The old man peered at
the boy over the top of his glasses.

"I'm not. It made me sick--the whole thing."

"I know, sonny--I know. But we can't have such persons about,"
McPhearson said gently. "Of course you are sorry to put a fellow behind
the bars, but--"

"He was so darned decent about it--and so plucky," exclaimed
Christopher. "Why, he was almost a gentleman."

The sentence ended in a tremulous laugh.

"No doubt he may have started out to be a gentleman--poor chap--and then
got on the wrong track. Well, you did what was right. You know that."

"I hope so," was the dull answer.

"We'll not talk about it any more. Come, let's shift the subject to
something else."

"To clocks?"

"Aren't you tired of clocks?"

"No. Are you?"

"I never get tired of them," smiled McPhearson. "If I did, it would be
fatal. They are my daily bread."

"And mine, too, for that matter," rejoined Christopher.

"Perhaps," admitted the Scotchman. "Still you do not subsist wholly on
clocks. Your bread is studded with pearls, emeralds, and rubies."

The fancy pleased the boy, and he laughed.

"Rather indigestible eating," he protested.

"And yet you look fit as a king."

There was a moment's pause; then the man said:

"Well, if we are to talk clocks, where shall we begin?"

"Anywhere you like," returned the lad, with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Suppose, then, since you are so docile and accommodating, we leap to
somewhere near the year 1650, when the inspiration to attach the
pallets of the escapement to the pendulum rod, thereby making the
escapement horizontal, came almost simultaneously to an Englishman named
Harris and a Dutchman named Huyghens. These, together with the later
ideas of anchor escapement evolved by Graham, put clocks, within the
span of a few years, on an almost modern basis. Other improvements such
as using steel springs in place of weights and the perfecting of
movements have of course been made since; but this period covers the
time of most vital improvement in the art of clockmaking. At this time,
too, some of the finest of old English watches and clocks were made.
Thomas Tompion, sometimes called the father of English clock making,
took his place at the head of these, and to this day beautiful old
clocks that are still in service testify to his skillful workmanship."

"What sort of clocks did he make?" inquired Christopher with interest.

"Just about every design of the period--bracket clocks simi