ar from the truth, though he
had it turned around a little. But the book shows that he has no
knowledge whatever of what psionics is, or how it works. He seems to
me to be just a little afraid of it, which probably adds to his
ignorance. And, as a result, he got a twisted idea of what the PRS is
actually doing._

He could almost hear Lou's voice again. "Yes," she was saying. "I
remember the book. It was put in our reference library for its
humorous aspects."

_That's right,_ Malone thought. _It would be only funny to you. But it
would be frightening and terrible to an awful lot of people simply
because they wouldn't understand what the Society was all about._

"All right," Lou's voice said helpfully. "And what _is_ it all about?"

Malone settled back in the driver's seat as the car continued to spin
along the road. _It seems to me,_ he thought carefully, _that any
telepath has to go one of two ways. Either, like Her Majesty or the
others we found when we discovered her two years ago, the telepath
ends up insane--or perhaps commits suicide, which is simply one step
further in retreat--or else he learns to understand and control his
own powers, and to understand other human beings so well that, if he
actually did control the world, everyone would benefit in the long
run._

_The difference between the two kinds is the difference between Her
Majesty and the PRS._

"That's good thinking," he could hear Lou say.

_No, it isn't,_ he thought; _it's no more than guessing, and it could
be just as wild as you please. But there is one thing I do know: the
way to get a better world, or anyhow the first step, is to clear the
road ahead. And that means getting rid of the fools, idiots, maniacs,
blockheads, morons, psychopaths, paranoids, timidity-ridden,
fear-worshipers, fanatics, thieves, criminals and a whole lot more._

"Get rid of them?" Lou's voice said.

_Well,_ Malone thought, _I don't mean they've got to be killed or
driven out of the civilized world. You've just got to get them out of
any place where their influence is heavily felt on society as a
whole._

"All right," Lou's voice said pleasantly. "And how could we go about
that? Do we write nasty letters to the editor?"

_There's a much more effective way,_ Malone thought. _There's no
trouble in getting rid of a man if you can make him expose himself.
And you've managed that pretty well. You've thwarted their idiotic
plans, made them stumble over their own fum