The first astronomer to study the comet properly was Robert T. A. Innes at the Transvaal Observatory in Johannesburg on January 17, after having been alerted two days earlier by the editor of a Johannesburg newspaper.

As he walked toward his left, he did a slight double take at an assemblage of reporters, as if he had not expected them to be there (even though they had been alerted by his aides an hour earlier that he would appear).

He had been alerted earlier that Cheyenne had been selected as the obvious choice for this next-and hopefully last- mission: to move President Jiang into Zhanjiang Naval Base.

There was a briefing scheduled and I went upstairs to find out more, and also why I hadn't been alerted earlier.

Halsted had been searching for Caroline after being alerted to her presence by the transport Success two days earlier.

The Tribune executives met with Mr. Johnson in the morning, although it is not clear if he was fired then or had been alerted earlier.

No one knows what Cedar might have been able to do had she been alerted earlier.

"As soon as people learned about the possibility of a waste disposal facility, they felt they should have been alerted earlier," Mr. Weingart said.

But when F.D.A. officials inspected Davol in early 2006, they apparently found other reasons that company officials and the agency might not have been alerted earlier.

The police, alerted by Meg's suspicious behavior earlier, arrive in force and capture Burnham, who lets the bearer bonds go; they fly away with the wind.