Lone Star Planet

by John Joseph McGuire and H. Beam Piper

  CHAPTER X

  The next morning, the third of the trial, opened with the defensewitnesses, character-witnesses for the three killers and witnesses tothe political iniquities of Silas Cumshaw.

  Neither Goodham nor I bothered to cross-examine the former. I couldn'tsee how any lawyer as shrewd as Sidney had shown himself to be wouldeven dream of getting such an array of thugs, cutthroats, sluts andslatterns into court as character witnesses for anybody.

  The latter, on the other hand, we went after unmercifully, revealing,under their enmity for Cumshaw, a small, hard core of bigoted xenophobiaand selfish fear. Goodham did a beautiful job on that; he seemed able,at a glance, to divine exactly what each witness's motivation was, andable to make him or her betray that motivation in its least admirableterms. Finally the defense rested, about a quarter-hour before noon.

  I rose and addressed the court:

  "Your Honor, while both the prosecution and the defense have done anadmirable job in bringing out the essential facts of how my predecessormet his death, there are many features about this case which are farfrom clear to me. They will be even less clear to my government, whichis composed of men who have never set foot on this planet. For thisreason, I wish to call, or recall, certain witnesses to clarify thesepoints."

  Sidney, who had begun shouting objections as soon as I had gotten to myfeet, finally managed to get himself recognized by the court.

  "This Solar League Ambassador, Your Honor, is simply trying to use thecourts of the Planet of New Texas as a sounding-board for hisimperialistic government's propaganda...."

  "You may reassure yourself, Mr. Sidney," Judge Nelson said. "This courtwill not allow itself to be improperly used, or improperly swayed, bythe Ambassador of the Solar League. This court is interested only indetermining the facts regarding the case before it. You may call yourwitnesses, Mr. Ambassador." He glanced at his watch. "Court will nowrecess for an hour and a half; can you have them here by 1330?"

  I assured him I could after glancing across the room at Ranger CaptainNelson and catching his nod.

  My first witness, that afternoon was Thrombley. After the formalities ofgetting his name and connection with the Solar League Embassy on therecord, I asked him, "Mr. Thrombley, did you, on the morning of April22, receive a call from the Hickock ranch for Mr. Cumshaw?"

  "Yes, indeed, Mr. Ambassador. The call was from Mr. Longfellow, ColonelHickock's butler. He asked if Mr. Cumshaw were available. It happenedthat Mr. Cumshaw was in the same room with me, and he came directly tothe screen. Then Colonel Hickock appeared in the screen, and inquiredif Mr. Cumshaw could come out to the ranch for the day; he saidsomething about superdove shooting."

  "You heard Mr. Cumshaw tell Colonel Hickock that he would be out at theranch at about 1030?" Thrombley said he had. "And, to your knowledge,did anybody else at the Embassy hear that?"

  "Oh, no, sir; we were in the Ambassador's private office, and the screenthere is tap-proof."

  "And what other calls did you receive, prior to Mr. Cumshaw's death?"

  "About fifteen minutes after Mr. Cumshaw had left, the z'SrauffAmbassador called, about a personal matter. As he was most anxious tocontact Mr. Cumshaw, I told him where he had gone."

  "Then, to your knowledge, outside of yourself, Colonel Hickock, and hisbutler, the z'Srauff Ambassador was the only person who could have knownthat Mr. Cumshaw's car would be landing on Colonel Hickock's drive at orabout 1030. Is that correct?"

  "Yes, plus anybody whom the z'Srauff Ambassador might have told."

  "Exactly!" I pounced. Then I turned and gave the three Bonney brothers asweeping glance. "Plus anybody the z'Srauff Ambassador might havetold.... That's all. Your witness, Mr. Sidney."

  Sidney got up, started toward the witness stand, and then thought betterof it.

  "No questions," he said.

  The next witness was a Mr. James Finnegan; he was identified as cashierof the Crooked Creek National Bank. I asked him if Kettle-Belly SamBonney did business at his bank; he said yes.

  "Anything unusual about Mayor Bonney's account?" I asked.

  "Well, it's been unusually active lately. Ordinarily, he carries aroundtwo-three thousand pesos, but about the first of April, that took a bigjump. Quite a big jump; two hundred and fifty thousand pesos, all in alump."

  "When did Kettle-Belly Sam deposit this large sum?" I asked.

  "He didn't. The money came to us in a cashier's check on the Ranchers'Trust Company of New Austin with an anonymous letter asking that it bedeposited to Mayor Bonney's account. The letter was typed on a sheet ofyellow paper in Basic English."

  "Do you have that letter now?" I asked.

