Mayor Orden looked at his watch and when Joseph came in, carrying a small cup of black coffee, he took it absent-mindedly.

“Thank you,” he said, and he sipped it. “I should be clear,” he said apologetically to Doctor Winter.

“I should be—do you know how many men the invader has?”

“Not many,” the doctor said. “I don’t think over two hundred and fifty; but all with those little machine guns.”

The Mayor sipped his coffee again and made a new start.

“What about the rest of the country?”

The doctor raised his shoulders and dropped them again.

“Was there no resistance anywhere?” the Mayor went on hopelessly.

And again the doctor raised his shoulders. “I don’t know. The wires are cut or captured. There is no news.”

“And our boys, our soldiers?” “I don’t know,” said the doctor.

Steinbeck, John. The Moon is Down