And incredibly the
result was always the same; some portion of the figure showed a
flaw. My interest in the thing was permanently aroused. I
continued to experiment."
He laughed in a queer high cackle.
"And presently I found myself desperately astride a hobby. I got
all the Babbitt metal that I could buy up in England and put in
the days and not a few of the nights in trying to cast a perfect
figure of this confounded Buddha. But I have never been able to
do it."
He opened a drawer of the gun-case and brought over to the fire
half a dozen castings of the Buddha in various sizes.
Not one among the number was perfect. Some portion of the figure
was in every case wanting. A hand would be missing, a portion of
a shoulder, a bit of the squat body or there would be a flaw
where the running metal had not filled the mold.
"I'm hanged," he cried, "if the beggars are not right about it.
The thing can't be done! I've tried it in all sorts of
dimensions. You will see some of the big figures in the garden.
I've used a ton of metal and every sort of mold."
Then he flung his hand out toward the bookcase.
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