I swung around. "You watch out for that Fred Plaice," Anita said, almost scoldingly.

"You mean, start watching my back, like I never did before? How did I get this far?"

Her frown softened a little. "You don't miss many bets," she said. "Not my Gypper. But this thing of Fred's holding back on the other telepath he picked up last night has all the earmarks of a real slippery move."

"Did Fred tell you anything about it on the way out?"

"Just that he was bringing the telepath from the City Jail right back with him, and that you wanted to see her at once."

"This snake is a woman, aged fifty-eight, Anita," I told her. "She gave the name of Maude Tinker and says she's my mother," I added, without any particular expression.

Anita laughed. "Oh, _no_!" she said. "What they won't think of next!" But her face sobered in an instant, and she bent forward, almost whispering the rest: "Gyp! You mean that Fred Plaice took her seriously! That he was trying to get _rid_ of her?"

"He felt it would be better if I never knew about it," I admitted. "What do you think I should do, Anita?"

Her heart-shaped face grew more solemn. "I think it would be bad to try to cover it up," she decided. "And I'm glad you didn't let Fred do that to you. Some newscast would be sure to get hold of the story and there'd be snide accusations. All this talk recently about the heredity of psi powers is bad, too. That's what she's trying to cash in on. And if the public thought that the man in charge of catching and pulling the fangs of all the snakes was a hereditary telepath, they'd be after your scalp in no time."

"So?"

"Scotch it. See her, face her down, prove her charge is ridiculous, and ship her west."

I smiled a little dimly. "Just one complication."

"Yes, Gyp?"

"This Maude Tinker, says Fred, is a gypsy."

Anita's face did the most abrupt change. I had never seen her furiously angry. She's a typical high echelon Washington secretary, cool, extremely well-mannered, cheerful without being bumptious. But this time she was downright mad.

"I told you," Anita said.

"What?"

"I told you to watch out for Fred Plaice!"

"It's not his fault," I protested. "Catching telepaths is his job."

"Within limits," she said scornfully. "I thought it was just one more of his screwball ideas! He had his whole Section concentrating on gypsies, for a couple of months. He had a long story to go with it, Gyp! How all the soothsayers and clairvoyants and finders were really short-range telepaths or pre-cogs."

"I don't believe it," I said. "You mean that Fred started with my nickname, and has been on this campaign of looking for telepaths among gypsies just in hopes he could embarrass me?"

"Yes!"

You have to like loyalty, no matter what the circumstances that incite it.

"I can't believe that of one of my boys, Anita," I said. "Fred was all broken up about it."

"I bet I can call the turn," Anita said, starting back for her own desk. "Fred's next move is to tell you that no one can blame you for disqualifying yourself from this case.