THE
CLOCKWORK MAN
By E.V. ODLE
AUTHOR OF "THE HISTORY OF ALFRED RUDD"
LONDON
WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD.
First published April 1923
Printed in Great Britain
"Consciousness in a mere automaton is a useless and unnecessaryepiphenomenon."—Prof. Lloyd Morgan.
TO
ROSE ISSERLIS
CONTENTS.
CHAP. | PAGE | |
I. | The Coming of the Clockwork Man | 1 |
II. | The Wonderful Cricketer | 24 |
III. | The Mystery of the Clockwork Man | 40 |
IV. | Arthur Withers thinks Things out | 63 |
V. | The Clockwork Man investigatesMatters | 84 |
VI. | "It is not so, it was not so, and,indeed, God forbid it should be so" | 105 |
VII. | The Clockwork Man explains Himself | 131 |
VIII. | The Clock | 150 |
IX. | Gregg | 168 |
X. | Last Appearance of the ClockworkMan | 191 |
THE COMING OF THE CLOCKWORK MAN
I
It was just as Doctor Allingham had congratulated himself upon the factthat the bowling was broken, and that he had only to hit now and savethe trouble of running, just as he was scanning the boundaries with oneeye and with the other following Tanner's short, crooked arm raisedhigh above the white sheet at the back of the opposite wicket, that henoticed the strange figure. Its abrupt appearance, at first sight likea scare-crow dumped suddenly on the horizon, caused him to lessen hisgrip upon the bat in his hand. His mind wandered for just that fatalmoment, and his vision of the on-coming bowler was swept away and itsplace taken by that arresting figure of a man coming over the pathat the top of the hill, a man whose attitude, on closer examination,seemed extraordinarily