ten o'clock
Nearby windows were broken from the violent explosion , and pieces of the flying metal were hurled a hundred feet or more . One huge chunk , evidently a plate of the thing 's body , struck into the crowd two blocks away , and felled several people . At this smashing of one of the mechanisms , its brother Robots went for the first time into aggressive action . A hundred or more were pouring now from the vacant house of the absent Tugh ... * * * * * The alarm by ten o'clock had spread throughout the entire city . Police reserves were called out , and by midnight soldiers were being mobilized . Panics were starting everywhere . Millions of people crowded in on small Manhattan Island , in the heart of which was this strange enemy .