CHAPTER I. THE COMING OF THE CLOCK WORKMAN. 1. It was just as Dr. Allingham had congratulated himself upon the fact that the bowling was broken and that he had only to hit now and save the trouble of running, just as he was scanning the boundaries with one eye and with the other, following Tanner's short, cricket arm raised high above the white sheet at the back of the opposite wicket, that he noticed the strange figure. It's abrupt appearance, at first sight like a scarecrow dumped suddenly on the horizon, caused him to lessen his grip upon the bat in his hand. His mind wandered for just that fatal moment, and his vision of the oncoming bowler was swept away and its place taken by that arresting figure of a man coming over the path at the top of the hill. A man whose attitude on closer examination seemed extraordinarily like another man in the act of bowling. That was why its effect was so distracting. It seemed to the doctor that the figure had popped up there on purpose to imitate the action of a bowler and so balk him. During the fraction of a second in which the ball reached him, this secondary image had blotted out everything else. But the behavior of the figure was certainly abnormal. Its movements were violently ataxic. Its arms revolved like the sails of a windmill. Its legs shot out in all directions enveloped in dust. The doctor's astonishment was turned into annoyance by the spectacle of his shattered wicket. A vague clatter of applause broke out. The wicket-keeper stooped down to pick up the bales. The fielders relaxed and flopped down on the grass. They seemed to have discovered suddenly that it was a hot afternoon and that cricket was, after all, a comparatively strenuous game.  There was nothing to do but glare back and make the umpire feel a worm. The doctor wore an eyeglass, and he succeeded admirably. His irritation boiled over and produced a sense of ungovernable, childish rage. Somehow he had not been able to make any runs this season, and his bowling average was all to pieces. He began to think he ought to give up cricket. He was getting past the age when a man can accept reverses in the spirit of the game, and he was sick and tired of seeing his name every week in the great wymering gazette as having been dismissed for a mere handful. He despised himself for feeling such intense annoyance. It was extraordinary how, as one grew older, it became less possible to restrain primitive and savage impulses. When things went wrong you wanted to do something violent and unforgivable, something that you would regret afterwards, but which you would be quite willing to do for the sake of immediate satisfaction. As he approached the pavilion, he wanted to charge into the little group of players gathered around the scoring table. He wanted to rush at them and clump their heads with his bat.  It was absurd to feel like this. Every little incident pricking him to the point of exasperation, everything magnified and translated into a conspiracy against him. Someone was manipulating the metal figure plates on the black index board. He saw a one hung up for the last player. Surely he had made more than one. All that swiping and thwacking, all that anxiety and suspense, and nothing to show for it. But he remembered he had only scored once, and that had been a lucky scramble. The fielders had been tantalizingly alert. They had always been just exactly where he thought they were not. He passed into the interior of the pavilion. Someone said, Hard luck, Allingham! And he kept his eyes to the ground for fear of the malice that might shoot from them. He flung his bat in a corner and sat down to unstrap his pads. Greg, the captain, came in. He was a cool, fair young man, fresh from Cambridge. He came in grinning and only stopped when he saw the expression on Allingham's face. I thought you were pretty well set, he remarked casually. So I was, said Allingham, aiming a pat at the opposite wall. So I was.   An escaped lunatic. A chap with a lot of extra arms and legs. You never saw anything like it in your life. Really! said Greg, and grinned again. Hmm! he remarked, presently. Six wickets down, and all the best man out. We look going to pieces. Especially as we're a man short. Well I can't help it, said Allingham. You don't expect a thing like that to happen. What's the white sheet for? So that you can see the bowler's arm. But when something gets in the way, just over the sheet, just where you've got your eye fixed, it wouldn't happen once in a million times. Never mind, said Greg cheerfully. It's all in the game. It isn't in the game, Allingham began. But the other had gone out. Allingham stood up and slowly rolled down his sleeves and put on his blazer. Of course, Greg was like that. A thorough sportsman. Taking the good with the bad. But then he was only twenty-four. You could be like that then. So full of life and high spirits, that generosity flowed from you imperceptibly and without effort.  Atrophy of the finer feelings. You began to be deliberately and consistently mean and narrow. You took a savage delight in making other people pay for your disappointments. He looked out of the window, and there was that unfounded figure still jigging about. It had come nearer to the ground. It hovered, with a curious air of not being related to its surroundings that was more than puzzling. It did not seem to know what it was about, but hopped along aimlessly as though sending a track, stopped for a moment, blundered forward again, and made a zigzag course towards the ground. The doctor watched it advancing through the broad meadow that bounded the pitch, threading its way between the little groups of grazing cows, that raised their heads with more than their ordinary, slow persistency, as though startled by some noise. The figure seemed to be aiming for the barrier of hurdles that surrounded the pitch, but whether its desire was for crickets or merely to reach some kind of goal, whether it sought recreation or a mere pause from its restless convulsions, it was difficult to tell. Finally it fell against the fence and hung there, two hands crooked over the hurdle and its legs drawn together at the knees. It became suddenly very still, so still, that it was hard to believe that it had ever moved. It was certainly very odd. The doctor was so struck by something altogether wrong about the figure, something so suggestive of a pathological phenomenon that he almost forgot his annoyance and remained watching it with an unlighted cigarette between his lips. Two. There was another person present at the cricket match to whom the appearance of the strange figure upon the hill seemed an unusual circumstance, only in his case it provided rather an agreeable diversion than an irritating disturbance. It had been something to look at and much more interesting than cricket. All the afternoon Arthur withers had been lying in the long grass, chewing bits of it at intervals and hoping against hope that something would happen to prevent his having to go out to the pitch and make a fool of himself. He knew perfectly well that Tanner, the demon bowler of the opposing team, would get him out first ball. He might linger at the seed of operations whilst one or two buys were run, but there were few quests more unwarranted and hopeless than that excursion, duly padded and gloved to the scene of instant disaster. He dreaded the unnecessary trouble he was bound to give, the waiting while he walked with shaking knees to the wicket, the careful assistance of the umpire in finding center for him. All the ceremony of cricket rehearsed for his special and quite undeserved benefit. And afterwards he would be put to field where there was a lot of running to do and only dead balls to pick up. Of course he wasn't funking, that wouldn't be cricket. But he had been very miserable. He sometimes wondered why he paid a subscription in order to take part in a game that cost him such agony of mind to play. But it was the privilege that mattered as much as anything, just to be allowed to play. Arthur was accustomed to be allowed to do things. He accepted his fate with a broad grin and a determination to do whatever was cricket in life. Everybody in Great Waimering knew that he was a bit of a fool and rather simple. They knew that his career at the bank had been one wild story of mistakes and narrow escapes from dismissal. But even that didn't really matter. Things happened to him just as much as to other and more efficient individuals. Little odd circumstances that made the rest of life curiously unimportant by comparison. Every day, for example, something humorous occurred in life. Something that obliterated all the worries. Something worth waking up in the middle of the night in order to laugh at it again. That was why the appearance of the odd-looking figure had been so welcome to him. It was distinctly amusing. It made him forget his fears. Like all funny things or happenings, it made you for the moment impersonal. He was so interested that presently he got up and wandered along the line of hurdles towards the spot where the strange figure had come to rest. It had not moved at all, and this fact added astonishment to curiosity. It clung desperately to the barrier, as though glad to have got there. Its attitude was awkward in the extreme, hunched up, ill-adjusted, but it made no attempt to achieve comfort. Further along, little groups of spectators were leaning against the barrier in nearly similar positions, smoking pipes, fidgeting, and watching the game intently. But the strange figure was not doing anything at all, and if he looked at the players, it was with an unnatural degree of intense observation. Arthur walked slowly along, wondering how close he could get to his objective without appearing rude. But somehow he did not think this difficulty would arise. There was something singularly forlorn and wretched about this curious individual, a suggestion of inconsequence. Arthur could have sworn that he was homeless and had no purpose or occupation. He was not in the picture of life, but something blobbed on by accident. Other people gave some sharp hint by their manner or deportment that they belonged to some roughly defined class. You could guess something about them. But this extraordinary personage, who had emerged so suddenly from the line of the sky and streaked aimlessly across the landscape, bore not even the vaguest marks of homely origin. He had staggered along the path, not with the recognizable gait of a drunken man, but with a sort of desperate decision, as though convinced in his mind that the path he was treading was really only a thin plank stretched from heaven to earth upon which he had been obliged to balance himself. And now he was hanging upon the hurdle, and it was just as though someone had thrown a great piece of clay there, and with a few deaf strokes shaped it into the vague likeness of a man. Three. As he drew nearer, Arthur's impression of the unearthly being was sobered a little by the discovery that the strange figure wore a wig. It was a very red wig, and over the top of it was jammed a brown bowler hat. The face underneath was crimson and flabby. Arthur decided that it was not a very interesting face. Its features seemed to melt into each other in an odd sort of way, so that you knew that you were looking at a face, and that was about all. He was about to turn his head politely and pass on, when he was suddenly rooted to the ground by the observation of a most singular circumstance. The strange figure was flapping his ears, flapping them violently backwards and forwards with an almost inconceivable rapidity. Arthur felt a sudden clutching sensation in the region of his heart. Of course, he had heard of people being able to move their ears slightly. That was common knowledge. But the ears of this man positively vibrated. They were more like the wings of some strange insect than human ears. It was a ghastly spectacle, unbelievable, yet obvious. Arthur tried to walk away. He looked this way and that, but it was impossible to resist the fascination of those flapping ears. Besides, the strange figure had seen him. He was fixing him with eyes that did not move in their sockets, but stared straight ahead. And Arthur had placed himself in the direct line of their vision. The expression in the eyes was compelling, almost hypnotic. Excuse me, Arthur ventured huskily. Did you wish to speak to me? The strange figure stopped flapping his ears and opened his mouth. He opened it unpleasantly wide as though trying to yawn.  