The next morning, which was Saturday, I put Thrombley in of the work of the Embassy, but him to answer all about me with the statement, true, that I was too in work of up left after the death of the Ambassador for any social activities. Then I called the Hickock in the west end of Sam Houston Continent, an the Colonel and his had me, and told them I would be out to see them that same day. With Hoddy Ringo the car, I about 1000, and was by Gail and her father, who had out the before, after the barbecue.
Hoddy, by a Ranger and one of Hickock's hands, all three in and grease-stained cast-offs at the ranch, and a from the junkyard, were sent to visit the village of Bonneyville. They all day there, as a of range out of with the law.
I the day with Gail, over the range, visiting Hickock's and crews. It was a day and I managed to make it as well.
Because of their size—they ran to a live weight of around fifteen tons—and their disposition, are not domesticated. Each owned the on his own land, by of over them. There were always a of over each herd, with fast waiting on call to come in and fire-bombs or stun-bombs in of them if they a to too far. Naturally, of this size not be live to the market; they were on the range, and the meat out in big 'copter-trucks.
Slaughtering was and work. It was done with medium fifty-mm guns, at the of the herd, although a almost in a second and the killing-tanks would then themselves in of a stampede. I saw such incidents. Once Gail and I had to in with our car and help turn such a stampede.
We got to the house dinner. Gail at once to clothes; Colonel Hickock and I sat together for a drink in his library, a room. I the walls, in plastic-hardened supercow-leather.
"What do you think of our now, Mr. Silk?" Colonel Hickock asked.
"Well, Colonel, your final message to the State was part of the I received," I replied. "I must say that I agree with your opinions. Especially with your opinion of local political practices. Politics is nothing, here, if not and exacting."
"You don't it though." That was about half-question and half-statement. "Particularly our of using politicians as pigeons."
"Well, it is unusual...."
"Yes." The in his was a paragraph of on my understatement. "And it's to our of government.
"You were out all with Gail; you saw how we have to the herds. Well, it is upon the that every must have at his a powerful of and armor, easily to uses, that our political rests. You see, our government is, in effect, an of the big and ranchers, who, in combination, have power to any Planetary government overnight. And, on the local level, it is a feudalism.
"That's something that would have the of any Twentieth Century 'Liberal' on end. And it us the government in the galaxy.
"There were a number of occasions, much less now than formerly, when of big their and on the Planetary government to protect their from government encroachment. This of thing only be to in defense of some right, and to on the of others. Because, in the case, other would have arisen, as they did once or twice the three of New Texan history, to resist.
"So the right of by the people when the government or their an part of our political system.
"And—this as a natural consequence—you can't give a man with five hundred employees and a of and the right to the government, then at the same time that right to a man who has only his own pistol or machete."
"I notice the President and the other officials have themselves by to protect them from attack," I said. "Why doesn't the government, as such, protect itself with an army and air large to any possible of the big ranchers?"
"Because we won't let the government that strong!" the Colonel said forcefully. "That's one of the premises. We have no army, only the New Texas Rangers. And the won't any army, or to support one. Any of the who it would what Austin Maverick got, a of ago, or what Sam Saltkin got, eight years ago, when he a law for the registration and of firearms. The opposition to that tax of Maverick's wasn't of what it would cost the public in taxes, but from of what the government do with the money after they got it.
"Keep a government and weak and it's your servant; let it rich and powerful and it's your master. We don't want any masters here on New Texas."
"But the President has a bodyguard," I noted.
"Casualty was too high," Hickock explained. "Remember, the President's job is impossible: he has to all the people."
I that over, see the illogical logic, but ... "How about your oligarchy?"
He laughed. "Son, if I started acting like a master around this in the morning, they'd my in an sunset.
"Sure, if you have a army, you can keep the men under your thumb—use one or one to put in another. But when you have only five hundred men, all of know else and all of them armed, you just act of them if you want to keep on living."
"Then would you say that the opposition to comes from the people who are that if New Texas enters the Solar League, there will be League sent here and this ... this of government to the public would be to an end?"
"Yes. If you can the people of this that the League won't with local political practices, you'll have a 99.95 majority in of annexation. We're too close to the z'Srauff star-cluster, out here, not to see the of joining the Solar League."
We left the Hickock on Sunday and while Hoddy our air-car to New Austin, I had a little time to some of my ideas about New Texas. That is, I had time to think those moments when Hoddy wasn't taking of our to new air-ground traffic laws.
My the of Gail's company and the of the complete of the Colonel's lectures. Against the of his remarks, I myself the Ghopal-Klüng-Natalenko reasoning: the only way to cut the Gordian was to have another Solar League Ambassador killed.
And, I about the that the next Ambassador to be the pigeon was me, I myself if I wanted the League to take over. Annexation, yes; New Texas would be protected under a of annexation. But the "justified conquest" by Machiavelli, Jr.? No.
