At exactly 12:03.40 p.m., a very much out-of-breath Chief O'Hara appeared at the door of the exhibition hall.
"Terrific Trio!" the stalwart Gotham City Police Chief gasped.
Batman turned to face the door. "Don't come in, Chief! Clock King has rigged this clock on the floor so that if we step off of it or if anyone else steps on it, this building will explode."
"Saints preserve us!" Chief O'Hara declared.
"Chief," Batman continued, "you must have this entire building evacuated. Once you and your men have done that, return here with Commissioner Gordon."
"Right, Batman!" Chief O'Hara disappeared behind the closing double doors.
Now standing on the number four on his circle, Robin asked, "Do you think the Police Department's Bomb Squad can disarm this contraption, Batman?"
"They might be able to, Robin, but I think it will be much safer if I can give them some help. If we can just get some equipment from the Batcave . . ."
"How are you going to be able to do that?" inquired Batgirl as she continued her forced course around the innermost circle.
"As you know, Batgirl," Batman replied cautiously, "we have an anonymous ally in our fight against crime. If I can just contact . . . our assistant . . ."
Batman activated his Wrist Batradio. "This is Batman calling the Batcave. Robin, Batgirl and I need your help immediately. Please signal when you receive this message."
At that moment, in the dining room of stately Wayne Manor, Alfred the butler was serving luncheon to Dick Grayson's Aunt Harriet.
"This soup is excellent!" the kindly dowager aunt exclaimed. "I declare, Alfred, every time I suggest to Bruce that he hire some more help around here to give you some time off, he answers that we could never find anyone who could do any of the jobs you do half as well. When it comes to the cooking, I'm sure he's correct!"
"Thank you, Mrs. Cooper. It is my privilege to fulfill all the duties of a gentleman's gentleman," the lanky Englishman solemnly answered. Just then, the silent alarm on his belt buckle vibrated. Mister Wayne and Master Dick needed him in the Batcave!
"However, Madame," Alfred continued without missing a beat, "there are times when there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day. Mister Wayne did ask me to run some errands for him this afternoon, so if I may serve your sandwich now?"
"Oh, that's all right, Alfred," said Harriet Cooper. "This soup is plenty for me. Got to watch my girlish figure you know!" Aunt Harriet giggled. "You run along."
Alfred respectfully took his leave and headed for the secret elevator in the study. In seconds he was in the Batcave. The Battransmitter indicated a taped message, which Alfred played. Realizing he dare not risk a voice transmission with Batgirl present, he sent a tonal signal to Batman over the Battransmitter.
Batman was very glad to hear the beep from his Wrist Batradio. While this trap was not very torturous for he or Robin, it was frustrating to have to stand here knowing that Clock King was off committing his final crime. Batgirl was no doubt in excellent shape and could continue walking in circles for hours, but Batman was concerned that the strain of having to stride at the rate of precisely one step per second in high-heeled boots indefinitely could lead to a misstep that would set off the bomb. The sooner he could disarm this trap, the better!
"Batcave, I've received your signal. I need you to recall the Batmobile to the Batcave. Get the Mini Batblimp and be sure it is supplied with helium, fuel and fresh batteries and that the remote Bathook is attached. We'll also need sandbags filled with my equivalent weight in sand. When the Batmobile arrives, load all that inside along with the Remote Mini Batblimp Controller and send the Batmobile to the Timex Building. Batman out.
"This is going to take some time. Batgirl, how are you doing?"
"I'm fine, Batman," answered the Purple Princess. "I'm just anxious to get after Clock King!"
"That's the spirit, Batgirl!" chimed in the Boy Wonder. "We'll all bring him to justice together, as soon as this bomb is defused."
At 12:38.17 Chief O'Hara reappeared at the exhibition hall door, with Commissioner Gordon.
"The building is evacuated, Batman," Gordon announced. "What do you want us to do next?"
