such a thing from among the welter of
thought-sensations on the crowded streets.

He wandered about most of the day, frankly sight-seeing--but his mind
was always open. He went into various public buildings, sat for some
time in one or another of the numerous parks whenever he felt a bit
tired of walking.

That feeling of being watched made him cautious, so he did not practice
much with his mind-control on any of the pigeon-like birds! He did,
however, make a trip to the local zoo, and as he paused momentarily in
front of each of the cages to look at the exhibit it contained, he
briefly made an excursion into the mind of each different type of
animal, bird or rodent. Outside of minor differences of texture, they
all seemed about the same. Each of them had, naturally, different
muscular abilities that would need considerable study if he ever
intended using one of them.

And every minute he was seeking, searching for any tiniest thread of
evidence as to what it was that was causing this undercurrent of secret
intrigue that was so plainly evident to his super-sensitive mind.

But there was no factual data to be learned. Only that "feel" of it in
the very air. Yet as the day wore on he came to believe that much or
most of what he sensed was not that plot which was causing the Corps
concern. Rather, it seemed more as though all the people here were
engaged in some sort of secret aggressiveness.

And it was finally forced into his consciousness that it was "business,"
not "politics." For it was well-known that Simonides, even though it had
become the Federation's wealthiest world, was not yet satisfied ... that
its merchants and traders wanted to capture more and still more of the
System's business.

There were far too many minds engaged in aggressive thoughts for a
political revolution, he felt sure. If it was this wide-spread, surely
others of the Corps of the Secret Service would have found out something
definite about it. No, whatever this was, it distinctly was not what he
was here to find.

The feeling that he was being spied upon was always more or less
present, but he could not spot the man or men who were watching him.
Either several were working in short shifts, or else the trailer kept so
far behind him that the multiplicity of thoughts from the hundreds of
people always around masked those of the spy.

Hanlon ate a leisurely lunch in a small restaurant, and during the
afternoon continued his apparently-