Comprehension and Discussion Questions. 1. At approximately what time of night was Doctor Ben­son awakened by the ringing of the telephone?

1. At approximately what time of night was Doctor Ben­son awakened by the ringing of the telephone?

2. Who was calling him at this hour?

3. Whom did Doctor Benson see walking ahead of him along the lonely country road?

4. To what city did the man whom the doctor picked up say that he was going?

5. In what section of the army did the man say that he had been stationed?

6. What features of the man's appearance made Doctor Benson a little suspicious of him?

7. When Doctor Benson discovered that his watch was not in his pocket what did he reach for under the seat?

8. What did he say to the man as he pushed the gun into his side?

9. Why did Mr. Sorley say that he was very glad that the man had returned the watch to Doctor Benson?

10. After examining the watch, what inscription did Doctor Benson find on the back?

Vocabulary and Idiom Review

A. Circle the word in parentheses which completes each sen­tence correctly:

1. If a telephone rings insistently, it rings (off and on/seldom/ now and then/steadily).

2. When we are sick the doctor sometimes gives us (slippers/ pills/money/magazines).

3. He picked up the receiver means that he picked up (a doc­tor's bag/a magazine/a telephone/his clothes).

4. We generally wear (slippers/an overcoat/a shirt/stockings) only in the winter.

5. Another word for automobile is (car/plane/slipper/pill),

6. When you lose something, you generally (look at it/look it up/look it over/look for it).

7. My automobile needed to be repaired, so I took it to (a farmer/a truck driver/a mechanic/a druggist).

8. The lesson is over; that is, it has (begun/ended/been inter­esting/been canceled).

9. A (slipper/pill/watch/lantern) will help you to see in the dark.

10. He was going to look for work in an automobile plant; that is, he was going to look for work in a (farm/house/factory/ ship).

B. Use the following expressions in sentences of your own:

1. sit up 5. drive a car 9. turn on

2. lean over 6. slow down 10. reach for

3. put something back 7. be over 11. take out

4. on his way to 8. look for 12. more or less

C. One of the most common endings in English is -ly. It is usu­ally used to change an adjective to an adverb.

Example: He always does very careful work. He always does his work very carefully.

Change the following adjectives to adverbs by adding -ly. Then use each of the resulting words in a sentence of your own:

1. insistent ___________ ____

2. serious ___________ ____

3. eager ___________ ____

4. profound ___________ ____

5. bitter ___________ ____

6. silent ___________ ____

7. intimate ___________ ____

8. trembling ___________ ____

9. fortunate ___________ ____

10. strange ___________ ____

Clockwork

By Howard Breslin

It was a small window with narrow pieces of paper pasted across it to prevent its breaking during the heavy air raids. In the small space at the center that remained, a little man with eyeglasses was carefully setting out his display of clocks and watches. He paid no attention to the many Londoners hurrying by to begin another day.

When he finished placing his merchandise, the little man came out of the shop and stared in the window. He had placed the clocks and watches with great care — the clocks in a row at the back, and in front of them lying flat, a semi­circle of watches. All the clocks had their faces neatly divided in the middle by hands that pointed to six o'clock: all the watches, thin or fat, had their hands pointing straight at three o'clock.

"Yes," said the jeweler with a satisfied look. "Very nice." About an hour later a passenger got out of the bus at the corner. He was a tall man with a blonde moustache, and he wore a heavy overcoat and black hat. He was slightly lame and carried a cane. He smiled when the policeman at the corner said "Good morning" to him. The lame man's name was Gebhardt, and the policeman's superior officers would have been very glad to know that.

Gebhardt walked slowly, leaning heavily on his cane. The meeting with the policeman never failed to amuse him, and he smiled to himself at the stupidity of the English. Gebhardt looked into the jewelry shop window.

There was no expression on his face as he looked from the clocks that said six to the watches that said three. He had passed the shop faithfully every day for two weeks, but had never gone in. Gebhardt set his wristwatch and pushed open the door.

A salesman was talking with the jeweler at the far end of the counter, but they turned as the door shut. The jeweler walked toward Gebhardt and stared at him. "Yes?" asked the little man.

"My watch," said Gebhardt. "It seems to have stopped. An hour or so ago." He took off his watch and laid it on the counter.

The watch's hands indicated nine o'clock. "I see," said the jeweler, "Stopped."

Gebhardt looked toward the salesman but the salesman was busy examining a catalogue. The jeweler picked up the watch.

Gebhardt said: "And you might change the strap. That one is about worn out."

He leaned against the counter and waited. Once he looked into the back room where the jeweler had taken his watch. He could see the old man, bent over a desk, examin­ing his watch. Gebhardt lit a cigarette and waited.