"Get the best man on your Bomb Squad to begin a sonic imaging survey of this clock through the ceiling of the rooms below. Then I need you to find someone who is an expert in flying remote controlled model aircraft."
"Officer Michaud would be my choice from the Bomb Squad," Gordon said, looking at Chief O'Hara.
"I agree," the Chief piped up. "He's young, but the best I've ever seen at bomb disposal.
"As to an expert in flying remote controlled model aircraft, why, that would be . . . me!"
"You?!?" Commissioner Gordon, Batman, Robin and Batgirl all said at once. Batgirl was so surprised, she almost missed her next step!
"Sure'n it's been a hobby of mine for years now. I swear on George Gipp's grave that you'll find no one more qualified in Gotham City!" Chief O'Hara proudly declared. "What do you need me to do?"
Batman considered the offer thoughtfully. There was no question as to Chief O'Hara's honesty or bravery, but Batman had never believed that the affable Irishman possessed great technical skill. Now Batman was being asked to put his life, as well as the lives of Robin, Batgirl and Officer Michaud, not to mention Chief O'Hara's own life and the Timex Building all in O'Hara's hands . . . but who else could be found in time?
It was one of the hardest decisions in Batman's career, but finally he said, "O.K., Chief O'Hara, here's what you need to do . . ."
2:49.56 p.m. - Chief O'Hara stood at the entrance to the exhibition hall, the Remote Mini Batblimp Controller in his hands. Slowly the Batblimp flew past the Chief, into the room. Attached to the bottom of the blimp by the remote Bathook were two filled sandbags. O'Hara guided the craft expertly to a spot directly over the number three in the outermost circle.
With the blimp hovering in place, Batman shot a Bat-grappling hook attached to a line into the ceiling at a 45 degree angle. As the seconds ticked down, he called out, "All right, Chief, remember . . . at 2:59.59, when both Robin and Batgirl are on the 59s on their respective circles, you'll have exactly one second to dump the sand bags on my three . . . otherwise, we'll all be blown to bits!"
Perspiration dripped off Batgirl's nose as she continued her marathon. The unrelenting tension was beginning to wear her down.
Robin advanced to his number 59 as Batgirl reached zero for the 180th time. Sweat ran down Chief O'Hara's face. He took turns wiping his hands on his blue uniform.
Batgirl reached number 30 and began to turn toward the three males. Chief O'Hara's right hand hovered over the remote Bathook release button. Robin began a countdown, "51 . 52 . 53 . 54 . 55 . 56 . 57 . 58 . 59!!!
Chief O'Hara pushed the button. The sandbags fell exactly on the number three, while, simultaneously, Batman swung up into the air off the number two and towards the door. Robin and Batgirl both advanced to their starting points. The plan had worked!
"Great work, Chief O'Hara!" complimented Batman.
"Holy Nerves of Steel!" contributed Robin. Batgirl, while continuing her forced march, shot Chief O'Hara an appreciative smile.
"Thank you, Terrific Trio!" said an obviously relieved Chief of Police, "but, Mother McGinty, what next?"
"Well, perhaps you could get Batgirl a bottle of water . . . and then, Chief," said Batman wryly, "if Officer Michaud and I can't disarm the bomb in the next 59 minutes, you'll get to try to lift the sandbags up and drop them again - all in one second!"
The blood seemed to drain from Chief O'Hara's face. "Gulp," he seemed to say.
Batman sprinted down the stairs to the floor below. Hard at work in one of the rooms beneath the exhibition hall was Officer Michaud. Even though he was in his early 20's, he already had thinning hair. A serious-looking man with dark, penetrating eyes, he sported a pencil-thin mustache.
The Caped Crusader entered the room. "Any luck, Officer?" Batman asked.
"Not yet, Batman," Michaud replied. The sonic imaging survey so far doesn't reveal any explosive mechanism that I can see. Here, take a look."
