J waved a hand in dismissal of that idea. «He's about the last man in the world to do that. No, I think he really does expect us to treat Cheeky as our host.» J went over to the sideboard and poured out two glasses of scotch for himself and Leighton and handed the mixed fruits and nuts to Cheeky. The feather-monkey picked up the dish, yeeeeped something that might have been «Thank you,» and then jumped up on top of the sideboard without spilling a thing from the dish and started nibbling.

Leighton was silent as he took his glass, then shook his head again. «If Richard isn't joking, what does he think Cheeky is?»

«Or who. Remember, he always calls Cheeky 'he.' «

«I'm not likely to forget it.»

«Oh, confound it, Leighton! Why don't you stop beating around the bush and come out and say that you think Richard's gone bonkers! You're thinking it so loudly I can hear you, and I'm not telepathic.»

Leighton drained his glass and set it firmly on a closed container of plastering compound, then made a steeple of his long fingers. «I'm not worried about Blade's — sanity, J. I hope you realize that if I were, I would have said so.»

J nodded. Leighton wasn't as close to Richard as he was. J had known Richard longer and better, seeing him almost as the son he never had. Leighton, in contrast, had started off seeing Richard as hardly better than some exotic and expensive sort of laboratory animal. He'd mellowed over time, though-it was only a rumor that he had a computer where his heart should be.

«What bothers me is something else,» Leighton went on. «Suppose this bond between Richard and Cheeky gets so close that it's impossible for Richard to link telepathically with anyone else we might want to send to Dimension X?»

«If there is anyone else.»

«Now who's being skeptical about telepathy?» said Leighton, with a twinkle in his eye. «Oh, I admit I was one of those who dismissed it. So damned many charlatans running around, it was hardly worthwhile picking out the real phenomena. But I can face facts. Richard's not a superman, not a mutant, not some creature from outer space. He's as human as you and I. Where there's one like him, there have to be others.»