Back at the boarding house, Griffin continued his experiments. He made some wool invisible and then he made a neighbourhood cat invisible. Later the next day he had an altercation with the landlord who brought reports of Griffin tormenting a cat in the night. The landlord wanted to know what Griffin was doing in the room and what all the paraphernalia was for. The two argued and Griffin shoved the landlord out of the room. 

This event and his near-bankruptcy precipitated Griffin's decision to make himself invisible. Griffin knew he would have to act quickly, so he made arrangements to have his belongings stored. Realizing that this would lead to trouble, Griffin decided to disappear. He sent his books off by mail to some place where he could pick them up later. Then he started the process of turning himself invisible, which really hurt. He managed to protect and secure his theory of invisibility by sending his books and destroyed his equipment and set his room on fire.