ributed his thoughts and his work. He had contributed often
and regularly--the interstellar communications systems was only the
one outstanding achievement in a long career of achievements.

Leoh had been nearly at the voluntary retirement age for scientists
when he realized what he, and his fellow scientists, had done. Their
efforts to make life richer and more rewarding for mankind had made
life only less strenuous and more rigid.

And with every increase in comfort, Leoh discovered, came a
corresponding increase in neuroses, in crimes of violence, in mental
aberrations. Senseless wars of pride broke out between star-groups for
the first time in generations. Outwardly, the peace of the galaxy was
assured; but beneath the glossy surface of the Terran Commonwealth
there smoldered the beginnings of a volcano. Police actions fought by
the Star Watch were increasing ominously. Petty wars between
once-stable peoples were flaring up steadily.

Once Leoh realized the part he had played in this increasingly tragic
drama, he was confronted with two emotions--a deep sense of guilt,
both personal and professional; and, countering this, a determination
to do something, anything, to restore at least some balance to man's
collective mentality.

Leoh stepped out of physics and electronics, and entered the field of
psychology. Instead of retiring, he applied for a beginner's status in
his new profession. It had taken considerable bending and straining of
the Commonwealth's rules--but for a man of Leoh's stature, the rules
could be flexed somewhat. Leoh became a student once again, then a
researcher, and finally a Professor of Psychophysiology.

Out of this came the dueling machine. A combination of
electroencephalograph and autocomputer. A dream machine, that
amplified a man's imagination until he could engulf himself into a
world of his own making.

Leoh envisioned it as a device to enable men to rid themselves of
hostility and tension safely. Through his efforts, and those of his
colleagues, dueling machines were quickly becoming accepted devices
for settling disputes.

When two men had a severe difference of opinion--deep enough to
warrant legal action--they could go to the dueling machine instead of
the courts. Instead of sitting helplessly and watching the
machinations of the law grind impersonally through their differences,
the two antagonists could allow their imaginations free rein in the
dueling machine. They could s