ATDTDA (14): A little ramshackle for a time machine, 401-405

[Paul Nightingale]

The chapter began with the Chums knowing their place, kept at arms' length
by their employers; and now Plug differentiates between "duh Gophiz's toif
[and] Hudson Dustuhs tevritawvry" (401), a vertical grading for the "pyramid
of offices . towering in the mists above" (397) succeeded by the horizontal
markings of "toif". The chapter's opening line emphasises that the Chums are
on "ground-leave"; and when Chick/Darby are taken to meet Dr Zoot they are
described as "aeronaut[s]" (401) to emphasise the fact that they are away
from their 'natural habitat'. Cf. the earlier ground-leave, Miles/Lindsay
visiting the Fair: "In the distance the boys could see in the sky the
electrical glow of the Fair, but hereabouts all was in shadow" etc, in
particular ". somewhere ahead too dark to see ." and the smell of the place
(21-22). There is in the current section the same emphasis on artificial
lighting and its distortions; and Plug tells C/D to smell their progress.
Cf. also Frank's arrival in Telluride, the "level of hatred . that you could
smell" (282). Later, during the time-travel sequence: "Everywhere rose the
smell of excrement and dead tissue" (404), which might recall the descent
into Chicago on 10.

Dr Zoot, when he appears, is hardly designed to impress/intimidate. Cf.
Tesla's appearance, seen through Kit's eyes on 326. Immediately, however, Dr
Zoot mocks the Chums as tourists. And then: "The Machine's appearance struck
neither lad as particularly advanced ." (402). Dr Zoot's "gay panache [is]
somewhat compromised by the hideous shrieking of the hinges and a noticeable
sag to the gutta-percha gasketry around the coaming ." (403). Now they have
something to look at, and focus their attention on, it hardly inspires them
with confidence; although Darby's scepticism (bordering on panic?) is
balanced by Chick's "air . of scholarly curiosity". The journey, if such it
be, requires translation into something they can make sense of: "undoubted
human identities" for example have "faces disquietingly wanting in detail,
eyes little more than blurred sockets". And then: ". sometimes it almost
sounded like singing", followed by "[s]ometimes a word or two, in a language
almost recognizable, came through" (404). What they see/hear cannot be
adequately rendered on the page for the benefit of the reader, which
contrasts to the passages earlier describing in great detail the appearance
of the machine, passages that confirm the authority of C/D as narrative
agents.

By the time the chapter ends, the Chums have been pointed in the direction
of Candlebrow and Alonzo Meatman (405). So again one might ask what happened
to the messages they received on 397: the message they act on is contained
in Plug's off-the-cuff reference to "d' toime machine" in response to
Lindsay's detailed account of the coin's provenance. Did They intend this,
knowing in advance what Lindsay would say and do?