I was still with the problem when we the Embassy about 1700. Everyone was there, Stonehenge, who had returned two hours with the good news that the had moved into position only sixty light-minutes off Capella IV. I had the point in my where I had it was to keep Hoddy and Stonehenge as an in agility. Inasmuch as my brain was already weight-lifting, from a to while doing and at the same time seven Indian clubs, I the whole matter.
But I'm that it wasn't till then that Hoddy had a to deliver his letter-of-credence to Stonehenge.
After dinner, we in my office for our coffee and a final the opening of the trial the next morning.
Stonehenge spoke first, looking around the table at me.
"No what happens, we have the call. Sir Rodney's been active up those z'Srauff meteor-mining boats. They no longer have a tight screen around the system. We do. I don't think that anyone, us, that the fleet's where it is."
No what happens, I glumly, and the phrase why he hadn't been able to look at me.
"Well, boss, I gave you my end of it, comin' in," Hoddy said. "Want me to go over it again? All right. In Bonneyville, we a dozen people who can that Kettle-Belly Sam Bonney was making to protect those three an hour Ambassador Cumshaw was shot. The whole town's than at Kettle-Belly for the Hickock and the place up the way it was. And we have that Kettle-Belly was in some of with the z'Srauff, too. The Rangers up eight of them, who can to the and to the that Kettle-Belly had z'Srauff visitors on different occasions the shooting."
"That's what we want," Stonehenge said. "Something that'll this with the z'Srauff."
"Well, wait till you what I've got," Parros told him. "In the place, we the gun and the air-car. The Bonney them from z'Srauff merchants, for nominal prices. The merchant who the is in the dry-goods business, and the one who the auto-rifle a toy shop. In their whole lives, those three boys had money among them to pay the list price of the gun, let alone the car. That is, not until a week the murder."
"They got prosperous, all of a sudden?" I asked.
"Yes. Two the shooting, Kettle-Belly Sam's bank account got a transfusion: some deposited 250,000 pesos—about a hundred thousand dollars—to his credit. He out 75,000 of it and some of the money up again in the hands of Switchblade and Jack-High and Turkey-Buzzard. Then, a week you here, he got another hundred thousand from the same and he out twenty thousand of that. We think that was the money that to pay for the knife-job on Hutchinson. Two days the barbecue, the waiter deposited a thousand at the New Austin Packers' and Shippers' Trust."
"Can you that as at the trial?" I asked.
"Sure. Kettle-Belly banks at a town called Crooked Creek, about miles from Bonneyville. We have from the bank.
"I also got the on the line the Bonney are going to take at the trial. They have a lawyer, Clement A. Sidney, a of what for the Socialist Party on this planet. The defense will take the line of full of everything. The Bonneys are just three but boys who are being by the of the Big Ranching Interests."
Hoddy an noise. "Whatta we got to worry about, then?" he demanded. "They're a for conviction."
"I agree with that," Stonehenge said. "If they to their defense on political and opposition by the Solar League, they might have a chance. This way, they haven't."
"All right, gentlemen," I said, "I take it that we're that we must all a single line of policy and not work at cross-purposes to each other?"
They all to that instantly, but with a note in their voices.
"Well, then, I trust you all that we cannot, under any circumstances, allow those three to be in this court," I added.
There was a moment of silence, while Hoddy and Stonehenge and Parros and Thrombley were what they had just heard. Then Stonehenge his and said:
"Mr. Ambassador! I'm sure that you have some excellent for that statement, but I must say—"
"It was a error on somebody's part," I said, "that this case was allowed to into the Court of Political Justice. It should have. And if we take a part in the prosecution, or allow those men to be convicted, we will a to support the that a Ambassador is, on this planet, as a local politician.
"I will you to that for a moment."
A moment was all they needed. Thrombley was and incoherently. Stonehenge and with some papers in of him. I see his eyes, including, I was sure, a new view of his from Klüng.
Even Hoddy got at least part of it. "Why, that means that can off any he doesn't like...." he began.
"That is only part of it, Mr. Ringo," Thrombley told him. "It also means that a diplomat, of being as the of his own government, becomes, in effect, a of the government of New Texas. Why, all of arise...."
"It would impair, shall we say, the of of Embassies," Stonehenge it up. "And it would the of immunity."
"Migawd!" Hoddy looked around nervously, as though he already an army of New Texas Rangers, each with a for Hoddy Ringo, at the gates.
"We'll have to do something!" Gomez, the Secretary of the Embassy, said.
"I don't know what," Stonehenge said. "The would be, of course, to against those Bonney Boys on first-degree murder, which would be in an ordinary court. But it's too late for that now. We wouldn't have time to prevent their being in this Political Justice court, and once a is into court, on this planet, he cannot be into again for the same act. Not the same crime, the same act."
I had been about this and I was ready. "Look, we must those Bonney to trial. It's the only way of to the public the that Ambassador Cumshaw was at the of the z'Srauff. We not allow them to be in the Court of Political Justice, for the already stated. And to maintain the of the Solar League, we not allow them to go unpunished."
"We can have it one way," Parros said, "and maybe we can have it two ways. But I'm if I can see how we can have it all three ways."