After that he shifted his whole body very slowly as though endeavouring to arouse himself from an enormous apathy. And then he appeared to be waiting for something to happen. Arthur fidgeted and looked nervously around him. It was an awkward situation, but after all he had brought it on himself. He did not like to move away. Besides, having started the conversation, it was only common politeness to wait until the stranger offered a remark. And presently the latter opened his mouth again. This time he actually spoke. Wallabaloo! Wallabaloo! Bump-ah-dee! Bump-ah-dee! Wum! Wum! Wum! Nine and nine pence, he announced. I beg your pardon, said Arthur hastily. Wallabaloo! replied the other eagerly. Walla! Oh, hang it! Hello! Now we've got it! Wallabaloo! No, we haven't. Bang! Walla! Nine and nine pence! Arthur swaddled several times in rapid succession. His mind relapsed into a curious state of blankness. For some minutes he was not aware of any thinking processes at all. He began to feel dizzy in fate from sheer bewilderment. And then the idea of escape crept into his consciousness. He moved one foot intending to walk away. But the strange figure suddenly lifted up hand with an abrupt jerky movement like a signal jumping up. He said, nine and nine pence, three times very slowly and solemnly, and flapped his right ear twice. In spite of his confusion, Arthur could not help noticing the peculiar and awful synchronization of these movements. At any rate, they seemed to help this unfortunate individual out of his difficulties. Still holding a hand upright, he achieved his first complete sentence. Not an escaped lunatic, he protested, and tried to shake his head. But the attempt to do so merely started his ears flapping again. And then, as though exhausted by these efforts, he relapsed altogether into a sort of lumpiness and general resemblance to nothing on earth. The hand dropped heavily. The ears twitched spasmodically, the right ear piercing the action of the left. He seemed to sink down like a deflated balloon, and a faint whistling sigh escaped his lips. His face assumed an expression that was humble in the extreme, as though he were desirous of apologizing to the air for the bother of keeping him alive. Arthur stared, expecting every moment to see the figure before him fall to the ground, or even disappear through the earth. But just when his looseness and limpness reached the lowest ebb, a sudden pulse would shake the stranger from head to foot. Noises that were scarcely human issued from him, puffings and blowings, a sort of jerky grinding and grating. He would rear up for a moment, appear alert and lively, hitch his whole body firmly and smartly, only to collapse again slowly and sadly, his head falling to one side, his arms fluttering like the wings of a wounded bird. Arthur's chief sensation now was one of pity for a fellow creature, obviously in such a hopeless state. He almost forgot his alarm in his sympathy for the difficulties of the strange figure. That struggle to get alive, to produce the elementary effects of existence, made him think of his own moods of failure, his own helplessness. He took a step nearer to the hurdle. Can I do anything for you? he inquired, almost in a whisper. Suddenly the strange figure seemed to achieve a sort of mastery of himself. He began opening and shutting his mouth very rapidly to the accompaniment of sharp clicking noises. It's devilish hard, he announced presently, this feeling you know, click, all dressed up and nowhere to go, click, click. Is that how you feel? Arthur inquired. He came nearer still, as though to hear better, but the other got into a muddle with his affirmative. He flapped an ear in staccato fashion and Arthur hastily withdrew. Now the afternoon was very warm and very still. Where they stood the only sounds that could reach them were the slight crack of the batted ball and the soft padding of the fielders. That was why nothing that happened next could hardly be mistaken. It began by the strange figure suddenly putting both hands upon the top of the hurdle and raising himself up about an inch off the ground. He looked all at once enormously alive and vital. Light flashed in his eyes. Eureka! he clicked. I'm working. What's that? shouted Arthur, backing away. What's that you said? Lalalalala, listen! vibrated the other. Still pressing his hands on the hurdle he leaned upon them until the top part of his body hung perilously over. His face wore an expression of ununerable relief. Can't you hear? he squeaked, red in the face. And then Arthur was quite sure about something that he had been vaguely hearing for some moments. It sounded like about a hundred alarm clocks all going off at once, muffled somehow, but concentrated. It was a sort of whirring, low and spasmonic at first, but broadening out into something more regular, less frantic. What's that noise? he demanded thoroughly, frightened by now. It's only my clock, said the other. He clambered over the hurdle a little stiffly as though not quite sure of his limbs, except for a general awkwardness, an abrupt tremor now and again he seemed to have become quite rational and ordinary. Arthur scarcely comprehended the remark, and it certainly did not explain the origin of that harassing noise. He gaped at the figure, less strange now, although still puzzling, and noticed for the first time his snuff-colored suit of rather odd pattern, his boots of a curious leaden hue, his poggy face with a snub nose in the middle of it, his broad forehead surmounted by the funny fringe of the wig. His voice, as he went on speaking, gradually increased in pitch until it reached an even tenor. Perhaps I ought to explain, he continued. You see, I'm a clockwork man. Oh! said Arthur, his mouth opening wide. And then he stammered quickly. That noise, you know. The clockwork man nodded quickly, as though recollecting something. Then he moved his right hand spasmodically upwards and inserted it between the lapels of his jacket, somewhere in the region of his waistcoat. He appeared to be trying to find something. Presently he found what it was he looked for, and his hand moved again with a sharp, deliberate action. The noise stopped at once. The silencer, he explained. I forgot to put it on. It was such a relief to be working again. I must have nearly stopped altogether. Very awkward. Very awkward indeed. He appeared to be addressing the air generally. The fact is, I need a thorough overhauling. I'm all to pieces. Nothing seems right. I oughtn't to creak like this. I'm sure there's a screw loose here. He moved his arm slowly round in a circle, as though to reassure himself. The arm worked in a lopsided fashion, like a badly shaped wheel, stiffly upwards and then quickly dropping down the curve. Then the clockwork man lifted a leg and swung it swiftly backwards and forwards. At first the leg shot out sharply, and there seemed to be some difficulty about its withdrawal. But after a little practice it moved quite smoothly. He continued these experiments for a few moments, in complete silence and with a slightly anxious expression upon his face, as though he were really afraid things were not quite as they should be. Arthur remained in stupefied silence. He did not know what to make of these antics. The clockwork man looked at him and seemed to be trying hard to remold his features into a new expression, faintly benevolent. Apparently, however, it was a tremendous effort for him to move any part of his face, and any change that took place merely made him look rather like a caricature of himself. Of course, he said slowly, you don't understand. It isn't to be expected that you would understand. Why, you haven't even got a clock. That was the first thing I noticed about you. He came a little nearer to Arthur, walking with a hop, skip, and jump, rather like a man with his feet tied together.  Arthur was not sure what this term implied. In spite of his confusion he couldn't help feeling a little amused. The figure standing by his side was so exactly like a waxwork come to life, and his talk was faintly reminiscent of a gramophone record. What year is it? inquired the other suddenly, and without altering a muscle of his face. 1923, said Arthur, smiling faintly. The clockwork man lifted a hand to his face, and with great difficulty lodged a finger reflectively against his nose. 1923, he repeated. That's interesting. Very interesting indeed. Not that I have any use for time, you know. He appeared to ruminate, still holding a finger against his nose. Then he shot his left arm out with a swift, gymnastic action, and laid the flat palm of his hand upon Arthur's shoulder. Did you see me coming over the hill? he inquired. Arthur nodded. Where did you think I came from? To tell the truth, said Arthur, after a moment's consideration, I thought you came out of the sky. The clockwork man looked as though he wanted to smile and didn't know how. His eyes twinkled faintly, but the rest of his face remained immobile, formal. Very nearly right, he said in quick precise accents, but not quite. He offered no further information. For a long while Arthur was puzzled by the movements that followed this last remark. Apparently the clockwork man desired to change his tactics. He did not wish to prolong the conversation, but in his effort to move away he was obviously hampered by the fact that his hands still rested upon Arthur's shoulder. He did not seem to be able to bend his arm in a natural fashion.  At last he solved the problem. He took a quick step backwards, nearly losing his balance in the process and cleared his arm, which he then lowered in the usual fashion. Then he turned sharply to the left, considered for a moment, and waddled away. There was no other term in Arthur's estimation to describe his peculiar gait. He took no stride. He simply lifted one foot up and then the other, and then placed them down again, slightly ahead of their former positions. His body swayed from side to side in tune with his strange walk. After he had progressed a few yards he turned to the right, with a smart movement, and looked approximately in Arthur's direction.  