u're fooling with?"

The sudden change of subject startled Karnes for an instant. He looked
at the mind impressor in his hands. He had been toying with it
incessantly, hoping it would repeat its performance, or perhaps give
additional information.

"This?" He covered quickly. "It's a--a puzzle. One of those plastic
puzzles." _Maybe it doesn't work on the same person twice. If I can
get George to fool around with it, he might hit the right combination
again._

"Hmmm. How does it work?" George seemed interested.

Karnes handed it to him. "It has a couple of little sliding weights
inside it. You have to turn the thing just right to unlock it, then it
comes apart when you slide out a section of the surface. Try it."

* * * * *

Lansberg took it, turned it this way and that, moving his hands over
the surface. Karnes watched him for several minutes, but there didn't
seem to be any results.

Lansberg looked up from his labors. "I give up. I can't even see where
it's supposed to come apart, and I can't feel any weights sliding
inside it. Show me how it works."

Karnes thought fast. "Why do you think I was fiddling with it? I
don't know how it works. A friend of mine bet me a ten spot that I
couldn't figure out the combination."

Lansberg looked back at the impressor in his hands. "Could he do it?"

"A snap. I watched him twice, and I still didn't get it."

"Mmm. Interesting." George went back to work on the "puzzle."

Just before they landed on the roof of the UN annex, Lansberg handed
the impressor back to Karnes. It had obviously failed to do what
either of them had hoped it would.

"It's your baby," Lansberg said, shaking his head. "All I have to say
is it's a hell of a way to earn ten bucks."

Karnes grinned and dropped the thing back in his coat pocket.

By the time that evening had rolled around, Karnes was beginning to
get just a little bored. He and Lansberg had been in and out of the
New York office in record time. Then they had spent a few hours with
New York's Finest and the District Attorney, lining up a net to pick
up all the little rats involved.

After that, there was nothing to do but wait.

Karnes slept a couple of hours to catch up, read two magazines from
cover to cover, and played eight games of solitaire. He was getting
itchy.

His brain kept crackling. _What's the matter with me? I ought to be
thinking about this Brittain fellow instead of--_

But, af