y, "Cement color like cat."

Rick's thoughts snapped back to the scene before him. The dragoman was
right. The concrete mix had been colored to imitate sandstone,
apparently a part of the plan to make the architecture as Egyptian as
possible. There was enough of the mix in the form to make a thousand
cats, and more was being mixed in a portable cement mixer.

The Great Idea took shape in his mind, and suddenly he laughed outright.
"Kittens!" he exclaimed. "Wouldn't that throw them for a loop? I mean,
if several Egyptian cats showed up."

Scotty laughed with him. "It definitely would. We'll show 'em that it
doesn't pay to confuse us. Only how do we do it?"

Rick pointed to the office building where the plasterers were still at
work. "Make a plaster cast, then use the concrete mix for the models.
How about it?"

"Could work," Scotty said quickly. "Come on."

They rummaged around through the construction debris and found a pair of
small wooden boxes that had held instruments. With Hassan as
interpreter, Rick talked to the construction foreman and a plasterer was
detailed to help. If the form could be prepared right away, the low
desert humidity would harden it enough to use by the time they were
through work.

The wooden boxes were filled with soft plaster while Rick coated the
Egyptian cat with oil used to lubricate the antenna bearings. The cat
was pushed into one box until only half of it showed. The plasterer
smoothed the surface around the cat.

A sheet of scrap metal was used as a lid for the second box of plaster.
Working quickly, the plasterer turned it upside down and held it in
position while Scotty slipped the metal out of the way. The plasterer
pushed it down on the cat, losing only a little plaster in the process.
The little statue was now firmly embedded in plaster.

By the time the boys were summoned to the control room again, the
plaster was firm enough so the plasterer could run a thin wire between
the two boxes to start the process of separation. When the plaster was a
little harder, he would use the wire and a long knife to separate the
two halves completely.

The boys went to work, checking various elements under Winston's
direction. They kept at it until late afternoon. The sun was slanting
down behind the pyramids when they were told to knock off for the day.

They hurried to the plaster mold at once. Hassan was already there,
waiting, with the plasterer. The Sudanese guide pointed to a b