"No, I did not forget that. Our clock is fast to allow us to clear the house at closing time. But I thought he might be a few minutes too soon."
"He couldn't. He couldn't be a minute too soon. He couldn't be a second too soon. He couldn't be the ten thousandth part of a second too soon."
Williams smiled slightly. "Couldn't be a second too soon, Mr. Leigh! What's a second? Why that!" He tapped his hand on the pewter top of the counter before and after saying the word "that."
"Let me tell you, Mr. Williams, he couldn't have been there the one millionth part of a second before the stroke of twelve. But go on. Go on. I am all anxiety to hear if he was punctual. Tell me what you did see." His eyes were blazing with haste.
"Well, you are a strange man, and a positive man too. At twelve by my clock the room was dark. We were very busy then. I looked up again at six minutes past twelve by my clock here, a minute past twelve by my own watch, which I always keep right by Greenwich, and it's a good chronometer, as you know----"
"Yes, yes," interrupted the little man hastily. "It's a good watch. Go on!"
"Light was in the room then. A dull light such as you have when you're at work."
"Yes, dim on account of my weak eyes. And by the light you saw----?"
"I saw the man sitting in your place, and in a few seconds he began to wind up the machinery by the lever on the left near the window."
"You saw him working at the lever?" in a voice almost inaudible.