“Yes, Madame,” Joseph said.
“We won’t serve wine, Joseph, but you might have some cigarettes handy in that little silver conserve box And don’t strike the match to light the colonel’s cigarette on your shoe. Strike it on the match-box.”
“Yes, Madame.”
Mayor Orden unbuttoned his coat and took out his watch and looked at it and put it back and buttoned his coat again, one button too high. Madame went to him and rebuttoned it correctly.
Doctor Winter asked, “What time is it?”
“Five of eleven.”
“A time-minded people,” the doctor said. “They will be here on time. Do you want me to go away?”
Mayor Orden looked startled. “Go? No—no, stay.” He laughed softly. “I’m a little afraid,” he said apologetically. “Well, not afraid, but I’m nervous.” And he said helplessly, “We have never been conquered, for a long time—” He stopped to listen. In the distance there was a sound of band music, a march. They all turned in its direction and listened.
Madame said, “Here they come. I hope not too many try to crowd in here at once. It isn’t a very big room.”
Doctor Winter said sardonically, “Madame would prefer the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles?”
She pinched her lips and looked about, already placing the conquerors with her mind. “It is a very small room,” she said.
The band music swelled a little and then grew fainter. There came a gentle tap on the door.
“Now, who can that be? Joseph, if it is anyone, tell him to come back later. We are very busy.”
The tap came again. Joseph went to the door and opened it a crack and then a little wider. A gray figure, helmeted and gauntleted, appeared
“Colonel Lanser s compliments,” the head said “Colonel Lanser requests an audience with Your Excellency.”
Joseph opened the door wide. The helmeted orderly stepped inside and looked quickly about the room and then stood aside. “Colonel Lanser!” he announced.
A second helmeted figure walked into the room, and his rank showed only on his shoulders. Behind him came a rather short man in a black business suit. The colonel was a middle-aged man, gray and hard and tired-looking. He had the square shoulders of a soldier, but his eyes lacked the blank look of the ordinary soldier. The little man beside him was bold and rosy-cheeked, with small black eyes and a sensual mouth.
Colonel Lanser took off his helmet. With a quick bow, he said, “Your Excellency!” He bowed to Madame. “Madame!” And he said, “Close the door, please, Corporal.” Joseph quickly shut the door and stared in small triumph at the soldier.
Lanser looked questioningly at the doctor, and Mayor Orden said, “This is Doctor Winter.”
“An official?” the colonel asked.
“A doctor, sir, and, I might say, the local historian.”
Lanser bowed slightly. He said, “Doctor Winter, I do not mean to be impertinent, but there will be a page in your history, perhaps—”
And Doctor Winter smiled. “Many pages, perhaps.”
Colonel Lanser turned slightly toward his companion. “I think you know Mr. Corell,” he said.
The Mayor said, “George Corell? Of course I know him. How are you, George?”
Doctor Winter cut in sharply. He said, very formally, “Your Excellency, our friend, George Corell, prepared this town for the invasion. Our benefactor, George Corell, sent our soldiers into the hills. Our dinner guest, George Corell, has made a list of every firearm in the town. Our friend, George Corell!”
Corell said angrily, “I work for what I believe in! That is an honorable thing.”
Orden’s mouth hung a little open. He was bewildered. He looked helplessly from Winter to Corell. “This isn’t true,” he said “George, this isn’t true! You have sat at my table, you have drunk port with me. Why, you helped me plan the hospital! This isn’t true!”
He was looking very steadily at Corell and Corell looked belligerently back at him. There was a long silence. Then the Mayor’s face grew slowly tight and very formal and his whole body was rigid. He turned to Colonel Lanser and he said, “I do not wish to speak in this gentleman’s company.”
Corell said, “I have a right to be here! I am a soldier like the rest. I simply do not wear a uniform.” The Mayor repeated, “I do not wish to speak in this gentleman’s presence.”
Colonel Lanser said, “Will you leave us now, Mr. Corell?”
And Corell said, “I have a right to be here!”
