"Yes, the tapetum. It didn't go. After I'd given the stuff to

bleach the blood and done certain other things to her, I gave the

beast opium, and put her and the pillow she was sleeping on, on the

apparatus. And after all the rest had faded and vanished, there

remained two little ghosts of her eyes."

Odd!"

I can't explain it. She was bandaged and clamped, of course--so

I had her safe; but she woke while she was still misty, and miaowed

dismally, and someone came knocking. It was an old woman from

downstairs, who suspected me of vivisecting--a drink-sodden old

creature, with only a white cat to care for in all the world. I

whipped out some chloroform, applied it, and answered the door.

'Did I hear a cat?' she asked. 'My cat?' 'Not here,' said I, very

politely. She was a little doubtful and tried to peer past me into

the room; strange enough to her no doubt--bare walls, uncurtained

windows, truckle-bed, with the gas engine vibrating, and the

seethe of the radiant points, and that faint ghastly stinging of

chloroform in the air. She had to be satisfied at last and went

away again."

How long did it take?" asked Kemp.

Three or four hours--the cat. The bones and sinews and the fat

were the last to go, and the tips of the coloured hairs. And, as I

155

The Invisible Man