thirteenth century, you mean?" queried Christopher, not
unwilling to display his knowledge.

"Oh, they were just beginning to get them by that time," McPhearson
objected instantly. "By the fourteenth century there were clocks that
really began to be clocks. In 1326, for example, the Abbott of St.
Albans made a marvelous clock which not only showed the course of the
sun and moon but the ebb and flow of the tide. In the meantime more big
clocks began to be put up on the church towers. But remember, none of
these could boast any nice degree of accuracy; it was many, many years
later before the secrets of correct time-keeping were mastered.
Nevertheless every little while a leap forward would be made, and one of
these jumps came about 1340 when Peter Lightfoot, a monk, made for
Glastonbury Abbey a clock with an escapement and regulator for securing
equitable motion."

Christopher, passing over the latter facts, seized upon the former.

"Another monk!" cried he.

The Scotchman nodded.

"I told you it was the monks who packed their time the fullest and paid
the greatest heed to the hours in those days."

The boy did not answer immediately and when he did it was to venture
politely:

"I suppose _equitable motion_ was a fine thing."

McPhearson peeped at him over the top of his glasses.

"Have you any idea, laddie, what it was?" he interrogated.

"Not the remotest," came frankly from Christopher.

They both laughed.

"Well, what I am talking about is our dead beat escapement."

"And what might that be?"

McPhearson became thoughtful.

"Well, there are various methods of reaching the desired result, the
chief aim of which is that at the end of each swing of the pendulum the
escape teeth shall be made to stop until the pendulum starts to swing
back again. This can be achieved by beveling both tooth and pallet until
the teeth, instead of recoiling by the downward motion of the pallet,
shall slip by and give the pallet a jolt onward, thereby keeping it in
motion. Look here, and I'll show you what I mean. Even this small clock
has an escapement that works after that plan."

The boy rose and peered into the mysterious works of the clock.

"Oh, I see now," he exclaimed. "That would help to make the beat more
even, wouldn't it, and insure better time? And now what about Peter
Lightfoot's clock? Of course it isn't in existence now?"

"That clock had quite a history, son," was the old man's reply. "When
the Reform