two minutes past three
Hood from time to time tested his converters and detector , and then resumed his non-official study of the adventures of a great detective who pursued the baffling criminal by the aid of all the latest scientific discoveries . Hood thought it was good stuff , although at the same time he knew , of course , that it was rot . He was a practical man of little imagination , and , though the detective did not interest him particularly , he liked the scientific part of the stories . He was thrifty , of Scotch-Irish descent , and at two minutes past three had never had an adventure in his life . At three minutes past three he began his career as one of the celebrities of the world . As the minute hand of the official clock dropped into its slot somebody called the Naval Observatory . The call was so faint as to be barely audible , in spite of the fact that Hood 's instrument was tuned for a three-thousand-metre wave .