chapter seven

the clockwork man explains himself

i

late that evening the doctor returned from a confinement case, which had taken him to one of the outlying villages near great wymering. the engine was grinding and straining as the car slowly ascended a steep incline that led into the town; and the doctor leaned forward in the seat, both hands gripping the wheel, and his eyes peering through the wind-screen at the stretch of well-lit road ahead of him.

he had almost reached the top of the hill, and was about to change his gear, when a figure loomed up out of the darkness and made straight for the car. the doctor hastily jammed his brake down, but too late to avert a collision. there was a violent bump; and the next moment the car began running backwards down the hill, followed by the figure, who had apparently suffered no inconvenience from the contact.

aware that his brakes were not strong enough to avert another disaster, the doctor deftly turned the car sideways and ran back[pg 132]wards into the hedge. he leapt out into the road and approached the still moving figure.

"what the devil!"

the figure stopped with startling suddenness, but offered no explanation.

"what are you playing at?" the doctor demanded, glancing at the crumpled bonnet of his car. "it's a wonder i didn't kill you."

and then, as he approached nearer to that impassive form, staring at him with eyes that glittered luridly in the darkness, he recognised something familiar about his appearance. at the same moment he realised that this singular individual had actually run into the car without apparently incurring the least harm. the reflection rendered the doctor speechless for a few seconds; he could only stare confusedly at the clockwork man. the latter remained static, as though, in his turn, trying to grasp the significance of what had happened.

it occurred to the doctor that here was an opportunity to investigate certain matters.

"look here," he broke out, after a collected pause, "once and for all, who are you?"

a question, sharply put, generally produced some kind of effect upon the clockwork man. it seemed to release the mechanism in his brain that made coherent speech possible. but his reply was disconcerting.

[pg 133]

"who are you?" he demanded, after a preliminary click or two.

"i am a doctor," said allingham, rather taken back, "a medical man. if you are hurt at all—"

an extra gleam of light shone in the other's eye, and he seemed to ponder deeply over this statement.

"does that mean that you can mend people?" he enquired, at last.

"why yes, i suppose it does," allingham admitted, not knowing what else to say.

the clockwork man sighed, a long, whistling sigh. "i wish you would mend me. i'm all wrong you know. something has got out of place, i think. my clock won't work properly."

"your clock," echoed the doctor.

"it's rather difficult to explain," the clockwork man continued, "but so far as i remember, doctors were people who used to mend human beings before the days of the clock. now they are called mechanics. but it amounts to the same thing."

"if you will come with me to my surgery," the doctor suggested, with as much calmness as he could assume, "i'll do my best for you."

the clockwork man bowed stiffly. "thank you. of course, i'm a little better than i was, but my ears still flap occasionally."

the doctor scarcely heard this. he had[pg 134] turned aside and stooped down in order to rewind the engine of his car. when he looked up again he beheld an extraordinary sight.

the clockwork man was standing by his side, a comic expression of pity and misgiving animating his crude features. with one hand he was softly stroking the damaged bonnet of the car.

"poor thing," he was saying, "it must be suffering dreadfully. i am so sorry."

allingham paused in the turning of the handle and stared, aghast, at his companion. there was no mistaking the significance of the remark, and it had been spoken in tones of strange tenderness. rapidly there swept across the doctor's mind a sensation of complete conviction. if there was any further proof required of the truth of gregg's conjecture, surely it was expressed in this apparently insane and yet obviously sincere solicitude on the part of the clockwork man for an inanimate machine? he recognised in the mechanism before him a member of his own species!

the thing was at once preposterous and rational, and the doctor almost yielded to a desire to laugh hysterically. then, with a final jerk of the handle, he started the engine and opened the door of the car for the clockwork man to enter. the latter, after making several absurd attempts to mount the step in the[pg 135] ordinary manner, stumbled and fell head foremost into the interior. the doctor followed, and picking up the prostrate figure, placed him in a sitting posture upon the seat. he was extraordinarily light, and there was something about the feel of his body that sent a thrill of apprehension down the doctor's spine. he was thoroughly frightened by now, and the manner in which his companion took everything for granted only increased his alarm.

"i know one thing," the clockwork man remarked, as the car began to move, "i'm devilish hungry."

ii

that the clockwork man was likely to prove a source of embarrassment to him in more ways than one was demonstrated to the doctor almost as soon as they entered the house. mrs. masters, who was laying the supper, regarded the visitor with a slight huffiness. he obtruded upon her vision as an extra meal for which she was not prepared. and the doctor's manner was not reassuring. he seemed, for the time being, to lack that urbanity which usually enabled him to smooth over the awkward situations in life. it was unfortunate, perhaps, that he should have allowed mrs. masters to develop an attitude of distrust, but he was[pg 136] nervous, and that was sufficient to put the good lady on her guard.

