"Martin H. Greenberg & Mark Tier - Visions of Liberty" - читать интересную книгу автора (Greenberg Martin H)

be far more law-abiding than your so-called normal worlds. According to the results of your own
investigation, Lefory is one of the most severely punished men in galactic history."

"How do you figure that? No one punished him at all."

"Study your notes again. At the Last Hope mine, he was shouldered. At the Laughingstock, he was
much more emphatically shouldered. Once he was almost killed. At Smelter No. 2, more of the same
thing. The danger to his life was increasing. Finally, at the Shangri-la, he was escaping death by narrower
and narrower margins.

"It isn't necessary for management to take a hand in the punishment of a murderer, you see. Every
person on Llayless knows that if a Roger Lefory can murder in a fit of temper and escape the
consequences, no person is safe. So the people of Llayless set about making an example of him. They
put him through living hell, one place after another. And when he finally announced to a fellow worker
that he was leaving Llayless, they gave his punishment the final twist."

"And what was that?" Dantler demanded.

"You've already answered your question: He disappeared. His fellow workers so frightened him that he
gave up his plan to return to Pummery and leave the planet. He was afraid he wouldn't live long enough
to get there. Instead, he went to hide out beyond the mountains, thus condemning himself to perpetual
hell. Don't you believe for a moment that he is gleefully basking in the wilderness and chuckling about
how he got away with murder. He is eating plants that make him sick and half starving because he hasn't
the knack for catching birds or animals. He simply isn't the type for solitary prospecting. He wouldn't
recognize paydirt if he fell in it. He desperately needs fellow workers he can shift his own share of work
onto. Running back to Pummery and using the return ticket he has on file to get off the world is his kind
of gambit, but he was too terrified to try it.

"The sanctity of life is a basic law among humans everywhere. An Unnullified world doesn't need the
apparatus of government and courts to punish murderers. Word of a murder circulates among workers
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almost instantly. The murderer's deed dogs his tracks forever after. It followed Lefory everywhere, and
his fellow workers reacted accordingly. If he shows up again, Llayless's community of workers will
resume where it left off. His punishment is already a legend that will deter people from murder far into the
future. Do you know how many murders there have been on Llayless in its history?"

Dantler shook his head.

"Two," Pummery said. "One happened twenty-eight years ago. That murderer's punishment is still
remembered and still a deterrent—as Lefory's punishment will be for decades to come. How many
murderers do you know of on normal worlds who have been released through lack of evidence or
through legal manipulations? So many you couldn't answer, I'm sure. On an Unnullified world, where the
people are the law, punishment is certain—and it is perpetual. It will dog Lefory again if he ever emerges
from the wilderness. He can't escape it—can't escape the planet—because no one will let him."

"It sounds suspiciously like mob rule, which the Inter-World Federation outlaws. That simply won't do."