weary, nervous, and uncomfortable, andinflating his cheeks at infrequent intervals, on the bench outsidea little inn on the outskirts of Port Stowe. Beside him were thebooks, but now they were tied with string. The bundle had beenabandoned in the pine-woods beyond Bramblehurst, in accordance witha change in the plans of the Invisible Man. Mr. Marvel sat on thebench, and although no one took the slightest notice of him, hisagitation remained at fever heat. His hands would go ever and againto his various pockets with a curious nervous fumbling.
When he had been sitting for the best part of an hour, however, anelderly mariner, carrying a newspaper, came out of the inn and satdown 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) wasengrossed thereby for some minutes. His eyes meanwhile were atliberty to examine Mr. Marvel's dusty figure, and the books besidehim. As he had approached Mr. Marvel he had heard a sound like thedropping of coins into a pocket. He was struck by the contrast ofMr. Marvel's appearance with this suggestion of opulence. Thencehis mind wandered back again to a topic that had taken a curiouslyfirm 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, andthen 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 eyethat was firm and deliberate; "there's a story about an InvisibleMan, for instance."
Mr. Marvel pulled his mouth askew and scratched his cheek and felthis ears glowing. "What will they be writing next?" he askedfaintly. "Ostria, or America?"
"Neither," said the mariner. "_Here_."
"Lord!" said Mr. Marvel, starting.
"When I say _here_," said the mariner, to Mr. Marvel's intenserelief, "I don't of course mean here in this place, I meanhereabouts."
"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 toknow. Here it is: 'Pe-culiar Story from Iping.' And it says in thispaper 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 amedical gent witnesses--saw 'im all right and proper--or leastwaysdidn't see 'im. He was staying, it says, at the 'Coach an' Horses,'and no one don't seem to have been aware of his misfortune, it says,aware of his misfortune, until in an Altercation in the inn, itsays, his bandages on his head was torn off. It was then ob-servedthat his head was invisible. Attempts were At Once made to securehim, but casting off his garments, it says, he succeeded inescaping, but not until after a desperate struggle, in which hehad inflicted serious injuries, it says, on our worthy and ableconstable, Mr. J. A. Jaffers. Pretty straight story, eh? Names andeverything."
"Lord!" said Mr. Marvel, looking nervously about him, trying tocount the money in his pockets by his unaided sense of touch, andfull of a strange and novel idea. "It sounds most astonishing."
"Don't it? Extra-ordinary, _I_ call it. Never heard tell of InvisibleMen before, I haven't, but nowadays one hears such a lot ofextra-ordinary things--that--"
"That all he did?" asked Marvel, trying to seem at his ease.
"It's enough, ain't it?" said the mariner.
"Didn't go Back by any chance?" asked Marvel. "Just escaped andthat's all, eh?"
"All!" said the mariner. "Why!--ain't it enough?"
"Quite enough," said Marvel.
"I should think it was enough," said the mariner. "I should thinkit was enough."
"He didn't have any pals--it don't say he had any pals, does it?"asked Mr. Marvel, anxious.
"Ain't one of a sort enough for you?" asked the mariner. "No, thankHeaven, as one might say, he didn't."
He nodded his head slowly. "It makes me regular uncomfortable,the bare thought of that chap running about the country! He is atpresent At Large, and from certain evidence it is supposed that hehas--taken--_took_, I suppose they mean--the road to Port Stowe. Yousee we're right _in_ it! None of your American wonders, this time.And just think of the things he might do! Where'd you be, if he tooka drop over and above, and had a fancy to go for you? Suppose hewants to rob--who can prevent him? He can trespass, he can burgle,he could walk through a cordon of policemen as easy as me or youcould give the slip to a blind man! Easier! For these here blindchaps hear uncommon sharp, I'm told. And wherever there was liquorhe fancied--"
"He's got a tremenjous advantage, certainly," said Mr. Marvel."And--well..."
"You're right," said the mariner. "He _has_."
All this time Mr. Marvel had been glancing about him intently,listening for faint footfalls, trying to detect imperceptiblemovements. He seemed on the point of some great resolution. Hecoughed behind his hand.
