This was  the second meeting of the Board that  Hardin had attended, if onewere  to exclude  the informal  talks the  Board members  had had  with thenow-departed Lord Dorwin. Yet  the mayor had a perfectly definite idea thatat least  one other, and possibly two or three, had  been held, to which hehad somehow never received an invitation.
Nor, it seemed to  him, would he have received notification of this one hadit not been for the ultimatum.
At least, it amounted  to an ultimatum, though a superficial reading of thevisigraphed  document would  lead  one to  suppose that  it was  a friendlyinterchange of greetings between two potentates.
Hardin fingered it gingerly. It started off floridly with a salutation from"His Puissant Majesty, the King of Anacreon, to his friend and brother, Dr.
Lewis  Pirenne, Chairman  of  the Board  of Trustees,  of  the EncyclopediaFoundation Number  One," and it  ended even more lavishly  with a gigantic,multicolored seal of the most involved symbolism.
But it was an ultimatum just the same.
Hardin said: "It turned  out that we didn't have much time after all ?onlythree months.  But little  as it was,  we threw it away  unused. This thinghere gives us a week. What do we do now?"Pirenne  frowned worriedly.  "There must  be a  loophole. It  is absolutelyunbelievable that  they would  push matters to  extremities in the  face ofwhat Lord  Dorwin has assured us regarding the  attitude of the Emperor andthe Empire."Hardin perked  up. "I see. You  have informed the King  of Anacreon of thisalleged attitude?""I  did ? after having  placed the proposal  to the  Board for a  vote andhaving received unanimous consent.""And when did this vote take place?"Pirenne climbed onto his  dignity. "I do not believe I am answerable to youin any way, Mayor Hardin.""All right.  I'm not that vitally interested. It's  just my opinion that itwas your diplomatic transmission  of Lord Dorwin's valuable contribution tothe  situation"?he  lifted the  comer of  his mouth  in a  sour half-smile?that was  the direct cause of this friendly  little note. They might havedelayed longer  otherwise ?though I don't  think the additional time wouldhave  helped  Terminus  any,   considering  the  attitude  of  the  Board."Said  Yate  Fulham:  "And  just  how  do  you  arrive  at  that  remarkableconclusion, Mr. Mayor?""In a rather simple  way. It merely required the use of that much-neglectedcommodity ? common sense.  You see, there  is a branch  of human knowledgeknown  as symbolic  logic, which  can be  used to  prune away all  sorts ofclogging deadwood that clutters up human language.""What about it?" said Fulham.
"I applied  it. Among other things,  I applied it to  this document here. Ididn't really need to  for myself because I knew what it was all about, butI think I can explain it more easily to five physical scientists by symbolsrather than by words."Hardin removed a few  sheets of paper from the pad under his arm and spreadthem out.  "I didn't do this myself, by the way,"  he said. "Muller Holk ofthe Division of Logic has his name signed to the analyses, as you can see."Pirenne leaned  over the table to  get a better view  and Hardin continued:
"The message from Anacreon was a simple problem, naturally, for the men whowrote it were men  of action rather than men of words. It boils down easilyand straightforwardly to the unqualified statement, when in symbols is whatyou see,  and which in words, roughly translated, is,  'You give us what wewant in a week, or we take it by force.'"There was  silence as  the five members of  the Board ran down  the line ofsymbols, and then Pirenne sat down and coughed uneasily.
Hardin said, "No loophole, is there, Dr. Pirenne?""Doesn't seem to be.""All right." Hardin replaced  the sheets. "Before you now you see a copy ofthe treaty between the  Empire and Anacreon ?a treaty, incidentally, whichis signed on the Emperor's behalf by the same Lord Dorwin who was here lastweek ?and with it a symbolic analysis."The  treaty ran  through  five pages  of fine  print  and the  analysis wasscrawled out in just under half a page.
"As you see, gentlemen,  something like ninety percent of the treaty boiledright out of the analysis as being meaningless, and what we end up with canbe described in the following interesting manner:
"Obligations of Anacreon to the Empire: None!
"Powers of the Empire over Anacreon: None!"Again the five followed the reasoning anxiously, checking carefully back tothe treaty, and when they were finished, Pirenne said in a worried fashion,"That seems to be correct.""You admit,  then, that  the treaty is  nothing but a  declaration of totalindependence on  the part of Anacreon  and a recognition of  that status bythe Empire?""It seems so.""And do you suppose  that Anacreon doesn't realize that, and is not anxiousto emphasize the position of independence ?so that it would naturally tendto resent  any appearance of threats from  the Empire? Particularly when itis evident that the  Empire is powerless to fulfill any such threats, or itwould never have allowed independence.""But  then," interposed  Sutt,  "how would  Mayor Hardin  account  for LordDorwin's assurances  of Empire support? They  seemed ? He shrugged. "Well,they seemed satisfactory."Hardin  threw  himself  back  in the  chair.  "You  know,  that's the  mostinteresting  part of  the  whole business.  I'll  admit I  had thought  hisLordship a most consummate  donkey when I first met him ?but it turned outthat he was actually an accomplished diplomat and a most clever man. I tookthe liberty of recording all his statements."There   was  a   flurry,   and  Pirenne   opened  his   mouth   in  horror.
"What  of  it?" demanded  Hardin.  "I  realize it  was  a  gross breach  ofhospitality and a thing  no so-called gentleman would do. Also, that if hislordship had  caught on, things might have  been unpleasant; but he didn't,and I  have the record, and that's that. I took  that record, had it copiedout and sent that to Holk for analysis, also."Lundin Crast said, "And where is the analysis?""That,"  replied Hardin, "is  the interesting  thing. The analysis  was themost  difficult of  the three  by all  odds. When  Holk, after two  days ofsteady  work,  succeeded   in  eliminating  meaningless  statements,  vaguegibberish, useless qualifications ? in short, all the goo and dribble ?hefound he had nothing left. Everything canceled out.""Lord Dorwin,  gentlemen, in five days of discussion didn't  say one damnedthing, and said  it so you never noticed. There  are the assurances you hadfrom your precious Empire."Hardin might  have placed an actively working stench  bomb on the table andcreated no more confusion than existed after his last statement. He waited,with weary patience, for it to die down.
"So," he  concluded, "when you sent  threats ?and that's  what they were ?
concerning Empire  action to  Anacreon, you merely irritated  a monarch whoknew  better. Naturally,  his ego  would demand  immediate action,  and theultimatum is  the result-which brings me to  my original statement. We haveone week left and what do we do now?""It seems,"  said Sutt,  "that we have  no choice but to  allow Anacreon toestablish military bases on Terminus.""I agree with you there," replied Hardin, "but what do we do toward kickingthem off again at the first opportunity?"Yate Fulham's  mustache twitched. "That sounds as if  you have made up yourmind that violence must be used against them.""Violence," came the retort,  "is the last refuge of the incompetent. But Icertainly don't  intend to lay down the welcome mat  and brush off the bestfurniture for their use.""I  still don't  like  the way  you put  that," insisted  Fulham. "It  is adangerous attitude; the more  dangerous because we have noticed lately thata sizable section of  the populace seems to respond to all your suggestionsjust so.  I might  as well tell  you, Mayor Hardin,  that the  board is notquite blind to your recent activities."He   paused   and   there   was   general   agreement.   Hardin   shrugged.
Fulham went............