"Did you say twenty-five years?"
"That's what I said. What were you doing all that time?"
Adams grasped the table and hung on. "But it wasn't...."
"Yes," said the general to the operator. "Yes, I'll wait."
He held his hand over the receiver and looked inquiringly at Adams. "I imagine you'll want the same terms as before."
"Terms?"
"Sure. Recognition. Point Four Aid. Defense pact."
"I suppose so," Adams said.
"You got these saps across the barrel," the general told him happily. "You can get anything you want. You rate it, too, after what you've done and the bonehead treatment you got—but especially for not selling out."