Jack-in-the-box

The child who delights in her jack-in-the-box may have been terrified the first time the puppet-on-a-spring popped out.

"Did you venture to call me a liar?" ("No, sir, no!" shouted the accused, and disappeared like a Jack-in-the-box.)

“There’s this terrible business to start with. Scotland Yard men in and out of the house like a jack-in-the-box! Never know where they won’t turn up next.”

Normally, you ring a bell and you have at least a half-minute wait before the door opens. But this person was like a jack-in-the-box. He pressed the bell—and out she popped! It made him jump.

It was possible, from underneath, to use the old jack-in-the-box safe-breaker's tool which lay in his gasman's bag.