be led astray by its
inaccuracies and turn to cursing it. No, if it was to be there at all it
must furnish correct information. Londoners could not afford to lose
their trains, be late to their appointments, or miss their tea." The
Scotchman uttered a soft laugh.

"Yes," continued he, as if the fancy pleased him, "when you are posted
up in such a conspicuous spot as that, every one of your backslidings
will be common property. And for that reason not only the reputation of
the clock itself but that of its maker was at stake. Moreover, since the
height at which the dial was to be set was so great, every part of the
timepiece had to be of mammoth size."

"Of course it had," agreed Christopher. "I had almost forgotten that."

"A pretty gigantic project it was for a clockmaker, I can tell you,"
went on McPhearson. "Well, at last the clock was made and the scale of
its dimensions sounded like a page from Gulliver's Travels. Each of the
dials was of opalescent glass set in a framework of iron and was
twenty-two feet or more in diameter. The figures that indicated the
hours were two feet long and the minute spaces a foot square. Three sets
of works were required to drive the various divisions of the mechanism:
one moved the hands; another struck the hours; and still another rang
the chimes. As for the pendulum--ah, here was a pendulum indeed! It was
thirteen feet long and weighed seven hundred pounds."

"Jove!" murmured Christopher.

"Some pendulum, eh? What wouldn't the old clockmakers--Tompion, Quare,
Fromanteel, Graham and the rest have given to see it! They probably
never even imagined a clock of such proportions."

"Neither did I!" his companion announced. "How often did this giant have
to be wound up?"

"The clock part was wound once a week; the striking part twice. And
speaking of the striking part, you may like to know that the hour bell
weighed thirteen tons and the four quarter-hour bells eight tons."

"Isn't it the biggest clock ever made?"

"It is probably one of the most powerful and most accurate of the large
ones," nodded McPhearson, "although others are to be found with bigger
dials. But it is no longer the largest clock in the world because since
it was constructed several American rivals for that honor have arisen.
One of them is right here in your own little old city of New York and
the other is located on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River."

But Christopher's mind was still intent on the Lo