Read the chapter
The Invisible Man
Chapter 26. THE SIEGE OF KEMP'S HOUSE
Kemp read a strange letter, written in pencil on a greasy piece of paper.
"You have been amazingly energetic and clever,"
The letter said, "I can't imagine what you hope to gain by this. You're against me."
"For a whole day you have chased me and robbed me of night's rest, but I have eaten and slept."
"The game is only beginning, and there is nothing for it but to start the Terror."
"This announces the first day of the Terror. Port Burdock is no longer under the Queen, it is under me."
"This is day one of year one, the Time of the Invisible Man, and I am Invisible Man the First."
"To begin, the rule will be easy, the first day will have one execution, a man named Kemp, and Death starts today".
Kemp read this strange, scary letter twice, slowly and with growing alarm.
"It's no joke," he said.
"That's his voice! And he means it."
He turned the folded sheet over and saw on the addressed side the postmark Hintondean, and the ordinary detail "2d. to pay."
He got up slowly, leaving his lunch unfinished, the letter had come by the one o'clock post, and went into his study.
He rang for his housekeeper and told her to check every window lock and close all the shutters at once.
He closed the shutters of his study himself.
From a locked drawer in his bedroom he took a small revolver, checked it carefully, and put it into the pocket of his lounge jacket.
He wrote several notes, including one to Colonel Adye, and gave them to his servant with clear orders to leave house.
"There's no danger,"
He said, adding to himself, "to you." He paused a moment, then went back to his cooling lunch.
He ate with gaps of thought.
Finally he hit the table sharply.
"We'll get him!" he said.
"And I'm the bait. He'll come too far."
He went up to the belvedere, carefully shutting every door after him.
"It's a game,"
"He said, "A strange game, but the chances are all for me, Mr. Griffin. Griffin against the world with force.
He stood at the window looking at the hot hillside.
"He must get food every day, and I don't feel sorry for him".
Did he really sleep last night?
Out in the open somewhere, safe from crashes.
I wish we could get some good cold wet weather instead of the heat.
"He may be watching me now."
He went close to the window.
Something hit the brickwork over the frame sharply, and made him jump back violently.
"I'm getting nervous," said Kemp.
But it was five minutes before he went to the window again.
"It must have been a sparrow," he said.
Soon he heard the front-door bell ringing, and hurried downstairs.
He unbolted and unlocked the door, checked the chain, put it up, and opened it carefully without showing himself.
A familiar voice called to him, it was Adye.
"Your servant's been attacked, Kemp," he said around the door.
"What!" shouted Kemp.
"Your note was taken from her. He's close around here. Let me in."
Kemp released the chain, and Adye came in through as narrow an opening as possible.
He stood in the hall, looking with great relief at Kemp locking the door again.
"The note was snatched out of her hand. It scared her terribly. She's down at the station. Hysterical. He's close here. What was it about?"
Kemp swore loudly and angrily at himself for being so careless.
"What a fool I was," said Kemp.
"I should have known. It's not an hour's walk from Hintondean. Already?"
"What's happening?" said Adye.
"Look here!" said Kemp, and led the way into his study.
He handed Adye the Invisible Man's letter.
Adye read it and whistled softly.
"And you, ?" said Adye.
"I planned a trap, like a fool," said Kemp, "and sent my plan out with a maid servant. To him."
Adye followed Kemp's swearing with a few angry words of his own.
"He'll run away," said Adye.
"No, he won't," said Kemp.
A loud smash of glass came from upstairs.
Adye saw a quick flash of a small revolver half out of Kemp's pocket.
"It's a window, upstairs!" said Kemp, and led the way up.
There came a second smash while they were still on the stairs.
They reached the study, two of three windows were broken, half the room in glass and one big stone on the table.
The two men stopped in the doorway, looking at the damage.
Kemp swore again.
As he swore, the third window broke with a gun-like snap, hung star shaped for a moment, then fell in shaking triangles.
"What's this for?" said Adye.
"It's a beginning," said Kemp.
"There's no way to climb up here?"
"Not even for a cat," said Kemp.
"No shutters?"
"Not here. All the downstairs rooms. Hello!"
Smash, and then the sound of boards hit hard came from downstairs.
"Curse him!" said Kemp.
"That must be, yes, it's one of the bedrooms."
"He's going to do the whole house."
"But he's a fool."
"The shutters are up, and the glass will fall outside."
"He'll cut his feet."
Another window announced its destruction, the two men stood on the landing, confused.
"I have an idea!" said Adye.
"Give me a stick or something, and I'll go down to the station and get the bloodhounds on him."
"That should finish him!"
