THREE:"Let me explain," urged the Clockwork man, who was gaining in verbal ease and intellectual elasticity every moment. "Supposing[Pg 90] I was to hit you hard. You would fall down. You would become supine. You would assume a horizontal position at right angles to your present perpendicularity." He gazed upwards at the tall figure of the constable. "But if you were to hit me, I should have an alternative. I could, for example, fall into the middle of next week."
THREE:"Conjuring," said the Clockwork man, slowly, "obsolete form of entertainment. Quickness of the hand deceives the eye."
THREE:"Yes, you may as well go right on, now."Suddenly Keelings anger evaporated, leaving only a sore throbbing place where it had burned.
THREE:You and Mr Keeling are spoiling me, he declared, though it must have required a singularly vivid imagination to trace in Keelings face any symptom of that indulgent tendency.
THREE:"As we have learned the principles of this new language," Frank remarked, "we ought to be able to understand some proverbs in it. For instance, here are four that contain whole heaps of good advice, besides showing us how to read pidgin English:
THREE:That could be managed. I think I may say I could guarantee that.
THREE:Fitted into the clock, in such a way that they could be removed, were a series of long tubes with valve-like endings. The Doctor had removed one or two of these and examined them very closely, but he could not arrive at any idea of their purpose.
THREE:"But what is a clockwork man?" demanded Allingham.