Now in order clearly to understand what had happened in the inn,
it is necessary to go back to the moment when Mr. Marvel first came
into view of Mr. Huxter's window. At that precise moment Mr. Cuss
and Mr. Bunting were in the parlour. They were seriously
investigating the strange occurrences of the morning, and were, with
Mr. Hall's permission, making a thorough examination of the
Invisible Man's belongings. Jaffers had partially recovered from his
fall and had gone home in the charge of his sympathetic friends. The
stranger's scattered garments had been removed by Mrs. Hall and the
room tidied up. And on the table under the window where the stranger
had been wont to work, Cuss had hit almost at once on three big
books in manuscript labelled "Diary."
"Diary!" said Cuss, putting the three books on the
table. "Now, at any rate, we shall learn something." The
Vicar stood with his hands on the table.
"Diary," repeated Cuss, sitting down, putting two
volumes to support the third, and opening it. "H'm--no name on
the fly-leaf. Bother!--cypher. And figures."
The Vicar came round to look over his shoulder.
Cuss turned the pages over with a face suddenly disappointed.
"I'm--dear me! It's all cypher, Bunting."
"There are no diagrams?" asked Mr. Bunting. "No
illustrations throwing light--"
"See for yourself," said Mr. Cuss. "Some of it's
mathematical and some of it's Russian or some such language (to
judge by the letters), and some of it's Greek. Now the Greek I
thought you--"
"Of course," said Mr. Bunting, taking out and wiping
his spectacles and feeling suddenly very uncomfortable,--for he had
no Greek left in his mind worth talking about; "yes--the Greek,
of course, may furnish a clue."
"I'll find you a place."
"I'd rather glance through the volumes first," said Mr.
Bunting, still wiping. "A general impression first, Cuss, and
then, you know, we can go looking for clues."
He coughed, put on his glasses, arranged them fastidiously,
coughed again, and wished something would happen to avert the
seemingly inevitable exposure. Then he took the volume Cuss handed
him in a leisurely manner. And then something did happen.
The door opened suddenly.
Both gentlemen started violently, looked around, and were
relieved to see a sporadically rosy face beneath a furry silk hat.
"Tap?" asked the face, and stood staring.
"No," said both gentlemen at once.
"Over the other side, my man," said Mr. Bunting. And
"Please shut that door," said Mr. Cuss irritably.
"All right," said the intruder, as it seemed, in a low
voice curiously different from the huskiness of its first enquiry.
"Right you are," said the intruder in the former voice.
"Stand clear!" and he vanished and closed the door.
"A sailor, I should judge," said Mr. Bunting.
"Amusing fellows they are. Stand clear! indeed. A nautical term
referring to his getting back out of the room, I suppose."
"I daresay so," said Cuss. "My nerves are all
loose to-day. It quite made me jump--the door opening like
that."
Mr. Bunting smiled as if he had not jumped. "And now,"
he said with a sigh, "these books."
"One minute," said Cuss, and went and locked the door.
"Now I think we are safe from interruption."
Some one sniffed as he did so.
"One thing is indisputable," said Bunting, drawing up a
chair next to that of Cuss. "There certainly have been very
strange things happen in Iping during the last few days--very
strange. I cannot of course believe in this absurd invisibility
story--"
"It's incredible," said Cuss, "--incredible. But
the fact remains that I saw--I certainly saw right down his
sleeve--"
"But did you--are you sure? Suppose a mirror, for
instance,-- hallucinations are so easily produced. I don't know if
you have ever seen a really good conjuror--"
"I won't argue again," said Cuss. "We've thrashed
that out, Bunting. And just now there's these books--Ah! here's some
of what I take to be Greek! Greek letters certainly."
He pointed to the middle of the page. Mr. Bunting flushed
slightly and brought his face nearer, apparently finding some
difficulty with his glasses. Suddenly he became aware of a strange
feeling at the nape of his neck. He tried to raise his head, and
encountered an immovable resistance. The feeling was a curious
pressure, the grip of a heavy, firm hand, and it bore his chin
irresistibly to the table. "Don't move, little men,"
whispered a voice, "or I'll brain you both!" He looked
into the face of Cuss, close to his own, and each saw a horrified
reflection of his own sickly astonishment.
"I'm sorry to handle you roughly," said the Voice,
"but it's unavoidable.
"Since when did you learn to pry into an investigator's
private memoranda?" said the Voice; and two chins struck the
table simultaneously and two sets of teeth rattled.
"Since when did you learn to invade the private rooms of a
man in misfortune?" and the concussion was repeated.
"Where have they put my clothes?
"Listen," said the Voice. "The windows are
fastened and I've taken the key out of the door. I am a fairly
strong man, and I have the poker handy--besides being invisible.
There's not the slightest doubt that I could kill you both and get
away quite easily if I wanted to--do you understand? Very well. If I
let you go will you promise not to try any nonsense and do what I
tell you?"
The Vicar and the Doctor looked at one another, and the Doctor
pulled a face. "Yes," said Mr. Bunting, and the Doctor
repeated it. Then the pressure on the necks relaxed, and the Doctor
and the Vicar sat up, both very red in the face and wriggling their
heads.
"Please keep sitting where you are," said the Invisible
Man. "Here's the poker, you see.
"When I came into this room," continued the Invisible
Man, after presenting the poker to the tip of the nose of each of
his visitors, "I did not expect to find it occupied, and I
expected to find, in addition to my books of memoranda, an outfit of
clothing. Where is it? No,--don't rise. I can see it's gone. Now,
just at present, though the days are quite warm enough for an
invisible man to run about stark, the evenings are chilly. I want
clothing--and other accommodation; and I must also have those three
books."
