re with the analysis." He frowned a little. "I could wish that
we knew a bit more about psionic machines. The trouble with the
present device, frankly, is that it is partly psionic and partly
electronic, and we can't be entirely sure where one part leaves off
and the other begins. Very trying. Very trying indeed."

"I'll bet it is," Malone said sympathetically, wishing he understood
what Dr. O'Connor was talking about.

The telepathy expert sighed. "However," he said, "we keep working at
it." Then he looked at Malone expectantly.

Malone shrugged. "Well, if I can't carry the thing around, I guess
that's that," he said. "But here's the next question: do you happen to
know the maximum range of a telepath? I mean: how far away can he get
from another person and still read his mind?"

Dr. O'Connor frowned again. "We don't have definite information on
that, I'm afraid," he said. "Poor little Charlie was rather difficult
to work with. He was mentally incapable of cooperating in any way, you
see."

"Little Charlie?"

"Charles O'Neill was the name of the telepath we worked with," Dr.
O'Connor explained.

"I remember," Malone said. The name had been on one of the tapes, but
he just hadn't associated "Charles O'Neill" with "Little Charlie." He
felt as if he'd been caught with his homework undone. "How did you
manage to find him, anyway?" he said. Maybe, if he knew how
Westinghouse had found their imbecile-telepath, he'd have some kind of
clue that would enable him to find one, too. Anyhow, it was worth a
try.

"It wasn't difficult in Charlie's case," Dr. O'Connor said. He smiled.
"The child babbled all the time, you see."

"You mean he talked about being a telepath?"

Dr. O'Connor shook his head impatiently. "No," he said. "Not at all. I
mean that he babbled. Literally. Here: I've got a sample recording in
my files." He got up from his chair and went to the tall gray filing
cabinet that hid in a far corner of the pine-paneled room. From a
drawer he extracted a spool of common audio tape, and returned to his
desk.

"I'm sorry we didn't get full video on this," he said, "but we didn't
feel it was necessary." He opened a panel in the upper surface of the
desk, and slipped the spool in. "If you like, there are other tapes--"

"Maybe later," Malone said.

Dr. O'Connor nodded and pressed the playback switch at the side of the
great desk. For a second the room was silent.

Then there was the hiss of empty tape, and a