nd ask for
something from wallet or purse, and whisper: "Please let me have your
driver's license. Thank you. Mr. Charles Rogers, is it?... Where is
3218 Newark Drive?... Oh, over by the airfield. Well, Mr. Rogers, let
me see if I can transmit all this information telepathically to my
sister." Then he would hold up the driver's license and say loudly,
"What have I here?" And Barby, who had heard every whispered word,
would answer. He would coax the information out of her, and the
audience would be baffled.

"Sensational," he complimented her. "We'll do it."

"Brant and Brant," Scotty intoned, "the marvels of the universe! See
the living proof of the science of parapsychology! Mystifying,
terrifying, a scientific phenomenon without parallel that has baffled
the leading minds of the world!" Scotty's quick mind also had caught
the implications of Barby's idea.

Jan Morrison was a scientist's daughter, too, and printed electronic
circuits were no mystery to her. She said enthusiastically, "You could
even do mind reading at a distance."

"How?" Barby asked.

"Well, if there were two transmitters, Scotty could have one, too. He
could go to someone outside the auditorium, like the mayor, or some
other official, and have him write a sentence on a sheet of paper,
which Scotty could read over his shoulder. Then Barby, on the
auditorium stage, would ask everyone to look at their watches, and say
that the mayor had just written so and so on a sheet of paper, then
burned it. Scotty would bring the mayor to the auditorium, and Barby
would tell him what she had said, and at what time, and ask him if it
was right. Of course it would be."

Rick looked at the girl with new respect. It was a very good gimmick
indeed. He said as much.

Barby put her arm around Jan's waist. "We'll be sure to invite you to
the show. Won't it be fun?"

"If it's safe for us to let people know where we are by then," Jan
said somberly.

They fell silent at the reminder that Jan's presence was far more
serious than a casual visit. Finally Rick said, "We'll get to work on
the sets this afternoon."

"Make it tomorrow," Barby said quickly. "I sort of promised Jan
something...."

Rick and Scotty exchanged glances.

"I said you and Scotty would teach her how to use the aqualungs."

Rick breathed a sigh of relief. That would be no hardship. He and
Scotty needed practice, anyway. They had hardly used the lungs since
returning from the Virgin Islands.