"Lieutenant, you're now asking me to describe to you how someone might rig the Kentucky Derby in a world full of expert telepaths and perceptives and manipulators, a large number of which will be rather well-paid to lend their extrasensory power to the process of keeping the Derby pure." He eyed me sourly. "Remember, 'Fireman' O'Leary?" "That's an unfair allegation," I replied. "The rumor that he started the Chicago Fire is absolutely unfounded." "As I recall, 'Fireman' O'Leary came by his nickname about one hundred years after the holocaust that started on DeKoven Street in 1871. It seems that 'Fireman' O'Leary was most useful in helping the fillies home at Washington Park by assaulting them in the region of the bangtail with small bollops of pure incandescence. He was a pyrotic." "That is a false accusation--" "It was never proved," admitted the lieutenant, "because any one who accused anybody of making use of extrasensory faculties in 1971 would have been tossed into that establishment out on Narragansett Avenue where the headshrinkers once plied their mystic trade." "Things are different now." "Indeed they are, Wally. Which is why I'm here. No one but a fumbling idiot would try anything as crude as speeding a dog over the line by pyrotics or by jolting the animals with a bolt of electrical energy." "So--?" "So considering the sad and sorry fact that human nature does not change very much despite the vast possibility for improvement, we must anticipate a fix that has been contrived and executed on a level that takes full cognizance of the widespread presence of psi-function." "But again, why me?" "Was not 'Fireman' O'Leary an ancestor of yours?" "He was my maternal grandparent." "And so you do indeed come from a long line of horse operators, don't you?" "I resent your invidious implications." "And wasn't 'Wireless' Wilson the paternal ancestor from whom the family name has come?" "I fail to see ... the allegation that my father's father employed telepathy to transmit track information faster than the wire services has never been proved." He smiled knowingly. "Wally," he said slowly, "if you feel that allegations have somehow impugned the pure name of your family, you could apply for a review of their several appearances in court. It's possible that 'Fireman' O'Leary did _not_ use his pyrotic talent to enhance the running speed of some tired old dogs." "But--" "So I think we understand one another, Wally. There is also reason to believe that psionic talent tends to run in families. You're a psi-man and a good one." "If I hear of anything--" "You'll let me know," he said flatly. "And if Flying Heels, Moonbeam, _and-or_ Lady Grace even so much as succeed in staying on their feet for the whole race, I'll be back demanding to know how you--Wally Wilson--managed to hold them up!" After which the good Lieutenant Delancey left me to my thoughts--which were most uncomfortable.