For the horny-handed workmen only ate three figs per day,
While the King liked sweet potatoes, puddings, pies, and canned
tomatoes,
Boneless ham, and Bluepoint oysters cooked some prehistoric way._"

What to do now? Should he try to get out of Russia? Was there any quick
way out?

He had all the information he needed on the heat-beam projector that Dr.
Malekrinova was building. The theory behind it was perfectly clear; all it
needed was further experimentation. If it worked out according to theory,
it would be an almost perfect defense against even the fastest
intercontinental ballistic missiles.

"_As he growled, the Royal grumbler spied a bit of broken tumbler
In a long undusted corner just behind the chamber door.
When his hungry optics spied it, he stood silently and eyed it,
Then he smote his thigh with ecstasy and danced about the floor._"

Maybe he should try to make a run for the American Embassy. No. No one
there knew him, and they probably couldn't get him out of the country,
anyway. Besides, it would take him too long to explain the situation to
them.

"_'By the wit Osiris gave me! This same bit of glass shall save me!
I shall sell it as a diamond at some stupendous price!
And whoe'er I ask to take it will find, for his own sweet sake, it
Will be better not to wait until I have to ask him twice!'_"

The theory behind the heat projector was simply an extension of the laser
theory, plus a few refinements. Inside a ring made of the proper material,
the light, acted upon by exterior magnetic fields, tended to move in a
circle, so that the photon cascade effect was all in one direction instead
of bouncing back and forth between a pair of mirrors. That light could be
bent around corners by making it travel through a glass rod was well
known, and the Malekrinova Q-tube took advantage of that effect.

In a way, the principle was similar to that of the cyclotron, except that
instead of spinning ions around in a circle to increase their velocity a
beam of coherent light was circulated to increase its intensity.

Then, at the proper moment, a beam of intense coherent light shot out of
the tangent that formed the tail of the Q-tube. If the material of the Q
was properly constructed and contained atoms that fluoresced strongly in
the infra red, you had a heat beam that delivered plenty of power. And,
since the radiation was linear an