"How many of the police are available?" I asked.
"We have some two hundred thousand here. And Great London will send us by liner all the police we need."
"Are your air-liners armed?" Alan asked.
"No. How could they be? Except with short-range slings."
Another man said: "If Turber cuts off the incoming supply ships—if his ships are armed—our city here will starve in a day."
A commotion in the adjoining room interrupted us. A messenger came out.
"A communication from Turber!"
The president read the document.
"It has come!" He spoke with a strained hush to his voice. "He gives us but half an hour. An ultimatum! He says we vacillate like children all this morning, and give him no answer to his business proposal. Either we accept his purchase price—and our citizens must start leaving the city within thirty minutes—or he will begin war! We must tell him now. He gives us just sixty seconds to answer!"
Some one said huskily: "We shall have to yield."