  "No, I don't. After we'd recorded the new balance, Kettle-Belly camestorming in, raising hell because we'd recorded it. He told me that ifwe ever got another deposit like that, we were to turn it over to him incash. Then he wanted to see the letter, and when I gave it to him, hetook it over to a telescreen booth, and drew the curtains. I got alittle busy with some other matters, and the next time I looked,Kettle-Belly was gone and some girl was using the booth."

  "That's very interesting, Mr. Finnegan. Was that the last of yourunusual business with Mayor Bonney?"

  "Oh, no. Then, about two weeks before Mr. Cumshaw was killed,Kettle-Belly came in and wanted 50,000 pesos, in a big hurry, in smallbills. I gave it to him, and he grabbed at the money like a starved dogat a bone, and upset a bottle of red perma-ink, the sort we use torefill our bank seals. Three of the bills got splashed. I offered toexchange them, but he said, 'Hell with it; I'm in a hurry,' and wentout. The next day, Switchblade Joe Bonney came in to make payment on anote we were holding on him. He used those three bills in the payment.

  "Then, about a week ago, there was another cashier's check came in forKettle-Belly. This time, there was no letter; just one of our regulardeposit-slips. No name of depositor. I held the check, and gave it toKettle-Belly. I remember, when it came in, I said to one of the clerks,'Well, I wonder who's going to get bumped off this time.' And sureenough ..."

  Sidney's yell of, "Objection!" was all his previous objections gatheredinto one.

  "You say the letter accompanying the first deposit, the one in BasicEnglish, was apparently taken away by Kettle-Belly Sam Bonney. If yousaw another letter of the same sort, would you be able to say whether ornot it might be like the one you mentioned?"

  Sidney vociferating more objections; I was trying to get experttestimony without previous qualification....

  "Not at all, Mr. Sidney," Judge Nelson ruled. "Mr. Silk has merely askedif Mr. Finnegan could say whether one document bore any resemblance toanother."

  I asked permission to have another witness sworn in while Finnegan wasstill on the stand, and called in a Mr. Boone, the cashier of thePackers' and Brokers' Trust Company of New Austin. He had with him aletter, typed on yellow paper, which he said had accompanied ananonymous deposit of two hundred thousand pesos. Mr. Finnegan said thatit was exactly like the one he had received, in typing, grammar andwording, all but the name of the person to whose account the money wasto be deposited.

  "And whose account received this anonymous benefaction, Mr. Boone?" Iasked.

  "The account," Boone replied, "of Mr. Clement Sidney."

  I was surprised that Judge Nelson didn't break the handle of his gavel,after that. Finally, after a couple of threats to clear the court, orderwas restored. Mr. Sidney had no questions to ask this time, either.

  The bailiff looked at the next slip of paper I gave him, frowned overit, and finally asked the court for assistance.

  "I can't pronounce this-here thing, at all," he complained.

  One of the judges finally got out a mouthful of growls and yaps, andgave it to the clerk of the court to copy into the record. The nextwitness was a z'Srauff, and in the New Texan garb he was wearing, he wassomething to open my eyes, even after years on the Hooligan Diplomats.

  After he took the stand, the clerk of the court looked at him blanklyfor a moment. Then he turned to Judge
Nelson.

  "Your Honor, how am I gonna go about swearing him in?" he asked. "Whatdoes a z'Srauff swear by, that's binding?"

  The President Judge frowned for a moment. "Does anybody here know Basicwell enough to translate the oath?" he asked.

  "I think I can," I offered. "I spent a great many years in our ConsularService, before I was sent here. We use Basic with a great many alienpeoples."

  "Administer the oath, then," Nelson told me.

  "Put up right hand," I told the z'Srauff. "Do you truly say, in front ofGreat One who made all worlds, who has knowledge of what is in thehearts of all persons, that what you will say here will be true, alltrue, and not anything that is not true, and will you so say again attime when all worlds end? Do you so truly say?"

  "Yes. I so truly say."

  "Say your name."

  "Ppmegll Kkuvtmmecc Cicici."

  "What is your business?"

  "I put things made of cloth into this world, and I take meat out of thisworld."

  "Where do you have your house?"

  "Here in New Austin, over my house of business, on Coronado Street."

  "What people do you see in this place that you have made business with?"

  Ppmegll Kkuvtmmecc Cicici pointed a three-fingered hand at the Bonneybrothers.

  "What business did you make with them?"

  "I gave them for money a machine which goes on the ground and goes inthe air very fast, to take persons and things about."

  "Is that the thing you gave them for money?" I asked, pointing at theexhibit air-car.

  "Yes, but it was new then. It has been made broken by things from gunsnow."

  "What money did they give you for the machine?"

  "One hundred pesos."

  That started another uproar. There wasn't a soul in that courtroom whodidn't know that five thousand pesos would have been a give-away bargainprice for that car.

