Moxons Master 7

I had shrunk back and now stood a little to one side of the doorway¹ and in shadow. If Moxon had looked farther than the face of his opponent he could have observed nothing now, except that the door was open. Something forbade me either to enter or to retire, a feeling -- I know not how it came -- that I was in the presence of an imminent² tragedy and might serve my friend by remaining. With a scarcely conscious rebellion against the indelicacy of the act I remained.

The play was rapid. Moxon hardly glanced at the board before making his moves, and to my unskilled eye seemed to move the piece most convenient to his hand, his motions in doing so being quick, nervous and lacking in precision. The response of his antagonist³（敌手） , while equally prompt in the inception⁴, was made with a slow, uniform, mechanical and, I thought, somewhat theatrical⁵ movement of the arm, that was a sore trial to my patience. There was something unearthly about it all, and I caught myself shuddering⁶. But I was wet and cold. Two or three times after moving a piece the stranger slightly inclined his head, and each time I observed that Moxon shifted his king. All at once the thought came to me that the man was dumb. And then that he was a machine -- an automaton⁷（机器人） chess-player! Then I remembered that Moxon had once spoken to me of having invented such a piece of mechanism⁸, though I did not understand that it had actually been constructed. Was all his talk about the consciousness and intelligence of machines merely a prelude⁹ to eventual¹⁰ exhibition of this device -- only a trick to intensify¹¹ the effect of its mechanical action upon me in my ignorance of its secret?

A fine end, this, of all my intellectual transports -- my 'endless variety and excitement of philosophic¹² thought'! I was about to retire in disgust when something occurred to hold my curiosity. I observed a shrug¹³ of the thing's great shoulders, as if it were irritated: and so natural was this -- so entirely¹⁴ 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 clenched¹⁵（紧握的） hand. At that gesture Moxon seemed even more startled than I: he pushed his chair a little backward, as in alarm.