action upon me in my ignorance of its secret?

A fine end, this, of all my intellectual transports--my "endless
variety and excitement of philosophic thought!" I was about to
retire in disgust when something occurred to hold my curiosity. I
observed a shrug of the thing's great shoulders, as if it were
irritated: and so natural was this--so entirely human--that in my
new view of the matter it startled me. Nor was that all, for a
moment later it struck the table sharply with its clenched hand. At
that gesture Moxon seemed even more startled than I: he pushed his
chair a little backward, as in alarm.

Presently Moxon, whose play it was, raised his hand high above the
board, pounced upon one of his pieces like a sparrow-hawk and with
the exclamation "checkmate!" rose quickly to his feet and stepped
behind his chair. The automaton sat motionless.

The wind had now gone down, but I heard, at lessening intervals and
progressively louder, the rumble and roll of thunder. In the pauses
between I now became conscious of a low humming or buzzing which,
like the thunder, grew momentarily louder and more distinct. It
seemed to come from the body of the automaton, and was unmistakably a
whirring of wheels. It gave me the impression of a disordered
mechanism which had escaped the repressive and regulating action of
some controlling part--an effect such as might be expected if a pawl
should be jostled from the teeth of a ratchet-wheel. But before I
had time for much conjecture as to its nature my attention was taken
by the strange motions of the automaton itself. A slight but
continuous convulsion appeared to have possession of it. In body and
head it shook like a man with palsy or an ague chill, and the motion