"lay an extra place, will you, mrs. masters," the doctor had requested as they entered the room.

"i'm afraid you'll 'ave to make do," was the sharp rejoinder, for there was not much on the table, and the doctor favoured a light supper. "there's watercress," she added, defensively.

"care for watercress?" enquired the doctor, trying hard to glance casually at his guest.

the clockwork man stared blankly at his interrogator. "watercress," he remarked, "is not much in my line. something solid, if you have it, and as much as possible. i feel a trifle faint."

he sat down rather hurriedly, on the couch, and the doctor scanned him anxiously for symptoms. but there were none of an alarming character. he had not removed his borrowed hat and wig.

"bring up anything you can find," the doctor whispered in mrs. masters' ear, "my friend has had rather a long journey. anything you can find. surely we have things in tins."

his further suggestions were drowned by an enormous hy?na-like yawn coming from the direction of the couch. it was followed by another, even more prodigious. the room[pg 137] fairly vibrated with the clockwork man's uncouth expression of omnivorous appetite.

"bless us!" mrs. masters could not help saying. "manners!"

"is there anything you particularly fancy?" enquired the doctor.

"eggs," announced the figure on the couch. "large quantities of eggs—infinite eggs."

"see what you can do in the matter of eggs,'' urged the doctor, and mrs. masters departed, with the light of expedition in her eye, for to feed a hungry man, even one whom she regarded with suspicion, was part of her religion.

"i'm afraid i put you to great inconvenience," murmured the visitor, still yawning and rolling about on the couch. "the fact is, i ought to be able to produce things—but that part of me seems to have gone wrong again. i did make a start—but it was only a flash in the pan. so sorry if i'm a nuisance."

"not at all," said the doctor, endeavouring without much success to treat his guest as an ordinary being, "i am to blame. i ought to have realised that you would require nourishment. but, of course, i am still in the dark—"

he paused abruptly, aware that certain peculiar changes were taking place in the physiognomy of the clockwork man. his strange organism seemed to be undergoing a series of exceedingly swift and complicated[pg 138] physical and chemical processes. his complexion changed colour rapidly, passing from its usual pallor to a deep greenish hue, and then to a hectic flush. concurrent with this, there was a puzzling movement of the corpuscles and cells just beneath the skin.

the doctor was scarcely as yet in the mind to study these phenomena accurately. at the back of his mind there was the thought of mrs. masters returning with the supper. he tried to resume ordinary speech, but the clockwork man seemed abstracted, and the unfamiliarity of his appearance increased every second. it seemed to the doctor that he had remembered a little dimple on the middle of the clockwork man's chin, but now he couldn't see the dimple. it was covered with something brownish and delicate, something that was rapidly spreading until it became almost obvious.

"you see," exclaimed the doctor, making a violent effort to ignore his own perceptions, "it's all so unexpected. i'm afraid i shan't be able to render you much assistance until i know the actual facts, and even then—"

he gripped the back of a chair. it was no longer possible for him to deceive himself about the mysterious appearance on the clockwork man's chin. he was growing a beard—swiftly and visibly. already some of the hairs had reached to his collar.

[pg 139]

"i beg your pardon," said the clockwork man, suddenly becoming conscious of the hirsute development. "irregular growth—most inconvenient—it's due to my condition—i'm all to pieces, you know—things happen spontaneously." he appeared to be struggling hard to reverse some process within himself, but the beard continued to grow.

the doctor found his voice again. "great heavens," he burst out, in a hysterical shout. "stop it. you must stop it—i simply can't stand it."

he had visions of a room full of golden brown beard. it was the most appalling thing he had ever witnessed, and there was no trickery about it. the beard had actually grown before his eyes, and it had now reached to the second button of the clockwork man's waistcoat. and, at any moment, mrs. masters might return!

suddenly, with a violent effort involving two sharp flappings of his ears, the clockwork man mastered his difficulty. he appeared to set in action some swift depilatory process. the beard vanished as if by magic. the doctor collapsed into a chair.

