, maybe
they're both right. But they have still been deprived of a part of
their free will, their right of choice.

"Oh, no; this isn't the final answer by a long shot! It's a stopgap--a
_necessary_ stopgap. But, by using it, we can learn more about how the
human mind works, and maybe one of these days we'll evolve a science
of the mind that can take those twists _out_ instead of compensating
for them.

[Illustration]

"On the other hand, we can save lives by using the technique we have
now. We don't dare _not_ use it.

"When they chopped off those hands, centuries ago, the stumps were
cauterized by putting them in boiling oil. It looked like another
injury piled on top of the first, but the chirurgeons, not knowing
_why_ it worked, still knew that a lot more ex-pickpockets lived
through their ordeal if the boiling oil was used afterward.

"And that's what we're doing with this technique right here and now.
We're using it because it saves lives, lives that may potentially or
actually be a great deal more valuable than the warped personality
that might have taken such a life.

"But the one thing that I am working for right now and will continue
to work for is a _real_ cure, if that's possible. A real, genuine,
usable kind of psychotherapy; one which is at least on a par with the
science of cake-baking when it comes to the percentages of successes
and failures."

* * * * *

His Grace thought that over for a minute. Then he leaned back and
looked at me through narrowed eyes. There was a half smile on his lips
"Royall, old man, let's admit one thing, just between ourselves," His
voice became very slow and very deliberate. "Both you and I know that
this process, whatever it is, is _not_ psychotherapy."

"Why do you say that?" I wasn't trying to deny anything; I just
wanted to know the reasoning behind his conclusions.

"Because I know what psychotherapy can and can't do. And I know that
psychotherapy can _not_ do the sort of thing we've been discussing.

"It's as if you'd taken me out on a rifle range, to a target two
thousand yards from the shooter and let me watch that marksman put
fifty shots out of fifty into a six-inch bull's-eye. I might not know
what the shooter is using, but I would know beyond any shadow of doubt
that it was _not_ an ordinary revolver. More, I would know that it
could not be any possible improvement upon the revolver. It simply
would have to be an instru