Then he turned to the left again, with the same drill-like action, and waddled along. Four. Arthur watched him, feeling diffident, half inclined to follow him in case he fell over. For there was not much stability about the clockwork man. It was clear that the slightest obstacle would have precipitated him upon his nose. He kept his head erect and looked neither downwards or to right and left. He seemed wholly absorbed in his eccentric mode of locomotion, as though he found it interesting just to be moving along. Arthur kept his eyes glued upon that stiff upright back, surmounted by the wig and hat, and he wondered what would happen when the clockwork man reached to the end of the line of hurdles, where another barrier started at right angles across the end of the cricket-ground. It was a sight to attract attention, but fortunately, as Arthur thought, everybody seemed too absorbed in the game to notice what was happening. The dawning of humor saved him from some uncomfortable misgivings. There was something uncanny about the experience. Somehow it didn't seem natural, but it was certainly funny. It was grotesque. You had to laugh at that odd-looking figure or else feel cold all over with another kind of sensation. Of course the man was mad. He was, in spite of his denial, an escaped lunatic. But the noise. That was certainly difficult to explain. Perhaps he had some kind of infernal machine hidden in his pocket, in which case he would be a dangerous kind of lunatic. What was he going to do next? He had reached to the end of the field and stopped abruptly. Apparently the presence of another barrier acted as a complete check to further movement. For several seconds he remained perfectly still. He was now about a hundred seconds from Arthur, but the latter had good eyesight and he was determined to miss nothing. Then the clockwork man raised a hand slowly to his face and Arthur knew that he was repeating his former meditative action finger to nose. He remained in that position for another minute as though the problem of which way to turn was almost too much for him. Finally he turned sharp to the right and began to walk again. Arthur became aware of two other figures approaching the one he was watching so intently. They were Greg, the captain of the team, and Dr. Allingham. The yellow braid on their blazers shone in the sunlight, and Arthur could see the blue emblem on Greg's pocket. There would have to be a meeting. The two flanneled figures were strolling along in a direct line towards that other oddly insistent form. Arthur caught his breath. Somehow he dreaded that encounter. When he looked again there was some kind of confabulation going on. Curiously enough it was Dr. Allingham and Greg who seemed incapable of movement now. They stood there with their hands in their pockets staring, listening. But the clockwork man was apparently making the utmost use of his limited range of action. His arms were busy. Sometimes he kicked a leg up as though to emphasize some tremendously important point. And now and again he jabbed a finger outwards in the direction of the field of play. Arthur caught the sound of a high, squeaky voice born upon the light breeze. Whatever the argument was about, the clockwork man seemed to gain his point. For presently the three figures turned together and proceeded in a beeline towards the pavilion. Dr. Allingham and Greg dodging about absurdly in their effort to accommodate themselves to the gyrations of their companion. End of Chapter 1 Chapter 2 of The Clockwork Man by E. V. Odle This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Clockwork Man Chapter 2 The Wonderful Cricketer 1 We ought not to have let him play, said Allingham irritably. He was standing beside Greg in the pavilion. Well, he would insist, said the latter, laughing lightly. And we're at least entitled to put eleven men in the field. There he goes again. That a six for certain. Allingham watched the ball disappear for the fourth time since the clockwork man started his innings, somewhere in the direction of a big brewery that stood midway between the ground and the distant town. It was an incredible hit. No one had ever achieved such colossal drives in all the history of great whamoring cricket. There was a certain absurdity about the thing. Already the club had been obliged to supply three extra balls, for it would have been useless to try and find those that had been lifted so far beyond the ground. The man's a dangerous lunatic, asserted Allingham, who had not yet overcome his original annoyance with the strange figure whose sudden advent had lost him his wicket. It's uncanny this sort of thing. You can't call it cricket. Well, he's making runs anyhow, rejoined Greg, his eye falling upon the scoreboard. At this rate we shall stand a chance after all. It was fortunate, perhaps, that the great whamoring people took their cricket rather seriously. Otherwise they might have felt, as Dr. Allingham already felt, that there was something impossible about the clockwork man's performance. He had walked out to the wicket amidst comparative indifference. His peculiar gait might easily have been attributed to sheer nervousness, and his appearance, without flannels, provoked only a slight degree of merriment. When he arrived at the wicket he paused and examined the stumps with great attention, as though wondering what they were for. And it was quite a little while before he arranged himself in the correct attitude before them. He remained standing still, holding the bat awkwardly in the air, and no amount of persuasion on the part of the umpire could induce him to take center or place his bat to the ground in the recognized fashion. He offered no explanation for his eccentric behavior, and the fact simply had to be accepted. The game restarted. Tanner, who had by this time taken eight wickets for just under a hundred runs, put down a slow tricky one. Everybody agreed, in discussing the matter afterwards, that the clockwork man never shifted his position or moved a muscle until the ball pitched, slightly to the off. Nobody seems to have seen exactly what happened, but there was a sudden ear-piercing crack and a swoop of dust. Some seconds elapsed before anyone realized that the ball had been hit at all. It was the clockwork man who drew attention to the fact by gazing steadily upwards in the direction of the town. And then suddenly everybody was draining their eyes in the same direction to watch that little flying spot grow smaller and smaller until it seemed to merge into space. As a matter of fact this particular ball was discovered three weeks later lying in a disused yard three miles from the cricket ground. There was a certain amount of applause followed by an embarrassing silence. Presently someone threw another ball out into the field and the game was resumed. But the clockwork man treated Tanner's next delivery, which was a fast one, in exactly the same manner. Again nobody could say exactly what happened, for the action was swifter than the quickest I could follow. But the ball disappeared again, this time in the direction of a fringe of poplars far away on the horizon. Again there was a lull, but the applause this time was modified. Another ball was supplied, and this also was dispatched with equal force and in a third direction, almost unanimously decided by the now bewildered spectators to be the flagstaff of the church that stood in the middle of the High Street, Great Wymering. By this time a certain sense of panic was beginning to be displayed by the restless attitudes of the fielders, and the spectators, instead of leaning against the barriers, stood about in groups discussing the most extraordinary cricketing event of their lives. There was much head shaking and harking back to the precedent among the old cronies present, but it was generally agreed that such hitting was abnormal. Indeed it was something outside the pale of cricket altogether. If everybody was to start eating like that, pronounced Samuel Bynes a local expert, there wouldn't be no sense in cricket, it ain't in the game. And he spat decisively as though to emphasize his opinion that such proficiency should be deplored rather than commended. All right, Sam, said George Bynes, who had hit up many a century for his town in bygone days. Taint cricket. Else it's a fluke. The man didn't ought to be allowed to hold bat in his hand. It's spoiling other folks' sport. Attention was diverted by something of minor importance that showed the clockwork man in an altogether new and puzzling light. There had been some delay over the procuring of the third ball, and when this was forthcoming the over was called. The fielders changed about, but the clockwork man made no attempt to move and manifested no interest in the immediate proceedings. He remained with the bat in his hands as though waiting for another ball to be delivered. Same as though he's only half there, commented Mr. Bynes noticing this incident. Seeming like, suggested his companion. There was further delay. The boulder at the other end objected to the position of the clockwork man. He argued, reasonably enough, that the non-participating batsmen ought to stand quite clear of the wicket. The umpire had to be consulted, and as a result of his decision the clockwork man was gently but firmly induced to move further away. He then remained in the same attitude at the extreme edge of the crease. His obtuseness was certainly remarkable, and comment among the spectators now became general and a trifle heeded. Play! said the umpire. The batsmen at the other end was a stout, rather plethoric individual. He missed the first two balls, and the third struck him full in the stomach. There was a sympathetic pause whilst Mr. Bumpus, who was well known and respected in the town, rubbed his rather prominent part of his anatomy to the accompaniment of fish-like gaspings and excusable ejaculations. Mr. Bumpus was middle-aged and bald as well as corpulent, and although he did his best to endure the mishap with sportsmen-like stoicism, the dismay written upon his perspiring features was certainly an excitement to mirth. Some of the fielders turned their heads for a few moments as though to spare themselves a difficult ordeal, but on the whole there was discreet silence. It was for this reason, perhaps, that the action of the clockwork man was all the more noticeable. To this day not one of the persons present is certain as to whether or not this eccentric individual actually did laugh, but everybody is sure that such was his intention.  One compared the noise to the ringing of bells hopelessly cracked and out of tune. Others described it as being similar to the sound produced by some person passing a stick swiftly across an iron railing. There was that suggestion of rattling, of the impingement of one hard thing against another, or the clapping together of steel plates. It was a horrible, discordant sound, brassy and resonant, varied between the louder outbursts by a sort of whirring and humming. Those who ventured to look at the clockwork man's face during this extraordinary performance said that there was little change of expression. His mouth had opened slightly, but the laugh, if indeed it could be described as anything but a lugubrious travesty of human mirth, seemed to proceed from far down within him. And then the hideous clamour stopped, as abruptly as it began. The clockwork man had not altered his position during the proceedings, but Arthur Withers, who was watching him with feverish intensity from the pavilion, fancied that his ears flapped twice just after the noise had subsided. It was an unpleasant episode, but fortunately the object of such misplaced and ugly hilarity scarcely seemed to notice the outrage. Mr. Bumpus was not lacking in courage. After a few more groans and sighs and a final rubbing of that part of him that had been injured, he placed himself in preparation to receive the next ball. The spectators loudly applauded him, and the bowler, perhaps unwilling to risk another misadventure, moderated his delivery. Mr. Bumpus struck the ball lightly, and it sped away through the slips. A fielder darted after it, but there was ample time for a run. Come on! shouted Mr. Bumpus, and started to puff and blow his way down the pitch. But the clockwork man paid not the slightest heat to the command. He remained, statuesque, a figure of gross indifference. Mr. Bumpus pulled himself up sharply, midway between the two wickets. His red face was a study in bewilderment. He slid a few paces, cast one imploring glance in the direction of the clockwork man, and then rushed desperately back to his own crease. But he was too late. His wicket had been put down. Etiquette plays an important part in the noble game of cricket. It may be bad form to refuse an obvious run. But to complain of your partner in public is still worse. Besides, Mr. Bumpus was too aghast for speech, and his stomach still pained him. He walked very slowly, and with great dignity, back to the pavilion, and his annoyance was no doubt amply soothed by the loud cheers that greeted his return. Greg came out to meet him, with a rather shame-faced smile upon his features. I'm sorry, he murmured. Our recruit seems to be a little awkward. I don't think he quite understands. He can hit, said Mr. Bumpus, mopping his brow. But he's certainly an eccentric sort of individual. I called him to run, and apparently he did not or would not hear me. Greg caught hold of Arthur Withers, who was just going out to bat. Look here, he said. Just tell our friend that he must run. I don't think he quite grasped the situation. No, said Arthur slowly. I don't think he does. He's rather a peculiar sort of person. I... I spoke to him. He... he... says... he's a clockwork man. Oh, said Greg, and his face became blank. Anyhow, just tell him that he must run when he's called. Arthur walked out to the wicket. His usual knee-shaking seemed less pronounced, and he felt more anxious about the clockwork man than about himself. He paused as he drew near to him and whispered in an ear, rather fearfully, for he dreaded a recurrence of the ear-flapping words. The captain says you will run, please, when you're asked.  