It is unavoidable that at this point the narrative1 should break off again, for a certain very painful reason that will presently be apparent. While these things were going on in the parlour, and while Mr. Huxter was watching Mr. Marvel2 smoking his pipe against the gate, not a dozen yards away were Mr. Hall and Teddy Henfrey discussing in a state of cloudy puzzlement the one Iping topic.
Suddenly there came a violent thud against the door of the parlour, a sharp cry, and then--silence.
"Hul-lo!" said Teddy Henfrey.
"Hul-lo!" from the Tap.
Mr. Hall took things in slowly but surely. "That ain't right," he said, and came round from behind the bar towards the parlour door.
He and Teddy approached the door together, with intent faces. Their eyes considered. "Summat wrong," said Hall, and Henfrey nodded agreement. Whiffs of an unpleasant chemical odour met them, and there was a muffled3 sound of conversation, very rapid and subdued4.
"You all right thur?" asked Hall, rapping.
The muttered conversation ceased abruptly5, for a moment silence, then the conversation was resumed, in hissing6 whispers, then a sharp cry of "No! no, you don't!" There came a sudden motion and the oversetting of a chair, a brief struggle. Silence again.
"What the dooce?" exclaimed Henfrey, _sotto voce_.
"You--all--right thur?" asked Mr. Hall, sharply, again.
The Vicar's voice answered with a curious jerking intonation7: "Quite ri-right. Please don't--interrupt."
"Odd!" said Mr. Henfrey.
"Odd!" said Mr. Hall.
"Says, 'Don't interrupt,'" said Henfrey.
"I heerd'n," said Hall.
"And a sniff," said Henfrey.
They remained listening. The conversation was rapid and subdued. "I _can't_," said Mr. Bunting, his voice rising; "I tell you, sir, I _will_ not."
"What was that?" asked Henfrey.
"Says he wi' nart," said Hall. "Warn't speaking to us, wuz he?"
"Disgraceful!" said Mr. Bunting, within.
"'Disgraceful,'" said Mr. Henfrey. "I heard it--distinct."
"Who's that speaking now?" asked Henfrey.
"Mr. Cuss, I s'pose," said Hall. "Can you hear--anything?"
Silence. The sounds within indistinct and perplexing.
"Sounds like throwing the table-cloth about," said Hall.
Mrs. Hall appeared behind the bar. Hall made gestures of silence and invitation. This aroused Mrs. Hall's wifely opposition8. "What yer listenin' there for, Hall?" she asked. "Ain't you nothin' better to do--busy day like this?"
Hall tried to convey everything by grimaces9 and dumb show, but Mrs. Hall was obdurate10. She raised her voice. So Hall and Henfrey, rather crestfallen11, tiptoed back to the bar, gesticulating to explain to her.
At first she refused to see anything in what they had heard at all. Then she insisted on Hall keeping silence, while Henfrey told her his story. She was inclined to think the whole business nonsense--perhaps they were just moving the furniture about. "I heerd'n say 'disgraceful'; _that_ I did," said Hall.
"_I_ heerd that, Mrs. Hall," said Henfrey.
"Like as not--" began Mrs. Hall.
"Hsh!" said Mr. Teddy Henfrey. "Didn't I hear the window?"
"What window?" asked Mrs. Hall.
"Parlour window," said Henfrey.
Everyone stood listening intently. Mrs. Hall's eyes, directed straight before her, saw without seeing the brilliant oblong of the inn door, the road white and vivid, and Huxter's shop-front blistering12 in the June sun. Abruptly Huxter's door opened and Huxter appeared, eyes staring with excitement, arms gesticulating. "Yap!" cried Huxter. "Stop thief!" and he ran obliquely13 across the oblong towards the yard gates, and vanished.
Simultaneously14 came a tumult15 from the parlour, and a sound of windows being closed.
Hall, Henfrey, and the human contents of the tap rushed out at once pell-mell into the street. They saw someone whisk round the corner towards the road, and Mr. Huxter executing a complicated leap in the air that ended on his face and shoulder. Down the street people were standing16 astonished or running towards them.
Mr. Huxter was stunned17. Henfrey stopped to discover this, but Hall and the two labourers from the Tap rushed at once to the corner, shouting incoherent things, and saw Mr. Marvel vanishing by the corner of the church wall. They appear to have jumped to the impossible conclusion that this was the Invisible Man suddenly become visible, and set off at once along the lane in pursuit. But Hall had hardly run a dozen yards before he gave a loud shout of astonishment18 and went flying headlong sideways, clutching one of the labourers and bringing him to the ground. He had been charged just as one charges a man at football. The second labourer came round in a circle, stared, and conceiving that Hall had tumbled over of his own accord, turned to resume the pursuit, only to be tripped by the ankle just as Huxter had been. Then, as the first labourer struggled to his feet, he was kicked sideways by a blow that might have felled an ox.
As he went down, the rush from the direction of the village green came round the corner. The first to appear was the proprietor19 of the cocoanut shy, a burly man in a blue jersey20. He was astonished to see the lane empty save for three men sprawling21 absurdly on the ground. And then something happened to his rear-most foot, and he went headlong and rolled sideways just in time to graze the feet of his brother and partner, following headlong. The two were then kicked, knelt on, fallen over, and cursed by quite a number of over-hasty people.
Now when Hall and Henfrey and the labourers ran out of the house, Mrs. Hall, who had been disciplined by years of experience, remained in the bar next the till. And suddenly the parlour door was opened, and Mr. Cuss appeared, and without glancing at her rushed at once down the steps toward the corner. "Hold him!" he cried. "Don't let him drop that parcel."
