Say, this was great! Hanlon probed some more, and found many sketchy facts--sketchy because the thoughts were incomplete to the puppy, beyond its experience, and not because the man couldn't read perfectly what was there. The dog apparently knew a woman--Hanlon got the impression of skirts--and answered when that G.o.ddess called the word "Gypsy."

"Gypsy, eh?" Hanlon said aloud, and immediately the dog wriggled from beneath his restraining hand, and again tried to climb up and lick Hanlon's face in a frenzy of adoration.

"Lie down, sir, and be quiet!" Hanlon said sternly, and the puppy did so instantly, without question or hesitation.

Hanlon thrilled, realizing at once that it was not what he had said that did the trick--but the fact that he was still inside the dog's mind, and that it had obeyed his will rather than his words.

"Hey, this needs looking into!"

Without saying the words aloud this time, Hanlon commanded the dog--or rather, he impressed the command directly onto the puppy's mind with his own--to get down off his lap onto the deck.

Instantly it leaped down.

"Lie down." The dog did so.

"Roll over." Again silently. But now the puppy merely looked up at him, imploringly, quivering in an apparent emotion of indecision. Hanlon realized the puppy didn't know how to "roll over."

"Guess I need to learn how to do it before I can teach, or rather, command, him to do it," Hanlon grinned wryly to himself. For he realized that to do so he would have to learn how to control each of the dog's muscles, and that before he could do that he would have to know what part of the brain controlled the nerves that made those muscles obey his commands.

And that, if possible at all, would take one galaxy of a lot of study and practice.

For the next several minutes, then, he concentrated in making the puppy do a number of simple tricks, all the time watching carefully to see, if possible, the connecting links between brain, nerves and muscles.

He was beginning to make a little headway in understanding this triple co-relation, when he heard a sudden gasp. He looked up to see a young matron standing before him, her mouth and eyes wide with surprise.

"Why ... why, Gypsy never did any tricks before. What are you, an animal trainer?"

Hanlon leaped to his feet. "The best in the Universe, Madam," he grinned. "That's a mighty fine puppy you have. He came over and introduced himself, and we've been having some fun together."

"Yes, he ran off, and I've been hunting all over for him. But how on earth did you ever teach him so quickly?"

"It's a gift," Hanlon mocked, then grew serious. "Honestly, Madam, I don't know," he said quietly. "I just seem to have a way with dogs, is all. By the way, would you sell me the puppy?"

"Sell Gypsy? No, thanks," and she started away, calling to the dog to follow. But it stood in indecision, looking from one to the other, not seeming to know whether to follow its beloved mistress or to stay and play with this nice new friend.

Hanlon quickly reached out to the dog's mind and impressed on it that it must follow the woman, and always do whatever she told it. The puppy then trotted away, content.

George Hanlon sank into his deck chair. This required a good think--a mighty serious think--he told himself. He would have to work on this as much as on human minds. For if he could control animals--would it work on birds, or insects? Maybe even fish?--then he could get into places he, as a man, could not go.

The lady and dog had disappeared when Hanlon got the inspiration to see if his mind could find them; if he could again contact the dog when it was not in sight, and he did not know exactly where it was.

Instantly, effortlessly, it seemed, as though it happened merely because he wished it to, he found himself again inside the puppy's mind. Was it because he already knew that mind's pattern, he wondered?

Anyway, there he was, and now he tried to see if he could look out through Gypsy's eyes ... and after much study, he did so. But the vision was so distorted he wondered if his control was at fault, then remembered having heard, or read somewhere, that a dog's eyes do not work exactly the same as a man's.

Finally he accustomed himself to them enough so he could see that they were going down a narrow corridor, and then they stopped before a door, which opened after a moment. The dog, without a command, leaped through the doorway into the stateroom and ran to its basket, where it lay, panting, looking up at its mistress.

Chapter 8

George Hanlon withdrew from the puppy's mind, and thought seriously.

Yes, this matter of controlling the minds of animals was one that would require a lot of thought and study, and a tremendous amount of practice.

But it seemed important enough to justify those expenditures.

He hunted up his steward. "Where do the pa.s.sengers keep their pets?"

"Some keep them in their staterooms, sir, but others in the kennels down on 'H' deck."

"Thanks. Any rules against my going down there and looking at 'em? I like animals, especially dogs."

"Oh, no, sir. Anyone can go down there. It's on the right hand side, about halfway aft."

Arrived at the kennels, Hanlon found the cages contained about a dozen dogs of various breeds, ages and sizes. Here were plenty of animal minds for his experimentation and study.

After walking around and looking at them for some minutes, he sat down on a bench at one side of the cages, and concentrated on the dog nearest him. It was a large white bull, and he guessed its age to be about five or six years. That was just what he wanted--an adult mind to study, not that of an immature puppy.

He had no trouble getting into the dog's mind, and for over an hour he sat there, studying it line by line, channel by channel, connector by connector, while the dog lay as if asleep. Gradually Hanlon began to feel he was beginning to know something about a dog's mind-and-body correlation, and how it operated.

Then, and only then, he woke the dog and began experiment with control.

He found it easy to make the dog do anything he wished that was within the animal's previous knowledge and experience. What he wanted was to see if he could make it perform motions and actions that were outside its previous conditioning and training. After some fumbling, he thrilled to find that now even some of the simpler of those things were not too difficult, although others his present knowledge was not up to handling.

His study taught him to some extent how to activate the brain centers which controlled the nerves that sent messages to the proper muscles that allowed the dog to do his bidding. But it still needed a lot of study. He knew he had only made a bare start at learning what had to be known to do it swiftly and easily.

The kennel steward must have noticed the strange antics of the bull and then, seeing Hanlon's intent concentration, figured there might be some connection between the two. For he came up to the bench and looked down somewhat hostilely at the man sitting there. But his voice, when he spoke, was very polite.

"Anything I can do for you, sir?"

Hanlon had been concentrating so deeply he had not heard anyone come up, and the voice, speaking so suddenly right before him, startled and befuddled him. He looked up, and his mind felt sluggish and weak, almost as though he had been doped.

"Huh?" he asked stupidly.

"I asked," the man's tone was a little sharper, "if there was anything I could do for you?"

"Oh, no. No thanks." Hanlon forced himself to pay attention. "I just like dogs and came down here to watch them. Must have dozed off."

"Do you have a dog of your own here?"

"No, I have no dog at present."

"What were you doing to that white bull. He's been acting very peculiar since you've been here."

"Me?" Hanlon made himself look surprised. "Why, nothing. I've just been sitting here; haven't said a word to any of them."

"Well, I'm not too sure it's proper for you to be here as long as you have no dog kennelled here."

"Sorry. If it bothers you, I'll leave."