k seemed to make this terrific responsibility more weighty.

Why must he be burdened with such a load as they had tied onto him? What
were the Corps' top brass thinking of, anyway, to put so much on an
untried kid just out of school?

At last he began to think less of his own burden and to concentrate on
seeing what he could pick up mentally. He kept his eyes closed, but
opened his mind wide and let the welter of thought-impressions roll in
unhindered.

There was much laughter and lighthearted gaiety about him, as was
natural on such a luxury liner. There was also some fear of space and
the emptiness; some actual illness from space-fright. There were many
mental undercurrents, and in one or two instances he thought he caught
vague hints of sinister intrigue, but was never quite able to isolate
these, or to bring them into more distinct focus. Quite evidently the
men--or women--thinking such thoughts were able to close their minds to
some extent--or else he was too rusty at reading. He realized, too, that
they might not be thinking of any such thing--he remembered once when he
was a boy he thought he had caught some such thought, then found later
it was merely a neighbor reading a story with a sinister plot.

Mind-reading, he told himself, was the field in which he would be
assigned to work. The Corps and the SS would be sure to hand him all the
jobs where other agents had failed, just as they had in this case, in
hopes that he could get them some beginning points of contact. So it was
up to him to get busy and learn how to do it better.

The call for lunch found him still studying, but he was hungry, and went
down to eat. He could work there as well as on the observation deck,
anyway.

Going into the dining room, the head waiter assigned him to a table
almost in the center of the large and tastefully decorated room. For
some moments he busied himself studying the menu, and when he had
ordered he glanced up again at his tablemates.

He had been introduced to this matron, and to her son who appeared to be
about his own age. He probed briefly, finding her a good sort but a
little too impressed with her own importance--new-rich, he guessed. The
boy he disliked on sight--he seemed a selfish, pampered brat.

So he forgot them and concentrated on letting his mind roam about the
great room, seeking information and trying to refine and develop his
mind-reading ability. It seemed to him the latter was improving to some
e