three minutes past ten
asked the Tsar , upon whom the lesson of the afternoon had by no means been lost . `` If the comet is what Mr Lennard expects it to be , your Majesty , '' was the measured reply , `` then , if this Invader is not destroyed , his predictions will be fulfilled to the letter . In other words , on the second of May there will not be a living thing left on earth . '' At three minutes past ten that evening the Tsar looked into the eye-piece of the Greenwich Equatorial , and saw a double-winged yellow shape floating in the centre of the field of vision . He watched it for long minutes , listening to the soft clicking of the clockwork , which was the only sound that broke the silence . During the afternoon he had seen photographs of the comet taken every night that the weather made a clear observation possible . The series tallied exactly with what he now saw .