ectation. They all knew about it.

"How did this happen, Marshal?" he asked, almost conversationally.

"The prisoner was put in a cell by himself; there was a pickup eye, and
one of my deputies was keeping him under observation by screen." Fane
spoke in a toneless, almost robotlike voice. "At twenty-two thirty, the
prisoner went to bed, still wearing his shirt. He pulled the blankets up
over his head. The deputy observing him thought nothing of that; many
prisoners do that, on account of the light. He tossed about for a while,
and then appeared to fall asleep.

"When a guard went in to rouse him this morning, the cot, under the
blanket, was found saturated with blood. Kellogg had cut his throat, by
sawing the zipper track of his shirt back and forth till he severed his
jugular vein. He was dead."

"Good heavens, Marshal!" He was shocked. The way he'd heard it, Kellogg
had hidden a penknife, and he was prepared to be severe with Fane about
it. But a thing like this! He found himself fingering the toothed track of
his own jacket zipper. "I don't believe you can be at all censured for not
anticipating a thing like that. It isn't a thing anybody would expect."

Janiver and Ruiz spoke briefly in agreement. Marshal Fane bowed slightly
and went off to one side.

Leslie Coombes, who seemed to be making a very considerable effort to look
grieved and shocked, rose.

"Your Honors, I find myself here without a client," he said. "In fact, I
find myself here without any business at all; the case against Mr.
Holloway is absolutely insupportable. He shot a man who was trying to kill
him, and that's all there is to it. I therefore pray your Honors to
dismiss the case against him and discharge him from custody."

Captain Greibenfeld bounded to his feet.

"Your Honors, I fully realize that the defendant is now beyond the
jurisdiction of this court, but let me point out that I and my associates
are here participating in this case in the hope that the classification of
this planet may be determined, and some adequate definition of sapience
established. These are most serious questions, your Honors."

"But, your Honors," Coombes protested, "we can't go through the farce of
trying a dead man."

"_People of the Colony of Baphomet_ versus _Jamshar Singh, Deceased_,
charge of arson and sabotage, A.E. 604," the Honorable Gustavus Adolphus
Brannhard interrupted.

Yes, you could find a precedent in colonial law for almost anything.