iwork," said Jordan, with much show of pride. "I
myself took all the measurements and made the clothes, including even
the shoes. And now watch, my dear friend."

He placed the doll in the middle of the room. "She will speak," he
continued, his face radiant with joy, "she will sing. She will sing a
song native to her beloved Tyrol. Will you be so good as to take this
chair? I would rather not have you so close to it, if I may, for there
are certain noises which I still have to correct. The illusion is
stronger when you are some distance away."

He crouched down behind the doll, did something at its back, and the
buzzing of wheels became audible. The old man then stepped out to the
front of the doll, and said: "Now, my little girl, let's hear what you
can do!"

An uncanny, hoarse, somewhat cooing voice rang out from the body of the
doll. It sounded like the vibrations of metallic strings accompanied by
the low tones of a water whistle. If you closed your eyes, you could at
least imagine you were hearing a song sung by some one in the distance.
But if you looked at the thing closely with its lifeless, mask-like
kindly, waxen face, and heard the shrill, muffled sounds, without either
articulation or rhythm, coming from within, it took on a ghostly aspect.
Herr Carovius in fact felt a cold chill creep down his back.

When the machine ran down, the doll's eyelids and lips closed. Jordan
was looking at Herr Carovius in great suspense. "Well, what do you think
of it?" he asked. "Be quite frank; I can stand any amount of criticism."

Herr Carovius had great difficulty to keep from bursting out laughing.
His mouth and chin itched. Suddenly, however, scorn and contempt left
him; he fell into a disagreeably serious frame of mind, and a softness,
a mildness such as he had not felt since time immemorial stole over his
heart. He said: "That is a perfectly splendid invention! Perfectly
splendid! Though it does need some improvement."

Jordan nodded zealously and with joyous approval. He was on the point of
going into a detailed description of the mechanism and its artistic
construction, when the two men heard a strange noise in the adjoining
room. They stopped and listened. They could hear some one moving the
furniture; there were steps back and forth; they heard a hammering and
pounding as if some one were trying to open a box. This was followed by
a sound that resembled the falling of paper on the floor; it lasted for
some tim