ey had shot Ambassador
Cumshaw was ruled out as having been made under duress.

However, Captain Nelson's testimony didn't need the confessions.

The cover was stripped off the air-car, and a couple of men with a
power-dolly dragged it out in front of the bench. The Ranger Captain
identified it as the car which he had found at the Bonneyville jail. He
went over it with an ultra-violet flashlight and showed where he had
written his name and the date on it with fluorescent ink. The effects of
AA-fire were plainly evident on it.

Then the other shrouded object was unveiled and identified as the gun
which had disabled the air-car. Colonel Hickock identified the gun as
the one with which he had fired on the air-car. Finally, the ballistics
expert was brought back to the stand again, to link the two by means of
fragments found in the car.

Then Goodham brought Kettle-Belly Sam Bonney to the stand.

The Mayor of Bonneyville was a man of fifty or so, short, partially
bald, dressed in faded blue Levis, a frayed white shirt, and a
grease-spotted vest. There was absolutely no mystery about how he had
acquired his nickname. He disgorged a cud of tobacco into a spittoon,
took the oath with unctuous solemnity, then reloaded himself with
another chew and told his version of the attack on the jail.

At about 1045 on the day in question, he testified, he had been in his
office, hard at work in the public service, when an air-car, partially
disabled by gunfire, had landed in the street outside and the three
defendants had rushed in, claiming sanctuary. From then on, the story
flowed along smoothly, following the lines predicted by Captain Nelson
and Parros. Of course he had given the fugitives shelter; they had
claimed to have been near to a political assassination and were in fear
of their lives.

Under Sidney's cross-examination, and coaching, he poured out the story
of Bonneyville's wrongs at the hands of the reactionary landowners, and
the atrocious behavior of the Hickock goon-gang. Finally, after
extracting the last drop of class-hatred venom out of him, Sidney turned
him over to me.

"How many men were inside the jail when the three defendants came
claiming sanctuary?" I asked.

He couldn't rightly say, maybe four or five.

"Closer twenty-five, according to the Rangers. How many of them were
prisoners in the jail?"

"Well, none. The prisoners was all turned out that mornin'. They was
just common drunks, disorderly co