"you mustn't do anything like that again," he muttered hoarsely. "you—must—let—me—know—when—you—feel it—coming on."

in spite of his agitation, it occurred to him[pg 140] that he must be prepared for worse shocks than this. it was no use giving way to panic. incredible as had been the cricketing performance, the magical flight, and now this ridiculously sudden growth of beard, there were indications about the clockwork man that pointed to still further abnormalities. the doctor braced himself up to face the worst; he had no theory at all with which to explain these staggering manifestations, and it seemed more than likely that the ghastly serio-comic figure seated on the couch would presently offer some explanation of his own.

a few moments later mrs. masters entered the room bearing a tray with the promised meal. true to her instinct, the good soul must have searched the remotest corners of her pantry in order to provide what she evidently regarded as but an apology of a repast. little did she know for what brobdingnagian appetite she was catering! at the sight of the six gleaming white eggs in their cups, the guest made a movement expressive of the direction of his desire, if not of very sanguine hope of their fulfilment. besides eggs, there were several piles of sandwiches, bread and butter, and assorted cakes.

mrs. masters had scarcely murmured her apologies for the best she could do at such short notice, and retired, than the clockwork[pg 141] man set to with an avidity that appalled and disgusted the doctor. the six eggs were cracked and swallowed in as many seconds. the rest of the food disappeared in a series of jerks, accompanied by intense vibration of the jaws; the whole process of swallowing resembling the pulsations of the cylinders of a petrol engine. so rapid were the vibrations, that the whole of the lower part of the clockwork man's face was only visible as a multiplicity of blurred outlines.

the commotion subsided as abruptly as it had begun, and the doctor enquired, with as much grace as his outraged instincts would allow, whether he could offer him any more.

"i have still," said the clockwork man, locating his feeling by placing a hand sharply against his stomach, "an emptiness here."

"dear me," muttered the doctor, "you find us rather short at present. i must think of something." he went on talking, as though to gain time. "it's quite obvious, of course, that you need more than an average person. i ought to have realised. there would be exaggerated metabolism—naturally, to sustain exaggerated function. but, of course, the—er—motive force behind this extraordinary efficiency of yours is still a mystery to me. am i right in assuming that there is a sort of mechanism?"

[pg 142]

"it makes everything go faster," observed the clockwork man, "and more accurately."

"quite," murmured the doctor. he was leaning forward now, with his elbows resting on the table and his head on one side. "i can see that. there are certain things about you that strike one as being obvious. but what beats me at present is how—and where—" he looked, figuratively speaking, at the inside of the clockwork man, "i mean, in what part of your anatomy the—er—motive force is situated."

"the functioning principle," said the clockwork man, "is distributed throughout, but the clock—" his words ran on incoherently for a few moments and ended in an abrupt explosion that nearly lifted him out of his seat. "beg pardon—what i mean to say is that the clock—wallabaloo—wum—wum—"

"i am prepared to take that for granted," put in the doctor, coughing slightly.

"you must understand," resumed the clockwork man, making a rather painful effort to fold his arms and look natural, "you must understand—click—click—that it is difficult for me to carry on conversation in this manner. not only are my speech centres rather disordered—g-r-r-r-r-r-r—but i am not really accustomed to expressing my thoughts[pg 143] in this way (here there was a loud spinning noise, like a sewing machine, and rising to a rapid crescendo). my brain is—so—constituted that action—except in a multiform world—is bound to be somewhat spasmodic—pfft—pfft—pfft. in fact—pfft—it is only—pfft—because i am in such a hope—hope—hopeless condition that i am able to converse with you at all."

"i see," said allingham, slowly, "it is because you are, so to speak, temporarily incapacitated, that you are able to come down to the level of our world."

"it's an extra—ordinary world," exclaimed the other, with a sudden vehemence that seemed to bring about a spasm of coherency. "i can't get used to it. everything is so elementary and restricted. i wouldn't have thought it possible that even in the twentieth century things would have been so backward. i always thought that this age was supposed to be the beginning. history says the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were full of stir and enquiry. the mind of man was awakening. but it is strange how little has been done. i see no signs of the great movement. why, you have not yet grasped the importance of the machines."

"we have automobiles and flying machines," interrupted allingham, weakly.

[pg 144]

"and you treat them like slaves," retorted the clockwork man. "that fact was revealed to me by your callous behaviour towards your motor car. it was not until man began to respect the machines that his real history begun. what ideas have you about the relation of man to the outer cosmos?"

"we have a theory of relativity," allingham ventured.

"einstein!" the clockwork man's features altered just perceptibly to an expression of faint surprise. "is he already born?"

"he is beginning to be understood. and some attempt is being made to popularise his theory. but i don't know that i altogether agree."

the doctor hesitated, aware of the uselessness of dissension upon such a subject where his companion was concerned. another idea came into his head. "what sort of a world is yours? to look at, i mean. how does it appear to the eye and touch?"

