1.   The minutes ticked by, and the house seemed to settle for sleep.

2.   The sun dropped below the horizon, the minutes ticked by and an involuntary bivouac began to seem a possibility.

3.   As the minutes ticked by, the audience grew impatient for the show to start.

4.   And, as the long minutes ticked by while he was still busy on the phone, she defiantly poured herself another glass of wine.

5.   The minutes ticked slowly by.

6.   The minutes ticked by into an hour, and finally Mandy, looking only marginally subdued, came out of the office.

7.   A minute ticked by while Charley said nothing.

8.   And as the minutes tick down, he persuades his boss to ground all airplanes, just before the Eastern seaboard suffers a serious power outage.

9.   As the minutes tick by, expectant passengers are left to gape through the tiny portholes at the promised land just beyond reach.

10.   As the minutes ticked down in the fourth quarter on Sunday, he kept wondering when Coach Phil Jackson was going to pull him out of the game.