thirty-three

far below them, in the city of new york, something like pandemonium was breaking out. a greatround ball as big as a house had been sighted hovering high up in the sky over the very centre ofmanhattan, and the cry had gone up that it was an enormous bomb sent over by another country toblow the whole city to smithereens. air-raid sirens began wailing in every section. all radio andtelevision programmes were interrupted with announcements that the population must go down intotheir cellars immediately. one million people walking in the streets on their way to work looked up intothe sky and saw the monster hovering above them, and started running for the nearest subway entranceto take cover. generals grabbed hold of telephones and shouted orders to everyone they could think of.

the mayor of new york called up the president of the united states down in washington, d.c., to askhim for help, and the president, who at that moment was having breakfast in his pyjamas, quicklypushed away his half-finished plate of sugar crisps and started pressing buttons right and left tosummon his admirals and his generals. and all the way across the vast stretch of america, in all thefifty states from alaska to florida, from pennsylvania to hawaii, the alarm was sounded and the wordwent out that the biggest bomb in the history of the world was hovering over new york city, and thatat any moment it might go off.

三十三

这时，远在他们下方的纽约市却乱成了一团。人们望见了一个房子般大小的圆球，正飘荡在曼哈顿市中心的上空。于是，叫嚷声四起，说什么是别的国家打过来的大炸弹，要把整个城市炸成齑粉。空袭警报在各处响了起来。所有电台和电视台也中断了节目，宣布说：全体市民都要立即转入地下室。上班路上的一百万人，都抬起头来眺望天空，看见了那个怪物在头上飘荡，于是，纷纷夺路而逃，朝最近的地铁入口奔去藏身。将军们抓起电话，给能够想到的人发布了一道道命令。纽约市长呢，也往华盛顿特区给美国总统挂了电话求救。这时，正穿着睡衣吃早饭的总统，连忙推开吃了一半的糖酥脆的盘子，一左一右地按着按钮，召唤手下的统帅和将领。而且，在整个广袤的美国国土上，在它的五十个州里，从阿拉斯加州到佛罗里达州，从宾西法尼亚州到夏威夷州，都响起了警报。还有消息说，世界历史上最最大的炸弹，正飘荡在纽约市的上空，随时都有可能爆炸。