nd in spite of everything you've said, that hasn't been tied down."

Malone frowned. After a second's thought he said, "Well... All I know
is that it just seemed obvious. That's all."

"Indeed it is," Sir Lewis said. "But one of the things we'll have to
teach you, my boy, is how to distinguish between a deduction from
observed fact and a psionic intuition. You've been confusing them for
some years now."

"I have?" Malone said.

"Sure you have," Burris said. "And, what's more--"

"Well, he's no worse than you are, Andrew," Lou said.

Burris turned. "Me?" he said in a voice of withering scorn.

"Certainly," Lou said. "After all, you've never really become used to
mixtures of thought and speech. And, what's more, you've been using
telepathy so long that when you try to communicate with nothing but
words you only confuse yourself."

"And everybody else," Sir Lewis added.

"Hmpf," Burris said. "I'm busy all the time. I haven't got any extra
time for practice."

Malone nodded, comparatively unsurprised. He'd wondered for years how
a man so obviously unable to express himself clearly could run an
organization like the FBI as well as he did. Having psionic abilities
evidently led to drawbacks as well as advantages.

"Actually," he said, "my prescience made one mistake."

"Really?" Burris said, looking both worried and pleased about it.

"I expected the place to be full of people," Malone said. "I thought
the elite corps of the PRS would be here."

"Oh," Burris said, looking crestfallen.

"Why, that was no mistake," Sir Lewis said. "As a matter of fact, they
are all here. But they're quite busy at the moment; things are coning
to a head, you know, and they must work quite undisturbed."

"And this," Burris added, "is a good place for it. There are sixty
rooms in this house. Sixty."

"That's a lot of rooms," Malone said politely.

"A mansion," Burris said. "A positive mansion. And my family has lived
here ever since--"

"I'm sure Ken isn't very interested in your family just now," Lou
broke in.

"My family," Burris said with dignity, "is a very interesting family."

"I'm sure it must be," Lou said demurely. Sir Lewis choked with
laughter suddenly and began waving his pipe. After a minute, Malone
joined in.

"Damn it," Burris said. "Let's stick to one thing or the other. Did I
say that?"

"Twice," Malone said.

"Sixty rooms," Burris said. "All built by my family. And local
contractors, of course. Th