avered the Premier. "Put down those guns!"

"Oh, no. Pravda says you were shot trying to escape, and for once it
really told the truth." Implacably, the big guard brought up his
Tommy-gun and let it rattle.

The stricken Red leader took two steps backward and fell to the floor
as the other five guns opened up on him in a hell's chatter of death.
His falling weight added the last straw to the overstrained floor
timbers. They gave way in a roar, and a hundred tons of yellow gold
streamed downward in a cataclysmic wave of wealth and death to the
Council members below.

* * * * *

Poised on air, Nick and Cletus became invisible to mortal eyes. "That
wraps it, Cleet. Let's see how the boys take it."

The six guards were peering down into the ruin below, and at some of
the fortune still clinging to the slanting floor.

"Great Nicholas!" Gorkzy yelled. "Gold!"

"Just like Pravda says," howled another man. "Listen! It says:
'Volonsky and the mysterious Persian prince have disappeared. Broncov
executed by heroic guards. All members of the once-feared Inner
Council crushed almost beyond recognition when floor crashed upon them
from the weight of the gold brought by the prince.'"

"And look at this!" roared the big Gorkzy. "'All soldiers and police
throw down their arms. Refuse to shoot the people shouting they want
their Tsar and church back. Satellite countries freed of the odious
Communist yoke. Concentration camps, collective farming, and slave
labor abolished. All spies and saboteurs recalled to Moscow for trial
and punishment. Ivan, the Tsar, to issue proclamation.'"

"What Tsar?" The six stared stupidly at one another.

One man picked up a shiny gold piece and tested it with his teeth.
"The Bolsheviks murdered the old goat and all his family. How can this
be?"

"He probably left plenty of bastards," another man hazarded.

"I get it," Gorkzy shouted. "Prince Navi is a grandson. His name is
N-a-v-i--Ivan spelled backward. Why, the smart little devil! And now
he's here some place to reign over us."

"Oh, no," Cletus protested as he and Nick slithered through the wall.
"You aren't going to make me rule over these dopes, boss. Have a
heart. It's cold here, and the whole country stinks."

"That's your punishment, m'lad, for letting Raphael and Michael catch
onto you. You can't prowl around Heaven just now so you'll have to
work here in Hell's Rear Annex for a while. Look!" Nick thum