"it is a multiform world," replied the clockwork man (he had managed to fold his arms now, and apart from a certain stiffness his attitude was fairly normal). "now, your world has a certain definite shape. that is what puzzles me so. there is one of everything. one sky, and one floor. everything is fixed and stable. at least, so it appears to[pg 145] me. and then you have objects placed about in certain positions, trees, houses, lamp-posts—and they never alter their positions. it reminds me of the scenery they used in the old theatres. now, in my world everything is constantly moving, and there is not one of everything, but always there are a great many of each thing. the universe has no definite shape at all. the sky does not look, like yours does, simply a sort of inverted bowl. it is a shapeless void. but what strikes me so forcibly about your world is that everything appears to be leading somewhere, and you expect always to come to the end of things. but in my world everything goes on for ever."

"but the streets and houses?" hazarded allingham, "aren't they like ours?"

the clockwork man shook his head. "we have houses, but they are not full of things like yours are, and we don't live in them. they are simply places where we go when we take ourselves to pieces or overhaul ourselves. they are—" his mouth opened very wide, "the nearest approach to fixed objects that we have, and we regard them as jumping-off places for successive excursions into various dimensions. streets are of course unnecessary, since the only object of a street is to lead from one place to another, and we do that sort of thing in other ways. again, our houses are[pg 146] not placed together in the absurd fashion of yours. they are anywhere and everywhere, and nowhere and nowhen. for instance, i live in the day before yesterday and my friend in the day after to-morrow."

"i begin to grasp what you mean," said allingham, digging his chin into his hands, "as an idea, that is. it seems to me that, to borrow the words of shakespeare, i have long dreamed of such a kind of man as you. but now that you are before me, in the—er—flesh, i find myself unable to accept you."

the unfortunate doctor was trying hard to substitute a genuine interest in the clockwork man for a feeling of panic, but he was not very successful. "you seem to me," he added, rather lamely, "so very theoretical."

and then he remembered the sudden growth of beard, and decided that it was useless to pursue that last thin thread of suspicion in his mind. for several seconds he said nothing at all, and the clockwork man seemed to take advantage of the pause in order to wind himself up to a new pitch of coherency.

"it would be ridiculous," he began, after several thoracic bifurcations, "for me to explain myself more fully to you. unless you had a clock you couldn't possibly understand. but i hope i have made it clear that my world is a multiform world. it has a thousand[pg 147] manifestations as compared to one of yours. it is a world of many dimensions, and every dimension is crowded with people and things. only they don't get in each other's way, like you do, because there are always other dimensions at hand."

"that i can follow," said the doctor, wrinkling his brows, "that seems to me fairly clear. i can just grasp that, as the hypothesis of another sort of world. but what i don't understand, what i can't begin to understand, is how you work, how this mechanism which you talk about functions."

he delivered this last sentence rather in the manner of an ultimatum, and the clockwork man seemed to brood over it for a few seconds. he was apparently puzzled by the question, and hard mechanical lines appeared upon his forehead and began slowly chasing one another out of existence. it reminded the doctor of venetian blinds being pulled up and down very rapidly.

"well," the reply was shot out at last, "how do you work?" the repartee of the clockwork man was none the less effective for being suspended, as it were, for a second or two before delivery.

the doctor gasped slightly and released his hold upon a mustard pot. he came up to the rebound with a new suggestion.

[pg 148]

"now, that's a good idea. we might arrive at something by comparison. i never thought of that." he grasped the mustard pot again and tried to arrange certain matters in his mind. "it's a little difficult to know where to begin," he temporised.

"begin at the end, if you like," suggested the clockwork man, affably. "it's all the same to me. first and last, upside or inside, front or back—it all conveys the same idea to me."

"we are creatures of action," hazarded the doctor, with the air of a man embarking upon a long mental voyage, "we act from certain motives. there is a principle known as cause and effect. everything is related. every action has its equal and opposite re-action. nobody can do anything, or even think anything, without producing some change, however slight, in the general flow of things. every movement that we make, almost every thought that passes through our minds, starts another ripple upon the surface of time, upon this endless stream of cause and effect."

"ah," interrupted the clockwork man, placing a finger to the side of his nose, "i begin to understand. you work upon a different principle, or rather an antiquated principle. you see, all that has been solved[pg 149] now. the clock works all that out in advance. it calculates ahead of our conscious selves. no doubt we still go through the same processes, sub-consciously, all such processes that relate to cause and effect. but we, that is, ourselves, are the resultant of such calculations, and the only actions we are conscious of are those which are expressed as consequents."

allingham passed a hand across his forehead. "it all seems so feasible," he remarked, "once you grasp the mechanism. but what i don't understand—"

here, however, the discussion came to an abrupt conclusion, for something was happening to the clockwork man.