ndon masterpiece.

"How much do you suppose the English clock cost?" speculated he. "A
fortune, I'll bet."

"I can tell you, for I happen to recall the figures," replied
McPhearson. "Its price was $110,000."

"And cheap at that," grinned Christopher. "At least, I wouldn't
undertake to produce it for that money."

"Nor I," echoed the Scotchman, returning the lad's smile. "I suppose
when it was made nobody ever expected to see it equaled. And yet such
strides are we making in science that here we are with a clock that is
in many ways even more miraculous."

"You mean the one on the Metropolitan Life Insurance building?"

"The same," was the quick answer. "Surely you must grant that to be
ahead of the one in London. It is interesting also to note how these
two mammoth timepieces differ. The dial of our New York clock, instead
of being of glass, is, as you know, of concrete faced with blue and
white mosaic tiling. The figures indicating the hours are four feet high
and the minute marks ten inches in diameter. The minute hands are twelve
feet from center to tip and together weigh a thousand pounds; while the
hour hands measure eight feet four inches from center to tip and weigh
seven hundred pounds apiece."

"Mercy on us! I didn't realize it was such a whale of a thing!"

"_A prophet is not without honour save in his own country_," laughed the
old clockmaker. "Here you sit almost under the shadow of one of the
largest timepieces in the universe and fail to appreciate the wonder
that towers above your head. Well, well! Perhaps you will treat your
native land with more respect after this. Certainly you will regard this
Metropolitan Life clock with greater awe and bless your stars that one
of its hands hasn't blown down on top of you. Think of those gigantic
pointing fingers being built on iron frames sheathed with copper and
made to revolve on roller bearings!"

"I give you my word I _shall_ think of it the next time I look up at
them," responded Christopher. "How on earth can they make such a
tremendous machine go?"

"It is controlled automatically from the director's room, where a master
clock also controls a hundred others scattered throughout the building.
This same mechanism controls in addition various electrical devices,
such as signal bells, etc. It is all very wonderful. And the half is not
told yet, for the tricks it performs at night are almost more amazing
than are those it performs by day."

"I seldo