new, would he be the last. The first one had shown up more than sixteen
years before, in Dallas, Texas, USA.

Houston grinned as he thought of it. Projective telepathy had only been
a crackpot's idea back then. In spite of the work of many intelligent,
sane men, who had shown that mental powers above and beyond the ordinary
did exist, the average man simply laughed off such nonsense. It was
mysticism; it was magic; it was foolish superstition. It was anything
but true.

But ever since "Blackjack" Donnely had practically taken control of the
whole city of Dallas, the average man had changed his mind. It was still
mysterious; it was still magic; but now the weird machinations of the
supernormal mind were something to be feared.

In the sixteen years that had ensued since the discovery of the abnormal
mental powers of "Blackjack" Donnely, rumors had spread all over the
world. There were supposed to be men who could levitate--fly through the
air at will. Others could walk through walls, and still others could
make themselves invisible. The horrible monsters that were supposed to
be walking the Earth were legion.

* * * * *

Actually, only one type of supernormal psychodeviant had been found--the
telepath, the mindreader who could probe into the mental processes of
others. Worse than that, the telepath could project his own thoughts
into the mind of another, so that the victim supposed that the thoughts
were his own. Actually, it was a high-powered form of hypnotism; the
victim could be made to do anything the projective telepath wanted him
to.

"Blackjack" Donnely had made that clear in his trial in Texas.

Donnely had been a big man--big physically, and important in city
politics. He had also been as arrogant as the Devil himself.

It was the arrogance that had finally tripped up Donnely. He had thought
himself impregnable. Haled into court on charges of misappropriation of
public funds, he had just sat and smirked while several witnesses for
the State admitted that they had aided Donnely, but they claimed he had
"hypnotized" them. Donnely didn't try to interfere with the
evidence--that's where he made his mistake. And that's where his
arrogance tripped him up.

* * * * *

If he'd used telepathic projection to influence the State Attorney or
the witnesses or the judge or the Grand Jury _before_ the trial, he
might never have been discovered as the fi