"Those are bold calculations," the man with the cane said, tapping it steadily against the floor. "But given that we know nothing of military might, we can't make such suppositions. We have to go based on numbers alone, for numbers we can trust. Five hundred men, we say, for your own good. Do you not want the means to protect yourself, without having to rely on outside help, as we are told you did?"
"Can we assume then, in your arguing of this point, that the doubling of your wall will be a matter that you can accomplish easily?" The tall old man broke in.
"Quite the opposite," Greeves said. "That point was outlandish enough that I was sure you were joking. You are, aren't you? You know that we will struggle to meet even the most minor of those demands, in the number of men. That first demand, most surely was a joke, to remind us, as lowly as we are, that it could be worse."
