The Red Blot

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A swift, repeated ticking was audible amid a total darkness. But for that sound, intense silence would have pervaded the thickness of absolute gloom. It was not until a sharper noise occurred that any sign of a human presence was revealed.

A click came from a spot above the ticking. A blue light suddenly cast an eerie glow downward upon the surface of a polished table. There, beneath the rays of the strange, shaded lamp, appeared the ticking object.

It was a clock of curious construction. Set at an angle upon the table top, this timepiece showed no hands upon its large face. Instead, it had three circles, the innermost marked with twelve numbers; the outer circles divided with sixty.

From grooves on the outer edge of each circle extended rings, so designed that they surrounded only one number at a time. Just as the light came on, the rings of the outer circles moved. The extreme ring made another jump a second later; but the intermediate one still remained constant, like the one in the center.

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