He looked about him again, listened, bent towards the mariner, andlowered his voice: "The fact of it is--I happen--to know just athing or two about this Invisible Man. From private sources."
"Oh!" said the mariner, interested. "_You_?"
"Yes," said Mr. Marvel. "Me."
"Indeed!" said the mariner. "And may I ask--"
"You'll be astonished," said Mr. Marvel behind his hand. "It'stremenjous."
"Indeed!" said the mariner.
"The fact is," began Mr. Marvel eagerly in a confidential undertone.Suddenly his expression changed marvellously. "Ow!" he said. He rosestiffly in his seat. His face was eloquent of physical suffering."Wow!" he said.
"What's up?" said the mariner, concerned.
"Toothache," said Mr. Marvel, and put his hand to his ear. He caughthold of his books. "I must be getting on, I think," he said. Heedged in a curious way along the seat away from his interlocutor."But you was just a-going to tell me about this here Invisible Man!"protested the mariner. Mr. Marvel seemed to consult with himself."Hoax," said a Voice. "It's a hoax," said Mr. Marvel.
"But it's in the paper," said the mariner.
"Hoax all the same," said Marvel. "I know the chap that started thelie. There ain't no Invisible Man whatsoever--Blimey."
"But how 'bout this paper? D'you mean to say--?"
"Not a word of it," said Marvel, stoutly.
The mariner stared, paper in hand. Mr. Marvel jerkily faced about."Wait a bit," said the mariner, rising and speaking slowly, "D'youmean to say--?"
"I do," said Mr. Marvel.
"Then why did you let me go on and tell you all this blarstedstuff, then? What d'yer mean by letting a man make a fool ofhimself like that for? Eh?"
Mr. Marvel blew out his cheeks. The mariner was suddenly very redindeed; he clenched his hands. "I been talking here this tenminutes," he said; "and you, you little pot-bellied, leathery-facedson of an old boot, couldn't have the elementary manners--"
"Don't you come bandying words with _me
_," said Mr. Marvel.
"Bandying words! I'm a jolly good mind--"
"Come up," said a Voice, and Mr. Marvel was suddenly whirled aboutand started marching off in a curious spasmodic manner. "You'dbetter move on," said the mariner. "Who's moving on?" said Mr.Marvel. He was receding obliquely with a curious hurrying gait, withoccasional violent jerks forward. Some way along the road he begana muttered monologue, protests and recriminations.
"Silly devil!" said the mariner, legs wide apart, elbows akimbo,watching the receding figure. "I'll show you, you silly ass--hoaxing_me_! It's here--on the paper!"
Mr. Marvel retorted incoherently and, receding, was hidden by a bendin the road, but the mariner still stood magnificent in the midstof the way, until the approach of a butcher's cart dislodged him.Then he turned himself towards Port Stowe. "Full of extra-ordinaryasses," he said softly to himself. "Just to take me down a bit--thatwas his silly game--It's on the paper!"
And there was another extraordinary thing he was presently to hear,that had happened quite close to him. And that was a vision of a"fist full of money" (no less) travelling without visible agency,along by the wall at the corner of St. Michael's Lane. A brothermariner had seen this wonderful sight that very morning. He hadsnatched at the money forthwith and had been knocked headlong, andwhen he had got to his feet the butterfly money had vanished. Ourmariner was in the mood to believe anything, he declared, but thatwas a bit _too_ stiff. Afterwards, however, he began to think thingsover.
The story of the flying money was true. And all about thatneighbourhood, even from the august London and Country BankingCompany, from the tills of shops and inns--doors standing that sunnyweather entirely open--money had been quietly and dexterously makingoff that day in handfuls and rouleaux, floating quietly along bywalls and shady places, dodging quickly from the approaching eyes ofmen. And it had, though no man had traced it, invariably ended itsmysterious flight in the pocket of that agitated gentleman in theobsolete silk hat, sitting outside the little inn on the outskirtsof Port Stowe.
It was ten days after--and indeed only when the Burdock story wasalready old--that the mariner collated these facts and began tounderstand how near he had been to the wonderful Invisible Man.