The taxicab stopped with a jerk outside of a huge factory of concrete and glass on the side of which was painted in gold letters, Mechanico Mammoth Machine Works. The Sorcerer opened a side door and Raphael and Cassandra followed him inside. As the door shut behind them the roar of machinery sounded like an angry waterfall.
‘Wait a moment here,’ said the Sorcerer, ‘while I look for the Superintendent. You may go through that door there, if you want to.’ And he pointed to a steel door on which was painted, For Employees Only.
Raphael and Cassandra went and peeked through. As they opened the door the noise of revolving machinery became louder, almost deafening them. Inside at a work bench stood two mechanicos adjusting artificial arms and hands.
‘If you don’t produce better goods, twenty thousand fifty-one, the Master will take you apart,’ one was saying to the other. ‘The last lot were a little stiff at the elbow.’
Raphael could not imagine what they were talking about.
‘Well, it isn’t my fault, two thousand fifty-six. The Master ordered clerks and I gave him clerks. Then what do you suppose he did? Slapped those arms right onto workers. Of course, they couldn’t stand the strain. They weren’t built for it.’
‘Well, you want to watch out or you will land in the repair shop.’
The men continued passing metal arms onto a moving band that ran slowly by. Raphael suddenly realized that they were making parts to mechanical men. The men were made and put together like automobiles.
‘It’s curious,’ twenty thousand fifty-one went on, ‘how sometimes things seem to go wrong. I remember a painter who took to putting spots on a building when he should have been painting stripes. He said it looked prettier that way, and called it art or something. Of course the Master took him apart. Sent his head back to the factory with a complaint. They fixed it, and now that fellow paints as good stripes as any one. Three thousand and seven, I think his number was.’
Just then the Sorcerer appeared and motioned Raphael and Cassandra to follow him. They walked down a long corridor, following the belt, on which lay thousands of arms. As they drew near the end of the concrete passageway, the noise of moving wheels and pounding hammers grew deafening.