Lone Star Planet

old them not to wait dinner for us, so the staff had finished eating and were relaxing in the patio when our car cam

pistols like mine, in State Department Special Services holsters. He didn't look like a Dumb

ur Intelligence man," St

right over the bandstand that caught the whole thing-you and Miss Hickock coming toward the President and his party, Miss Hickock running forward to her father, the waiter going up behind Hutchinso

lar in the eight hours since you landed than poor Mr. Cumshaw had been able to do in the ten years

e of the big tables under the a

" I added, as the Intelligence man picked up a bottle and made to pour for me. "I've been practically swimming in superbourbon all

effect, Mr. Ambassador

tuation. But I'll have to find out from you

sir, I confess that I don't under

hours to get aboard ship, from the moment I was n

!" Thromble

if I told him that I th

nothing about what's been going on here in, say, the last year. And all I know about the d

ing, Mr. Silk," Thrombley said. "R

umshaw was killed. The rest,

tonehenge and Parros doing

on this planet had been to secure it into the Solar League. And it was a goal which s

politics on this planet are l

native, another gone crazy, the third

been here fifteen

red, myself, in the next couple of weeks, I'm going to see that you and any other member of this st

Mr. Silk? I woul

sound, selfish motive for helping me stay alive. I assured him I wo

two faces, and had always managed to place himself on every side of every issue at once. Nothing he ever said could possibly

out an invasion as though the enemy's ships were already coming out of hyperspace, and had named the invader, calling the z'Srauff "our common enemy." The z'Srauff Ambassador, also present, had immediately gotten up and stalked out, amid a derisive chorus of barkin

timent at what used to be called the grass-roo

r of annexation is based on the point Mr. Cumshaw made-the danger of conquest by the z'Srauff. Against that, of course, there is fe

ns can be met by convincing them that we need the great planet of New Texas to add glory and luster to t

ese Bonneys were only hirelings. Here's

ry by the Texans on Terra, a battle called San Jacinto. We didn't have any business to handle

I asked

friends, beginning shortly before the speech the Ambassador made at that banquet. He called about 0900, inviting Mr. Cumshaw

t of his car and started up the front steps, somebody in this car landed it on the driveway and be

with tanks and light aircraft, so that every rancher has at his disposal a fairly good small air-armor combat team. Naturally, all the big ranchers are colonels in the Armed Reserve. Hickock has a

h house caught their jet assembly, and they could only get as far as Bonneyville, th

it is related to everybody else. The mayor, for inst

grounds that they had been near to-get that; I think that indicates the line they're going to take at the trial-near to a political assassinati

was planned in a

the place. As soon as Switchblade and Jack-High and Turkey-Buzzard landed, they were rushed inside and all the doors barred. About three min

. The aircraft began dumping these firebombs and stun-bombs that they use to stop supercow stampedes, and the tank-guns began to punch holes in the walls. A

. But he was smart. He grabbed everything relating to the killing-the aircar and the twenty-mm auto-rifle in particular-and he's keeping them under cover. Very few people know about th

ck's assurance that he will give us every assistance, but we simply must

to that: at that moment, one of the ser

anger. "Join us, seeing that you're on f

ith us and po

to sell us the line that he was a New Texan patriot, trying to kill a tyrant, but we finally got the truth out of him. He was pa

y Sam," Parros interje

yes, and I just heard that the trial of Switchblade, and Jack-High and Turkey-Buzzard is scheduled for thre

alking about you when you arrived," I mentioned. "About th

Pity Hickock's boys didn't get hold of them before I

e, Captain?" I asked. "You think Kettle-Bell

p people from getting out; but like a fort, to keep people from getting in. There w

ighing his words, then cont

an't testify to, couple of things that

cognized the Bonneys. That was lucky; otherwise we might still be lookin' and

ilar cases, had regarded such planetary governments as due

t was just sort of a reserve hiding-hole. But because they'd been hit, they had to land. And they'd been slowed down so much th

ask-force was becoming in

ed. "Now we're on th

been witnesses to the killing of Mr. Cumshaw by Colonel Hickock and that the Hickock outfit was trying to rub them out to keep them from testifying. I just laughed and started t

re you arrested them?" I wan

got their fingerprints off the car, off the gun, off some shells still in the clip, and we have th

lling and I suggested that they go into Parros' office, where they'd be undisturbed. The Ranger and my Intelligence man

elson said. "Your Ambassador seems to be making

eally talking to Stonehenge, "before I'd go up against this guy, I'd

nehenge and Thrombley. "This seems to

agr

would be on Colonel Hickock's front steps

ore and a side glance told me that the thought was new to Stonehenge also. "Colonel Hickock called at 0900. Mr. Cumsh

e doesn't use his hospitality to trap people to their death. In the second place, he wouldn't have needed to use people like these Bonneys. His own men would do any

"Are you sure he's reall

t you are thinking, Mr. Silk. But, remember, when Colonel Hickock came here as our first Ambassador, he came he

e've had to check on every real leader of the annexation movement, screening them fo

ned by what I've just said, the Colone

ever since I was a kid. Ever since he married old Colonel

ill recall, I think, that Colonel Hickock did do everything in his power to see that these Bonney brothers did not reach court alive. And, let me add," he was getting bol

le men, he still couldn't help knowing how thoroughly we were screened, indoctrinated, and-let's f

e. Then I remembered, told them, Hick

e now? Nobody who knew could have told the Bonney boys where Mr. Cumshaw would be at 1030, yet the three men were there waiting for h

official telescreen log. Let's see what calls were made. Maybe Mr. Cum

three calls that came in, myself. First, there was the call from Colonel Hickock. Then, the call about the

l about the wrist

es which the z'Srauff manufacture on their home planet. The z'Srauff Ambassador called, that day, to tell him that they had one for him an

a man look more

I'm the one w

know, Mr. Thrombley? You did the natural, the normal, th

"They must have had a spy outside who told them the Ambassador had left

gh. There's more to this than a simple

ted in them and we want a sample. The z'Srauff watches are very peculiar-they're operated by radium decay, which, of course is a universal constant. They're unifo

that last phrase hang heavily in the

observances-timing hours of prayer, I beli

ock, or ringing a little bell, all over New Texas, at exactly the same moment. And

gang of pirates are at the spaceport by now, ready to

Hoddy volunteered. "I ai

ibly and without betraying my suspicions, when P

rros said. "Stuff we never seeme

," I said. "Suppose you ride with him, and brief him on what you l

His expression started by being exasperated