MD3PAD 322-324

[Toby G Levy]

        R.C., local land surveyor, confuses Dixon's watch with
Harrison's famous timepiece used to discover true longitude at sea. R.C.
asks Dixon if he ever tried to find out what it's worth. Dixon replies
that he is keeping it for someone, but does not mention Emerson.

        R.C. does not like the axmen in the Mason and Dixon crew to make
jokes about the watch. One night R.C. is discovered in the act of
swallowing the watch. Moses Barnes, supervisor of the axmen, declares
that R.C. should be punished for stealing the watch. Another crew member
suggests that the watch is merely "sequestered." Mr. Barnes ascribes the
strange goings on to the fact that they are in a strange area on the
Tangent line known as the Delaware Triangle or The Wedge, where farm
animals have been known to disappear.

        R.C. has always been considered a sourpuss, and his methods of
surveying are not conventional: he records data without taking
measurements.

        R.C. keeps the watch in his stomach for years.  His wife
eventually moves to another room so she isn't kept up by the ticking all
night.
Toby