k without
plans of some kind."

"One of the troubles of a telepath," I told her right back, "is that
they get so confounded used to knowing what is going to happen next that
it takes all the pleasant element of surprise out of their lives. That
makes 'em dull and--"

The element of surprise came in through the back window, passed between
us and went _Splat!_ against the wind-shield. There was the sound like
someone chipping ice with a spike followed by the distant bark of a
rifle. A second slug came through the back window about the time that
the first one landed on the floor of the car. The second slug, not
slowed by the shatter-proof glass in the rear, went through the
shatter-proof glass in the front. A third slug passed through the same
tunnel.

These were warning shots. He'd missed us intentionally. He'd proved it
by firing three times through the same hole, from beyond my esper range.

I wound up the machinery and we took off. Marian cried something about
not being foolish, but her words were swept out through the hole in the
rear window, just above the marks on the pavement caused by my tires as
we spun the wheels.

XV

"Steve, stop it!" cried Marian as soon as she could get her breath.

"Nuts," I growled. I took a long curve on the outside wheels and ironed
out again. "He isn't after our corpse, honey. He's after our hide. I
don't care for any."

The fourth shot went singing off the pavement to one side. It whined
into the distance making that noise that sets the teeth on edge and
makes one want to duck. I lowered the boom on the go pedal and tried to
make the meter read off the far end of the scale; I had a notion that
the guy behind might shoot the tires out if we were going slow enough so
that a blowout wouldn't cause a bad wreck; but he probably wouldn't do
it once I got the speed up. He was not after Marian. Marian could walk
out of any crack-up without a bruise, but I couldn't.

We went roaring around a curve. I fought the wheel into a nasty double
's' curve to swing out and around a truck, then back on my own side of
the road again to avoid an oncoming car. I could almost count the front
teeth of the guy driving the car as we straightened out with a coat of
varnish to spare. I scared everybody in all three vehicles, including
me.

Then I passed a couple of guys standing beside the road; one of them
waved me on, the other stood there peering past me down the road. As we
roared by, ano