"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 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. "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."