Simultaneously came a tumult from the parlour, and a sound of

windows being closed.

Hall, Henfrey, and the human contents of the tap rushed out at once

pell-mell into the street. They saw someone whisk round the corner

towards the road, and Mr. Huxter executing a complicated leap in

the air that ended on his face and shoulder. Down the street people

were standing astonished or running towards them.

Mr. Huxter was stunned. Henfrey stopped to discover this, but Hall

and the two labourers from the Tap rushed at once to the corner,

shouting incoherent things, and saw Mr. Marvel vanishing by the

corner of the church wall. They appear to have jumped to the

impossible conclusion that this was the Invisible Man suddenly

become visible, and set off at once along the lane in pursuit. But

Hall had hardly run a dozen yards before he gave a loud shout of

astonishment and went flying headlong sideways, clutching one of

the labourers and bringing him to the ground. He had been charged

just as one charges a man at football. The second labourer came

round in a circle, stared, and conceiving that Hall had tumbled

over of his own accord, turned to resume the pursuit, only to be

tripped by the ankle just as Huxter had been. Then, as the first

labourer struggled to his feet, he was kicked sideways by a blow

that might have felled an ox.

The Invisible Man