* * * * *
Lenny sat behind the far desk, watching his brother come up the primrose
path in a unicycle. He pulled it to a halt in front of the desk, opened
the pilot's canopy, threw out a rope ladder, and climbed down. His gait
was a little awkward, in spite of the sponge-rubber floor, because of the
huge flowered carpetbag he was carrying. A battered top hat sat
precariously on his blond, curly hair.
"Lenny! Boy, am I glad to see you! I've got it! The whole trouble is in
the wonkler, where the spadulator comes across the trellis grid!" He
lifted the carpetbag and sat it down on the lab table. "Connect up the
groffle meter! We'll show those pentagon pickles who has the push-and-go
here!"
"Rafe," Lenny said gently, "wake up. You're dreaming. You're asleep. I
want to talk to you."
"I know." He grinned widely. "And you don't want any back talk from me!
Yok-yok-yok! Just wait'll I show you!"
In his hands, he held an object which Lenny did not at first understand.
Then Rafe's mind brought it into focus.
"This"--Rafe held it up--"is a rocket motor!"
"Rafe, wake up!" Lenny said.
The surroundings stabilized a little more.
"I will in just a minute, Lenny." Rafe was apologetic. "But let me show
you this." It did bear some resemblance to a rocket motor. It was about as
long as a man's forearm and consisted of a bulbous chamber at one end,
which narrowed down into a throat and then widened into a hornlike exhaust
nozzle. The chamber was black; the rest was shiny chrome.
Rafe grasped it by the throat with one hand. The other, he clasped firmly
around the combustion chamber. "Watch! Now watch!"