You have to run, repeated Arthur, in louder tones. The other flapped an ear. Arthur hastened away. Nothing was worth while risking an exhibition in public such as he had witnessed in comparative seclusion. He supposed there was something about the clockwork man really phenomenal, something that was beyond his own rather limited powers of comprehension. Perhaps cleverer people than himself might understand what was the matter with this queer being. He couldn't. He took his place at the wicket. The first ball was an easy one, and he managed to hit it fair and square to mid-on. Scarcely hoping for a response, he called to the clockwork man and began to run. To his immense astonishment the latter passed him halfway down the pitch, his legs jumping from side to side, his arms swinging round irresponsibly. It might be said that his run was merely an exaggeration of his walk. Arthur dumped his bat down quickly and turned. As he looked up, on the return journey, he was puzzled by the fact that there was no sign of his partner. He paused and looked round him. There had been an outburst of derisive cheering when the clockwork man actually commenced to run, but this now swelled up into a roar of merriment. And then Arthur saw what had happened. The clockwork man had not stopped at the opposite wicket. He had run straight on, passed the wicketkeeper, passed the fielders, and at the moment when Arthur spotted him, he was making straight for the white sheet at the back of the ground. No wonder the crowd laughed. It was so utterly absurd. And the clockwork man ran as though nothing could stop him, as though, indeed, he had been wound up and was without power to check his own ridiculous progress. The next moment he collided with the sheet, but even this could only prevent him from going further. His legs continued to work rapidly with the action of running, whilst his body billowed into the sagging sheet. The spectators gave themselves up wholly to the fun. It must have seemed to them that this extraordinary cricketer was also gifted with a sense of humor, however eccentric, and that his nonsensical action was intended by way of retaliation for the ironic cheers that had greeted his running at all. Nobody, except Arthur Withers, realized that the clockwork man run thus far because for some reason he had been unable to stop himself. It may be remarked here that many of the clockwork man's subsequent performances had the same accidental air of humor, and that even his most grotesque attitudes gave the observer an impression of some wild practical joke. He was so far human, in appearance and manner, in spite of those peculiar internal arrangements which will be dealt with later, that his actions produced an instantaneous appeal to the comic instinct, and in laughing at him people forgot to take him seriously. But Arthur Withers, still feeling a certain sense of duty towards that helpless figure batting himself against the sheet, ran up to him. He decided that it would be useless to try and explain matters. The clockwork man was obviously quite irresponsible. Arthur laid his hands on his shoulders and turned him round, much in the way that a child turns a mechanical toy after it has come to rest. Thus released the running figure proceeded back towards the wicket, followed close at heels by Arthur, who hoped, by means of a push here and a shove there, to guide him back to the pavilion and so out of harm's way. But in this attempt he was unexpectedly thwarted. The clockwork man recovered himself. He ran straight back to the wicket and then stopped dead. The umpire was in the act of replacing the bales, for the wicket had been put down, and fast as this eccentric cricketer had run in the first place, he had not been quick enough to reach the crease in time. By all the rules of the game and beyond the shadow of doubt he had been run out. He now regarded the stumps meditatively, with a finger jerk swiftly against his nose, as though recognizing a former state of consciousness. And then, with a swift movement, he took up his position in readiness to receive the ball. This was too much for the equanimity of the spectators. Shout after shout, vaulted along the line of the hurdles. The calm deliberateness of the clockwork man in so reinstating himself, fairly crowned all his previous exhibitions. And the fact that he took no notice of the merriment at his expense, but simply waited for something to happen permitted the utmost license. The crowd rocked itself in unrestrained hilarity. But a second later there was stony silence. For the thing that happened next was as unexpected as it was startling. Nobody, say perhaps Dr. Allingham, anticipated that the clockwork man was capable of adding violence to eccentricity. He looked harmless enough, but apparently there lurked a demonic temper behind those bland, meaningless features. The thing happened in a trice, and all that followed occupied but a few catastrophic seconds. The umpire had stepped up to the clockwork man in order to explain to him that he was expected to retire from the wicket. Not hearing any coherent reply, he emphasized his request by placing a hand suggestively on the other shoulder. Instantly something blade-like flashed in the stammering air, a loud thwack broke upon the silence and the unfortunate umpire lay prostrate. He had gone down like a log of wood. Pendimonium ensued. The scene of quiet play was transformed into a miniature battlefield. The fielders rushed in a body at the clockwork man only to go down one after the other like so many nine-pins. They lay stunned and motionless. The clockwork man spun round like a teetotem, his bat flashing in the sun, whilst the flanneled figures flying from all parts of the field approached him, only to be sent reeling and staggering to earth. Some dies for a moment only to be caught on the rebound. Dust flew up, and to add to the whirl and confusion the unearthly noise that had so startled Arthur Withers broke out again with terrific force, like the engine of a powerful motor suddenly started. I told you he was mad, shouted Ellingham, as he and Greg leapt through the aperture of the pavilion and dashed to the rescue. But the clockwork man suddenly seemed panic-stricken. Just for one moment he surveyed the prostrate figures lying about on the grass like so many sacks. Then he sent the bat flying in the direction of the pavilion and rushed straight for the barrier hurdles. The spectators fled with one accord. Ellingham and Greg doubled up in hot pursuit. Arthur Withers, who had mustered the wit to fall down rather than to be knocked down, picked himself up quickly and joined them. It's all right, he gasped. He... he... won't be able to climb the hurdles. But there was no accounting for the activities of the clockwork man. At a distance of about a yard from the barrier his whole body took off from the ground and he literally floated in space over the obstacle. It was not jumping. It was more like flying. He landed lightly upon his feet without the least difficulty.  In a few seconds his diminutive figure passed into the horizon, leaving a faint trail of dust and the dying echo of that appalling noise. My God! exclaimed Greg, grasping a hurdle to steady himself. It's... it's... incredible! Ellingham couldn't say a word. He stood there panting and swallowing quickly. Arthur Withers caught up to them. He... he goes by machinery, sir. He's a clockwork man.  You're talking through your hat! Greg was listening very acutely. But it is so, protested Arthur. You didn't see him as I did. He was like nothing on earth. And then he began to work. Just like a motor starting. And then that noise began. I'm sure there's something inside him, something that goes wrong sometimes. He was still a little sorry for the clockwork man. That's my conviction, he gasped out, too excited and breathless for further speech. I think, said Greg, with curious calmness, I think we had better warn the police. He's likely to be dangerous. End of Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Of The Clockwork Man by E. V. Odle This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Clockwork Man Chapter 3 The Mystery Of The Clockwork Man 1 An hour and a half later, Dr. Ellingham and Greg had their tea together in the sitting-room of the former's residence. Bay windows looked out upon the broad High Street, already thronged with Saturday evening excursionists. An unusually large crowd was gathered around the entrance to the Blue Lion just over the way, for the news had soon spread about the town. Wild rumors passed from ear to ear as to the identity of the strange individual whose behavior had resulted in so disturbing a conclusion of the cricket match. Those among the townspeople who had actually witnessed not this event, but also the rapid flight of the Clockwork Man, related their version of the affair, adding a little each time and altering their theories, so that in the end those who listened were more frightened and impressed than those who had seen.  