“I can’t understand it,” he murmured. “It never acted like this before.”
Joe’s watch was not a fancy one, nor expensive, but it had been recommended by a railroad friend, and could be relied on to keep perfect time. In fact it always had, and in the several years he had carried it the mechanism had never varied more than half a minute.
“Maybe the hair spring is caught up,” suggested Reggie. “That happens to mine sometimes.”
“That would make it go fast, instead of slow,” said Joe. “It can’t be that.”
He opened the back case, and looked at the balance wheel, and the mechanism for regulating the length of the hair spring, which controls the time-keeping qualities of a watch.
“Look!” he cried to Reggie, showing him, “the pointer is shoved away over to one side. And my watch has been running slow, no telling for how long. That’s what made us late. My watch has been losing time!”
“Did you do it?” asked Reggie.
“Of course not.”
“Then it was an accident. You can explain to your manager how it happened, and he’ll excuse you.”