"They're close by, not ten minutes,"
Another window broke like the others.
"You don't have a revolver?" asked Adye.
Kemp's hand went to his pocket, then he stopped.
"I don't have one, at least not to spare."
"I'll bring it back," said Adye.
"You'll be safe here."
Kemp, ashamed of his short lie, handed him the weapon.
"Now for the door," said Adye.
As they stood waiting in the hall, they heard one of the first-floor bedroom windows crack and crash.
Kemp went to the door and began to slide the bolts as quietly as possible.
His face was a little paler than usual.
"You must step straight out," said Kemp.
In another moment Adye was on the doorstep and the bolts were dropping back into the staples.
He waited for a moment, feeling more comfortable with his back against the door.
Then he walked, straight and tall, down the steps.
He crossed the lawn and went to the gate.
A little breeze seemed to move over the grass, Something moved near him.
"Stop a moment," said a Voice, and Adye stopped dead and his hand tightened on the revolver.
"Well?" said Adye, white and serious, and every nerve tense.
"Please go back to the house," said the Voice, as tense and serious as Adye's.
"Sorry," said Adye a little hoarsely, and wet his lips with his tongue.
The Voice was on his left front, he thought.
What if he took a chance and fired?
"What are you going for?" said the Voice. The two moved quickly, and sunlight flashed from the open top of Adye's pocket.
Adye stopped and thought, looking at the sea and the small dark object.
"Where I go,"
He said slowly, "is my own business," and the words were still on his lips.
"An arm came around his neck, a knee hit his back, and he fell backward."
He pulled clumsily and fired wildly, and in another moment he was hit in the mouth and the revolver was taken from his hand.
He tried to grab a slippery limb, tried to get up and fell back.
"Damn!" said Adye.
The Voice laughed, a hard, cold sound that made Kemp feel very afraid.
"I'd kill you now if it wasn't a waste of a bullet," it said.
He saw the revolver in mid-air, six feet away, pointing at him.
"Well?" said Adye, sitting up.
"Get up," said the Voice.
Adye moved, then got up slowly, holding his face and breathing hard.
"Listen," said the Voice, and then fiercely.
"Don't try any tricks. Remember I can see your face if you can't see mine. You've got to go back to the house."
"He won't let me in," said Adye.
"That's too bad," said the Invisible Man.
"I've got no problem with you."
Adye wet his lips again, he looked away from the barrel of the revolver.
He saw the sea far off, very blue and dark under the midday sun.
He saw the smooth green hill, the white cliff of the Head, and the crowded town.
Suddenly he knew that life was very sweet.
His eyes came back to this little metal thing hanging between heaven and earth, six yards away.
"What should I do?" he said angrily.
"What should I do?" asked the Invisible Man.
"You'll get help. The only thing is for you to go back."
"I'll try. If he lets me in, will you promise not to rush the door?"
"I've got no problem with you," said the Voice.
Kemp had hurried upstairs after letting Adye out.
Hiding among broken glass and looking over the study window sill, he saw Adye standing and talking with the Unseen.
"Why doesn't he fire?" whispered Kemp to himself.
Then the revolver moved a little and the light of the sun flashed in Kemp's eyes.
He covered his eyes and tried to see where the bright beam came from.
"Surely!" he said, "Adye has given up the revolver."
"Promise not to rush the door," Adye was saying.
"Don't push a winning game too far. Give a man a chance."
"You go back to the house. I tell you clearly I won't promise anything."
Adye's decision seemed suddenly made, he turned towards the house, walking slowly with his hands behind him, Kemp watched him, confused.
The revolver disappeared, flashed again into sight, disappeared again, and became clear on closer look as a small dark object following Adye.
Then events moved very fast and everything changed before he could think.
Adye jumped backward, turned around, and grabbed at the small object but missed it.
He threw up his hands, fell forward on his face, and left a small puff of blue in the air.
Kemp didn't hear the sound of the shot.
Adye moved, raised himself on one arm, fell forward, and lay still.
For a moment Kemp stayed looking at the quiet stillness of Adye's body.
The afternoon was very hot and still.
Nothing seemed to move anywhere except two yellow butterflies chasing each other through the bushes between the house and the road gate.
Adye lay on the lawn near the gate.
The blinds of houses down the hill-road were drawn, but in one green summer-house a white figure sat, an old man asleep.
Kemp looked at the area around the house for a sight of the revolver, but it had disappeared.
His eyes came back to Adye, the game was starting well.
Ringing and knocking came at the front door and grew loud, but, following Kemp's instructions, the servants had locked in their rooms.
This was followed by a silence.
