"You'd need masses of tree food. Mud, say, from deep in the Dark. Would you buy it from Zakry? Or haul it yourselves, with WoodsmanT'

Jonveev sighed. "All right, Booce. What have you got in mind?"

"Logbearer could haul the mud to feed the tree. The whole Market knows that my last trip failed. They won't be surprised when Logbearer becomes a Dark diver. Let them think I'm looking for fringe and blackbrain while I haul mud for Zakry."

"Mmm," said Jonveev.

"One thing more. I've got eight kiltons of metal buried under the termites."

Their faces were quite blank. After a moment Jonveev said, "That's not portable money. You still can't offer us a loan, not until you sell it."

"An excellent point. Hilar, Jonveev, what I want is this. First, you do your damndest to turn that half tree into burl. Second, I need a loan-"

Hilar was laughing.

"A short-term loan to let me spend money like an old Dark diver while I wait for the Navy to buy my metal. I'll pay twenty percent to the crossyear, and I need tento-third chits. I'll pay part of it back in mud at the same price Zakry pays. The rest at the crossyear, and I'll hand you another five times ten-to-third. That'll save any project you had to shortchange. It's not a loan, though. It buys me half the burl."

"Half!" Jonveev exclaimed.

"So."

Caught! Jonveev Belmy laughed and said, "We hadn't thought of spinning the tree. But can you really afford to risk that many chits? You're moderately rich now. Why not stay that way?"

"I like the odds. I've got some crew who think it might work, and they're tree dwellers. I think you think it'll work, and that helps."

"Two-fifths of any burl, and we want five times tento-third chits. We'll get you your loan, but at forty percent to the crossyear. Mmm . . . I'll hand you our cash on hand and give you the rest in ten days."

Booce said, "I'll pay thirty percent to ... to ten sleeps past the crossyear. The Navy might just hold me up for that long. And classify this. If the Navy knows I took a loan, they'll know I'm still under pressure. I want them to move."

Hilar laughed. "Where else could it have come from?"

"I'll visit the house before I start throwing money around. They'll think I had it in the house."

And all of this was reported in garbled form, through

Clave and then Jeffer, who had never dealt with finance, to Kendy, who never had either. But Kendy had sketchy records of the capitalistic societies that had died with the formation of the State, hundreds of years ago.

It was a hell of a way to run a civilization. These people needed him.

Jeffer, seated before the CARM camera, asked, "Do you understand any of this?"

"Yes, but it would be difficult to explain. What matters is that your citizens will have their earthlife seeds."