"Do you see yonder shard ash tree? Perhaps before the day is out you will be dangling from that overhanging limb, where we can enjoy the spectacle!"
Alvary Irling said coldly: "I wish to consult my attorney."
"Your request is denied! He could only complicate a simple process, unless we hanged him as well, for conspiring to impede justice."
"If this is humor, I find it grotesque. I am an important man of many affairs, and this detention is causing me great inconvenience."
Still fulminating, Alvary Irling was taken back to the makeshift jail.
Bodwyn Wook gave his head a shake of vexation.
"I see no reason to waste any more time on this disgusting affair. The Conservator, of course, has the final word in matters of this sort."
"There can only be one judgment," said Egon Tamm.
"First, execution of these six, then identification of the organizers and similar treatment for them, no matter where they are to be found."
"You will hear no disagreement from me," said Bodwyn Wook.
He took notice of Scharde.
"Am I wrong, or do you have other ideas?"
"Allow me to link together a few facts," said Scharde.
"First: we know that sooner or later the Yips will try to swarm ashore into Marmion Province; if they succeed, it's all over for the Conservancy. At the moment we might or might not be able to turn them back;
certainly our equipment is inadequate, and we can't get what we need because we lack money. Think a moment. We have in custody six wealthy criminals. If we kill them we have six carcasses. If each of them pays over a large indemnity--say, a million sols each--we have six million sols: enough to buy us two armed flyers and a permanent gun station over the Marmion Straits."
Bodwyn Wook spoke in a sour voice: "It is neither neat nor nice nor appealing."
"But very practical," said Egon Tamm.
"Further, I do not need to consult those damnable Peefers. You won't get six million sols any other way at least, not from Throy."
"Very well; it is so decided," said Bodwyn Wook.
"I suggest that | we add a thousand-sol surcharge, to finance our investigation of Ogmo j Enterprises." He spoke into the mesh.
"Bring in the six prisoners, all together."
The six Soumjians, still wearing the gray robes which had been their costume at Thurben Island, filed sullenly into the chamber, and were ranged in a line against the wall.
Impelled by a mischievous caprice, Bodwyn Wook summoned his bailiff.
"There they stand: six rascals in a row. Make a good photograph for the record, and note the names carefully." He addressed the prisoners.
"Make sure that you announce your correct name to the bailiff; if you try to deceive us, we shall promptly discover the truth and it will be the worse for you."
"Come now!" rasped the man who called himself Alvary Irling.
"What difference does it make what name we use?"
Bodwyn Wook ignored the question.
"Your crimes are horrid.
You might properly display some measure of shame, but remorse is clearly too much to expect. Therefore I read you no homilies; you would only find them dull. You will be more interested to learn that we have passed judgment and decided upon your penalty. Stop! No remarks! You must listen to me!
Each of you deserves the instant extinction visited upon a noxious insect. I for one would take pleasure in watching you dance all together from the shard ash tree, perhaps to the musk of a string quartet, and it may come to that yet.
"Now, then: despite the revulsion caused by your mere presence in this room, we find that we need money more than carcasses. Not to mince -matters, you may evade death by paying a fine of a million plus a thousand sols each."
For a moment the six stood in silence, as their perspectives shifted and they felt the full impact of this new calamity.
One after the other began first to murmur, then to give full voice to his distress.
"A million sols? You might as well ask for the moons of Geidion!"
"To pay over a millions sols would ruin me!" And: "If I sold everything I could barely realize a million sols!"
Finally Bodwyn Wook lost his patience.
"Very well. Those who choose to pay, go to yonder side of the room. Scharde, perhaps you j will be kind enough to hang the others." i One of the men shouted in terror: "I would pay, but I could not| realize such a sum on short notice!"
"Nor I!" cried another.
"A million| sols is not what we casually carry about in our pockets!
Can you not| reduce the figure to, let us say, ten thousand, or even nine thousand, sols?"
"Aha!" said Bodwyn Wook.
"Do you think to haggle? You shall pay the sum demanded and not a dink et less."
Scharde spoke quietly to his colleagues: "I notice that Alvary Irling, who is the banker, stands aloof and silent.
Presumably he will pay the fine. It occurs to me that he might well extend loans to each of his companions and pay over to us the full sum of six million and six thousand sols. Upon his return to Soumjiana, he could deal in an ordinary manner with the debts."
"The concept lacks merit," declared Alvary Irling.
"It is not my business to collect your ransoms for you."
"To the contrary!" said Bodwyn Wook.
"It is a noble and expeditious idea, and simplifies the entire transaction."
"Perhaps from your point of view. I am a banker, not an altruist."
