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

Kemp read this letter twice. “It’s no joke,” he said. He told his servant to lock the doors and shutters. From a drawer in his bedroom he took a revolver, and put it into his pocket. He wrote a note to Colonel Adye, and sent it to him with his servant.

He stood at the window looking at the hillside.

“He may be watching me now.”

Something hit the wall near the window, and he stepped back.

He heard the front door bell ringing. He unbolted and unlocked the door, and looked out. It was Adye. “Your servant has been attacked, Kemp,” he said. “He has taken your note from her. He’s near here. Let me in.”

“Planned a trap – like a fool and sent you a note with my servant. To him. Look here!” said Kemp, and showed him Griffin’s letter. Adye read it. “And you —?” said Adye.

They heard glass smashed upstairs. “It’s a window upstairs!” said Kemp, and led the way up. When they reached the study they found two of the three windows smashed, and one big stone on the writing-table. Kemp swore as the third window was smashed with a stone.

“I’ll go down to the police station and get the dogs,” said Adye. “Have you got a revolver?”

Kemp hesitated.

“I’ll bring it back,” said Adye. “You’ll be safe here.”

Kemp gave him the revolver.

Kemp unbolted the door as noiselessly as possible. His face was a little paler than usual.

In another moment Adye was out and the bolts were drawn again. He saw grass moving. Something was near him.

“Stop,” said a Voice, and Adye stopped, his hand on the revolver. “Where are you going?”

“Where I go,” Adye said slowly, “is my own business.” Suddenly an arm came round his neck, and in a moment he lay on the ground, his hand pulling the revolver out of the pocket. In another moment he was struck, and the revolver was taken from him.

“Don’t try any games. I can see you, but you can’t see me, ” said the Voice. “Go back to the house.”

Adye walked towards the house. Kemp watched him through the window. He saw a revolver following Adye. Then things happened very quickly. Adye rushed back, gripped the revolver, threw up his hands, fell on his face, and lay still.

Kemp stood looking out of the window. He saw his servant and two policemen coming along the road. Everything was still. He wondered what Griffin was doing.

Suddenly he heard heavy blows, and the broken shutters fell inside. The shutters had been cut with an axe, and now the axe was working at another window.

Kemp stood in the passage thinking. In a moment the Invisible Man would be in the kitchen. This door would not keep him a moment, and then —

A ringing came at the front door. These were the policemen. He ran into the hall, let them in.

“The Invisible Man!” said Kemp, “He has a revolver with two shots left. He’s killed Adye. Shot him. He has found an axe —”

Suddenly the house was full of heavy blows on the kitchen door. They heard the kitchen door give. [182]

“This way,” cried Kemp, and ran to the dining-room. He took a poker from the fireplace and gave it to one policeman. Suddenly they saw an axe, and the policeman caught the axe on his poker. The revolver fell on the floor.

The axe moved to the passage. “Stand away, you two,” the Invisible Man said. “I want that man Kemp.”

The first policeman made a step into the passage and fell hit by an axe. But the second policeman, who had taken another poker, hit the Invisible Man. There was a cry of pain, and then the axe fell to the ground. He heard the dining-room window open, and the sound of running feet. The first policeman sat up, with the blood running down his face. “Where is he?” asked the man on the floor.

“Don’t know. I’ve hit him. Dr. Kemp – sir!”

“Dr. Kemp,” cried both policemen. They looked into the dining-room.

Neither the servant nor Kemp was there.

Kemp ran down the hill road. The road was very long, and the town was very far away. All the houses were locked, no doubt by his own orders.

He decided to go for the police station. He stopped a little, and then he heard the steps of the Invisible Man behind him.

“The Invisible Man!” he cried. He saw people running to him, some with sticks and knives. Kemp suddenly realised that the situation had changed. He stopped and looked round.

He was hit hard on the head, but he kept his feet, [183]and he struck back. Then he was hit in the face, and fell on the ground. In another moment unseen hands gripped his throat. He heard men crying near him, and the grip at his throat suddenly relaxed, as men were hitting his unseen enemy from all sides. Some men were kicking violently at something on the ground.

“Get back, you fools!” cried Kemp. “He’s hurt. Stand back.”

Kemp felt about, his hand seemed to pass through empty air. “I can’t feel his heart,” he said.

An old woman screamed “Look there!” And looking where she pointed, everyone saw a vague and transparent, as though made of glass, hand.

“Here are his feet showing!” cried someone.

And so, slowly, beginning at his hands and feet, the body became visible. Soon there lay, naked and broken body of a young man about thirty. His hair and face were white with the whiteness of an albino. His eyes were wide open, and they could see anger in his face.

“Cover his face!” cried a man. “For God’s sake cover that face!”

Someone brought a sheet from the “Jolly Cricketers,” covered him, and they carried him into that house. And there, broken and wounded, Griffin, the first of all men to make himself invisible, the most talented physicist in the world, ended his strange and terrible career.

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

1. Griffin sent Kemp a note in which he wrote he would kill him.

2. Griffin waited for Kemp near his house quietly.

3. Kemp gave his revolver to Colonel Adye, but Griffin attacked him and took the revolver from him.

4. Colonel Adye attacked Griffin and was shot dead.

5. After Griffin killed Colonel Adye he waited quietly for Kemp to go out and come up to the dead man.

6. Kemp waited for more policemen to come, but no one came.

7. Kemp made an attempt to escape, he ran down to the town.

8. When Kemp and Griffin reached the town, some people attacked the Invisible Man and beat him to death.

9. Griffin became visible a few hours after his death.

1. Why do you think Griffin wanted to kill Kemp?

2. How do you think Griffin saw his future? Did he hope to win?

3. Do you think Colonel Adye was a brave man? What about other policemen?

4. Why were the men of the town so cruel to the Invisible Man? Were you sorry for him?

So ends the story of the strange experiment of the Invisible Man. And if you want to learn more of him you must go to the inn “The Invisible Man” near Port Stowe and talk to the landlord. Drink generously, and he will tell you generously of all the things that happened to him after that time.

If you ask him if there were any three books in the story, he will say that everybody thinks he has them, but he doesn’t. “It’s that Mr. Kemp’s idea that I have them.”

Every Sunday morning, while his bar is closed, and every night after ten, he goes into his bar, locks the door and examines the blinds, and even looks under the table. And then he unlocks the cupboard, and a box in the cupboard, and takes out three books, and puts them on the table. The landlord sits in an armchair, turning over the leaves.