d "in step," the Q-tube didn't heat up
much at all. The cascade effect took most of the energy out as radiation.

"_Then a Royal Proclamation was dispatched throughout the nation,
Most imperatively calling to appear before the King.
Under penalties most cruel, every man who sold a jewel
Or who bought and bartered precious stones, and all that sort of
thing._"

But knowing all that didn't help Raphael Poe or the United States of
America one whit if the information couldn't be gotten out of Russia and
into Colonel Spaulding's hands. Lenny had told him of the trouble the
colonel was having with Dr. Davenport.

If he could only communicate with Lenny! But if he did, Dr. Malekrinova
would pick up every bit of it, and that would be the end of that. No, he
had to figure out some way to get himself and the information both out of
the country.

Meanwhile, he had to keep thinking of an animated necktie. And he had to
keep singing.

"_Thereupon, the jewelers' nether joints all quaked and knocked
together,
As they packed their Saratogas in lugubrious despair.
It was ever their misfortune to be pillaged by extortion,
And they thought they smelled a rodent on the sultry desert air._"

Lenny Poe shoved open the door of Colonel Spaulding's outer office with a
violence that startled Sergeant Nugget.

"Is Spaulding in?" he barked.

"I think he's expecting you," she said. There was no time to buzz the
colonel; Poe was already opening the door.

"Rafe's in trouble!" Lenny said hurriedly, slamming the door behind him.

"Where have you been?" snapped the colonel.

"Never mind that! Rafe's in trouble, I said! We've gotta figure a way to
get him out of it!"

Colonel Spaulding dropped all thought of bawling out Poe. "What'd he say?
What's the trouble?"

"All he's doing is broadcasting that necktie--like an animated cartoon in
technicolor. And he's singing."

"Singing? Singing what?"

"_As they faced the Great Propylon, with an apprehensive smile on,
Sculptured there in heiroglyphics six feet wide and nine feet high
Was the threat of King Rameses to chop every man to pieces
Who, when shown the Royal diamond, would dare refuse to buy._"

Colonel Spaulding blinked. "That's pretty. What does it mean?"

"Nothing; it's a song, that's all. That female Russian scientist can read
Rafe's mind, and he's broadcasting this stuff to cover u