now that they're
going to rob, or hurt, or kill someone. But there's nothing you can
do about it. You're helpless. No police force has enough men to enable
a cop to be assigned to every known repeater and follow him night and
day.

"In this state, if a man is convicted of a felony for a fourth time, a
life sentence is mandatory. _But that means that at least four victims
have to be sacrificed before the dangerous man is removed from
society!_"

The Duke nodded thoughtfully. "'Sacrifice' is the word. Go on."

"Now, the type of crime we're working with--the kind we expect future
laws to apply to--is strictly limited. It must be a crime of violence
against a human being, or a crime of destruction in which there is a
grave danger that human lives may be lost. The sex maniac, the
firebug, or the goon who gets a thrill out of beating people. Or the
reckless driver who has proven that he can't be trusted behind the
wheel of a car.

"We can't touch the kleptomaniac or the common drunk or the drug
addict. They're already provided for under other laws. And those
habits are not, _by themselves_, dangerous to the lives of others. A
good many of our kind of zany _do_ drink or take drugs--about fifty
per cent of them. But what they're sentenced for is crimes of
violence, not for guzzling hooch or mainlining heroin."

* * * * *

My phone chimed. It was Lieutenant Shultz, of Homicide. His square,
blocky face held a trace of excitement. "Inspector Royall, Inspector
Kleek told me to report to you if there was any news in the Donahue
case."

"What is it, Lieutenant?"

"We're pretty sure of our man. Scrapings from the kid's fingernails
gave us his blood type. The computer narrowed the list down quite a
bit with that data. Then, a few minutes ago, one of the boys found the
kid's clothes stuffed in with some trash paper in the back stairwell
of a condemned building just a couple of blocks from where we found
her last night.

"And--get this, Inspector!--she was wearing a pair of those shiny
patent-leather shoes, practically brand-new, and they have prints all
over them! His are over hers, since he was the last one to handle
them, and there's only the two sets of prints! We just now got
positive identification."

"Grab him and bring him in," I said. "I'll be right down. I want to
talk to him."

His face fell a little. "Well, it isn't going to be as easy as all
that, sir. You see, we'd already che