"Correct," Dr. O'Connor said. "And there are a few other factors. In the first place, the person being analyzed has to be in a specially shielded room, such as is used in encephalographic analysis. Otherwise, the mental activity of the other persons around him would interfere with the analysis." He frowned a little. "I 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 co-operating 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 brisk masculine voice that overrode it: