He aimed the CARM east of Booce's green dot. East takes you out. . . "Half a day and we'll have honey. What else do we need?"

"Some way to collect it," Booce answered.

"We'll put Rather in the silver suit. No treefeeding insect will sting him through that!"

"Right. Better than armor."

"Tell us about the Admiralty," Clave said.

Booce closed his eyes to think. Then: "You're lonely out here. There's too much space. Everything is dense in the Clump. Think of a seed pod, and think of the Admiralty as the shell. There are more people in the Market alone, any time of day or night, than you've ever seen.

"We pull the logs back to the Clump over the course of a year or two, and we arrange an auction in the Market. Twice we've been attacked by happyfeet bandits. Once we got back just as another log was being docked, and we got half what we expected for the wood. But over the years we put enough money together to buy my retailer's license. This was going to be our last trip. We were going to settle in the Clump, and I'd work the wood myself and sell finished planks and burl, while Ryllin set about finding good husbands for our daughters. That was the point: they're reaching that age ..."

Clave asked, "Can we really make the Admiralty believe we're loggers?"

"We'll be loggers," Booce said. "Rebuilding Logbearer's no problem. We should have more weapons in case happyfeet come by, and it all has to look like Admiralty gear . . . and we still won't look like a typical logging family. But we don't have to, because I've got my retailer's license." "What does that mean?"

"It means we don't have to sell the log straight off. The Navy ships will escort us in and give us a berth. I can set up shop in the Market and sell wood, and hire anyone I like; which means that the rest of you can be workers hired off a happyfeet jungle, or bought as copsiks. Some of the happyfeet keep copsiks. The Admiralty doesn't, so you'd be free if I bought you."

"Free, but not citizens."

"Right."

"Why can't you have hired us off a tree?" Booce thought about it, and smiled. "You have a gift, Clave. Tell as much of the truth as possible. Debby, you're from Carther States, directly. You were stranded in the sky, you made your way to a tree, and now you want to live in a jungle again. Okay, Debby?"

Debby's lips were moving as she silently repeated the details. "Stet."

"We'll have to say Citizens Tree is close to the Clump. Otherwise we got home too fast, and we'd have to explain about the CARM."

Clave nodded. "So then we sell the log. How?"

"Set up in the Market and announce an auction. Buy your earthlife seeds with the money and go home. The

Admiralty'11 take half in taxes-" Clave exclaimed, "Half?"