tely soundless, it poured through her mind.

"What is it?" she cried aloud. "What's happening?"

"My dear young lady," said a man's voice within her head, "allow me to
introduce myself. My name is Fairheart. Of the billionaire Fairhearts.
May I have the next dance?"

"This is it," she thought. "Five years on the rock pile would do it to
anyone. You've gone mad."

She laughed shakily. "I can't dance with you if I can't see you."

"I really should explain," the voice replied, "and apologize for my
silly joke. It was frightfully rude to laugh at you, but when I saw you
waltzing and preening yourself, I just couldn't help it. I'm a telepath,
you see, from Dekker's star, out on the Rim."

That would explain, she thought, his slightly stilted phraseology;
English was apparently not his native tongue--or, rather, his native
thought.

"There was a mild mutation among the settlers there, and the third
generation all have this ability. I shouldn't use it, I know, but I've
been so lonely, confined here to my room, that I cast around to see if
there were anyone that I could talk to. Then I came upon you considering
your own virtues, and you were so cute and funny that I couldn't resist.
Then I laughed and you caught me."

* * * * *

"I've heard of telepaths," she said doubtfully, "though I've never heard
of Dekker's star. However, I don't think you have any right to go
thinking around the ship spying on people."

"Sh!" whispered the silent voice. "You needn't shout. I'll go away if
you wish and never spy on you again, but don't tell Captain Blake, or
he'll have me sealed in a lead-lined cell or something. We're not
supposed to telepath around others, but I've been sitting here with all
sorts of interesting thoughts just tickling the edges of my mind for so
long that I had to go exploring."

"Why not go exploring on your own two feet like anyone else? Have you so
much brains, your head's too heavy to carry?"

"Unfortunately," the voice mourned, "my trouble is in my foot and not in
my head. On the second night out from Dekker's star, I lost my footing
on the stairs from the dining hall and plunged like a comet to the
bottom. I would probably have been killed but for the person of a stout
steward who, at that moment, started to ascend the stairs. He took the
full impact of my descent on his chest and saved my life, I'm sure.
However, I still received a broken ankle that has given me so much