Pendarvis: "Court is recessed for ten minutes!" By that time, Gus was with him; gathering the family up, they carried them over to their table.
They stumbled and staggered when they moved, and that frightened him for a moment. Then he realized that they weren't sick or drugged. They'd just have been in low-G for a while and hadn't become reaccustomed to normal weight. Now he know why he hadn't been able to find any trace of them. He noticed that each of them was wearing a little shoulder bag—a Marine Corps first-aid pouch,—slung from a webbing strap. Why the devil hadn't he thought of making them something like that? He touched one and commented, trying to pitch his voice as nearly like theirs as he could. They all babbled in reply and began opening the little bags and showing him what they had in them—little knives and miniature tools and bits of bright or colored junk they had picked up. Little Fuzzy produced a tiny pipe with a hardwood bowl, and a little pouch of tobacco from which he filled it. Finally, he got out a small lighter.
"Your Honors!" Gus shouted. "I know court is recessed, but please observe what Little Fuzzy here is doing."
While they watched, Little Fuzzy snapped the lighter and held the flame to the pipe bowl, puffing.
Across on the other side, Leslie Coombes swallowed once or twice and closed his eyes.
When Pendarvis rapped for attention and declared court reconvened, he said:
"Ladies and gentlemen, you have all seen and heard this demonstration of Captain Greibenfeld's. You have heard these Fuzzies uttering what certainly sounds like meaningful speech, and you have seen one of them light a pipe and smoke. Incidentally, while smoking in court is discountenanced, we are going to make an exception, during this trial, in favor of Fuzzies. Other people will please not feel themselves discriminated against."
That brought Coombes to his feet with a rush. He started around the table and them remembered that under the new rules he didn't have to.
"Your Honors, I objected strongly to the use of that term by a witness this morning; I must object even more emphatically to its employment from the bench. I have indeed heard these Fuzzies make sounds which might be mistaken for words, but I must deny that this is true speech. As to
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