The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 4Poe, Edgar Allan
General
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 4
Poe, Edgar Allan
American fiction -- 19th century; Fantasy fiction; Horror tales, American; Short stories
Now, let us suppose that when the machine is first rolled into
the presence of the spectators, a man is already within it. His
body is situated behind the dense machinery in cupboard No. T.
(the rear portion of which machinery is so contrived as to slip
_en masse, _from the main compartment to the cupboard No. I, as
occasion may require,) and his legs lie at full length in the
main compartment. When Maelzel opens the door No. I, the man
within is not in any danger of discovery, for the keenest eye
cannot penetrate more than about two inches into the darkness
within. But the case is otherwise when the back door of the
cupboard No. I, is opened. A bright light then pervades the
cupboard, and the body of the man would be discovered if it were
there. But it is not. The putting the key in the lock of the back
door was a signal on hearing which the person concealed brought
his body forward to an angle as acute as possible—throwing it
altogether, or nearly so, into the main compartment. This,
however, is a painful position, and cannot be long maintained.
Accordingly we find that Maelzel _closes the back door. _This
being done, there is no reason why the body of the man may not
resume its former situation—for the cupboard is again so dark as
to defy scrutiny. The drawer is now opened, and the legs of the
person within drop down behind it in the space it formerly
occupied. {*4} There is, consequently, now no longer any part of
the man in the main compartment—his body being behind the
machinery in cupboard No. 1, and his legs in the space occupied
by the drawer. The exhibiter, therefore, finds himself at liberty
to display the main compartment. This he does—opening both its
back and front doors—and no person Is discovered. The spectators
are now satisfied that the whole of the box is exposed to
view—and exposed too, all portions of it at one and the same
time. But of course this is not the case. They neither see the
space behind the drawer, nor the interior of cupboard No. 1—the
front door of which latter the exhibiter virtually shuts in
shutting its back door. Maelzel, having now rolled the machine
around, lifted up the drapery of the Turk, opened the doors in
his back and thigh, and shown his trunk to be full of machinery,
brings the whole back into its original position, and closes the
doors. The man within is now at liberty to move about. He gets up
into the body of the Turk just so high as to bring his eyes above
the level of the chess-board. It is very probable that he seats
himself upon the little square block or protuberance which is
seen in a corner of the main compartment when the doors are open.
In this position he sees the chess-board through the bosom of the
Turk which is of gauze.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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