2:13
Golden Beard stood there , his blue eyes glaring furious inquiry . He gave one glance around the room , caught sight of the clock , recoiled , shut off the light again , and slammed and locked the door . But in that instant Neeland 's starting eyes had seen the clock . The fixed hands on one of the dials still pointed to 2:13 ; the moving hands on the other lacked three minutes of that hour . And , seated there in the pitch darkness , he suddenly realised that he had only three minutes more of life on earth . All panic was gone ; his mind was quite clear . He heard every tick of the clock and knew what each one meant .