Now and again he passed a hand across his big tawny mustache and pulled it savagely. His state of tense nervous irritation was partly due to the fact that he had been obliged to wait so long for his tea, but he had also violently disagreed with Greg in their discussion about the Clockwork Man. At the present moment the young student stood by the window, watching the animated crowd outside the inn. He had finished his tea and had no wish to push his own theory about the mysterious circumstances to the extent of quarreling with his friend. After the disaster there had been much to do. Four times had Ellingham's car travel between the cricket round and the local hospital, and it was half past six before the eleven players and the two umpires had been conveyed thither, treated for their wounds and discharged. No one was seriously injured, but in each case the abrasion on the side of the head had been severe enough to demand treatment. One or two had been a long while recovering full consciousness and all were in a condition of mental confusion and gave wildly incoherent reports of the incident. There had been times, during those journeys to and fro, when Greg found it difficult to save himself from outbursts of laughter. He had to bite his lip hard in the effort to hold in check and imagination that was apt to run to extremes. From one point of view it had certainly been absurd that this awkward being, with his apparently limited range of movement, should have managed in a few seconds to lay out so many healthy active men. By comparison his batting performance, singular as it had seemed, faded into insignificance. The breathless swiftness of the action, the unerring aim, the immense force behind each blow, the incredible audacity of the act almost persuaded Greg that the thing was too exquisitely comic to be true. But when he forced himself to look at the matter seriously he felt that there were little grounds for the explanation that the clockwork man was simply a dangerous lunatic. The flight at a preposterous speed, the flying leap over the hurdle, the subsequent acceleration of his run to a pace altogether beyond human possibility, convinced the young undergraduate, who was level-headed enough, although impressionable, that some other explanation would have to be found for the extraordinary occurrence. Besides, there was Arthur Withers' story about the flapping ears and the queer conversation of the clockwork man, his peculiar jerky movements, his sudden exhibitions of uncanny efficiency contrasted with appalling lapses. Once you had grasped the idea of his mechanical origin it was difficult to thrust the clockwork man out of your head. He became something immensely exciting and suggestive. If Greg's sense of humor had not been so violently tickled by the ludicrous side of the affair he would have felt already that some great discovery was about to be revealed to the modern world. It had never occurred to him before that abnormal phenomena might be presented to human beings in the form of a sort of practical joke. Somehow one expected this sort of thing to happen in solemn earnest and in the dead of night.  Allingham had an explanation for everything. He said that the loud noise was due to some kind of machine that this ingenious lunatic carried in his pocket. He argued that the rapid flight was probably to be accounted for by a sort of electric shoe. Nothing was impossible so long as you could adieu some explanation that was just humanly credible. And the strange antics of the clockwork man, his sudden stoppings and beginnings, his Anglo-Saxon gestures and his Takato gate all came under the heading of locomotor at Taxia in an advanced form. As the doctor concentrated upon a delayed T, his mind lapsed into its usual condition of fretful skepticism. Greg's idea that the clockwork man represented a mystery if not a miracle enraged him. At forty a man does not readily welcome discoveries that may upset his own rule of accepted facts, and Allingham had long since given up the habit of following the latest results of scientific investigation. Years ago he had made his own small researches only to discover that others were making them at the same time. He had had his gleemings in common with all the other students of his year. Everybody was having gleemings then of vast possibilities in medical science, especially in the direction of nervous pathology and the study of morbid diseases resulting from highly complex methods of living. There had been much sound work, a good deal of irresponsible mud-raking, and in Allingham's case, a growing suspicion that the human organism was not standing very well the strains imposed upon it by modern civilization. He had wondered then if some experiments would not be made some day in the pursuit of evolutionary doctrines as applied to physiological progress, but that had been the most ephemeral of all his gleems. He had been glad to abandon the hospitals in favor of a comfortable practice and the leisure life of a country town. Great Weimring had offered him plenty of distractions that sooth a slight wound to his vanity and the discovery that he had overestimated his originality. In a few years much had happened that helped to confirm his new view of himself as a social creature with a taste for the amenities of existence. And then he had been able to keep up his cricket. In the winter there were bridge parties, amateur theatricals, dinner parties with quite ordinary but agreeable people, local affairs and to which a man whose health was under suspicion and whose sympathies were just perceptibly narrowing could plunge without too much effort being required in order to rise to such occasions. And he had the witty temperament. Quite easily he maintained a reputation for turning out a Beaumont on the spur of the moment, something with a faint element of paradox. He would say such things as, Only those succeed in life who have brains and can forget the fact. Or, to be idle is the goal of all men, but only the industrious achieve it. When taunted by a young lady who suspected him of wasted talents, even genius, he retorted that, Genius is only an accumulation of neglected diseases. Laterally he had suffered from strange irritations not easily to be ascribed to liver, misgivings, a sense of having definitely accepted a secondary addition of himself. An old acquaintance would have detected at once the change in his character, the mart leaning towards conservatism in politics and a certain reactionary tendency in his general ideas. He was becoming fixed in his views and believed in a stable universe. His opinions, in fact, were as automatic as his Swedish exercises in the morning and his apple before breakfast. There was a slight compensatory increase in his sense of humor, and there was his approaching marriage to Lillian Payne, the gifted daughter of a wealthy town counsellor. That last fact occupied a central place in his mind just at present, but it was also another source of irritation. Lillian was intellectual as well as fascinating, and the former attribute became more marked as they grew more intimate. Instead of charming little notes inviting him to tea, he now received long, and he was obliged to admit, quite excellent essays upon the true place of woman in modern life. He was bound to applaud, but such activity of mind was by no means to his taste. He liked a woman to have thoughts, but a thinking woman was a nuisance. All these clamoring reforms represented to him merely a disinclination to bother about the necessary affairs of life, an evasion of inevitable evils, a refusal to accept life as a school of learning by trial and error. Besides, if women got hold of the idea of efficiency, there would be an end to all things. They would make a worse muddle of the mad dream than the men. Women made fewer mistakes, and they were temperamentally inclined towards the pushing of everything that they undertook to the point of violent and uncomfortable success. Efficiency. How he hated the word. It reminded him of his own heartbreaking struggles, not only with the difficulties of an exacting science, but with the complexities of a time in which his youth had been spent. A time when all the intelligent young men had been trying to find some way out of the social evils that then existed, and still existed, as an ironical memorial to their futile efforts. In those days, one scarcely dared to move in intellectual circles without having evolved one's personal solution of the social problem, an achievement that implied a great deal of hard reading, attendance at Fabian meetings, and a certain amount of voluntary thinking. If necessary, one could brush all that up again. How different life was when it came to be lived. How unlike the sagacious prognostications of doubting youth. There was a substratum underneath all that surge of inquiry and inquisitiveness, all that worry and distress. And that was life itself, known and valued, something that one clung to with increasing strength. The mind grew out of its speculative stage and settled down to a careful consideration of concrete existence. And then, with a sharp jar, his thoughts reverted to the consideration of another irritating circumstance, this ridiculous clockwork man, in whom Greg believed even to the extent of thinking it worth while stating the case for the incredible before a man years his senior in experience and rational thought. Two. Allingham got up and stood behind Greg at the window. The latter raised his head a little, as though to catch any words that might float across from the babble of excited voices opposite. But there was nothing clearly distinguishable.  Let the thing work on your mind, and you ally yourself with these town gossips. They'll talk this affair into a nine-days wonder. Greg shrugged his shoulders in silence. Presently he looked at his watch. I wonder if Gray will be back soon. Gray was the local inspector of police, in whose hands they had placed the business of rounding up the clockwork man. Allingham had loaned out his car for the purpose. I doubt if we shall see him before midnight, said the latter. Even supposing he catches his man before dusk, which is unlikely, it will take him another hour or so to drive him to the asylum. Greg failed to suppress an abrupt snigger. He lit a cigarette to cover his confusion. Once more he envisaged that flying figure on the horizon. At the rate he was going, he remarked steadily, and barring accidents, I should say he's reached London by now. There will be an accident, retorted Allingham. Mark my words, he won't get very far. That moment, Mrs. Masters, the doctor's elderly housekeeper, entered the room in order to clear away the tea-things. She was a country woman, given to talking without reserve, except when the doctor's eye fell upon her, as it did upon this occasion. But for once she evaded this check to her natural proclivities. She was not going to be cheated out of her share in the local gossip. She placed a tray on the table and made the visitor an excuse for her locosity. Oh, Mr. Greg, they say the devil's come to great wymering at last. I'm not surprised to hear it, for the goings on in this town have been something terrible since the war. What with the drinking and the young people doing just as they like? Have you heard anything fresh? inquired Greg pleasantly. Only about old Mr. Winshape, said Mrs. Masters as she packed the tea-things. He's seen the man that knocked the cricketers down with the bat. That is, if he is a man. But they do say— Where did Mr. Winshape see him? broken Allingham abruptly. Along the path from Bapchurch, sir—Mrs. Masters moderated her manner before the doctor searching eye. Poor old Mr. Winshape, he's not so young as he was, and it did give him a turn. He said he was earring along so as to get home in time for tea, and all of a sudden something flashed by him so quick that he already realized it. He looked round, but it was gone in no time. He reckons it was the old man himself.  