Michaud handed the Dark Knight Detective several sheets of data. Batman studied them carefully. "I don't understand . . ." began Batman. "Let's set up the equipment over here," Gotham's Guardian suggested, indicating a different area of the ceiling with a gloved hand.
Chief O'Hara had brought the blimp back to the doorway to conserve fuel. Now, as Robin passed the halfway point on his journey around the circumference of the circle, the brave descendant of Irishmen decided it was time to try to rehook the sandbags.
"Negative, negative, negative!" Officer Michaud exclaimed. "You know what I'm beginning to think, Batman?"
"I think I do, Officer Michaud!" Batman acknowledged. "Leave this building immediately. I'm going to go get Chief O'Hara and put our theory to the test!"
After rebuffing the protests of the Bomb Squad's prodigy and seeing him safely on his way out of the building, Batman raced back up the stairs to the exhibition hall.
"Chief O'Hara, you can go!" Batman announced. "I think I've figured out what Clock King is up to!"
"Are you sure, Batman?" O'Hara questioned. "There's less than fifteen minutes to the hour."
"I'm sure, Chief," the Masked Manhunter replied. "In fact, we'll find out by then if I'm right or not."
Chief O'Hara scurried down the hall. Batman watched him go with newfound admiration. Then he turned to his two proteges.
"Batgirl, I want you to stop walking."
"What!" the nearly worn-out woman replied. Robin, too, expressed his astonishment.
"I don't think there's a bomb here at all!" Batman explained. "I believe this was all just to get us to waste time!"
"All right, Batman," Batgirl answered, considering. "If you say so . . . but first you leave the building, too. There's no point in risking you getting blown up for no reason."
Batman started to object, but Robin jumped in, "She's right, Batman. If Batgirl and I are killed, let us at least die knowing you'll apprehend our murderer!"
Batman didn't feel right, leaving them, but he did have to bow to the logic of the situation. He was sure he was correct, but . . .
With not enough time to exchange places with either one of them, he gave Robin and Batgirl a salute and left the doorway. In minutes, he was standing outside with Chief O'Hara, Officer Michaud and Commissioner Gordon.
"Batgirl, how do you want to proceed?" Robin asked.
"Let's continue walking until four o'clock. If a bomb doesn't go off when the sandbags don't move, well . . . then we'll know Batman was right!"
Round and round Batgirl went. Finally, Robin advanced once again to the number 59.
"Robin," Batgirl began. "I just want to let you know what an honor it has been to work with you and Batman."
"Batgirl," the Boy Wonder responded, "the honor has been mine, working with you and Batman . . ."
Then, blushing, he added, "and I'll say it's been a lot more fun since you joined the team!"
Batgirl gave the younger crime fighter an enigmatic grin as she strode towards him. On she went, to 55 . 56 . 57 . 58 . 59 .
The Dynamite Duo moved once again in unison to their numbers 60. The sandbags, of course, stayed on the number three.
Nothing happened!
Moments later, Batgirl and Robin joined Batman, Chief O'Hara and Officer Michaud outside in front of the Timex Building. Commissioner Gordon was a few feet away, talking on a squad car radio.
"That devil!" Chief O'Hara declared. "Putting us through all that . . . for nothing!"
"Not for nothing, Chief O'Hara," said Commissioner Gordon, walking up to the group. "I just got word that Clock King and his gang stole the entire collection from the traveling Time Museum exhibit at the Gotham City Hall of Science and Industry."
"Holy Diversionary Tactics!" exclaimed Robin.
"Yes, Boy Wonder," the Commissioner agreed. "While we were busy here, Clock King used sleeping gas to knock out the guards and the museum visitors. By the time they awakened and other police units arrived, the thieves were long gone. Another typical precision Clock King crime!"
"Not to worry, Commissioner," interjected Batman. "I suspected from the start that the Time Museum exhibit was Clock King's ultimate objective. In fact, I believe he was instrumental in having it come to Gotham City in the first place.