  "Mr. Ambassador," one of the associate judges interrupted. "I used to bein the used-car business. Am I expected to believe that this ... thisbeing ... sold that air-car for a hundred pesos?"

  "Here's a notarized copy of the bill of sale, from the office of theVehicles Registration Bureau," I said. "I introduce it as evidence."

  There was a disturbance at the back of the room, and then the z'SrauffAmbassador, Gglafrr Ddespttann Vuvuvu, came stalking down the aisle,followed by a couple of Rangers and two of his attaches. He came forwardand addressed the court.

  "May you be happy, sir, but I am in here so quickly not because I havedesire to make noise, but because it is only short time since it got inmy knowledge that one of my persons is in this place. I am here to be ofhelp to him that he not get in trouble, and to be of help to you. Thename for what I am to do in this place is not part of my knowledge.Please say it for me."

  "You are a friend of the court," Judge Nelson told him. "An _amicuscuriae_."

  "You make me happy. Please go on; I have no desire to put stop to whatyou do in this place."

  "From what person did you get this machine that you gave to thesepersons for one hundred pesos?" I asked.

  Gglafrr immediately began barking and snarling and yelping at mywitness. The drygoods importer looked startled, and Judge Nelson bangedwith his gavel.

  "That's enough of that! There'll be nothing spoken in this court butEnglish, except through an interpreter!"

  "Yow! I am sad that what I did was not right," the z'Srauff Ambassadorreplied contritely. "But my person here has not as part of his knowledgethat you will make him say what may put him in trouble."

  Nelson nodded in agreement.

  "You are right: this person who is here has no need to make answer toany question if it may put him in trouble or make him seem less than heis."

  "I will not make answer," the witness said.

  "No further questions."

  I turned to Goodham, and then to Sidney; they had no questions, either.I handed another slip of paper to the bailiff, and another z'Srauff,named Bbrarkk Jjoknyyegg Kekeke took the stand.

  He put into this world things for small persons to make amusement with;he took out of this world meat and leather. He had his house of businessin New Austin, and he pointed out the three Bonneys as persons in thisplace that he saw that he had seen before.

  "And what business did you make with them?" I asked.

  "I gave them for money a gun which sends out things oftwenty-millimeters very fast, to make death or hurt come to men andanimals and does destruction to machines and things."

  "Is this the gun?" I showed it to him.

  "It could be. The gun was made in my world; many guns like it are madethere. I am certain that this is the very gun."

  I had a notarized copy of a customs house bill in which the gun wasdescribed and specified by serial number. I introduced it as evidence.

  "How much money did these three persons give you for this gun?" I asked.

  "Five pesos."

  "The customs appraisal on this gun is six hundred pesos," I mentioned.

  Immediately, Ambassador Vuvuvu was on his feet. "My person here has notas part of his knowledge that he may put himself in trouble by what hesays to answer these questions."

  That put a stop to that. Bbrarkk Jjoknyyegg Kekeke immediately tookrefuge in refusal to answer on grounds of self-incrimination.

  "That is all, Your Honor," I said, "And now," I continued, when thewitness had left the stand, "I have something further to present to thecourt, speaking both as _amicus curiae_ and as Ambassador of the SolarLeague. This court cannot convict the three men who are here on trial.These men should have never been brought to trial in this court: it hasno jurisdiction over this case. This was a simple case of first-degreemurder, by hired assassins, committed against the Ambassador of onegovernment at the instigation of another, not an act of politicalprotest within the meaning of New Texan law."

  There was a brief silence; both the court and the spectators werestunned, and most stunned of all were the three Bonney brothers, who hadbeen watching, fear-sick, while I had been putting a rope around theirnecks. The uproar from the rear of the courtroom gave Judge Nelson aneeded minute or so to collect his thoughts. After he had gotten orderrestored, he turned to me, grim-faced.

  "Ambassador Silk, will you please elaborate on the extraordinarystatement you have just made," he invited, as though every word hadsharp corners that were sticking in his throat.

  "Gladly, Your Honor." My words, too, were gouging and scraping my throatas they came out; I could feel my knees getting absurdly weak, and mymouth tasted as though I had an old copper penny in it.

  "As I understand it, the laws of New Texas do not extend their ordinaryprotection to persons engaged in the practice of politics. An act ofpersonal injury against a politician is considered criminal only to theextent that the politician injured has not, by his public acts, deservedthe degree of severity with which he has been injured, and the Court ofPolitical Justice is established for the purpose of determining whetheror not there has been such an excess of severity in the treatment metedout by the accused to the injured or deceased politician. This givesrise, of course, to some interesting practices; for instance, what is atlaw a trial of the accused is, in substance, a trial of his victim. Butin any case tried in this court, the accused must be a person who hasinjured or killed a man who is definable as a practicing politicianunder the government of New Texas.

