"They've been cozy with some of us before, but always cooled off. You just play it smart, learn all you can! But be careful, or you'll end up with the Goolies."
Fetzer listened intently, then chuckled.
"I guess they're still kind of fouled up! We had to warp the force field behind your place—shorted their magnetic track, too! But before they get here there's something else I've got to warn you about—'specially you, Mrs. Brill."
He hesitated.
"What is it?" Nina prompted.
"Well, when you think you get a message from us don't bust out with it like you did a while ago. They pick up everything you say on that damn visagraph—I had to short the magnetic track in order to get at the control wire to block it off—"
"Just a moment, Albert," Lucifer interrupted. "How did you know what was said in this room?"
Fetzer sounded embarrassed:
"Well, it's a funny thing, Doc, but back on Earth we were all kind of ashamed of this psi thing. We tried to keep it hid from other people. Here, it's different. We're all the same way, more or less. So we try to use psi instead of hide it. Doesn't work on Huth's gang, though. They got minds like machines—It's like trying to psi into a quarter-horse motor!"
There was a pounding of footsteps outside the front door.