dr. peter melrose was tall and thin, with jet black hair and dark mocking eyes. he wore a threadbare sport coat and a slouch. he offered lessing a bony hand, then flung himself into a chair as he stared about the office in awe.

"i'm really overwhelmed," he said after a moment. "within the stronghold of psionic research at last. and face to face with the master in the trembling flesh!"

lessing frowned. "dr. melrose, i don't quite understand—"

"oh, it's just that i'm impressed," the young man said airily. "of course, i've seen old dried-up authorities before—but never before a brand spanking new one, just fresh out of the pupa, so to speak!" he touched his forehead in a gesture of reverence. "i bow before the oracle. speak, oh motah, live forever! cast a pearl at my feet!"

"if you've come here to be insulting," lessing said coldly, "you're just wasting time." he reached for the intercom switch.

"i think you'd better wait before you do that," melrose said sharply, "because i'm planning to take you apart at the conference next month unless i like everything i see and hear down here today. and if you don't think i can do it, you're in for quite a dumping."

lessing sat back slowly. "tell me—just what, exactly, do you want?"

"i want to hear this fairy tale you're about to publish in the name of 'theory'," melrose said. "i want to see this famous farm of yours up in connecticut and see for myself how much pressure these experimental controls you keep talking about will actually bear. but mostly, i want to see just what in psionic hell you're so busy making yourself an authority about." there was no laughter in the man's sharp brown eyes.

"you couldn't touch me with a ten foot pole at this conference," snapped lessing.

the other man grinned. "try me! we shook you up a little bit last year, but you didn't seem to get the idea."

"last year was different." lessing scowled. "as for our 'fairy tale', we happen to have a staggering body of evidence that says that it's true."

"if the papers you've already published are a preview, we think it's false as satan."

"and our controls are above suspicion."

"so far, we haven't found any way to set up logical controls," said melrose. "we've done a lot of work on it, too."

"oh, yes—i've heard about your work. not bad, really. a little misdirected, is all."

"according to your theory, that is."

"wildly unorthodox approach to psionics—but at least you're energetic enough."

"we haven't been energetic enough to find an orthodox approach that got us anywhere. we doubt if you have, either. but maybe we're all wrong." melrose grinned unpleasantly. "we're not unreasonable, your majesty. we just ask to be shown. if you dare, that is."

lessing slammed his fist down on the desk angrily. "have you got the day to take a trip?"

"i've got 'til new year."

lessing shouted for his girl. "get dorffman up here. we're going to the farm this afternoon."

the girl nodded, then hesitated. "but what about your lunch?"

"bother lunch." he gave melrose a sidelong glare. "we've got a guest here who's got a lot of words he's going to eat for us...."