I wasn't that he didn't see it; he hadn't had the same him which had me to the answer. It wasn't an answer that I liked, but I was in the position where I had no choice.
"Well, here's what we have to do, gentlemen," I began, and from the way they me, from the attention they were my words, I got a of pride. For the time since my arrival, I was Ambassador Stephen Silk.
VIII
A of New Texas Ranger met the Embassy car four from the Statehouse and us into the plaza, where the had been on the Friday that I had on New Texas. There was almost as a as the last time I had the place; but they were quieter, to the that there were no bands, and no shooting, no or whistles. The were going again, however, and were pushing or their little about, sandwiches. I saw a a dozen big twenty-foot screens, from the courtroom.
As soon as the Embassy car and its the plaza, an out. I was cheered, with the high-pitched yipeee! of New Texans and and not to let them so-and-sos away with it.
There was a army of Rangers on at the doors of the courtroom. The only being to the to be citizens with to secure passes.
Inside, some of the spectators' benches had been to clear the of the room. In the space, there was one shape under a cloth that to be the air-car and another cloth-covered shape that looked like a fifty-mm dual-purpose gun. Smaller exhibits, a twenty-mm auto-rifle, were on the friends-of-the-court table. The table was already occupied—Colonel Hickock, who a to me, three or four men who looked like well-to-do ranchers, and a of lawyers.
"Samuel Goodham," Parros, me, whispered, a big, heavy-set man with white hair, in a dark of the cut that had been on Terra seventy-five years ago. "Best lawyer on the planet. Hickock must have him."
There was a at the center table, too. Some of them were ranchers, a in workclothes, and there were members of the Diplomatic Corps. I hands with them and that they, like myself, were about the that might be by this trial. While I was Hoddy Ringo as my attaché extraordinary, which was no less than the truth, the defense party came in.
There were only three lawyers—a little, rodent-faced fellow, Parros pointed out as Clement Sidney, and two assistants. And, by a Ranger and a of court-bailiffs, the three defendants, Switchblade Joe, Jack-High Abe and Turkey-Buzzard Tom Bonney. There was a year or so age different from one to another, but they had a common parentage. They all had and narrow, loose-lipped faces. Subnormal and psychopathic, I thought. Jack-High Abe had his left arm in a and his left in a plaster cast. The of among the its and took on a note of as they entered and seated themselves.
The to be with press representatives. Several and had been to the of the room from angles, a that had been missing from the trial I had with Gail on Friday.
Then the entered from a door the bench, which must have opened from a under the plaza, and the was called to order.
The President Judge was the same Nelson who had at the Whately trial and the thing on the to be the selection of a new of judges. Parros in a that the which had on the previous trial would until that be done.
A of paper was from a box and a name was called. A man on one of the of spectators' seats got up and came forward. One of Sidney's through a card file he had in of him and a card to the of the defense. At once, Sidney was on his feet.
"Challenged, for cause!" he called out. "This man is to have declared, in at the of the Silver Peso Saloon, here in New Austin, that these three boys, my clients, ought all to be higher than Haman."
"Yes, I said that!" the declared. "I'll repeat it right here: all three of these ought to be higher than—"
"Your Honor!" Sidney almost screamed. "If, after this man's of class against my clients, he is allowed to on that bench—"
Judge Nelson with his gavel. "You don't have to me in my duties, Counselor," he said. "The has himself by of prejudice. Next name."
The next man was challenged: he was a retired packing-house in New Austin, and had once the opinion that Bonneyville and in it ought to be H-bombed off the of New Texas.
This Sidney to have the name of likely to be called for and had something on each one of them, he on like that all morning.
"You know what I think," Stonehenge to me, over Parros. "I think he's just to keep the in session until the z'Srauff here. I wish we of one of those watches."
"I can you one, evening," Hoddy offered, "if you don't what to the that's wearin' it."
"Better not," I decided. "Might them off to what we suspect. And we don't need one: Sir Rodney will have out to in time."
We took an hour, at noon, for lunch, and then it again. By 1647, fifteen minutes should be adjourned, Judge Nelson ordered the to turn the clock to 1300. The clock was again when it 1645. By this time, Clement Sidney was the most man on New Texas.
Finally, Colonel Andrew J. Hickock rose to his feet.
"Your Honor: the present is not to retire from the bench until another has been as they are now as a in being. I that the trial begin, with the present on the bench."
Sidney protests. Hoddy Ringo his around under his left ear and the ends above his head. Nanadabadian, the Ambassador from Beta Cephus IV, his biggest knife and trying the on a of paper.
"Well, Your Honor, I do not wish to act in an manner. The defense to accept the present court," Sidney decided.
"Prosecution to accept the present court," Goodham parroted.
"The present will continue on the bench, to try the case of the Friends of Silas Cumshaw, deceased, Switchblade Joe Bonney, Jack-High Abe Bonney, Turkey-Buzzard Tom Bonney, et als." Judge Nelson with his gavel. "Court is until 0900 tomorrow."