Allingham stamped his feet on the carpet. I will not listen to such talk, Mrs. Masters—a woman of your age and supposed sense to lend an ear to such nonsense. I'm ashamed of you. Mrs. Masters trembled a little under the rebuke, but she showed no sign of repentance. I'm only repeating what said, she remarked, and for all I know it might have been the devil. It says in the Bible that he's to be unbound for a thousand years, and I'm sure he might just as well come here as elsewhere for a start. The place is wicked enough. Superstitious nonsense! snorted Allingham, and he continued to snort at intervals while Mrs. Masters hastily collected cups and plates and retreated with dignity to the kitchen. Perhaps you agree with Mrs. Masters, said Allingham as soon as the door was closed. Greg laughed and lowered himself into an easy chair. Superstition, after all, is a perfectly legitimate, although rudimentary form of human inquiry. These good people want to believe in the devil. At the least opportunity they evoke his satanic majesty. They are quite right. They are simply using the only material in their minds in order to investigate a mystery. A sort of glamour suggested Allingham trying to look bored. If you like, admitted Greg, only it does help them to understand, just as all our scientific knowledge helps us to understand the future. I drag in the future, said the other, opening his eyes quickly. Because, said Greg, purposely adopting a monotonous drawl as though to conceal his eagerness. If my theory is correct, then I assume that the clockwork man comes from the future. It's a harmless enough assumption, laughed Allingham. Greg rested his head upon the back of the chair and puffed smoke out. We will pass over the circumstance of his abrupt appearance at the top of the hill, for it is obvious that he might have come from one of the neighboring villages, although I don't think he did. You yourself admit that his manner of approach was startling and that it almost seemed as though he had come from nowhere. But let that be. There are, I admit, as yet few facts in support of my theory. But it is at least significant that one of the first questions he asked should have been not where he was, but when he was. I don't quite follow you, interjected Allingham. He asked Arthur Withers what year it was. Naturally, if he did come from the future, his first anxiety would be to know into what period of man's history he had, possibly by some accident, wandered. But how could he have come from the future? Time, said Greg quickly, is a relative thing. The future has happened just as much as the past. It is happening at this moment. Oh, well, you may be right there, blustered Allingham. I don't know. I admit I'm not quite up to date in these abstruse speculations. I regard that statement of his as highly significant, resumed Greg, after a slight pause. For, of course, if a clockwork man really is, as suggested, a semi-mechanical being, then he could only have come from the future. So far as I am aware, the present has not yet evolved sufficiently even to consider seriously the possibility of introducing mechanical reinforcements into the human body, although there has been tentative speculation on the subject. We are thousands of years away from such a proposition. On the other hand, there is no reason why you should not have already happened outside of our limited knowledge of futurity. It has often occurred to me that the drift of scientific progress is slowly but surely leading us in the direction of some such solution of physiological difficulties. The human organism shows signs of breaking down under the strain of an increasingly complex civilisation. There may be a limit to our power of adaptability, and in that case humanity will have to decide whether it will alter its present living or find instead some means of supplementing the normal functions of the body. Perhaps that has, as I suggest, already happened. It depends entirely upon which road humanity has taken. If the mechanical side of civilisation has developed at its present rate, I see no reason why the man of the future should not have found means to ensure his efficiency by mechanical means applied to his natural functions. Greg sat up in his chair and became more serious. Allingham fidgeted without actually interrupting. Imagine an exceedingly complex kind of mechanism. Greg resumed, an exaggeration of the many intricate types of modern machines in use today. It would have to be something of a very delicate description, and yet rather crude at first in its effect. One thinks of something that would work accurately if in rather a limited sort of way. You see, they would have to ensure success in some things at first, even at the sacrifice of a certain general awkwardness. It would be a question of taking one thing at a time. Thus, when the clockwork man came to play cricket, all he could do was to hit the ball. We have to admit that he did that efficiently enough, however futile were the rest of his actions. Hot air! interrupted Allingham, reaching for his tobacco pouch. That's all this is. Oh, I won't admit that! rejoined Greg cheerfully. We must acknowledge that what we saw this afternoon was entirely abnormal. Even when we were talking to him, I had a strong feeling come over me that our interrogator was not a normal human being. I don't mean simply his behavior. His clothes were an odd sort of color and shape. And didn't you notice his boots? Curious, dull looking things, as though they were made out of some kind of metal. And then the hat and wig. You're simply imagining all these things, said Allingham hotly as he rammed tobacco into his pipe. I'm not. I really noticed them. Of course, I didn't attach much importance to them at the time, but afterwards, when Arthur Withers was telling his story, all that queer feeling about the strange figure came back to me. It took possession of me. After all, suppose he is a clockwork man. But what is a clockwork man? demanded Allingham. Well, of course, I can't explain that exactly, but the term so obviously explains itself. Dammit, he is a clockwork man. He walks, talks, and behaves exactly like one would imagine. Imagine, burst out Allingham, yes, you can imagine such a thing. But you are trying to prove to me that this creature is something that doesn't and can't exist outside your imagination. It won't wash. But you agree, said Grig, unperturbed, that it might be possible in the future. Oh, well, everything is possible if you look at it in that light," grudgingly admitted the other. Then all we have to do is to prove that the future is involved. Our lunatic must convince us that he is not of our age, that he has, in fact, and probably by mechanical means, found his way back to an age of flesh and blood. So far we are agreed, for I willingly side with you in your opinion, that the clockwork man could not exist in the present, while I am open to be convinced that he is a quite credible invention of the remote future. He broke off, for at that moment a car drew up in front of the window, and the burly form of Inspector Gray stepped down in company with two constables and a lad of about fifteen, whom both Grig and the doctor recognized as an inhabitant of the neighboring village of Bapchurch. Well, said Ellingham, as the party stamped awkwardly into the room after a preliminary shuffling upon the mat, what luck! Not much, doctor, announced the Inspector, removing his hat and disclosing a fringe of carotid hair. We ain't found your men, and so far as I can judge, we ain't likely to. But we found these. He laid the clockwork man's hat and wig on the table. Grig instantly picked them up and began examining them with great curiosity. And young Tom Driver here, he seen the man himself. Resumed the Inspector. That's how we come by the hat and wig. Tell the gentleman what you saw, Tom. Tom Driver was a backward youth at best of times, but he seemed quite overcome by the amount of responsibility now thrust upon him. He shuffled forward, pressing his knees together and holding the tattered cap between his very dirty fingers. A great shock of curly yellow hair fell almost over his large brown eyes, and his face was long and pinched. I see the man, he said timidly. I see him as I was going along the path to Bapchurch. Was he going very fast, said Grig? No, sir. He weren't walking at all. He'd fallen into the chalk pit just by rock's bottom. Gringham burst out into a great roar of laughter, but Grig merely smiled and listened. That's how I come to see him, said Tom, shifting his cap about uneasily. I was in a bit of a hurry, because Mother said I wasn't to be late for tea, and I'd been into the town to buy butter as we was a bit short. As I come by rock's bottom, and you know how the path bends a bit sharp to the left where the chalk pit lies, it's a bit awkward for anyone as don't know the path. Yes, go on, said Grig impatiently. Well, as I was coming along I see something moving about just at the top of the pit. At first I thought it was a dog, but when I come nearer I could see it was a pair of legs kicking. Only they was going so fast you couldn't hardly tell one from to other. Well, I ran up, thinking as very likely someone had fallen in, and sure enough it was someone. I caught hold of the legs, and just as I was about to pull him out. Did the legs go on kicking? said Grig quickly. Yes, sir, I had a job to hold them, and then, just as I was going to pull him out, I noticed something. Tom paused for a moment and began to tremble. His teeth chattered violently, and he looked appealingly at his listeners as though afraid to continue.  He—he—hadn't got back to his head, blurted out Tom at last. What! wrapped out Allingham. There you are! said Tom, cowering and glancing reproachfully at the Inspector. I told you as how the gentlemen wouldn't believe me. Take lightly as anybody would believe it, as hadn't seen it for themselves. But what did you see, inquired Grig kindly? What was there to be seen? Tom's eyes searched the room as though looking for something. Grig was standing with his back to the fireplace, but noticing that Tom seemed to be trying to look behind him, he moved away. Tom immediately pointed to the clock that stood on the mantelpiece. It was a clock, he said slowly, just like that one, only more so, in a manner of speaking. I mean, it had more hands and figures, and it was going round very fast.  The sun was shining on it at first, that's why I couldn't be sure what it was for a long time, but when I looked closer I could see plain enough and it made me feel all wobbly, sir. Was there a loud noise? asked Grig. No, sir, not then. But the hands was moving very fast, and there was a sort of humming going on, like a lot of clocks all going on at once, only quiet like. I was so taken back I didn't know what to do, but presently I caught hold of his legs and tried to pull him out. It weren't an easy job, because his legs was kicking all the time, and although I hollered out to him he took no notice. At last I dragged him out, and he lay on the grass still kicking. He never even tried to get up, and at last I took hold of his shoulders and picked him up. And then as soon as I got him up and stood him on his feet, and before I had time to have a good look at him, off he goes, like grease lightning. An awful noise started, like machinery, and before I had time to turn round he was down the path towards Bapchurch and out of sight. I tell you, sir, it gave me a proper turn. But how did you come by these? questioned Greg, who was still holding the hat and wig. I see them lying in the pit, explained Tom.  Of course, he hadn't fallen very far, otherwise his legs wouldn't have been sticking up. It ain't very steep just there, and his head must have caught in a bit of furs. But the hat and wig had rolled down to the bottom.  