off's hands twitched nervously. "Not yet, Your Honor. Later,
Your Honor. The trial comes _first_."

The judge looked as if his candy had been stolen. "But you _said_ I
should call for the verdict."

"Later. You have to have the trial before you can have the verdict."

The Altairian shrugged indifferently. "Now--later--" he muttered.

"Have the prosecutor call his first witness," said Meyerhoff.

Zeckler leaned over, his face ashen. "These charges," he whispered.
"They're insane!"

"Of course they are," Meyerhoff whispered back.

"But what am I going to--"

"Sit tight. Let _them_ set things up."

"But those _lies_. They're liars, the whole pack of them--" He broke off
as the prosecutor roared a name.

The shaggy brute who took the stand was wearing a bright purple hat
which sat rakishly over one ear. He grinned the Altairian equivalent of
a hungry grin at the prosecutor. Then he cleared his throat and started.
"This Terran riffraff--"

"The oath," muttered the judge. "We've got to have the oath."

The prosecutor nodded, and four natives moved forward, carrying huge
inscribed marble slabs to the front of the court. One by one the chunks
were reverently piled in a heap at the witness's feet. The witness
placed a huge, hairy paw on the cairn, and the prosecutor said, "Do you
swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so
help you--" he paused to squint at the paper in his hand, and finished
on a puzzled note, "--Goddess?"

The witness removed the paw from the rock pile long enough to scratch
his ear. Then he replaced it, and replied, "Of course," in an injured
tone.

"Then tell this court what you have seen of the activities of this
abominable wretch."

The witness settled back into the chair, fixing one eye on Zeckler's
face, another on the prosecutor, and closing the third as if in
meditation. "I think it happened on the fourth night of the seventh
crossing of Altair II (may the Goddess cast a drought upon it)--or was
it the seventh night of the fourth crossing?--" he grinned
apologetically at the judge--"when I was making my way back through town
toward my blessed land-plot, minding my own business, Your Honor, after
weeks of bargaining for the crop I was harvesting. Suddenly from the
shadow of the building, this creature--" he waved a paw at
Zeckler--"stopped me in my tracks with a vicious cry. He had a weapon
I'd never seen before, and before I could find my voice he forced m