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- Герберт Уеллс
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Of
course
we
can
know
nothing
of
the
details
of
that
encounter
.
It
occurred
on
the
edge
of
a
gravel
pit
,
not
two
hundred
yards
from
Lord
Burdock
's
lodge
gate
.
Everything
points
to
a
desperate
struggle
--
the
trampled
ground
,
the
numerous
wounds
Mr.
Wicksteed
received
,
his
splintered
walking-stick
;
but
why
the
attack
was
made
,
save
in
a
murderous
frenzy
,
it
is
impossible
to
imagine
.
Indeed
the
theory
of
madness
is
almost
unavoidable
.
Mr.
Wicksteed
was
a
man
of
forty-five
or
forty-six
,
steward
to
Lord
Burdock
,
of
inoffensive
habits
and
appearance
,
the
very
last
person
in
the
world
to
provoke
such
a
terrible
antagonist
.
Against
him
it
would
seem
the
Invisible
Man
used
an
iron
rod
dragged
from
a
broken
piece
of
fence
.
He
stopped
this
quiet
man
,
going
quietly
home
to
his
midday
meal
,
attacked
him
,
beat
down
his
feeble
defences
,
broke
his
arm
,
felled
him
,
and
smashed
his
head
to
a
jelly
.
Of
course
,
he
must
have
dragged
this
rod
out
of
the
fencing
before
he
met
his
victim
--
he
must
have
been
carrying
it
ready
in
his
hand
.
Only
two
details
beyond
what
has
already
been
stated
seem
to
bear
on
the
matter
.
One
is
the
circumstance
that
the
gravel
pit
was
not
in
Mr.
Wicksteed
's
direct
path
home
,
but
nearly
a
couple
of
hundred
yards
out
of
his
way
.
The
other
is
the
assertion
of
a
little
girl
to
the
effect
that
,
going
to
her
afternoon
school
,
she
saw
the
murdered
man
"
trotting
"
in
a
peculiar
manner
across
a
field
towards
the
gravel
pit
.
Her
pantomime
of
his
action
suggests
a
man
pursuing
something
on
the
ground
before
him
and
striking
at
it
ever
and
again
with
his
walking-stick
.
She
was
the
last
person
to
see
him
alive
.
He
passed
out
of
her
sight
to
his
death
,
the
struggle
being
hidden
from
her
only
by
a
clump
of
beech
trees
and
a
slight
depression
in
the
ground
.
Now
this
,
to
the
present
writer
's
mind
at
least
,
lifts
the
murder
out
of
the
realm
of
the
absolutely
wanton
.
We
may
imagine
that
Griffin
had
taken
the
rod
as
a
weapon
indeed
,
but
without
any
deliberate
intention
of
using
it
in
murder
.
Wicksteed
may
then
have
come
by
and
noticed
this
rod
inexplicably
moving
through
the
air
.
Without
any
thought
of
the
Invisible
Man
--
for
Port
Burdock
is
ten
miles
away
--
he
may
have
pursued
it
.
It
is
quite
conceivable
that
he
may
not
even
have
heard
of
the
Invisible
Man
.
One
can
then
imagine
the
Invisible
Man
making
off
--
quietly
in
order
to
avoid
discovering
his
presence
in
the
neighbourhood
,
and
Wicksteed
,
excited
and
curious
,
pursuing
this
unaccountably
locomotive
object
--
finally
striking
at
it
.
No
doubt
the
Invisible
Man
could
easily
have
distanced
his
middle-aged
pursuer
under
ordinary
circumstances
,
but
the
position
in
which
Wicksteed
's
body
was
found
suggests
that
he
had
the
ill
luck
to
drive
his
quarry
into
a
corner
between
a
drift
of
stinging
nettles
and
the
gravel
pit
.
To
those
who
appreciate
the
extraordinary
irascibility
of
the
Invisible
Man
,
the
rest
of
the
encounter
will
be
easy
to
imagine
.
But
this
is
pure
hypothesis
.
The
only
undeniable
facts
--
for
stories
of
children
are
often
unreliable
--
are
the
discovery
of
Wicksteed
's
body
,
done
to
death
,
and
of
the
blood-stained
iron
rod
flung
among
the
nettles
.
The
abandonment
of
the
rod
by
Griffin
,
suggests
that
in
the
emotional
excitement
of
the
affair
,
the
purpose
for
which
he
took
it
--
if
he
had
a
purpose
--
was
abandoned
.
He
was
certainly
an
intensely
egotistical
and
unfeeling
man
,
but
the
sight
of
his
victim
,
his
first
victim
,
bloody
and
pitiful
at
his
feet
,
may
have
released
some
long
pent
fountain
of
remorse
which
for
a
time
may
have
flooded
whatever
scheme
of
action
he
had
contrived
.
After
the
murder
of
Mr.
Wicksteed
,
he
would
seem
to
have
struck
across
the
country
towards
the
downland
.
There
is
a
story
of
a
voice
heard
about
sunset
by
a
couple
of
men
in
a
field
near
Fern
Bottom
.
It
was
wailing
and
laughing
,
sobbing
and
groaning
,
and
ever
and
again
it
shouted
.
It
must
have
been
queer
hearing
.
It
drove
up
across
the
middle
of
a
clover
field
and
died
away
towards
the
hills
.
That
afternoon
the
Invisible
Man
must
have
learnt
something
of
the
rapid
use
Kemp
had
made
of
his
confidences
.
He
must
have
found
houses
locked
and
secured
;
he
may
have
loitered
about
railway
stations
and
prowled
about
inns
,
and
no
doubt
he
read
the
proclamations
and
realised
something
of
the
nature
of
the
campaign
against
him
.
And
as
the
evening
advanced
,
the
fields
became
dotted
here
and
there
with
groups
of
three
or
four
men
,
and
noisy
with
the
yelping
of
dogs
.
These
men-hunters
had
particular
instructions
in
the
case
of
an
encounter
as
to
the
way
they
should
support
one
another
.
But
he
avoided
them
all
.
We
may
understand
something
of
his
exasperation
,
and
it
could
have
been
none
the
less
because
he
himself
had
supplied
the
information
that
was
being
used
so
remorselessly
against
him
.
For
that
day
at
least
he
lost
heart
;
for
nearly
twenty-four
hours
,
save
when
he
turned
on
Wicksteed
,
he
was
a
hunted
man
.
In
the
night
,
he
must
have
eaten
and
slept
;
for
in
the
morning
he
was
himself
again
,
active
,
powerful
,
angry
,
and
malignant
,
prepared
for
his
last
great
struggle
against
the
world
.
Kemp
read
a
strange
missive
,
written
in
pencil
on
a
greasy
sheet
of
paper
.