Greg passed the hat and wig to Allingham and whispered something. The other looked at the inside of the hat. There was a small label in the center with the following matter printed upon it. Dunn Brothers, universal hat providers, established over two thousand years. For a moment Allingham's face was a study in bewilderment. He tried to speak, but only succeeded in producing an absurd sneer. Then he tried to laugh outright and was forced into rapid speech. Well, what did I say? The whole thing is preposterous. I'm afraid, Inspector, we've troubled you for nothing. The fact is, somebody has been guilty of a monstrous hoax. Look at the wig! Look at the wig! Interrupted Greg feverishly. He did so. Just on the edge of the lining there was an oblong shaped tab with small gold lettering. W. Clarkson, wigmaker to the Seventh International. Well, well, it's what I said, the doctor went on swallowing quickly. Someone has. Someone has. He broke off abruptly. Greg was standing with his hands behind him. He shook his head gravely. It's no use, Doc. He observed quietly. We've got to face it. End of Chapter 3 Chapter 4 of The Clockwork Man by E. V. Odle This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Clockwork Man Chapter 4 Arthur Withers Thinks Things Out 1 After that last glimpse of The Clockwork Man and the conversation with Dr. Alingham and Greg that followed, Arthur had hurried home to his tea. No amount of interest in the affair, however stupendous it might appear both to himself and others, could dissuade him from his usual Saturday nights program. Rose Lomas, to whom he had recently become engaged, was a hundred times more important than a Clockwork Man, and whether a human being could actually exist who walked and talked by mechanical means, was a small problem in comparison with that of changing his clothes, washing and tidying himself up in time for his asignation. As soon as the cricketers show signs of stirring themselves and so conveyed the comforting impression that they were not dead, Arthur felt himself able to resume normal existence. His lodgings were situated at the lower end of the town. The accommodation consisted of a small bedroom, which he shared with a fellow clerk, a place at table with the other inmates of the house. The street was very dirty, and Mrs. Flack's house alone presented some sign of decency and respectability. It was a two-storied red-brick cottage. There was no front garden, and you entered directly into a living-room through a door, upon which a brass plate was fixed that bore the following announcement. Mrs. Flack, trained midwife. Arthur stumbled into the room, dropped his straw hat onto the broken-down couch that occupied the entire side of one wall, and sat down at the table. Well, inquired Mrs. Flack as she poured him out a cup of tea. Who won? Nobody, remarked Arthur, cramming bread and butter into his mouth. Game off. Mr. Flack, who was seated in his armchair by the fireplace, looked up in amazement. His interest in cricket was immense, but chronic rheumatism prevented him from getting as far as the ground. He was depended upon Arthur's reports on the local paper. How's that, then? He demanded slowly. Arthur swallowed quickly and tried to explain, but although the affair was still hot in his mind, he found it exceedingly difficult to describe exactly what had taken place. The doings of the clockwork man were at once obvious and inexplicable. It was almost impossible to intrigue people who had not actually witnessed the affair into a realization of such extraordinary happenings. Arthur had to resort to abrupt movements of his arms and legs in order to produce an effect. But he made a great point of insistence upon the ear-flapping. Go on, exclaimed Mrs. Flack, leaning her red-folded arms upon the table. Well, I never. Tain't possible, objected her husband. He's pulling your leg, ma. But Arthur persisted in his imitations without caring very much whether his observers believed him or not. It at least afforded an entertaining occupation. Mrs. Flack's motherly bosom rose and fell with merriment. It's as good as the pictures," she announced at last, wiping her eyes.   That's what you are. This was his usual term for anything out of the way. You ain't gonna get me to believe that, not at my age. If you saw him, said Arthur emphatically, you'd have to believe. It's just that and nothing else.  And it's so funny. You'd never guess. Mr. Flack shook his head thoughtfully. Presently he got up, walked to the end of the mantelpiece, placed his smoked-out pipe on the edge, and took an empty one from behind an ornament. Then he returned to his seat and sat for a long time with the empty pipe in his mouth. It ain't possible, he ruminated at last, not for a bloke to have machinery inside him, at least not to my way of thinking. Arthur finished his tea and got up from his chair, conscious that his effort so far had not carried conviction. He spent a few moments of valuable time in an attempt to supplement them. He went like this, he explained, imitating the walk of the clockwork man, and at the same time snapping his fingers to suggest sharp clicking noises. And the row! Well, you know what a motor sounds like when it's being wound up? Like that, only worse. Mrs. Flack held the greater part of herself in a semi-circle of red arm.  Then she looked at Mr. Flack, who sat unmoved. Why don't you laugh? It would do you good. You take everything so serious. I ain't a going to laugh," said Mr. Flack, not unless I see fit to laugh. And he continued to stare gravely at Arthur's elaborate posturing. Presently the latter remembered his urgent appointment and disappeared through the narrow door that led upstairs. Who are he be? said Mr. Flack, referring to the strange visitor to Great Wymering. I should judge him to be a bit of a masterpiece. Two. Upstairs in the bedroom, Arthur hastily removed his flannels and paced the limited amount of floor space between the two beds.  You could move an inch without bumping into things or knocking something over. There wasn't room to swing a cat, much less to perform an elaborate toilet with that amount of leisurely comfort necessary to its successful accomplishment. Ordinarily he didn't notice these things. It was only when he was in a hurry and had all sorts of little duties to carry out that the awkwardness of his surroundings forced themselves into his mind and produced a sense of revolt. There were times when everything seemed a confounded nuisance and a chair stuck in your way made you feel inclined to pitch it out of the window. Just when you wanted to enjoy simply being yourself, when your thoughts were running in a pleasant, easeful way, you had to turn to and dress or undress, shave or wash, prepare yourself for the conventions of life. So much of existence was spent in actions that were obligatory only because other people expect you to do the same as themselves. It wasn't so much a waste of time as a waste of life. He rescued his trousers from underneath the mattress. It was only recently that he had discovered this obvious substitute for a trouser press and so added one more nuisance to existence. It was something else to be remembered. He grinned pleasantly at the thought of the circumstance which had brought about these careful habits.  There were plenty of dapper use and great whimpering and Arthur had been astute enough to notice wherein he had differed from them in the first stages of his courting. Early rebuffs had led him to perceive that the eye of love rests primarily upon a promising exterior and only afterwards discovers the interior qualities that justify a wise choice. Arthur had been spurned at first on account of a slovenliness that, to do him justice, was rather the result of personal conviction, however airing, that mere carelessness. He had really felt that it was a waste of life even to spend half an hour a month inside a barber shop. Not only that, but the experience was far-reaching in its unpleasant consequences. You went into the shop feeling agreeably familiar with yourself, conscious of intense personality, and you came out a non-entity, smelling of bay rum. The barber succeeded in transforming you from an individual brimming over with original reflections and impulses into a stranger without a distinctive notion in your head. The barber, in fact, was a Delilah in trousers. He ravished the locks from your head and bewitched you into the bargain. Arthur had a strong sense of originality, although he would have been the last person to claim originality in his thoughts. He disliked interference with any part of his personal being. As a boy, he had been perturbed by the prospect of growing up. It had seemed to him such a hopeless sort of process, a mere longitudinal extension, without corresponding gain in other magnitudes. He suspected that other dubious advantages were only to be purchased at the expense of a thinning out of the joys of childhood. Later on he discovered, sadly enough, that this was the case. Although it was possible deliberately to protract one's adolescence. Hence his untightiness, his inefficiency, and even his obtuseness were less constitutional faults than weapons in the warfare against the encroachment of time. But the authorities at the bank regarded them as grave defects in his character. Falling in love had revealed the matter in a very different light. It was quite worthwhile yielding to fashion in order to win the affection of Rose Lomas, and so he had imitated his rivals. He cast aside all ties that revealed their linings, trimmed up the cuffs of his shirts, overcame with an effort a natural repugnance to wearing his best clothes, and generally submitted himself to that daily supervision of superficial matters which he could now regard as the prelude to happy hours. And Rose, interested in that conquest of himself for her sake, had soon learned how much there was beneath the polished surface to capture her heart. Yes, love made everything different. You were ready to put up with all inconveniences and indignities for the sake of that strange obsession. That thought consoled him as he crept on hands and knees in order to pick up his safety razor that had dropped behind the bulky chest of drawers. Love accounted for everything, both serious and comic. He found his razor, plunged it into cold water, he had forgotten to ask Mrs. Flack for hot and couldn't be bothered now, and lathered his face thoughtfully. How many times, in the course of a lifetime, would he repeat that operation? And would he always stand in exactly the same way, with his legs straddled apart and his elbows spanned out like flappers? He would always pass the razor over his face in a certain manner, avoiding those places where even the sharpest blade boggled a little, proceeding with the same mechanical strokes until the job was once more accomplished. Afterwards he would laboriously separate the portions of his razor and wipe them methodically, always in the same order. That was because, once you had decided upon the right way to do a thing, you adopted that method for good. He achieved that second grand sweep of the left side of his face, ending at the corner of his mouth and fouled it up by a swift upward stroke, annihilating the bristly tuft underneath his lower lip. Looking swiftly at the clock, he noticed that it was getting dreadfully late. That was another curious problem of existence. You were always up against time. Generally, when you had to do something or get somewhere, there was this sense of breathless hurry and a disconcerting feeling that the world ended abruptly at the conclusion of every hour and then began again quite differently. The clock, in fact, was another tyrant, robbing you of that sensation of being able to go on forever without changing. That was why people said, when they consulted their watches, how's the enemy? He attacked the problem of his upper lip with sturdy resolution. It was important that this part of his face should be quite smooth. There must not be even a suspicion of roughness. Tears started into his eyes as he harrowed that tender surface. He drew in his breath sharply and in that moment of voluntary and glad travail achieved a metaphysical conception of the first magnitude. All really important questions in life came under the heading of time and space, thought of in capital letters. Recently he had struggled through a difficult book in which the author used these expressions a great many times, although, in a sense, difficult to grasp. Nevertheless, it suddenly became obvious, in a small way, exactly what the chap had been driving at. And somehow his thoughts instantly returned to the clockwork man. He performed the rest of his toilet swiftly. A major part of his brain occupied with reflections that had for their drift the curious ease with which you could perform some operations in life without consciously realizing the fact. Three Oh, I'm not nearly ready yet! Rosloma stood at the open window of her bedroom. Her bare arms and shoulders gleamed softly