chapter three

the mystery of the clockwork man

i

an hour and a half later doctor allingham and gregg 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 rumours passed from ear to ear as to the identity of the strange individual whose behaviour had resulted in so disturbing a conclusion of the cricket match. those among the townspeople who had actually witnessed not only 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.

allingham sat in stony silence, sipping tea at intervals and cutting pieces of cake into[pg 41] neat little squares, which he slipped into his mouth spasmodically. now and again he passed a hand across his big tawny moustache 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 gregg 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 he had no wish to push his own theory about the mysterious circumstance to the extent of quarrelling with his friend.

after the disaster there had been much to do. four times had allingham's car travelled between the cricket ground 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[pg 42] to and fro, when gregg found it difficult to save himself from outbursts of laughter. he had to bite his lip hard in the effort to hold in check an 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 gregg 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 wither's story about the flapping ears and the queer conversation of the clockwork man, his peculiar[pg 43] 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 gregg's sense of humour 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. but the event had taken place in broad daylight, and already there was mixed up with its queer unreality the most ridiculous tangle of purely human circumstance.

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 adduce some explanation that was just humanly credible. and the strange antics of the clockwork man, his sudden stoppings and beginnings, his[pg 44] "anglo-saxon" gestures and his staccato gait, all came under the heading of locomotor ataxia in an advanced form.

as the doctor concentrated upon a delayed tea, his mind lapsed into its usual condition of fretful scepticism. gregg'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 world 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 gleamings in common with all the other students of his year. everybody was having gleamings 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 civilisation. he had wondered then if some experiments would not be made some day in[pg 45] the pursuit of evolutionary doctrines as applied to physiological progress—but that had been the most ephemeral of all his gleams.

he had been glad to abandon the hospitals in favour of a comfortable practice and the leisured life of a country town. great wymering had offered him plenty of distractions that soothed the slight wound to his vanity caused by the discovery that he had over-estimated 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 into 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 bon-mot 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[pg 46] a young lady who suspected him of wasted talents, even genius, he retorted that "genius is only an accumulation of neglected diseases."

latterly he had suffered from strange irritations not easily to be ascribed to liver, misgivings, a sense of having definitely accepted a secondary edition of himself. an old acquaintance would have detected at once the change in his character, the marked 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 humour, and there was his approaching marriage to lilian payne, the gifted daughter of a wealthy town councillor.

that last fact occupied a central place in his mind just at present, but it was also another source of irritation. lilian 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[pg 47] a woman to have thoughts; but a thinking woman was a nuisance.

all these clamouring 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 heart-breaking struggles, not only with the difficulties of an exacting science, but with the complexities of the 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.

[pg 48]

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 enquiry 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 gregg 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.

ii

allingham got up and stood behind gregg at the window. the latter raised his head a little as though to catch any words that might float across from the babel of excited voices opposite. but there was nothing clearly distinguishable.

"you see," said allingham, nodding his head and wiping his moustache with a handkerchief, "let the thing work on your[pg 49] mind and you ally yourself with these town gossips. they'll talk this affair into a nine days wonder."

gregg shrugged his shoulders in silence. presently he looked at his watch. "i wonder if grey will be back soon." grey 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 to the asylum."

gregg 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."

at 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[pg 50] evaded this check to her natural proclivities; she was not going to be cheated out of her share in the local gossip. she placed the tray on the table and made the visitor an excuse for her loquacity.

"oh, mr. gregg, they say the devil's come to great wymering at last. i'm not surprised to 'ear it, for the goings on in this town 'ave been something terrible since the war. what with the drinking and the young people doing just as they like.

"have you heard anything fresh?" enquired gregg, pleasantly.

"only about old mr. winchape," 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. winchape see him?" broke in allingham, abruptly.

"along the path from bapchurch, sir." mrs. masters moderated her manner before the doctor's searching eye. "poor old mr. winchape, he's not so young as he was, and it did give him a turn. he says he was 'urrying along so as to get 'ome in time for tea, and all of a sudden something flashed by 'im, so quick that he 'ardly realised it. he looked round, but it was gone in no time. he reckons it was the old man 'imself. there was fire[pg 51] coming out of his mouth and 'is eyes was like two red 'ot coals—"

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 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's said," she remarked. "an' 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.

gregg laughed and lowered himself into an easy chair. "superstition, after all, is a perfectly legitimate although rudimentary form of human enquiry. these good people want to believe in the devil. at the least opportunity they evoke his satanic majesty. they[pg 52] 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 gregg, "only it does help them to understand, just as all our scientific knowledge helps us to understand, the future."

"why drag in the future," said the other, opening his eyes quickly.

