Lone Star Planet Page 8

  CHAPTER VIII

  A couple of New Texas Ranger tanks met the Embassy car four blocks fromthe Statehouse and convoyed us into the central plaza, where thebarbecue had been held on the Friday afternoon that I had arrived on NewTexas. There was almost as dense a crowd as the last time I had seen theplace; but they were quieter, to the extent that there were no bands,and no shooting, no cowbells or whistles. The barbecue pits were goingagain, however, and hawkers were pushing or propelling their littlewagons about, vending sandwiches. I saw a half a dozen big twenty-footteleview screens, apparently wired from the courtroom.

  As soon as the Embassy car and its escorting tanks reached the plaza, anovation broke out. I was cheered, with the high-pitched _yipeee!_ of NewTexans and adjured and implored not to let them so-and-sos get away withit.

  There was a veritable army of Rangers on guard at the doors of thecourtroom. The only spectators being admitted to the courtroom seemed tobe prominent citizens with enough pull to secure passes.

  Inside, some of the spectators' benches had been removed to clear thefront of the room. In the cleared space, there was one bulky shapeunder a cloth cover that seemed to be the air-car and anothercloth-covered shape that looked like a fifty-mm dual-purpose gun.Smaller exhibits, including a twenty-mm auto-rifle, were piled on thefriends-of-the-court table. The prosecution table was alreadyoccupied--Colonel Hickock, who waved a greeting to me, three or four menwho looked like well-to-do ranchers, and a delegation of lawyers.

  "Samuel Goodham," Parros, beside me, whispered, indicating a big,heavy-set man with white hair, dressed in a dark suit of the cut thathad been fashionable on Terra seventy-five years ago. "Best criminallawyer on the planet. Hickock must have hired him."

  There was quite a swarm at the center table, too. Some of them wereranchers, a couple in aggressively shabby workclothes, and there wereseveral members of the Diplomatic Corps. I shook hands with them andgathered that they, like myself, were worried about the precedent thatmight be established by this trial. While I was introducing Hoddy Ringoas my attache extraordinary, which was no less than the truth, thedefense party came in.

  There were only three lawyers--a little, rodent-faced fellow, whomParros pointed out as Clement Sidney, and two assistants. And, guardedby a Ranger and a couple of court-bailiffs, the three defendants,Switchblade Joe, Jack-High Abe and Turkey-Buzzard Tom Bonney. There wasprobably a year or so age different from one to another, but theycertainly had a common parentage. They all had pale eyes and narrow,loose-lipped faces. Subnormal and probably psychopathic, I thought.Jack-High Abe had his left arm in a sling and his left shoulder in aplaster cast. The buzz of conversation among the spectators altered itstone subtly and took on a note of hostility as they entered and seatedthemselves.

  The balcony seemed to be crowded with press representatives. Severaltelecast cameras and sound pickups had been rigged to cover the front ofthe room from various angles, a feature that had been missing from thetrial I had seen with Gail on Friday.

  Then the judges entered from a door behind the bench, which must haveopened from a passageway under the plaza, and the court was called toorder.

  The President Judge was the same Nelson who had presided at the Whatelytrial and the first thing on the agenda seemed to be the selection of anew board of associate judges. Parros explained in a whisper that theboard which had served on the previous trial would sit until that couldbe done.

  A slip of paper was drawn from a box and a name was called. A mansitting on one of the front rows of spectators' seats got up and cameforward. One of Sidney's assistants rummaged through a card file he hadin front of him and handed a card to the chief of the defense. At once,Sidney was on his feet.

  "Challenged, for cause!" he called out. "This man is known to havedeclared, in conversation at the bar of the Silver Peso Saloon, here inNew Austin, that these three boys, my clients, ought all to be hangedhigher than Haman."

  "Yes, I said that!" the venireman declared. "I'll repeat it right here:all three of these murdering skunks ought to be hanged higher than--"

  "Your Honor!" Sidney almost screamed. "If, after hearing this man'sbrazen declaration of bigoted class hatred against my clients, he isallowed to sit on that bench--"

  Judge Nelson pounded with his gavel. "You don't have to instruct me inmy judicial duties, Counselor," he said. "The venireman has obviouslydisqualified himself by giving evidence of prejudice. Next name."

  The next man was challenged: he was a retired packing-house operator inNew Austin, and had once expressed the opinion that Bonneyville andeverybody in it ought to be H-bombed off the face of New Texas.

  This Sidney seemed to have gotten the name of everybody likely to becalled for court duty and had something on each one of them, because hewent on like that all morning.

  "You know what I think," Stonehenge whispered to me, leaning over behindParros. "I think he's just stalling to keep the court in session untilthe z'Srauff fleet gets here. I wish we could get hold of one of thosewrist watches."

  "I can get you one, before evening," Hoddy offered, "if you don't carewhat happens to the mutt that's wearin' it."

  "Better not," I decided. "Might tip them off to what we suspect. And wedon't really need one: Sir Rodney will have patrols out far enough toget warning in time."

  We took an hour, at noon, for lunch, and then it began again. By 1647,fifteen minutes before court should be adjourned, Judge Nelson orderedthe bailiff to turn the clock back to 1300. The clock was turned backagain when it reached 1645. By this time, Clement Sidney was probablythe most unpopular man on New Texas.

  Finally, Colonel Andrew J. Hickock rose to his feet.

  "Your Honor: the present court is not obliged to retire from the benchuntil another court has been chosen as they are now sitting as a courtin being. I propose that the trial begin, with the present court on thebench."

  Sidney began yelling protests. Hoddy Ringo pulled his neckerchief aroundunder his left ear and held the ends above his head. Nanadabadian, theAmbassador from Beta Cephus IV, drew his biggest knife and began tryingthe edge on a sheet of paper.

  "Well, Your Honor, I certainly do not wish to act in an obstructionistmanner. The defense agrees to accept the present court," Sidney decided.

  "Prosecution agrees to accept the present court," Goodham parroted.

  "The present court will continue on the bench, to try the case of theFriends of Silas Cumshaw, deceased, versus Switchblade Joe Bonney,Jack-High Abe Bonney, Turkey-Buzzard Tom Bonney, et als." Judge Nelsonrapped with his gavel. "Court is herewith adjourned until 0900tomorrow."