  "Speaking for my government, I must deny that these men should have beentried in this court for the murder of Silas Cumshaw. To do otherwisewould establish the principle and precedent that our Ambassador, or anyother Ambassador here, is a practicing politician under--mark that well,Your Honor--under the laws and government of New Texas. This would notonly make of any Ambassador a permissable target for any marksman whohappened to disapprove of the policies of another government, but moreserious, it would place the Ambassador and his government in asubordinate position relative to the government of New Texas. This thegovernment of the Solar League simply cannot tolerate, for
reasons whichit would be insulting to the intelligence of this court to enumerate."

  "Mr. Silk," Judge Nelson said gravely. "This court takes full cognizanceof the force of your arguments. However, I'd like to know why youpermitted this trial to run to this length before entering thisobjection. Surely you could have made clear the position of yourgovernment at the beginning of this trial."

  "Your Honor," I said, "had I done so, these defendants would have beenreleased, and the facts behind their crime would have never come tolight. I grant that the important function of this court is to determinequestions of relative guilt and innocence. We must not lose sight,however, of the fact that the primary function of any court is todetermine the truth, and only by the process of the trial of thesedepraved murderers-for-hire could the real author of the crime beuncovered.

  "This was important, both for the government of the Solar League and thegovernment of New Texas. My government now knows who procured the deathof Silas Cumshaw, and we will take appropriate action. The governmentof New Texas has now had spelled out, in letters anyone can read, thefact that this beautiful planet is in truth a _battleground_. Awarenessof this may save New Texas from being the scene of a larger and moredestructive battle. New Texas also knows who are its enemies, and whocan be counted upon to stand as its friends."

  "Yes, Mr. Silk. Mr. Vuvuvu, I haven't heard any comment from you.... Nocomment? Well, we'll have to close the court, to consider this phase ofthe question."

  The black screen slid up, for the second time during the trial. Therewas silence for a moment, and then the room became a bubbling pot ofsound. At least six fights broke out among the spectators within threeminutes; the Rangers and court bailiffs were busy restoring order.

  Gail Hickock, who had been sitting on the front row of the spectators'seats, came running up while I was still receiving the congratulationsof my fellow diplomats.

  "Stephen! How _could_ you?" she demanded. "You know what you've done?You've gotten those murdering snakes turned loose!"

  Andrew Jackson Hickock left the prosecution table and approached.

  "Mr. Silk! You've just secured the freedom of three men who murdered oneof my best friends!"

  "Colonel Hickock, I believe I knew Silas Cumshaw before you did. He wasone of my instructors at Dumbarton Oaks, and I have always had thedeepest respect and admiration for him. But he taught me one thing,which you seem to have forgotten since you expatriated yourself--thatin the Diplomatic Service, personal feelings don't count. The onlything of importance is the advancement of the policies of the SolarLeague."

  "Silas and I were attaches together, at the old Embassy at Drammool, onAltair II," Colonel Hickock said. What else he might have said was lostin the sudden exclamation as the black screen slid down. In front ofJudge Nelson, I saw, there were three pistol-belts, and three pairs ofautomatics.

  "Switchblade Joe Bonney, Jack-High Abe Bonney, Turkey-Buzzard TomBonney, together with your counsel, approach the court and hear theverdict," Judge Nelson said.

  The three defendants and their lawyer rose. The Bonneys were swaggeringand laughing, but for a lawyer whose clients had just emerged from theshadow of the gallows, Sidney was looking remarkably unhappy. Heprobably had imagination enough to see what would be waiting for himoutside.

  "It pains me inexpressibly," Judge Nelson said, "to inform you threethat this court cannot convict you of the cowardly murder of thatlearned and honorable old man, Silas Cumshaw, nor can you be brought totrial in any other court on New Texas again for that dastardly crime.Here are your weapons, which must be returned to you. Sort them outyourselves, because I won't dirty my fingers on them. And may you regretand feel shame for your despicable act as long as you live, which I hopewon't be more than a few hours."

  With that, he used the end of his gavel to push the three belts off thebench and onto the floor at the Bonneys' feet. They stood laughing athim for a few moments, then stopped, picked the belts up, drew thepistols to check magazines and chambers, and then began slapping eachothers' backs and shouting jubilant congratulations at one another.Sidney's two assistants and some of his friends came up and beganpumping Sidney's hands.

  "There!" Gail flung at me. "Now look at your masterpiece! Why don't yougo up and congratulate him, too?"

  And with that, she slapped me across the face. It hurt like the devil;she was a lot stronger than I'd expected.

  "In about two minutes," I told her, "you can apologize to me for that,or weep over my corpse. Right now, though, you'd better be gettingbehind something solid."