"because," said gregg, 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.

gregg 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 neighbouring 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[pg 53] 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 gregg, 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 gregg, after a slight pause. "for, of course, if the 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[pg 54] hand, there is no reason why it 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 mode of 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."

gregg sat up in his chair and became more serious. allingham fidgeted without actually interrupting.

"imagine an exceedingly complex kind of mechanism," gregg resumed, "an exaggeration of the many intricate types of modern machines in use to-day. it would have to be something of a very delicate description, and yet rather crude at first in its effect. one thinks of[pg 55] 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 gregg, 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 behaviour. his clothes were an odd sort of colour and shape. and did 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[pg 56] 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. damn it, 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 gregg, 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[pg 57] 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 grey stepped down in company with two constables and a lad of about fifteen, whom both gregg and the doctor recognised as an inhabitant of the neighbouring village of bapchurch.

iii

"well?" said allingham, 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 carroty hair. "we 'aint found your man, and so far as i can judge we 'aint likely to. but we've found these."

he laid the clockwork man's hat and wig on the table. gregg instantly picked them up and began examining them with great curiosity.

"and young tom driver here, he's seen the man himself," resumed the inspector. "that's 'ow we come by the 'at and wig. tell the gentlemen what you saw, tom."

tom driver was a backward youth at the best of times, but he seemed quite overcome[pg 58] by the amount of responsibility now thrust upon him. he shuffled forward, pressing his knees together and holding a 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 began, timidly, "i see 'im as i was going along the path to bapchurch."

"was he going very fast?" said gregg.

"no, sir, he weren't walking at all. he'd fallen into the chalk pit just by rock's bottom."

allingham burst out into a great roar of laughter; but gregg merely smiled and listened.

"that's 'ow i come to see 'im," said tom, shifting his cap about uneasily. "i was in a bit of a 'urry 'cos 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 'ow 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 gregg, 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 t'other. well, i[pg 59] ran up, thinking 'as very likely someone 'ad fallen in, and sure enough it was someone. i caught 'old of the legs, and just as i was about to pull 'im out—"

"did the legs go on kicking?" said gregg, quickly.

"yes, sir, i 'ad a job to 'old them. and then, just as i was going to pull 'im 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.

"go on, tom," commanded inspector grey. "spit it out, lad. it's got to be said."

"he—he—hadn't got no back to his head," blurted out tom at last.

"what!" rapped out allingham.

"there you are," said tom, cowering and glancing reproachfully at the inspector, "i told you as 'ow t'gentlemen wouldn't believe me. t'aint likely as anybody would believe it as 'adn't seen it for themselves."

"but what did you see?" enquired gregg, kindly. "what was there to be seen?"

tom's eyes searched the room as though looking for something. gregg was standing with his back to the fire-place, but noticing that tom seemed to be trying to look behind him, he moved away. tom immediately[pg 60] 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 'ad more 'ands and figures, and they was going round very fast. but it 'ad a glass face just like that one, and it was stuck on 'is 'ead just where the back ought to be. 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 gregg.

"no, sir, not then. but the 'ands was moving very fast, and there was a sort of 'umming 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 'old of 'is legs and tried to pull 'im out. it weren't a easy job, 'cos 'is legs was kicking all the time, and although i 'ollered out to 'im 'e took no notice. at last i dragged 'im out, and 'e lay on the grass, still kicking. 'e never even tried to get up, and at last i took 'old of his shoulders and picked 'im up. and then, as soon as i got 'im up and stood 'im on his feet, and afore i 'ad time to 'ave a good look at 'im, off he goes, like greased lightning. an awful noise started, like[pg 61] machinery, and afore i 'ad time to turn round 'e 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 gregg, who was still holding the hat and wig.

"i see them lying in the pit," explained tom, "they must 'ave dropped off 'is 'ead as he lay there. of course, 'e 'adn't fallen very far, otherwise 'is legs wouldn't ave been sticking up. it 'aint very steep just there, and 'is 'ead must 'ave caught in a bit of furze. but the 'at and wig 'ad rolled down to the bottom. after 'e'd gone i climbed down and picked them up."

gregg 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 centre, with the following matter printed upon it:—

dunn brothers.

universal hat providers.

established over 2,000 years.

for a moment allingham's face was a study in bewilderment. he tried to speak, but only succeeded in producing an absurd snigger. then he tried to laugh outright, and was forced into rapid speech. "well, what did i say?[pg 62] 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 gregg, feverishly.

allingham did so. just on the edge of the lining there was an oblong-shaped tab, with small gold lettering:—

w. clarkson. wig-maker 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. gregg 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."