"Hold," said the officer.
The paunchy fellow returned to the spot in front of the officer.
"That is he," siad one of the guards wiht him.
"No offense meant, good sir," siad that paunchy fellow, "A mere jest!"
"You are Boots Tarsk-Bit," said the officer, consulting an inked handbill, clipped wiht other papers. "Actor, Entrepreneur, and Impresario, of the company of Boots Tarsk-Bit?"
"At your service," said the paunchy fellow, bowing low. "What may I do for you?"
The girl was now kneeling beside me, with her head down. She had assumed this position immediately upon the appearance of the officer and ghe guards.
"We are here in connection with the matter of a license," said the officer.
"Yes," said the paunchy fellow, Boots Tarsk-Bit, pleasantly.
"Do you have one?" asked the officer.
"Would you care to come to my quarters?" asked Boots. "We have some lovely larmas there, and perhaps you and your men would like to try my Bina and Brigella."
"In the license," said the officer, "there is the provision that girls associated with companies such as yours, if slaves, may be commanded to the apartments and service of whomsoever the council, or a delegated officer of the council, directs."
"I scarcely ever read all the provisions of the licenses," said Boots. "Such things are so tedious."
"Do you have a license?" asked the officer.
"Of course!" said Boots, indignantly. "They are required, as is well known. No fellow with the least sense of ethics would think of being without one."
"May I see your license?" inquired the officer.
"Certainly," said Boots, fumbling about in his robes. "It is right here-somewhere." He examined his wallet. "Somewhere," he assured the officer. "Alas," he said, after the second ransacking of his robes, and his third examination of the wallet. "it must be in my quarters, perhaps in the wardrobe trunk. I shall return in a nonce. I trust that I shall not discover that I have been robbed!"
"Hold," said the officer.
"Yes?" said Boots, turning back.
"According to our records," said the officer, "you have no license. You did not petition to perform, and you did not obtain a license."
"I remember distinctly obtaining the license!" said Boots.
The officer glared at him.
"Of course, it might have been last year," said Boots. "Or maybe the year before?"
The officer was silent.
"Could I have neglected such a detail?" asked Boots, horrified. "Could such a thing have slipped my mind? It seems impossible!"
"It is not really so hard to believe," observed the officer. "It has happened three years in a row."
"No!" cried Boots, in horror.
"It is folks like you who give scoundrels and rogues a bad name," said the officer.
"What are you writing?" asked Boots anxiously.
"A disposition order," said the officer.
"To what effect, may I inquire?" pressed Boots.
"Your properties," said the officer, "including your actresses, will be confiscated. They will look well in state chains. You yourself will be publically flogged in the piazza, and the, for five years, banished from Port Kar."
"It is carnival time," I said to the officer.
"Captain?" he asked.
"What is owed?" I asked.
"The licensing fee is a silver tarsk," he said.
"Surely," I said to Boots Tarsk-Bit, "your players have taken in a silver tarsk?"
"No," he said. "We have, so far tonight, taken in only ninety-seven tarsk-bits, not even ten copper tarsks." Coinage on Gor baries considerably from city to city. IN Port Kar, and genreally in the Vosk Basin, there are ten tarsk bits to a copper tarsk and one hundred copper tarsks to a silver tarsk.
Surely you have some money saved," I said.
"Not enough," he said. "We live from day to day. Sometimes there is nothing to eat."
"More than a silver tarsk is actually involved, Captain," said the officer. "There is the matter of the last two years, as well, considerations of interest, and the customary emluments."
"I am runed," said Boots Tarsk-Bit.
"Let us not be hasty, officer," I said. "Boots Tarsk-Bit is an old friend of mine, a friend from long ago."
Boots looked at me, startled. Then he nodded, earnestly. We had known one another for quite some time now, at least ten Ehn.
"If you wish, Captain," smiled the officer, "I shall not pursue the matter further." He knew me. He had been with the fleet on the 25th of Se'Kara.
"Boots, of course, as is well known," I said, "is an honest fellow."
Boots looked startled.
"He always pays his debts," I assured the officer.
"I do?" asked Boots. "I do!" he then said quickly, firmly, to the officer.
"So pay the man," I said.
"With what?" inquired Boots, speaking to me in an intense whisper.
"With your earnings," I told him.
"They are not even ten tarsks!" hissed Boots to me, his eyes bulging.
"Check the pots of your Bina and Brigella," I said.
"I have checked them," He said.
"Check them again," I said.
He turned away, and then turned back, to stopp down and pick up the copper pot by the kaissa table.
"Leave it," I said.
He shrugged and then, straightening up, took his leave.
"he will doubtless be back for it," smiled the officer.
"He cannot, in any event, escape from the city," said one of the guards.
I reached down and picked up the pot from beside the kaissa table.
I looked down at the slave kneeling on the tiels of the piazza beside me, naked and in her collar, clutching the pastry. "You may now eat the pastry," I said. "You may now finish it." "Thank you, Master," she said, happily. She had now been under my total command for something like half of an Ahn.
I put three silver tarsks into the pot. "These cover the licesneing fees for three years," I said. It then put another silver tarsk into the pot. "This," I said, "should more than cover any interst due on the debts outstanding."
"More than enough," granted the officer.
"This tarsk," I then said, slipping it into the pot, "is for the Master of Revels."
"You are most generous," Captain," said the officer, impressed. "That is more than is normally expected."
"And this tarsk," I said, "is for you and your men."
"That is not necessary, Captain," protested the officer.
The coin dropped into the pot. "It is carnival," I smiled.
"Thank you, Captain," said the officer.
"Thank you, Captain," said the guards.
I replaced the copper pot beside the kaissa table.
I looked down at the slave. "Have you finished the pastry?" I asked.
"Yes, Master," seh smiled.
"Clean your fingers. Suck and lick them," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said. I was growing hot for her. I must soon get her to a rack.
"It is no use, kind sirs," said Boots Tarsk-Bit, returning, carrying the two empty coin bowls. "They are empty."
"What of that pot?" asked the officer, indicating the one beside the kaissa table. "That contains earnings accruing to your troupe, does it not, from your kaissa booth?"
"Alas, it contains only three tarsk bits," lamented Boots Tarsk-Bit.
"Do your trust him?" asked the officer of one of the guards.
"Not I, Sir," responded the guard.
"Open it," said the officer.
"Very well," shrugged Boots. Then, as he picked up the kettle, a strange looke suddenly came over his face. She shook it. From within it came the unmistakable dlink of several coins.
Feverishly he drew a key out of his wallet. In a moment he had unlocked the padlock on the chain and drawn it, sliding through the handles, rattling, free. He removed the lid from the kettle.