ly talking to himself, or rather to his other self.

"Well, now, Sir Kenneth," he said. "Let's pull all the facts together
and see what happens."

"Indeed, Mr. Malone," said Sir Kenneth Malone, "it is time that we
did. Proceed, Sirrah. I shall attend."

* * * * *

"Let's start from the beginning," Malone said. "We know there's
confusion in all parts of the country, in all parts of the world, I
guess. And we know that confusion is being caused by carefully timed
accidents and errors. We also know that these errors appear to be
accompanied by violent bursts of psionic static--violent energy. And
we know, further, that on three specific occasions, these bursts of
energy were immediately followed by a reversal of policy in the mind
of the person on the receiving end."

"You mean," Sir Kenneth put in, "that they changed their minds."

"Correct," Malone said. "I refer, of course, to the firm of Brubitsch,
Borbitsch and Garbitsch, Spying Done Cheap."

"Indeed," Sir Kenneth said. "Then the operators of this force,
whatever it may be, have some interest in allowing these spies to
confess?"

"Maybe," Malone said. "Let's leave that for later. To get back to the
beginning of all this: it seems to me to follow that the accidents and
errors which have caused all the confusion through the United States
and Russia are caused by somebody's mind being changed at exactly the
right moment. A man does something just a little differently than he
decided to--or else he forgets to do it at all."

"Correct," Sir Kenneth said. "And you feel, Mr. Malone, that a
telepathic command is the cause of this confusion?"

"A series of them," Malone said. "But we also know, from Dr. O'Connor,
that it takes a great deal of psychic energy to perform this
particular trick--more than a person can normally afford to expend."

"Marry, now," Sir Kenneth exclaimed, "such a statement does not seem
to have reason in it. Changing the mind of a man seems a small thing
in comparison to teleportation, or psychokinesis, or levitation. And
yet it takes more power than any of these?"

Malone thought for a second. "Sure it does," he said. "I'd say it was
a matter of resistance. Moving an inanimate object is pretty simple--
comparatively, anyhow--because inert matter has no mental resistance."

"And moving yourself?" Sir Kenneth said.

"There is some resistance there, probably," Malone said. "But you'll
remember that part of the Fueyo training system for tel