During a visit to the seaside Tommy and Evangeline insisted on having a donkey race over the mile course on the sands.
Mr. Dobson and some of his friends whom he had met on the beach acted as judges, but, as the donkeys were familiar acquaintances and declined to part company the whole way, a dead heat was unavoidable.

However, the judges, being stationed at different points on the course, which was marked off in quarter-miles, noted the following results:
The first three-quarters were run in six and three-quarter minutes, the first half-mile took the same time as the second half, and the third quarter was run in exactly the same time as the last quarter.
From these results Mr. Dobson amused himself in discovering just how long it took those two donkeys to run the whole mile.

Can you give the answer?