It was less than five minutes when the little man came back. He held out the watch with its new strap and Geb­hardt put it on. "You should be careful," said the jeweler. "That is a fine watch."

"Yes, I know," said Gebhardt casually. "And I'm sure it will work perfectly now." He paid the jeweler and left the shop.

All the way back to his room Gebhardt was conscious of the strap on his wrist, but he did not look at the watch even once. After all, in his business you couldn't be too careful.

Once inside the small room where he had lived since he first came to London, Gebhardt put aside all appearance of lameness and moved about the room with quick sureness, locking the door, pulling down the curtains. Finally, he lit the light over his desk and took off his wristwatch.

Working rapidly, he removed the straps from both ends of the watch. Then with a knife he opened the ends of the straps and, finally, from one end took out a small piece of very thin paper. He spread the paper out on his desk and with a glass began to study the message, which was written in code.

The message was short and to the point. It read: "Trucks from King Charles Square will transport Regiment 55 tomor­row a.m. Act at once."

"So," said Gebhardt softly. He burned the paper in the ashtray. For a moment he sat thinking. He previously knew that a large number of trucks in King Charles Square would be used to carry soldiers from London to the coast. And somewhere along the route trucks and soldiers would be blown to pieces with explosives.

Gebhardt drew his suitcase from under the bed and opened it on the desk. From its nest of cotton he picked up one of the bombs. It was wide and flat, quite different in form from the visual, old-fashioned type of bomb. Attached with wire to the bottom of an automobile engine the bomb was deadly when the motor heated.

He decided to take with him in a small package about fourteen of the bombs. That was about all he could take care of in two hours. He had detailed information on all the places and garages where Army trucks were stationed, and now he consulted his information on King Charles Square. By midnight all the soldiers and mechanics were gone; at two o'clock a policeman looked in to check up. Gebhardt was very much pleased with himself. Thanks to British inefficiency, he would have the place to himself between twelve o'clock and two o'clock.

Thinking of the importance of time suddenly reminded him, and he put a new strap on his watch and then put the watch on his wrist. Then he sat very still, looking into space, mentally checking every detail of the plan.

Gebhardt smiled. Of course! Outside the jewelery shop he had set his watch back sixty-four minutes for the signal to the jeweler. He smiled again as he now moved the minute hand of his watch exactly sixty-four minutes ahead. Never forgetting these small details made him a good secret agent, and he knew it.

When the time came, Gebhardt moved carefully through the darkness of the blacked-out streets.

In the alley behind King Charles Square he stopped and looked at his watch. Twelve o'clock exactly. Gebhardt smiled. The whole thing was going like clockwork. He waited another ten minutes just to be on the safe side.

Gebhardt climbed a fence, moved carefully along a nar­row space between two buildings, and came out in King Charles Square. He stood a moment, counting the black forms of the trucks.

Gebhardt moved over to the nearest truck. He set down his package, took some wire and a wire cutter from a pocket. He slid under the truck and felt along the bottom of the en­gine. Lying flat on his back, working in the dark, he began to wire the bomb to the exact place he wanted it. Somebody stepped on his ankle.

Pain shot up Gebhardt's leg, and he bit his lip, not breathing. No, he thought, there can't be anyone here. There is never anyone here at this hour. I have checked it many times. But that weight kept pressing into his ankle.

"All right, mister," said a voice. "Come out of there."

The wire cutter fell from his fingers. Hands grabbed at Gebhardt's legs, pulled. In a panic, he kicked himself loose, got up, and ran wildly.

A man shouted. Someone blew a whistle. A form jumped from nowhere and knocked him to the ground. Gebhardt drove his first into a face, twice, pulled away free, ran on. He ran into a wall, turned the wrong way. A flashlight fo­cused on him. He turned back, but too late.

"There! Get him! ..."

Gebhardt drew his revolver. As he ran, he heard them shout as they came closer to him.

There was the noise of rapid gun fire behind him, and something struck him in the back. No, thought Gebhardt, the plan was perfect. There was a sharp pain. He said weakly: "No." He was dead when the soldiers reached him. He lay with his one arm stretched out in front of him, his wristwatch showing the hour.

"Imagine the nerve of that guy!" said a young soldier. "He walked in here as though we didn't even exist. That's a nice watch he has on. But it broke when he fell."

"It's an hour fast," said a second soldier. "How did that happen?"

The little jeweler was even more surprised when he read the newspaper report the next day about Gebhardt. "I can't understand it," he thought. "The man must have been care­less. Nothing went wrong on my part. Why, I even set his watch correctly before I gave it back to him."