enneth J. Malone there?"

"Mr. Malone?" the psychiatrist said. "I mean, Mr. Burris? Mr. Malone is
here. Yes. Oh, my. Do you want to talk to him?"

"No, you idiot," the voice said. "I just want to know if he's all tucked
in."

"Tucked in?" Dr. Harman gave the phone a sudden smile. "A joke," he
said. "It _is_ a joke, isn't it? The way things have been happening, you
never know whether--"

"A joke," Burris' voice said. "That's right. Yes. Am I talking to one of
the patients?"

Dr. Harman gulped, got mad, and thought better of it. At last he said,
very gently: "I'm not at all sure," and handed the phone to Malone.

The FBI agent said: "Hello, chief. Things are a little confused."

Burris' face appeared on the screen. "Confused, sure," he said. "I feel
confused already." He took a breath. "I called the San Francisco office,
and they told me you and Boyd were out there. What's going on?"

Malone said cautiously: "We've found a telepath."

Burris' eyes widened slightly. "Another one?"

"What are you talking about, another one?" Malone said. "We have one.
Does anybody else have any more?"

"Well," Burris said, "we just got a report on another one--maybe.
Besides yours, I mean."

"I hope the one you've got is in better shape than the one I've got,"
Malone said. He took a deep breath, and then spat it all out at once:
"The one we've found is a little old lady. She thinks she's Queen
Elizabeth I. She's a telepath, sure, but she's nuts."

"Queen Elizabeth?" Burris said. "Of England?"

"That's right," Malone said. He held his breath.

"Damn it," Burris exploded, "they've already got one."

Malone sighed. "This is another one," he said. "Or, rather, the original
one. She also claims she's immortal."

"Lives forever?" Burris said. "You mean like that?"

"Immortal," Malone said. "Right."

Burris nodded. Then he looked worried. "Tell me, Malone," he said. "She
_isn't_, is she?"

"Isn't immortal, you mean?" Malone said. Burris nodded. Malone said
confidently: "Of course not."

There was a little pause. Malone thought things over.

Hell, maybe she was immortal. Stranger things had happened, hadn't they?

He looked over at Dr. Harman. "How about that?" he said. "Could she be
immortal?"

The psychiatrist shook his head decisively. "She's been here for over
forty years, Mr. Malone, ever since her late teens. Her records show all
that, and her birth certificate is in perfect order. Not a chance."

Malone sighed