'Keep off!' said the stranger, jumping back. He took off his glove and with it struck Jaffers in the face. In another moment Jaffers had seized him by the handless wrist, and caught his invisible throat. He got a hard kick that made him shout with pain, but he kept his hold. A chair stood in the way, and fell with a crash as they came down together. 'Get hold of his feet,' said Jaffers between his teeth to the other men. When he tried to obey this order, Mr Hall received a great kick in the chest that finished him for a time; and Mr Wadgers, seeing that the headless stranger had rolled over and got on top of Jaffers, went backwards towards the door, and so fell against Mr Huxter and another man coming to help the policeman. Four bottles fell and broke on the floor, filling the room with a powerful smell. 'I give in,' said the stranger, though he had thrown Jaffers down; and in another moment he stood up, shaking, breathless. A strange thing, he looked, without head or hands. His voice seemed to come out of nothing. Jaffers also got up. The stranger ran his arm down his coat, and the buttons to which his empty sleeve pointed became undone. Then he bent down and seemed to touch his shoes. 'Why!' said Huxter suddenly, 'That's not a man at all. It's just empty clothes. Look! You can see down his collar and his shirt. I could put my arm—' He stretched out his hand; it seemed to meet something in the air, and he pulled it back with a sharp cry of surprise. 'I wish you'd keep your fingers out of my eye,' shouted the voice in anger. 'The fact is, I'm all here — head, hands, legs, and all the rest of it, but it happens I'm invisible. But that's no reason why you should put your fingers in my eye, is it?' The suit of clothes, now all unbuttoned, stood up.
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