The stranger at Iping

The stranger at Iping. Griffin takes a train to the village of Iping and books two rooms at the inn. A stranger in winter, in bandages and dark glasses, sets 'all tongues wagging'. He tells Mrs Hall, the landlord's wife: 'My reason for coming to Iping is a desire for solitude… an accident has affected my face.' Because he paid in advance, she puts up with his strange habits and bad temper.

The clergyman's study. The stolen money soon runs out; he says he is 'expecting a cheque'. Early one morning a clergyman and his wife hear money being taken from his desk. He flings open the door with a poker, shouting 'Surrender!', but the room is empty. They look under the desk, behind the curtains, even up the chimney. The housekeeping money is gone.

The furniture goes mad. That morning the Halls find the scientist's door open and his room empty, with his clothes and bandages lying about. Mrs Hall hears a sniff close to her ear. The hat on the bedpost leaps into her face. The bedroom chair charges at them, legs first, pushes them out, and the door slams and locks. Mrs Hall thinks the furniture is haunted: 'My poor mother used to sit in that chair.' The neighbours think it is witchcraft.

A headless man. Suddenly the stranger has cash again. Mrs Hall demands to know how he got out of an empty room and into a locked one. Furious, he shouts 'You don't understand who or what I am!' and throws off his bandages, whiskers, glasses and even his nose. The people in the bar see a man without a head.

Jaffers. Mr Jaffers, the constable, has a warrant to arrest him, 'with or without his head'. Griffin throws off one garment after another until he is fully invisible. People who try to help are hit by blows from nowhere, and Jaffers is knocked unconscious. Griffin escapes.