"Something the matter, sir?"
"No—no," Norvis said. "Suppose you get on with your story. How come you left your farm?"
"Well," Ganz peKresh said hesitantly, "it—it was this new thing. The new thing the Elders have. I don't know what it is, but all of a sudden I couldn't sell my crop."
Norvis stiffened. Those Earthmen! he thought savagely. All the old hate and bitterness surged up again now. He set his jaw. "Tell me." he said, trying to seem sympathetic. "Tell me all about it."
"There's not much to tell. The Elders got something from that School to make their farms prosper, and suddenly the price of my beans dropped to nothing. I—I—I had to sell my farm. I couldn't meet the competition."
"Coming from the School, eh? And they gave it to the Elders?"
"That's right, Ancient. There was a big ceremony at Gelusar, I remember. I heard that people came from all over. And one of those Earthmen presented whatever this was to the Council and—and the next I knew, Elder Danoy bought my farm from me. The only way I could support my family was to go to sea. So here I am." He smiled with a false gaiety; it was a weak, pathetic attempt at expressing an emotion he did not feel.
Norvis stood up. ' "The Elders kept it themselves, eh? Just like them," he muttered. They took my hormone, he thought, and of course produced it in a limited supply-all of which the Elders took for themselves. He paced up and down, ignoring Ganz peKresh. So the Elders are getting richer, and the small farmers are being squeezed off their land.
He turned. "All right, Ganz peKresh. That'll be all for now. I'll explain your duties in the morning."
Norvis sat alone in his cabin for a while after the ex-farmer had gone, struggling to control himself. He felt, once again, the same righteous indignation he had experienced on that long-gone day in the square in front of the main Bel-rogas building, when he had shaken his fist at an impassive Smith and called him a liar in front of the whole School.
What did the Earthmen want? Why were they doing this? It could only be the Earthmen. They were the ones who had stolen his notes, who had trumped up his expulsion, who had seen to it that the Council of Elders had managed to get control of the growth hormone. Naturally, with the already rich Elders growing wealthier, and with the greater supply of peych-beans bringing down the asking price and cutting the small man out of the bidding, the Earthmen's actions were going to have disastrous consequences for Nidor's carefully balanced economy, which had been happily stable for thousands of years. There was no room in it for a small, tight group of very wealthy men, and a large group of itinerant, landless ex-farmers. And that was exactly the situation that was being created.
Deliberately! The Earthmen were deliberately changing the old ways, twisting, distorting, burying the Scripture and the Law under the weight of their innovations and manipulations. Norvis shivered with the strength of his realization; it occurred to him that he might be the first Nidorian ever to suspect that the Earthmen were not as virtuous as they claimed to be. It was a staggering thought.
"But it's not too late to return to the old ways," Norvis said aloud. The Earthmen had been on Nidor not ninety years, and ninety years was but a moment in Nidorian history. Surely the vast weight of four thousand years of tradition could overcome less than six cycles of meddling. The damage could be undone—if someone acted in time.
Norvis blew out the candle and went on deck to find the Captain. Del peFenn liked to stand this watch himself; it was a long-ingrained custom of his.
"Hoy, Captain!"
"Hoy, Norvis.'' The Captain was standing alone on deck, with the evening drizzle beginning to dampen him. He was staring out into the grayness; the Lesser Light was out, and its faint beam illuminated the harbor of Gycor.
"I've just been talking to the new man, Captain."
"Oh?" Del peFenn did not look around, but continued to stare out at the shore lights of the sleeping city. "Did you find out what a man his age is doing signing up as a swabhand?"
"Yes," Norvis said. Quickly, he explained how Ganz peKresh had lost his farm, not bothering to mention his own part in the development of the growth hormone.
Captain Del cursed vividly when he heard the whole story. "Those Elders! It's a wonder the people don't fight them! How many thousands of years is it that we've lived so infernally at peace?"
"The Elders aren't at fault, sir. It's the Earthmen who are responsible," Norvis asserted.
"Hmmm. Maybe so," the Captain said, after some thought. "But I've never trusted those old men anyway. They're probably conniving with the Earthmen right down the line."
"Sir—"
"What is it, Norvis?" "We're heading for Tammulcor next." "That's right. Straight around the coast to Tammulcor. Why?"
Norvis nodded. "I'm going to ask for my release when we get there. I think I could do something about this whole business—at least I'm going to try."
"You're crazy," Del told him calmly. "You can't fight the Elders. The whole world's bound to them hand and foot. It's always been that way."
"I'm not thinking of fighting the Elders, sir. I don't want to fight anyone. I just want to open people's eyes! They 're all blind, every one, and they 're being led right over a cliff!''
Captain Del was silent for a long while, and there was no sound aboard the ship but the steady splatter of the rain against the wooden hull of the ship, and the plinking of the drops into the water of the harbor. After a while, he said: "You'd be smarter to stay with me. My son is just a baby, Norvis; I need help now. If you stay with me, you might just find yourself a shipowner yourself, some day.'' He turned from the rail and faced the younger man. "I've been thinking of buying another ship. I'll need a good man to be her skipper.''
Norvis shook his head slowly. "No, sir, "he said. "I appreciate all you've done for me—but I think I've got a job on the mainland."
"Very well," the Captain said. "I won't hold you back. I'll give you your release at Tammulcor. But I want you to know I'm not anxious to lose you."
"Thank you, sir."
"And when you come creeping back here with your tail tucked between your legs, remember that there'll be a place for you aboard this ship any time."
"You don't seem very confident that I'll get anywhere, do you, sir?"
"No," said the Captain. "No, I'm not."
The rain continued to pour down. Neither of them said anything further.
Norvis went ashore at the huge port of Tammulcor, four years' pay weighing down the pockets of his sea-man's tunic. The first thing he decided to do was spend some of it on clothes; a sailor's uniform would be somewhat conspicuous in inland Gelusar, and he had no intention of calling attention to himself until he had made a few inquiries.
He bought several well-tailored vests and shorts, and packed them into a new clothing carrier. Then he checked on the schedule of the next river packet upstream to the Holy City. He found he had a few hours to kill.
So, still wearing his uniform—common in a coast town like Tammulcor—he strolled into a waterfront beerhouse and ordered a glass of the heavy, warm brew that was the favorite drink of Dimay Province.
"The Great Light illumine you, barman," he said. "What's the news from Holy Gelusar?"