Chapter 8
In Transit
The eighth chapter is exceedingly brief, and relates that Gibbins, the amateur
naturalist of the district, while lying out on the spacious open downs without a soul within a couple of miles of him, as he thought, and almost dozing, heard close to him the sound as of a man coughing, sneezing, and then swearing savagely to himself; and looking, beheld nothing. Yet the voice was indisputable. It continued to swear with that breadth and variety that distinguishes the swearing of a
cultivated man. It grew to a
climax, diminished again, and died away in the distance, going as it seemed to him in the direction of
Adderdean. It lifted to a spasmodic sneeze and ended. Gibbins had heard nothing of the morning's occurrences, but the
phenomenon was so striking and disturbing that his philosophical
tranquillity vanished; he got up hastily, and hurried down the steepness of the hill towards the village, as fast as he could go.
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Chapter 9