Герберт Уэллс - Кентервильское привидение. Человек-невидимка / The Canterville Ghost. The Invisible Man

“It’s the drink,” said Mr. Thomas Marvel.

“It’s not the drink,” said the Voice.

“Oh!” said Mr. Marvel, and his face grew white. “It’s the drink,” he repeated. “ I could have sworn [160]I heard a voice,” he whispered.

“Of course you did.”

“It’s there again,” said Mr. Marvel, closing his eyes with his hands. He was suddenly taken by the collar and shaken violently. “Don’t be a fool!” said the Voice.

“I’m mad! Or it’s spirits!” said Mr. Marvel.

“Neither mad nor spirits,” said the Voice. “Listen! You think I’m just imagination?”

“What else can you be?” said Mr. Thomas Marvel.

“Very well,” said the Voice. “Then I’m going to throw stones at you.”

A stone flew through the air and hit Mr. Marvel’s shoulder. Mr. Marvel, turning, saw a stone hang in the air for a moment, and then fall at his feet. Another stone hit his foot. The tramp jumped, and screamed.

“Now,” said the Voice, “am I imagination?”

“I don’t understand it. Stones throwing themselves. Stones talking.”

“It’s very simple,” said the Voice. “I’m an invisible man. That’s what I want you to understand.”

“But where are you?” asked Mr. Marvel.

“Here! Six yards in front of you.”

“Oh, come! I’m not blind.”

“You’re looking through me.”

“What!”

“I am just a man who needs food and drink, clothes, too… But I’m invisible. You see? Invisible. Simple idea. Invisible.”

“What, real?”

“Yes, real.”

“Give me your hand,” said Marvel, “if you are real.”

He felt a hand touch his arm, then his face.

“Most remarkable!” Marvel’s face showed astonishment. “And there I can see a rabbit through you a mile away! Not a bit of you visible – except —”

He looked carefully in front of him. “Have you been eating bread and cheese?” he asked.

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

“Ah!” said Mr. Marvel. “How did you do it?”

“It’s too long a story. I need help. I saw you suddenly. I was walking, mad with rage, naked, helpless, I could have murdered [161]… And I saw you – ‘Here,’ I said ‘is an outcast like myself. This is the man for me.’ So I turned back and came to you.”

“Lord!” said Mr. Marvel. “But how can I help you?”

“I want you to help me get clothes and shelter, and then with other things. If you won’t —… But you will – must. 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.

He touched Mr. Marvel’s shoulder. Mr. Marvel gave a cry of terror at the touch. “I don’t want to betray you,” said Mr. Marvel. “All I want to do is to help you – just tell me what I have to do. I’ll do what you want.”

Are the following statements true or false? Correct the false ones.

1. Mr. Marvel, a tramp, heard a voice in his head because he had gone mad.

2. It was difficult for the Invisible Man to make the tramp believe he was real.

3. The Invisible Man was not absolutely invisible. Some parts of him could be seen.

4. The Invisible Man thought that the tramp was an outcast like himself and wanted to help him.

5. Mr. Marvel agreed to help the Invisible Man because he liked him and felt sorry for him.

1. Why was it difficult for the tramp to believe in the Invisible Man? Would you easily believe it if you were him?

2. What made Mr. Marvel believe he was speaking to an Invisible Man in the end?

3. Do you think Mr. Marvel gladly agreed to help the Invisible Man?

After the first panic was over, Iping became sceptical. It is much easier not to believe in an Invisible Man, and those who had actually seen him vanish in the air or felt the strength of his arm could be counted on the fingers of two hands. By the afternoon even those who believed in the Invisible Man were beginning to forget him.

About four o’clock a stranger entered the village. He was a short person in an extraordinarily shabby hat, and he appeared to be in a hurry. [162]He went to the “Coach and Horses.”

This stranger appeared to be talking to himself, as Mr. Huxter remarked. He stopped at the “Coach and Horses”, and, according to Mr. Huxter, it seemed he did not want to go in. At last he marched up the steps, and Mr. Huxter saw him turn to the left and open the door of the guest room. Mr. Huxter heard voices from the bar telling him of his mistake.

“That room’s private!” said Hall, and the stranger shut the door and went into the bar.

In a few minutes he reappeared. He stood looking about him for some moments, and then Mr. Huxter saw him walk towards the window of the room he had attempted to enter a few minutes before. The stranger took out a pipe, and began to smoke, looking around him carefully.

All this Mr. Huxter saw through the window of his shop, and the man’s suspicious behaviour made him continue his observation.

At last the stranger put his pipe in his pocket, looked around, and vanished in the window. Mr. Huxter ran out into the road to catch the thief. As he did so, Mr. Marvel reappeared, a big bundle in one hand, and three books in the other. As he saw Huxter he turned to the left, and began to run.

“Stop thief!” cried Huxter, and set off after him. He had hardly gone ten steps before he was caught in some mysterious way, and he was no longer running but flying through the air. He saw the ground suddenly close to his head, and all went black.

To understand what had happened in the inn, it is necessary to go back to the moment when Mr. Huxter first saw Mr. Marvel through the window.

At that moment Mr. Cuss and Mr. Bunting were in the guest room. They were seriously investigating what had happened in the morning, and were, with Mr. Hall’s permission, making a thorough examination of the Invisible Man’s things. Jaffers had recovered from his fall and had gone home. The stranger’s clothes had been taken away by Mrs. Hall, and the room tidied up. And on the table under the window, where the stranger had usually worked, Cuss had almost at once found three big books labeled “Diary.”

“Diary!” said Cuss, putting the three books on the table. “Now we shall learn something. H’m – no name. Cipher. And figures.”

Cuss turned the pages over with a face suddenly disappointed. “It’s all cipher, Bunting.”

“There are no diagrams?” asked Mr. Bunting. “No illustrations?”

“No,” said Mr. Cuss. “Some of it’s mathematical, and some of it’s Russian or some other language —”

The door opened suddenly.

Both men looked round, and saw a tramp. “Bar?” asked he.

“No,” said both gentlemen at once. “Over the other side.”

“All right,” said the man in a low voice, different from the first question and closed the door.

“And now,” Mr. Bunting said, “these books.”

“One minute,” said Cuss, and went and locked the door. “Now I think we are safe from interruption.”

Someone sneezed as he did so.

“Very strange things have happened in Iping during the last few days – very strange. I cannot, of course, believe in the Invisible Man —” said Bunting.

“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… Hallucinations may be…”