"Let me think!" Haskins said, his face twisting into a fit of concentration. 

 Rath waited. 

 Mr. Follansby cleared his throat. "I was just thinking, Mr. Rath. About that Martian machine. It won't treat a Terran homicidal case as homicidal, will it?" 

 "Of course not. Homicide is unknown on Mars." 

 "Yes. But what will it do? Might it not reject the entire case as unsuitable? Then the customer would merely return the Regenerator with a complaint and we would--" 

 Mr. Rath shook his head. "The Rex Regenerator must treat if it finds evidence of psychosis. By Martian standards, the customer is a very sick man, a psychotic--no matter what is wrong with him." 

 Follansby removed his pince-nez and polished them rapidly. "What will the machine do, then?" 

 "It will treat him for the Martian illness most analogous to his case. Feem desire, I should imagine, with various complications. As for what will happen once treatment begins, I don't know. I doubt whether anyone knows, since it has never happened before. Offhand, I would say there are two major alternatives: the patient may reject the therapy out of hand, in which case he is left with his homicidal mania unabated. Or he may accept the Martian therapy and reach a cure." 

 Mr. Follansby's face brightened. "Ah! A cure is possible!" 

 "You don't understand," Rath said. "He may effect a cure of his nonexistent Martian psychosis. But to cure something that is not there is, in effect, to erect a gratuitous delusional system. You might say that the machine would work in reverse, producing psychosis instead of removing it." 

 Mr. Follansby groaned and leaned against a Bell Psychosomatica. 

 "The result," Rath summed up, "would be to convince the customer that he was a Martian. A sane Martian, naturally." 

 Haskins suddenly shouted, "I remember! I remember now! He said he worked for the New York Rapid Transit Corporation! I remember distinctly!" 

 "That's a break," Rath said, reaching for the telephone. 

 Haskins wiped his perspiring face in relief. "And I just remembered something else that should make it easier still." 

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