CHAPTER XIV

AT PORT STOWE

Ten o'clock the next morning found Mr. Marvel, unshaven, dirty, and

travel-stained, sitting with the books beside him and his hands deep

in his pockets, looking very weary, nervous, and uncomfortable, and

inflating his cheeks at infrequent intervals, on the bench outside

a little inn on the outskirts of Port Stowe. Beside him were the

books, but now they were tied with string. The bundle had been

abandoned in the pine-woods beyond Bramblehurst, in accordance with

a change in the plans of the Invisible Man. Mr. Marvel sat on the

bench, and although no one took the slightest notice of him, his

agitation remained at fever heat. His hands would go ever and again

to his various pockets with a curious nervous fumbling.

When he had been sitting for the best part of an hour, however, an

elderly mariner, carrying a newspaper, came out of the inn and sat

down beside him. "Pleasant day," said the mariner.

Mr. Marvel glanced about him with something very like terror.

"Very," he said.

"Just seasonable weather for the time of year," said the mariner,

taking no denial.

101

The Invisible Man