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.