The Advantage of a Parabolic Focus (100 words)

"Oh, he hears us, the wily goat," said Chalmsford. He sat in the Statuary Hall and watched John Quincy Adams, who apparently slept. "He pretends. He sits at the focus of a parabola. All sounds in the room come to him."

Eyes still closed, Adams frowned. "Ha, I told you!" exulted Chalmsford. "Your spying won't settle the slavery issue!"

Adams procured the electrickal apparatus built by Franklin long ago and cranked it. It sparked, sending scientifical rays scattering into every corner. "Slavery," Adams declared, "shall be abolished."

Chalmsford and everybody else stiffened. "It shall be done," they said in monotones.