of laughter, quick steps to the door, and Cuss appeared, his face

white, his eyes staring over his shoulder. He left the door open

behind him, and without looking at her strode across the hall and

went down the steps, and she heard his feet hurrying along the

road. He carried his hat in his hand. She stood behind the door,

looking at the open door of the parlour. Then she heard the

stranger laughing quietly, and then his footsteps came across the

room. She could not see his face where she stood. The parlour door

slammed, and the place was silent again.

Cuss went straight up the village to Bunting the vicar. "Am I mad?"

Cuss began abruptly, as he entered the shabby little study. "Do I

look like an insane person?"

What's happened?" said the vicar, putting the ammonite on the

loose sheets of his forth-coming sermon.

That chap at the inn--"

Well?"

Give me something to drink," said Cuss, and he sat down.

When his nerves had been steadied by a glass of cheap sherry--the

only drink the good vicar had available--he told him of the

interview he had just had. "Went in," he gasped, "and began to

The Invisible Man