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'You said it was an empty sleeve?' he said. 'Certainly,' I said. At staring and saying nothing a barefaced man, unspectacled, starts scratch. Then very quietly he pulled his sleeve out of his pocket again, and raised his arm towards me as though he would show it to me again.
The bold sentence sounds confusing. Who is staring whom? What is it meant by "starts scratch"? Any idea would be appreciated. Thank you.
At staring and saying nothing a barefaced man, unspectacled, starts scratch.
Start scratch is a sporting term derived from the 'scratch' or mark on the ground from which competitors in a race start. It is employed in races where competitors are assigned 'handicaps' based on their inherent abilities to assure that everyone has a roughly equal chance of winning. The competitor who starts scratch has no assigned handicap.
However: the significance of starting scratch varies, depending on the sort of handicap assigned. In golf, for instance, where the lowest score wins, your handicap is a number you subtract from your score, so a "scratch" golfer—handicap=0—is among the best in the match. In horseracing, however, where the handicap is an extra weight the horse must carry, a horse with no handicap is among the worst in the race.
What Cuss means here is that his opponent, whose face and head are covered with bandages and whose eyes are masked by dark goggles, has a significant advantage at staring and saying nothing, while Cuss, barefaced and unspectacled, has no such advantage. His opponent can read Cuss' emotional state from his eyes and face, but Cuss cannot read his opponent.
I recall this as Cuss's discussion with the vicar. Cuss is in a rather distressed or shocked state and recants the story in a clipped, note-like way, hence the curt manner of speech. In my reading, Wells is using it as a device to suggest the uncertainty and shock of what Cuss witnesses. Filling in the gaps, I'd suggest: Staring at me , the man, unspectacled and barefaced, started again (from the beginning)
