"Too?" she said. I froze. It was the kind of slip that sooner or later trips up every snake. My grin was a sick one. I walked out without another word. * * * * * The Director's office is on the fourth floor, I climbed the single flight, and his girl let me in. George affects long slim cigars. I say affects. He seldom lights them, but he waves them like batons, conducting some kind of a symphony of words and ideas all day. "Welcome, stranger," he said, calling on the fiddles for a little pizzicato. "What's up, Gyp?" I sat down across from him at his desk and tried to put a smile on my face. "I want to submit my resignation, George," I said. "Effective immediately." "Not accepted," he said, without a second thought. Then his face grew solemn. "What's this about?" he demanded. "I can't lose _you_, Gyp. My right bower!" "One favor," I said, not answering him. "Don't move Fred Plaice up to my old spot. Any of the other Section Chiefs, but not Fred." "Well, well," George said, whipping up the brasses with his cigar. "This begins to sound like cause and effect." He hushed the whole orchestra to a whisper. "I thought Fred was your fair-haired boy, Gyp. You two get in a hassle?" I shook my head. "Not directly, George," I told him. "I want you to know two things. They'll explain why I'm quitting. My mother is a telepath. We arrested her early this morning, here in the District. I just sentenced her to transportation and detention in Oklahoma." "Good heavens," he gasped. "Your own mother! Gyp, no wonder you're upset. Didn't you know she was a snake?" My smile was a little tired. "Of course I knew," I told him. "I ran away from home at thirteen to get away from having her inside my head all the time. That's how I learned to close my mind--closing her out as much as I could. The power got stronger as I grew older." "It's embarrassing," George said, turning away from me to look out the window. "To have you, of all people, Gyp, with telepathic heredity. Still, if no one knows, and since you've never had the slightest manifestation of psi powers yourself, there may be some way we can preserve your usefulness." "Today, within the last half hour, George, my latent telepathic ability became manifest. George, I'm a snake." His face froze. Then the batonlike cigar stopped its movement. He was like a statue. The pose broke, and he pressed a button. "Send Carol Lundgren in," he ordered. I knew Carol, another short-range telepath that George used as his private lie-detector. Carol was at my elbow in a moment or so. George wasted no words. "Carol, is there a telepath in this room?" he asked. Carol grinned. "Yep," he said to the enforced silence. "There is." George Kelly's face fell. "His name is Carol Lundgren," the kid went on. "Next question?" George looked as though he could have brained him. "All right, you Philadelphia lawyer," he grumbled. "Besides yourself, Carol, is there a telepath in this room?"