Kemp sat listening and then began looking carefully out of the three windows, one after another.
He went to the top of the stairs and stood listening uneasily.
He armed himself with his bedroom poker, and went to check the inside locks of the ground-floor windows again.
Everything was safe and quiet, he returned to the belvedere.
Adye lay still over the edge of the gravel just as he had fallen.
Coming along the road by the houses were the housemaid and two policemen.
Everything was deadly still, the three people seemed very slow in coming closer.
He wondered what his enemy was doing.
He jumped, there was a smash from below.
He waited and went downstairs again.
Suddenly the house was filled with heavy blows and the breaking of wood.
He heard a smash and the loud clang of the iron locks of the shutters.
He turned the key and opened the kitchen door.
As he did so, the shutters, split and broken, came flying inward, he stood shocked.
The window frame, except for one crossbar, was still whole, but only small pieces of glass remained in the frame.
The shutters were driven in with an axe, and the axe came down on the window frame and iron bars.
Then suddenly it jumped aside and disappeared.
He saw the revolver lying on the path outside, and then the small weapon jumped into the air, he moved back quickly.
The revolver fired just too late, and a piece from the edge of the closing door flew over his head.
He slammed and locked the door, and as he stood outside he heard Griffin shouting and laughing.
Then the blows of the axe with its splitting and smashing results began again.
Kemp stood in the passage trying to think.
In a moment the Invisible Man would be in the kitchen.
This door wouldn't stop him for a moment, and then.
A ringing came at the front door again.
It would be the policemen, he ran into the hall, put up the chain, and pulled the bolts.
He made the girl speak, then the three people rushed into the house and Kemp slammed the door again.
"The Invisible Man!" said Kemp.
"He has a revolver, with two shots, left. He's killed Adye. Shot him anyway. Didn't you see him on the lawn? He's lying there."
"Who?" said one of the policemen.
"Adye," said Kemp.
"We came in the back way," said the girl.
"What's that smashing?" asked one of the policemen.
"He's in the kitchen, or will be. He has found an axe, "
Suddenly the house was full of the Invisible Man's loud blows on the kitchen door.
The girl stared towards the kitchen, shook, and moved back into the dining-room.
Kemp tried to explain in broken sentences.
They heard the kitchen door give way.
"This way," said Kemp, starting to move, and pushed the policemen into the dining-room doorway.
"Poker," said Kemp, and ran to the fender.
He handed the poker he had carried to the policeman and the dining-room one to the other, he suddenly threw himself backward.
"Whoa!" said one policeman, ducked, and caught the axe on his poker.
The pistol fired its second-to-last shot and tore a valuable Sidney Cooper painting.
The second policeman brought his poker down on the small weapon, as one might hit a wasp, and sent it rattling to the floor.
At the first crash the girl screamed and stood by the fireplace, still screaming.
Then she ran to open the shutters, maybe hoping to escape through the broken window.
The axe moved back into the passage, and fell to a position about two feet from the ground.
They could hear the Invisible Man breathing.
"Stand back, you two," he said.
"I want that man Kemp."
"We want you," said the first policeman, taking a quick step forward and swinging with his poker at the Voice.
The Invisible Man must have jumped back, and he hit the umbrella stand.
The Invisible Man hit back with the axe.
The helmet crushed like paper, the blow sent the policeman spinning to the floor at the top of the kitchen stairs.
But the second policeman, aiming behind the axe with his poker, hit something soft that broke.
There was a sharp cry of pain and then the axe fell to the ground.
The policeman swung again at empty space and hit nothing, he put his foot on the axe, and struck again.
Then he stood, poker raised, listening carefully for the smallest movement.
He heard the dining-room window open, and a quick rush of feet inside.
His friend rolled over and sat up, with the blood running down between his eye and ear.
"Where is he?" asked the man on the floor.
"I don't know. I've hit him. He's standing somewhere in the hall. Unless he's slipped past you. Doctor Kemp, sir."
Pause, and for a few seconds everyone listened in silent fear.
"Doctor Kemp," cried the policeman again.
The second policeman began struggling to his feet.
He stood up, Suddenly the soft sound of bare feet on the kitchen stairs could be heard.
"Yap!" cried the first policeman, and quickly threw his poker.
It broke a small gas bracket.
He made as if he'd follow the Invisible Man downstairs.
Then he thought better of it and stepped into the dining-room.
"Doctor Kemp, " he began, and stopped short.
"Doctor Kemp's a hero," he said, as his friend looked over his shoulder.
The dining-room window was wide open, and neither housemaid nor Kemp was to be seen.
The second policeman's opinion of Kemp was short and strong.