Lanser repeated sharply, “Will you leave us now, Mr. Corell? Do you outrank me?”
“Well, no, sir.”
“Please go, Mr. Corell,” said Colonel Lanser.
And Corell looked at the Mayor angrily, and then he turned and went quickly out of the doorway. Doctor Winter chuckled and said, “That’s good enough for a paragraph in my history.” Colonel Lanser glanced sharply at him but he did not speak.
Now the door on the right opened, and straw-haired, red-eyed Annie put an angry face into the doorway. “There’s soldiers on the back porch, Madame,” she said. “Just standing there.”
“They won’t come in,” Colonel Lanser said. “It’s only military procedure.”
Madame said icily, “Annie, if you have anything to say, let Joseph bring the message.”
“I didn’t know but they’d try to get in,” Annie said. “They smelled the coffee.”
“Annie!”
“Yes, Madame,” and she withdrew.
The colonel said, “May I sit down?” And he explained, “We have been a long time without sleep.”
The Mayor seemed to start out of sleep himself. “yes,” he said, “of course, sit down!”
The colonel looked at Madame and she seated herself and he settled tiredly into a chair. Mayor Orden stood, still half dreaming.
The colonel began, “We want to get along as well as we can. You see, sir, this is more like a business venture than anything else. We need the coal mine here and the fishing. We will try to get along with just as little friction as possible.”
The Mayor said, “I have had no news. What about the rest of the country?”
“All taken,” said the colonel. “It was well planned.”
“Was there no resistance anywhere?”
The colonel looked at him compassionately. “I wish there had not been. Yes, there was some resistance, but it only caused bloodshed. We had planned very carefully.”
Orden stuck to his point. “But there was resistance?”
“Yes, but it was foolish to resist. Just as here, it was destroyed instantly. It was sad and foolish to resist.”
Doctor Winter caught some of the Mayor’s anxiousness about the point. “Yes,” he said, “foolish, but they resisted?”
And Colonel Lanser replied, “Only a few and they are gone. The people as a whole are quiet.”
Doctor Winter said, “The people don’t know yet what has happened.”
“They are discovering,” said Lanser. “They won’t be foolish again.” He cleared his throat and his voice became brisk. “Now, sir, I must get to business. I’m really very tired, but before I can sleep I must make my arrangements.” He sat forward in his chair. “I am more engineer than soldier. This whole thing is more an engineering job than conquest. The coal must come out of the ground and be shipped. We have technicians, but the local people will continue to work the mine. Is that clear? We do not wish to be harsh.”
And Orden said, “Yes, that’s clear enough. But suppose the people do not want to work the mine?”
The colonel said, “I hope they will want to, because they must. We must have the coal.”
“But if they don’t?”
“They must. They are an orderly people. They don’t want trouble.” He waited for the Mayor’s reply and none came. “Is that not so, sir?” the colonel asked.
Mayor Orden twisted his chain. “I don’t know, sir. They are orderly under their own government. I don’t know how they would be under yours. It is untouched ground, you see. We have built our government over four hundred years.”
The colonel said quickly, “We know that, and so we are going to keep your government. You will still be the Mayor, you will give the orders, you will penalize and reward. In that way, they will not give trouble.”
Mayor Orden looked at Doctor Winter. “What are you thinking about?”
“I don’t know,” said Doctor Winter. “It would be interesting to see. I’d expect trouble. This might be a bitter people.”
Mayor Orden said, “I don’t know, either.” He turned to the colonel. “Sir, I am of this people, and yet I don’t know what they will do. Perhaps you know. Some people accept appointed leaders and obey them. But my people have elected me. They made me and they can unmake me. Perhaps they will if they think I have gone over to you. I just don’t know.”
The colonel said, “You will be doing them a service if you keep them in order.”
“A service?”
“Yes, a service. It is your duty to protect them from harm. They will be in danger if they are rebellious. We must get the coal, you see. Our leaders do not tell us how; they order us to get it. But you have your people to protect. You must make them do the work and thus keep them safe.”