He knew nothing of the existence of Marvel. For the Invisible Man had handed over the books and bundle in the yard. The face of Mr. Cuss was angry and resolute23, but his costume was defective24, a sort of limp white kilt that could only have passed muster25 in Greece. "Hold him!" he bawled26. "He's got my trousers! And every stitch of the Vicar's clothes!"
"'Tend to him in a minute!" he cried to Henfrey as he passed the prostrate27 Huxter, and, coming round the corner to join the tumult, was promptly28 knocked off his feet into an indecorous sprawl22. Somebody in full flight trod heavily on his finger. He yelled, struggled to regain29 his feet, was knocked against and thrown on all fours again, and became aware that he was involved not in a capture, but a rout30. Everyone was running back to the village. He rose again and was hit severely31 behind the ear. He staggered and set off back to the "Coach and Horses" forthwith, leaping over the deserted32 Huxter, who was now sitting up, on his way.
Behind him as he was halfway33 up the inn steps he heard a sudden yell of rage, rising sharply out of the confusion of cries, and a sounding smack34 in someone's face. He recognised the voice as that of the Invisible Man, and the note was that of a man suddenly infuriated by a painful blow.
In another moment Mr. Cuss was back in the parlour. "He's coming back, Bunting!" he said, rushing in. "Save yourself!"
Mr. Bunting was standing in the window engaged in an attempt to clothe himself in the hearth-rug and a _West Surrey Gazette_. "Who's coming?" he said, so startled that his costume narrowly escaped disintegration35.
"Invisible Man," said Cuss, and rushed on to the window. "We'd better clear out from here! He's fighting mad! Mad!"
In another moment he was out in the yard.
"Good heavens!" said Mr. Bunting, hesitating between two horrible alternatives. He heard a frightful36 struggle in the passage of the inn, and his decision was made. He clambered out of the window, adjusted his costume hastily, and fled up the village as fast as his fat little legs would carry him.
From the moment when the Invisible Man screamed with rage and Mr. Bunting made his memorable37 flight up the village, it became impossible to give a consecutive38 account of affairs in Iping. Possibly the Invisible Man's original intention was simply to cover Marvel's retreat with the clothes and books. But his temper, at no time very good, seems to have gone completely at some chance blow, and forthwith he set to smiting39 and overthrowing40, for the mere41 satisfaction of hurting.
You must figure the street full of running figures, of doors slamming and fights for hiding-places. You must figure the tumult suddenly striking on the unstable42 equilibrium43 of old Fletcher's planks44 and two chairs--with cataclysmic results. You must figure an appalled45 couple caught dismally46 in a swing. And then the whole tumultuous rush has passed and the Iping street with its gauds and flags is deserted save for the still raging unseen, and littered with cocoanuts, overthrown47 canvas screens, and the scattered48 stock in trade of a sweetstuff stall. Everywhere there is a sound of closing shutters49 and shoving bolts, and the only visible humanity is an occasional flitting eye under a raised eyebrow50 in the corner of a window pane51.
The Invisible Man amused himself for a little while by breaking all the windows in the "Coach and Horses," and then he thrust a street lamp through the parlour window of Mrs. Gribble. He it must have been who cut the telegraph wire to Adderdean just beyond Higgins' cottage on the Adderdean road. And after that, as his peculiar52 qualities allowed, he passed out of human perceptions altogether, and he was neither heard, seen, nor felt in Iping any more. He vanished absolutely.
But it was the best part of two hours before any human being ventured out again into the desolation of Iping street.
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1
narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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marvel
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| vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异；n.令人惊异的事 | |
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muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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4
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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hissing
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| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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7
intonation
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| n.语调，声调；发声 | |
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8
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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9
grimaces
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| n.（表蔑视、厌恶等）面部扭曲，鬼脸( grimace的名词复数 )v.扮鬼相，做鬼脸( grimace的第三人称单数 ) | |
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10
obdurate
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| adj.固执的，顽固的 | |
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11
crestfallen
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| adj. 挫败的，失望的，沮丧的 | |
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12
blistering
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| adj.酷热的；猛烈的；使起疱的；可恶的v.起水疱；起气泡；使受暴晒n.[涂料] 起泡 | |
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13
obliquely
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| adv.斜； 倾斜； 间接； 不光明正大 | |
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simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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15
tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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16
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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17
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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18
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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19
proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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jersey
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| n.运动衫 | |
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21
sprawling
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| adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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22
sprawl
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| vi.躺卧，扩张，蔓延；vt.使蔓延；n.躺卧，蔓延 | |
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23
resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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24
defective
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| adj.有毛病的，有问题的，有瑕疵的 | |
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25
muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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26
bawled
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| v.大叫，大喊( bawl的过去式和过去分词 )；放声大哭；大声叫出；叫卖（货物） | |
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27
prostrate
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| v.拜倒，平卧，衰竭；adj.拜倒的，平卧的，衰竭的 | |
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28
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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29
regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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30
rout
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| n.溃退，溃败；v.击溃，打垮 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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32
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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33
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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34
smack
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| vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍 | |
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35
disintegration
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| n.分散，解体 | |
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36
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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37
memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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38
consecutive
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| adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的 | |
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39
smiting
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| v.猛打，重击，打击( smite的现在分词 ) | |
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40
overthrowing
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| v.打倒，推翻( overthrow的现在分词 )；使终止 | |
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41
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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42
unstable
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| adj.不稳定的，易变的 | |
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43
equilibrium
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| n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静 | |
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44
planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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45
appalled
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| v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的 | |
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46
dismally
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| adv.阴暗地，沉闷地 | |
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47
overthrown
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| adj. 打翻的，推倒的，倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词 | |
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48
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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49
shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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50
eyebrow
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| n.眉毛，眉 | |
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51
pane
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| n.窗格玻璃，长方块 | |
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52
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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