ng the rest: "Gyp! You mean that Fred Plaice took her seriously!
That he was trying to get _rid_ of her?"

"He felt it would be better if I never knew about it," I admitted. "What
do you think I should do, Anita?"

Her heart-shaped face grew more solemn. "I think it would be bad to try
to cover it up," she decided. "And I'm glad you didn't let Fred do that
to you. Some newscast would be sure to get hold of the story and there'd
be snide accusations. All this talk recently about the heredity of psi
powers is bad, too. That's what she's trying to cash in on. And if the
public thought that the man in charge of catching and pulling the fangs
of all the snakes was a hereditary telepath, they'd be after your scalp
in no time."

"So?"

"Scotch it. See her, face her down, prove her charge is ridiculous, and
ship her west."

I smiled a little dimly. "Just one complication."

"Yes, Gyp?"

"This Maude Tinker, says Fred, is a gypsy."

Anita's face did the most abrupt change. I had never seen her furiously
angry. She's a typical high echelon Washington secretary, cool,
extremely well-mannered, cheerful without being bumptious. But this time
she was downright mad.

"I told you," Anita said.

"What?"

"I told you to watch out for Fred Plaice!"

"It's not his fault," I protested. "Catching telepaths is his job."

"Within limits," she said scornfully. "I thought it was just one more of
his screwball ideas! He had his whole Section concentrating on gypsies,
for a couple of months. He had a long story to go with it, Gyp! How all
the soothsayers and clairvoyants and finders were really short-range
telepaths or pre-cogs."

"I don't believe it," I said. "You mean that Fred started with my
nickname, and has been on this campaign of looking for telepaths among
gypsies just in hopes he could embarrass me?"

"Yes!"

You have to like loyalty, no matter what the circumstances that incite
it.

"I can't believe that of one of my boys, Anita," I said. "Fred was all
broken up about it."

"I bet I can call the turn," Anita said, starting back for her own desk.
"Fred's next move is to tell you that no one can blame you for
disqualifying yourself from this case. After all, your own mother!"

Well, the political implications _were_ deep. "I think I would agree," I
said at length. "Let's see what happens. Send this Maude Tinker in as
soon as she gets here."

"Aren't you going to take any precautions, Gyp?" Anita demanded.

"Ag