ir
being arraigned in this Political Justice court, and once a defendant is
brought into court, on this planet, he cannot be brought into court
again for the same act. Not the same _crime_, the same _act_."

I had been thinking about this and I was ready. "Look, we must bring
those Bonney brothers to trial. It's the only effective way of
demonstrating to the public the simple fact that Ambassador Cumshaw was
murdered at the instigation of the z'Srauff. We dare not allow them to
be convicted in the Court of Political Justice, for the reasons already
stated. And to maintain the prestige of the Solar League, we dare 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 damned if I can see how we can have it all three ways."

I wasn't surprised that he didn't see it; he hadn't had the same urgency
goading him which had forced me to find 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
respectful way they regarded me, from the attention they were giving my
words, I got a sudden thrill of pride. For the first time since my
scrambled arrival, I was really _Ambassador_ Stephen Silk.

CHAPTER VIII

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

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

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

Inside, some of the spectators' benches had been removed to clear the
front of the room. In the cleared space, there w