The Invisible Man By H.G.Wells Chapter 13 Mr. Marvel Discusses His Resignation

The Invisible Man

By H.G.Wells

Chapter 13

Mr. Marvel Discusses His Resignation

When the dusk was gathering and Iping was just beginning to peep

timorously forth again upon the shattered wreckage of its Bank

Holiday, a short, thick-set man in a shabby silk hat was marching

painfully through the twilight behind the beechwoods on the road to

Bramblehurst. He carried three books bound together by some sort

of ornamental elastic ligature, and a bundle wrapped in a blue

table-cloth. His rubicund face expressed consternation and fatigue;

he appeared to be in a spasmodic sort of hurry. He was accompanied

by a voice other than his own, and ever and again he winced under

the touch of unseen hands.

"If you give me the slip again," said the Voice, "if you attempt to

give me the slip again--"

"Lord!" said Mr. Marvel. "That shoulder's a mass of bruises as it

is."

"On my honour," said the Voice, "I will kill you."

"I didn't try to give you the slip," said Marvel, in a voice that

was not far remote from tears. "I swear I didn't. I didn't know the

blessed turning, that was all! How the devil was I to know the

blessed turning? As it is, I've been knocked about--"

"You'll get knocked about a great deal more if you don't mind,"

said the Voice, and Mr. Marvel abruptly became silent. He blew out

his cheeks, and his eyes were eloquent of despair.

"It's bad enough to let these floundering yokels explode my little

secret, without _your_ cutting off with my books. It's lucky for some

of them they cut and ran when they did! Here am I ... No one knew I

was invisible! And now what am I to do?"

"What am _I_ to do?" asked Marvel, _sotto voce_.

"It's all about. It will be in the papers! Everybody will be

looking for me; everyone on their guard--" The Voice broke off

into vivid curses and ceased.

The despair of Mr. Marvel's face deepened, and his pace slackened.

"Go on!" said the Voice.

Mr. Marvel's face assumed a greyish tint between the ruddier

patches.

"Don't drop those books, stupid," said the Voice, sharply--overtaking

him.

"The fact is," said the Voice, "I shall have to make use of you....

You're a poor tool, but I must."

"I'm a _miserable_ tool," said Marvel.

"You are," said the Voice.

"I'm the worst possible tool you could have," said Marvel.

"I'm not strong," he said after a discouraging silence.

"I'm not over strong," he repeated.

"No?"

"And my heart's weak. That little business--I pulled it through,

of course--but bless you! I could have dropped."

"Well?"

"I haven't the nerve and strength for the sort of thing you want."

"_I'll_ stimulate you."

"I wish you wouldn't. I wouldn't like to mess up your plans, you

know. But I might--out of sheer funk and misery."

"You'd better not," said the Voice, with quiet emphasis.

"I wish I was dead," said Marvel.

"It ain't justice," he said; "you must admit.... It seems to me I've

a perfect right--"

"_Get_ on!" said the Voice.

Mr. Marvel mended his pace, and for a time they went in silence

again.

"It's devilish hard," said Mr. Marvel.

This was quite ineffectual. He tried another tack.

"What do I make by it?" he began again in a tone of unendurable

wrong.

"Oh! _shut up_!" said the Voice, with sudden amazing vigour. "I'll

see to you all right. You do what you're told. You'll do it all

right. You're a fool and all that, but you'll do--"

"I tell you, sir, I'm not the man for it. Respectfully--but

it _is_ so--"

"If you don't shut up I shall twist your wrist again," said the

Invisible Man. "I want to think."

Presently two oblongs of yellow light appeared through the trees,

and the square tower of a church loomed through the gloaming. "I

shall keep my hand on your shoulder," said the Voice, "all through

the village. Go straight through and try no foolery. It will be the

worse for you if you do."

"I know that," sighed Mr. Marvel, "I know all that."

The unhappy-looking figure in the obsolete silk hat passed up the

street of the little village with his burdens, and vanished into

the gathering darkness beyond the lights of the windows.