in the twilight. One hand held her loosened hair on the top of her head and the other pressed a garment to her chest. All right, said Arthur, standing at the gate, buck up. Rose looked cautiously around as though to make sure no one else was in a position to observe her decolletée. But the road was empty. It seemed pleasant to see Arthur standing there twirling his walking stick and looking upwards at her. She decided to keep him there for a few moments. Lovely evening, she remarked, presently. Yes, jolly, said Arthur, buck up. I am bucking up. You're not even dressed. I am," Rose insisted distantly, much more than you think. I've got lots on. They looked solemnly at one another for a long while without even approaching a stare-out. How many runs did you make? Rose asked. She had to repeat the question again before he could hear it distinctly. Besides, he never could believe that her interest in cricket was serious. None, he admitted. But I was not out. Rose considered. That's not as good as making runs, though. Arthur heard a slight noise somewhere around the back of the cottage. Someone coming, he warned. Rose retreated a few steps and lowered her head. Walk up the lane, she whispered. I'll come presently. All right, Arthur nodded. Buck up. He walked a few yards up the road and then turned through a wicked gate and mounted the hump of a meadow. The narrow paths were slightly to right and left. Arthur fell to meditating upon paths in general and how they came into existence. Obviously it was because people always walked in the same way. Countless footsteps following the same line until the grass wore away. That was very odd when you came to think about it. Why didn't people choose different ways of crossing that particular meadow? Then there would be innumerable paths representing a variety of choice. It would be interesting to start a path of your own and see how many people would follow you even though you deliberately chose a circuitous or not obviously direct route. You could come every day until the path was made. He climbed over the top of the meadow, descended again into a valley and stopped before a style with hedges running away on either side. He decided to wait here for Rose. It would be pleasant to see her coming over the hill. It was gloaming now. The few visible stars shone with a peculiar individual brightness and looked strangely pendulous in the fading blue sky. He leaned back and gazed at the depths above him. At this time of the day was always puzzling. You could never tell exactly at what moment the sky really changed into the aspect of evening and then night. Yet there must be some subtle moment when each star was born. Perhaps by looking hard enough it would be possible to become aware of these things. It would be like watching a bud unfold. Slow change was an impenetrable mystery, for actually things seemed to happen too quickly for you to notice them. Or rather, you were too busy to notice them. Spring was like that. Every year you made up your mind to notice the first blossoming, the initial tinge of green. But always it happened that you awoke one morning and found that some vast change had taken place so that it really seemed like a miracle. He sat there, dangling an empty pipe between his teeth. He was not conscious of a desire to smoke, and he felt strangely tolerant of Rose's delay. She would come presently. Presently his reverie was abruptly disturbed by a faint noise, strangely familiar, although remote. It seemed to reach him from the right, as though something crept slowly along the hedge-line, hidden from his view. It was a soft purring sound, very regular and sustained. At first he thought it was the cry of a pheasant, but decided that it was much too persistent. It was something that made a noise in the process of walking along.  For a long time the sound increased only very slightly. And then there broke upon the general stillness a series of abrupt explosions. Pfft! And the other noise, the purring and whirring, from this time so close to Arthur that he instinctly, and half in fear, rose from the style and looked around him. But the tall hedges, sweeping away on either side, made it difficult to see anyone who might be approaching under their cover. There was a pause, then a different sound. Click, click, clickety-click, clicker, clicker, clicker, and so on, becoming louder and louder until at last it stopped, and its place was taken by the dull pitter-patter of footsteps coming nearer and nearer. There was a little harsh snort that might have been intended for a sigh, and then a voice. Oh dear, it is trying. It really is most dreadfully trying. The next moment the clockwork man came into full view round the corner of the hedge. He was swaying slightly from side to side in his usual fashion, and his eyes stared straight ahead of him. He did not appear to notice Arthur, and did not stop until the latter politely stepped aside in order to allow him to pass. Then the clockwork man screwed his head slowly round and appeared to become faintly apprehensive of the presence of another being. After a preliminary ear-flapping he opened his mouth very wide. You haven't," he began with great difficulty, seeing a hat and wig. No, said Arthur, and he glanced at the clockwork man's bald forehead and noticed something peculiar about the construction of the back of his head. There seemed to be some object there which he could not see because they were facing each other. I'm sorry, he continued, looking rather hopelessly around him. Perhaps we could find them somewhere. Somewhere, echoed the clockwork man. That's what seems to me so extraordinary. Everybody says that. The idea of a thing being somewhere, you know. Elsewhere than where you expect it to be. It's so confusing. Arthur consulted his common sense. Can't you remember the place where you lost them? He suggested. A faint wrinkle of perplexity appeared on the other's forehead. He shook his head once. Place. There again, I can't grasp that idea. What is a place, and how does a thing come to be in one place and not in another? He jerked a hand up as though to emphasize the point. A thing either is or it isn't. It can't be in a place. But it must be somewhere, objected Arthur. That's obvious. The clockwork man looked vaguely distressed. Theoretically, he agreed, what you say is correct. I can conceive it as a mathematical problem. But actually, you know, it isn't at all obvious. He jerked his head slowly round and gazed at the surrounding objects. It's such an extraordinary world. I can't get used to it at all. One keeps on bumping into things and folding into things, things that ought not to be there, you know. Arthur could hardly control an eager curiosity to know what the thing was, round and shiny, that looked like a sort of halo at the back of the clockwork man's head. He kept on dodging from one side to the other in an effort to see it clearly. Are you looking at my clock, inquired the clockwork man, without altering his tone of speech? I must apologize. I feel quite indecent. But what is it for? gasped Arthur. It's the regulating mechanism, said the other monotonously. I keep on forgetting that you can't know these things. You see, it controls me. But, of course, it's out of order. That's how I came to be here in this absurd world. There can't be any other reason, I'm sure. It's so childishly perplexed that Arthur's sense of pity was again aroused, and he listened in respectful silence. You see, the mechanical voice went on, only about half the clock is in action. That accounts for my present situation. There was a pause, broken only by obscure tickings, regular but thin in sound. I had been feeling very run down and went to have myself attended to, and some careless mechanic blundered, and, of course, I went all wrong. He turned swiftly and looked hard at Arthur. All wrong. Absolutely all wrong. And, of course, I... I... lapsed, you see. Lapsed, queried Arthur. Yes, I lapsed. Slipped, if you like that better. Slipped back about eight thousand years, so far as I can make out. And, of course, everything is different. His arms shot up both together in an abrupt gesture of despair. And now I am confronted with all these old problems of time and space. Arthur's recent reflections returned to him and produced a little glow in his mind. Is there a world, he questioned, where the problems of time and space are different? Of course," replied the clockwork man, clicking slightly, quite different. The clock, you see, made man independent of time and space. It solved everything. But what happens, Arthur wanted to know, when the clock works properly? Everything happens," said the other, exactly as you wanted to happen. Awfully convenient, Arthur murmured, exceedingly. The clockwork man's head knobbed up and down with a regular rhythm. The whole aim of man is convenience. He jerked himself forward a few paces, as though impelled against his will.  He waddled swiftly along, and to Arthur's great disappointment, disappeared round the corner of the hedge, so that it was impossible to get more than a fleeting glimpse of that fascinating object at the back of his head. But he was still speaking. I don't know what I shall do, I'm sure," Arthur heard him say, as though to himself. Four. Roselomas came slowly over the top of the hill. She was hapless, and her short, curly hair blew about her face, for a slight breeze had sprung up in the wake of the sunset. She wore a navy blue jacket over a white muslin blouse with a deep V at the breast. There was a fair stretch of plump leg, stocking in black cashmere between the edge of her dark skirt and the beginning of the tall boots that had taken so long to button up. She walked with her chin tilted upwards, and her eyes half closed, and her hands were thrust into the slanting pockets of her jacket. Whoever was that person you were talking to, she inquired as soon as they stood together. Oh, someone who had lost his way, said Arthur carelessly. He felt curiously disinclined to explain matters just at present. The clockwork man was disconcerting. He was a rather terrifying side-issue. Arthur had a feeling that Rose would probably be frightened by him, for she was a timid girl. He half hoped now that this strange being would turn out to be some kind of monstrous hoax. And so he said nothing. They remained by this style, courting each other and the silent oncoming of night. They were very ordinary lovers, and behaved just exactly in the same way as other people in the same condition. They kissed at intervals and examined each other's faces with portentous gravity and microscopic care. Leaning against the style, they were frequently interrupted by pedestrians, some of whom took special care to light their pipes as they passed. But the disturbance scarcely affected them. Being lovers, they belonged to each other, and the world about them also belonged to them, and seemed to fashion its laws in accordance with their desires. They would not have offered you two pence for a reformed House of Commons or an enlightened civilization. Oh, Arthur, said Rose suddenly, I want to be like this always, don't you? Yes, murmured Arthur, and then caught his breath sharply. For his ear had detected a faint throbbing and palpitation in the distance. It seemed to echo from the far-off hills, a sort of choo-choo constantly repeated, and presently another and more familiar sound aroused his attention. It was the toot-toot of an automobile and the jerk of a brake, and then the steady whine of the engine as the car ascended a hill. Perhaps they were pursuing the clockwork man. Arthur hoped not. It seemed to him the troubles of that strange being were bad enough without their being added to them the persecution suffered by those to whom existence represents an endless puzzle, full of snares and surprises.