all, Mr. Sidney," Judge Nelson ruled. "Mr. Silk has merely asked
if Mr. Finnegan could say whether one document bore any resemblance to
another."

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

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

"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, order
was restored. Mr. Sidney had no questions to ask this time, either.

The bailiff looked at the next slip of paper I gave him, frowned over
it, 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, and
gave it to the clerk of the court to copy into the record. The next
witness was a z'Srauff, and in the New Texan garb he was wearing, he was
something to open my eyes, even after years on the Hooligan Diplomats.

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

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

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

"I think I can," I offered. "I spent a great many years in our Consular
Service, before I was sent here. We use Basic with a great many alien
peoples."

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

"Put up right hand," I told the z'Srauff. "Do you truly say, in front of
Great One who made all worlds, who has knowledge of what is in the
hearts of all persons, that what you will say here will be true, all
true, and not anything that is not true, and will you so say again at
time 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