William rapped his knuckles on the door and it slowly opened. William led Ed onto a bridge. It was a large bridge without any handrails; just a long, wide metal sheet which disappeared into the distance. All that Ed could see on the bridge was a figure who was standing quite some way away. The figure obviously spotted them because it soon started walking toward them. As it got nearer Ed realised it was a young girl, she was wearing the same blue trousers and blue t-shirt as everyone else except she wore a red apron. Instead of a horn around her neck she had, what looked like, a megaphone except this megaphone had a number of dials and wires protruding from it.

  ?The girl reached them and held her hand out for William to kiss which he did. Ed had seen people greet one another like that before but never between two people his same age 'how strange' he thought. When William was done the girl turned to Ed; she asked "who have you bought me today William?"

  "Sorry" said Willaim, "this is Ed, he is a Bridge Warden."

  "A Bridge Warden? here? Is that some sort of joke? You know that I am the Bridge Warden. A clock can't have more than one Bridge Warden."

  "I thought it was strange too, he doesn't seem to have the experience that he should. Look at the clothes he's wearing. Maybe there's been a mix up."

  Ed was beginning to feel very awkward, he was wishing that he had never started this silly adventure! As the other two were talking Ed remembered that it had been a very, very long time since he had last felt his heart beat. He was beginning to wonder if it would ever beat again.

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  "We should take him to Grandfather; Grandfather will know what's going on," the girl said, talking about Ed as if he wasn't there.

  "OK" replied William, "when's the next shift?"

  "The 'tickers' are just getting ready to 'tick' right now; less than a 'jiffy'."

  The two walked off together talking fondly with one another. Ed scurried behind them, trying not to get lost again. About half way down the long bridge they stopped; they were standing next to a hole in the bottom of the bridge. The hole was about the size of a car and led to a long metal chamber which ran down, at a funny angle, for a very long distance. The chamber had a long ladder running down its entire length.

  ?The girl had her megaphone up to her mouth. She began shouting instructions to someone that Ed couldn't see. Every little while she took the megaphone down and fiddled with the complicated dials, and as soon as she was done she started shouting all over again.

  ?All of a sudden the air went funny. Ed found a strong breeze almost pushing him off the bridge. There was a sound, like the sound of a giganticheart beat; Ed found that his heart beat in exact time with the giant one. There was a deafening click and the bridge started to wobble and flap. Ed fell over and would have fallen off if William hadn't grabbed him. The girl and William seemed to be completely unbothered by the heart beat or the click or even the wobbling bridge; in fact, they seemed to be laughing at Ed who was having quite a fright.

  ?Soon the wobble subsided and everything was back the way it was some moments before. William looked at the girl and they nodded at one another. "Definitely not a Bridge Warden" the girl said, "come on, let's go see Grandfather".