taken
pride in this record. Now you have broken it. We must not only punish
you adequately and appropriately, but we must also make of your
punishment a warning to anyone who would follow your irrational example.

"Naturally, we no longer have either the apparatus to execute anyone or
an executioner. We do not believe that a stupidly unreasoning act should
incite us to equally unreasoning reprisal, for we would then be as
guilty of irrationality as you.

"We must establish our own precedent, since there is no recent one and
the ancient punishments are not acceptable to us. Therefore, because we
are humane and reasoning persons, the Court orders that the defendant,
Oliver Symmes, be placed in the National Hospital for observation, study
and experimentation so that this crime may never again be repeated. He
is to be kept there under perpetual care until no possible human skill
or resource can further sustain life in his body."

Someone jumped erect beside him, quivering with horror and indignation.
It was his lawyer.

"Your Honor, we throw ourselves upon the mercy of the Court. No matter
what the crime of the defendant, this is a greater one. For this is a
crime not just against my client, but against all men. This sentence
robs all men of their most precious freedom--the right to die at their
appointed times. Nothing is more damaging to the basic dignity of the
human race than this most hideous ..."

"... This Court recognizes only the four freedoms. The freedom of death
is not one of these. The sentence stands. The Court is adjourned."

There were tears in the eyes of his lawyer, although young Oliver Symmes
did not quite comprehend, as yet, their meaning. Hands, rougher than
before, grasped his arms with strange firmness and led him off into ...

* * * * *

Shadows. They come in cycles, each prompted to activity by the one
preceding it. They flutter in unbelievable clusters, wheel in
untranslatable formations through the cerebric wasteland that is the
aged mind of Oliver Symmes. They have no meaning to him, save for a
furtive spark of recognition that intrudes upon him once in a while.

The woman in the green uniform, standing to one side of the window,
smiled at him again. It was much simpler to care for him, she thought,
if only one conceived of him as being a sort of sweet little worn-out
teddy bear. Yes, that was what he was, a little teddy bear that had
gotten most of its