"In any event, that's why I placed a homing Bat-Transmitter in several of the clocks in the collection. Let's go to the Batmobile and see if we can pick up the signal!"
Meanwhile, in the first of a series of trucks heading west across the state line, Clock King sits triumphantly in the cab. Between him and one of his Second Hands, the driver, is Susan.
"Grandfather," Susan starts, "I've been thinking. Isn't it possible that Batman might have put a homing device into one of these clocks?"
"Excellent, Susan, excellent!" Clock King praised. "I'm glad to see you've inherited my clockwork analytical mind.
"To answer your question . . . yes, I'm sure that he did. That's why each of these trucks and my country estate all have sophisticated jamming equipment, to render any such device useless!"
Meanwhile, back at the Batmobile . . .
"Nothing!" Robin said in disgust. "No signal at all! Either Clock King found the homing Bat-Transmitters or he's jamming them somehow!"
Batman turned to the group with a quietly confident expression on his face. "Batgirl, could you please be in Commissioner Gordon's office at precisely four o'clock in the afternoon three days from today?"
Shortly before four o'clock, three days later, Batman and Robin are working diligently in the Batcave.
"All right, Robin, get ready to read off the co-ordinates."
"O.K., Batman. Here are the preliminary readings: 39 degrees, 30 minutes North Latitude; 90 degrees, 48 minutes West Longitude."
"Yes . . . I've got an exact location . . ." Batman pauses.
"Robin! You are not going to believe where this is!"
Batman crosses the Batcave to the Batphone. He picks up the receiver and pushed the red button. "Commissioner, may I speak to Batgirl, please? Thank you.
"Batgirl, how would you like to take a ride in the Batjet?
"Great, meet Robin and me at the downtown airport in thirty minutes."
Less than an hour later, Robin and Batgirl are in the Batjet, with Batman at the controls. The plane streaks toward the setting sun.
"How were you able to pick up a signal, Batman?" Batgirl asked. "I thought Clock King was jamming all your homing devices."
"I included one special device, Batgirl," Batman explained over the whine of the Batjet's engines. "Instead of sending out a constant signal, it sends out one super burst of energy that is detected by satellite. The signal only lasts for a second before the unit burns out, but it is practically impossible to jam."
Before too much later, the Batjet, over Indiana, started its descent. As they neared their destination, Robin said, "Batman, I have a question. Why did Clock King go to all the trouble of having the Time Museum's collection sent to Gotham City if he was just going to bring it back to Illinois?"
"A couple of reasons, Robin. First, of course, part of the reason Clock King turned to crime was the challenge of outwitting us. He wanted to set up a confrontation with us back home.
"Second, since he wanted to take the collection to his rural hideaway, he correctly believed he would be much harder to follow the thousand or so miles from Gotham City than the less than 250 miles from Rockford south. There aren't that many different routes that a caravan of trucks could take undetected from there to here."
"But, Batman," questioned Batgirl. "Did Clock King really pay the Time Museum over a million dollars to bring its collection to Gotham City, as I've read in the papers?"
"Yes, Batgirl," the pilot answered. "Unlike most of our adversaries, Clock King is not in it for the money. He is independently wealthy. He turned to crime late in life to obtain those clocks that he could not buy . . . and to show the world how clever he is by defeating us!"
"O.K., brace yourselves. The Pittsfield airport does not have a very long landing strip. This could get a bit rough."
The Batjet touched down at the end of the runway of the small airport just northeast of the town of Pittsfield, Illinois, off Route 54. The engines screamed in protest as Batman threw them into reverse. The remarkable aircraft came to a halt at the opposite end of the airfield. Batman pulled the plane off the runway, next to a waiting police car.
The Pike County Sheriff was waiting for the Terrific Trio. "Hello, Batman, Robin, Batgirl. Welcome to Pike County! Even though Metropolis and Central City are both in Illinois, we don't get many costumed crime fighters in this part of the state!"
