d
he's furnishing copies of all the Fuzzy films Holloway has to the news
services. Interworld News is going hog-wild with it, and even the services
we control can't play it down too much. I don't know who's going to be
prosecuting these cases; but whoever it is, he won't dare pull any
punches. And the whole thing's made Pendarvis hostile to us. I know, the
law and the evidence and nothing but the law and the evidence, but the
evidence is going to filter into his conscious mind through this
hostility. He's called a conference with Brannhard and myself for tomorrow
afternoon; I don't know what that's going to be like."

XI

The two lawyers had risen hastily when Chief Justice Pendarvis entered; he
responded to their greetings and seated himself at his desk, reaching for
the silver cigar box and taking out a panatela. Gustavus Adolphus
Brannhard picked up the cigar he had laid aside and began puffing on it;
Leslie Coombes took a cigarette from his case. They both looked at him,
waiting like two drawn weapons--a battle ax and a rapier.

"Well, gentlemen, as you know, we have a couple of homicide cases and
nobody to prosecute them," he began.

"Why bother, your Honor?" Coombes asked. "Both charges are completely
frivolous. One man killed a wild animal, and the other killed a man who
was trying to kill him."

"Well, your Honor, I don't believe my client is guilty of anything,
legally or morally," Brannhard said. "I want that established by an
acquittal." He looked at Coombes. "I should think Mr. Coombes would be
just as anxious to have his client cleared of any stigma of murder, too."

"I am quite agreed. People who have been charged with crimes ought to have
public vindication if they are innocent. Now, in the first place, I
planned to hold the Kellogg trial first, and then the Holloway trial. Are
you both satisfied with that arrangement?"

"Absolutely not, your Honor," Brannhard said promptly. "The whole basis of
the Holloway defense is that this man Borch was killed in commission of a
felony. We're prepared to prove that, but we don't want our case
prejudiced by an earlier trial."

Coombes laughed. "Mr. Brannhard wants to clear his client by preconvicting
mine. We can't agree to anything like that."

"Yes, and he is making the same objection to trying your client first.
Well, I'm going to remove both objections. I'm going to order the two
cases combined, and both defendants tried together."

A momentary