had been scratched by his nails; my feet hurt exceedingly and I

was lame from a little cut on one foot. I saw in time a blind

man approaching me, and fled limping, for I feared his subtle

intuitions. Once or twice accidental collisions occurred and I left

people amazed, with unaccountable curses ringing in their ears.

Then came something silent and quiet against my face, and across

the Square fell a thin veil of slowly falling flakes of snow. I had

caught a cold, and do as I would I could not avoid an occasional

sneeze. And every dog that came in sight, with its pointing nose

and curious sniffing, was a terror to me.

"Then came men and boys running, first one and then others, and

shouting as they ran. It was a fire. They ran in the direction of

my lodging, and looking back down a street I saw a mass of black

smoke streaming up above the roofs and telephone wires. It was my

lodging burning; my clothes, my apparatus, all my resources indeed,

except my cheque-book and the three volumes of memoranda that

awaited me in Great Portland Street, were there. Burning! I had

burnt my boats--if ever a man did! The place was blazing."

The Invisible Man paused and thought. Kemp glanced nervously out of

the window. "Yes?" he said. "Go on."

172