Project Gutenberg's The Foreign Hand Tie, by Gordon Randall Garrett

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Title: The Foreign Hand Tie

Author: Gordon Randall Garrett

Illustrator: Barberis

Release Date: November 18, 2009 [EBook #30497]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction December 1961.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright
on this publication was renewed.

_The Foreign Hand Tie_

_BY DAVID GORDON_

_Just because you can "see" something doesn't mean you
understand it--and that can mean that even perfect telepathy
isn't perfect communication...._

ILLUSTRATED BY BARBERIS

* * * * *

From Istanbul, in Turkish Thrace, to Moscow, U.S.S.R., is only a couple of
hours outing for a round trip in a fast jet plane--a shade less than
eleven hundred miles in a beeline.

Unfortunately, Mr. Raphael Poe had no way of chartering a bee.

The United States Navy cruiser _Woonsocket_, having made its placid way
across the Mediterranean, up the Aegean Sea, and through the Dardanelles
to the Bosporous, stopped overnight at Istanbul and then turned around and
went back. On the way in, it had stopped at Gibraltar, Barcelona,
Marseilles, Genoa, Naples, and Athens--the main friendly ports on the
northern side of the Mediterranean. On the way back, it performed the same
ritual on the African side of the sea. Its most famous passengers were the
American Secretary of State, two senators, and three representatives.

Its most important passenger was Mr. Raphael Poe.

During the voyage in, Mr. Raphael Poe remained locked in a stateroom, all
by himself, twiddling his thumbs restlessly and playing endless games of
solitaire, making bets with himself on how long it would be before the
ship hit the next big wave and wondering how lon