him. A brief struggle, then they dragged the eavesdropper
before the throne where they held him upside down.

"It's the Paperhanger!" Beelzebub roared.

"I guessed that from Charon's description," Nick said calmly. "He's
siding with the Reds again--Smell him? Stand up, Adolf, and hear your
sentence!"

"I didn't do a thing, Your Majesty," Hitler began, but the hot,
glowing eyes were too much to face. His knees buckled and he sank,
groveling, on the floor. "Didn't I send you millions of customers?" he
wailed. "Haven't I done a good job of sweeping out and collecting
garbage? Have a heart, Nick. I came in here to sweep, and how would I
know about this private conference?"

"You talk about hearts?" Nick flared. "You hung around to listen. You
forged Beelzebub's signature on my official paper, then put Charon in
charge of the bridge, thinking he's too dumb to report any Commies
coming here."

"I can prove--"

"You get the same chance at that which you gave people in Berlin. Down
the chute with him, boys!"

The chute, connecting with a main one leading down to the burning
lake, has a flap which Belial gleefully lifted. Since shades have no
mass worth mentioning, the long duct acts like a department store
vacuum tube.

"Oh, my beloved emperor, forgive me," Adolf yelled as he felt the
suction. "I only wanted to organize a counter-revolution against the
Communists and--"

"Ratting on your pals again, eh?" Nick sneered. "You stay in the
burning lake a thousand earth years. You'll have plenty of time and
company for your plotting. Let 'im rip!"

"No! I'll be forgotten--"

"No one remembers you now except as a dung heap." Nick turned a thumb
downward, and the screeching shade vanished.

"Like a paper towel in a gale," Belial said as he let the flap clang
shut. "How'd that creep get a job where he could snoop?"

"My fault," Beelzebub admitted. "He's a smooth talker. I saw him not
long after you left, Your Majesty, when I went out to inspect the
garbage incinerator. He had shaved off his dinky mustache and changed
the color of his eyes, but I recognized him."

"It's okay, Beel." Nick patted the heavy shoulder of his top
assistant. "The punk did us a left-handed favor in bringing things to
a head." He told of how Charon had discovered the Red plot, then
outlined his general plan.

"Those Commies can't stand ridicule," Nick summed up. "While I'm gone
I want every Communist son tossed into the burning lake. Alarm al