Tallie was carefully not looking at the Book's face. "And this Finnegan guy... the clockmaker, the inventor. He just sort of disappeared, didn't he?"

The Book agreed that this was so.

"... and you said his story is based on an eyewitness account?" Several more gears began to spin. They were those very old ones that Lew had set in motion - the ones Tallie had noticed needed oil.

"Yes, Tallie. The story has a high index of reliability."

"Okay," she told the Book. "I just wondered."

The gears slowed down and that irritating squeak stopped. Tallie went for the oil can and on her way back, she put the kettle on to boil. "I'm making tea," she said, as she started to oil the gears. "Will you tell me a story?"

"Of course I will, Tallie," said the Clockwork Book.