"Harry Harrison - SSR 06 - A Stainless Steel Rat is Born" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harrison Harry)

CHAPTER TWO

The judge leaned forward and looked down at me, not unkindly. ┬╗
"Now come on, Jimmy,, tell me what this tomfoolery is all about."
Judge Nixon had a summer house on the river, not too far from our farm, and I had been there
often enough with his youngest son for the judge to get to know me.
"My name is James diGriz, buster. Let us not get too familiar."
This heightened his color a good deal, as you might imagine. His big nose stuck out like a red
ski slope and his nostrils flared. "You will have more respect in this courtroom! You are faced
with serious charges, my boy, and it might help your case to keep a civil tongue in your mouth. I
am appointing Arnold Fortescue, the public defender, as your attorney. . . ."
"I don't need an attorneyтАФand I particularly don't need old Skewey who has been on the sauce so
long there isn't a man alive who has seen him sober. . . ."


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There was a ripple of laughter from the public seats, which infuriated the judge. "Order in the
courti" he bellowed, hammering his gavel so hard that the handle broke. He threw the stub across
the room and glared angrily at me. "You are trying the patience of this court. Lawyer Fortescue
has been appointed. . . ."
"Not by me he hasn't. Send him back to Mooney's Bar. I plead guilty to all charges and throw
myself on the mercy of this merciless court.
He drew in his breath with a shuddering sigh and I

10 A STAINLESS STEEL BAT IS BORN

decided to ease off a bit before he had a stroke and collapsed; then there would be a mistrial and
more time would be wasted.
"I'm sorry, judge." I hung my head to hide an unrepressed smile. "But I done wrong and I will
have to pay the penalty. "
"Well, that's more like it, Jimmy. You always were a smart lad and I hate to see all that
intelligence going to waste. You will go to Juvenile Correction Hall for a term of not less thanтАФ"
"Sorry, your honor," I broke in. "Not possible. Oh, tfl only had committed my criraes last week
or last month! The law is firm on this and I have no escape. Today is my birthday. My seventeenth
birthday.
That slowed him down all right. The guards looked on patiently while he punched for information
on his computer terminal. The reporter for the Bit 0' Heaven Bugle working just as hard on the
keys of his own portable terminal at the same time. He was filing quite a story. It didn't take
the judge long to come up with the answers. He sighed.
"That is true enough. The records reveal that you are seventeen this day and have achieved your
majority. You are no longer a juvenile and must be treated as an adult. This would mean a prison
term for certainтАФif I didn't allow for the circumstances. A first offense,,the obvious youth of
the defendant, his realization that he has done wrong. It is within the power of this bench to
make exceptions, to suspend a sentence and bind a prisoner over. It is my decision . . ."