"Thank you, Sheriff," answered Batman, politely. "Did you get the warrant?"
"Right here, Batman," replied the Sheriff. "Issued by the judge this afternoon. Now, I know my squad car's not the Batmobile, but if you'll all get in, will make the short drive to the town of . . .
Time."
"Will the Time Police Department be joining us at the scene?" Batgirl wanted to know.
The Sheriff chuckled as the four crime fighters piled into his car. "I can tell you have an East coast misconception about what some of our small towns are like, Miss. Many of the towns on the map are hardly towns at all, just perhaps one or two houses at some forgotten railroad or stagecoach stop. There is no police department in Time . . . and I have not alerted the State Police. It will be just us, as Batman requested."
The Sheriff's car rolled through the night. They quickly passed through the County Seat, Pittsfield, a community with a population a bit over four thousand. Soon the vehicle sped out of town on a country road.
Less than ten minutes later, the Sheriff turned off the headlights of the patrol car. They pulled to a stop a short distance from an imposing, but old-looking, farmhouse. The house was set some hundred yards off the main road. A rock driveway lined with trees led up to the structure.
"This is the house owned by a Mr. Heure," the Sheriff informed the trio.
Robin had earned a compliment from Batman as to Dick Grayson's foreign language studies back in the Batcave when he observed that, "Heure is the French word for hour!"
The Sheriff, Batman, Robin and Batgirl got out of the police car. Stealthily they made there way up the drive, using the trees for cover. The four crouched in the darkness behind the final tree, still some hundred feet from the front door of the house. A security light bathed the area before them in a yellowish glow.
"Sheriff, if you don't mind," Batman suggested, "we'll go up to the house, while you stay here. I don't expect a fire-fight, but if one develops, you can call for back-up."
"Whatever you say, Batman," the Sheriff agreed. "I sure don't have any experience arresting super-villains!"
With Batman in the lead, the three caped adventurers crept up to the front door of the farmhouse. Batman was aware that the front doors of rural dwellings in this area were rarely used, so he was hoping to have the advantage of surprise, but he was surprised to find an envelope taped to the door labeled Terrific Trio!
"Holy Welcome Mats!" Robin whispered. "Are we expected?"
"I don't see any sign of a trap door, net, gas nozzles or lever attached to the envelope," Batgirl observed.
"Stand back," ordered Batman. He yanked the envelope off the door.
Nothing happened.
Batgirl and Robin crowded around Batman as he opened the envelope. Robin held a small flashlight, throwing the beam on the letter. Inside was a note that read:
"That's easy!" said Robin quietly, "a broken one!"
"Yes," murmured Batman, "but why is Clock King giving us riddles? . . . unless . . ."
Batman quickly strode up to the front door and tried to open it. Unlocked, it immediately came open. Standing framed in the doorway, the three heroes were stunned by what they saw inside.
The room was filled with timepieces of all sizes and descriptions. There did seem to be, however, some unusual spaces that suggested that a few clocks were missing. About ten feet into the room, slumped in a chair was the Clock King. Nearby was Susan, seemingly asleep on a couch. Several Second Hands were laying on the floor throughout the room, also unconscious.
Pinned to Clock King's robe was another envelope, this one with a black Bat symbol on it. Around Susan's neck was looped a string tied to yet another envelope, making a sort of necklace. This message had the yellow Batgirl insignia emblazoned on its front.
Finally, Robin discovered a third riddle laying on one of the Second Hands. This envelope had a black circle with a large yellow ‘R' in it. Robin opened the envelope with his symbol on it -
"Is this supposed to be a riddle?" Robin asked. "Batgirl, open yours." -
Then Batman read his -
"What does it all mean, Batman?" asked Batgirl.
"It means that we have captured Clock King and his gang, but that a showdown with The Riddler is waiting for us back in Gotham City!"