orbitsch and Garbitsch--" He stopped. "You know," he said, "every
time I say that name I have to reassure myself that we're not all
walking around in the world of Florenz Ziegfeld."

"Likewise," Malone said. "But go on."

"Sure," Boyd said. "Anyhow, they might have set the three of them up
as patsies, just in case we stumbled on to this mess. We can't
overlook this possibility."

"Right," Malone said. "It's faint, but it is a possibility. In other
words, the agency behind the flashes might be Russian, and it might
not be Russian."

"That clears that up nicely," Boyd said. "Next question?"

"The next one," Malone said grimly, "is, what's behind the flashes?
Some sort of psionic power is causing them, that much is obvious."

"I'll go along with that," Boyd said. "I have to go along with it. But
don't think I like it."

"Nobody likes it," Malone said. "But let's go on. O'Connor isn't any
help; he washes his hands of the whole business."

"Lucky man," Boyd said.

"He says that it can't be happening," Malone said, "and if it is we're
all screwy. Now, right or wrong, that isn't an opinion that gives us
any handle to work with."

"No," Boyd said reflectively. "A certain amount of comfort, to be
sure, but no handles."

"Sir Lewis Carter, on the other hand--" Malone said. He fumbled
through some of the piles of paper until he had located the ones the
president of the Psychical Research Society had sent. "Sir Lewis
Carter," he went on, "does seem to be doing some pretty good work. At
least, some of the more modern stuff he sent over looks pretty solid.
They've been doing quite a bit of research into the subject, and their
theories seem to be all right, or nearly all right, to me. Of course,
I'm not an expert."

"Who is?" Boyd said. "Except for O'Connor, of course."

"Well, somebody is," Malone said. "Whoever's doing all this, for
instance. And the theories do seem okay. In most cases, for instance,
they agree with O'Connor's work, though they're not in complete
agreement."

"I should think so," Boyd said. "O'Connor wouldn't recognize an astral
plane if TWA were putting them into service."

"I don't mean that sort of thing," Malone said. "There's lots about
astral bodies and ghosts, ectoplasm, Transcendental Yoga, theosophy,
deros, the Great Pyramid, Atlantis, Mu, norns, and other such
ridiculous pets. That's just silly, as far as I can see. But what they
have to say about parapsychology and psionics as such do