"What would you like?" It was the least I could do for the poor fellow.
So I read some of Donn Byrne's things, stuff that looks like prose but is really poetry. Then he wanted Shakespeare's sonnets, but when I started reading he recited them from memory, his voice half a word ahead of mine.
He slept a while and later I fed him again. He seemed resigned now to staying in the cushions.
"How's about letting me try the Hustic again?" he asked. "The Professor wanted a planet-to-planet test, and the helmet cable will reach over here."
I hesitated and he glowered at me.
"I know that Martian stuff was all a delusion," he insisted. "I'm sane now, but if you don't let me prove it to myself once and for all I might go off the deep end again."
That got me. I wanted to be sure he had every chance.
"Put back the parts you took out," he directed.
I did. Then I stuck the helmet on his head and warmed the tubes.
"Send," he said. I flipped the switch up and he lay there concentrating.