r insurance. Risk companies appeared financially sound
once more. They had more business than ever, and no more claims than
usual. Suddenly their stocks went up--or rather, what people were
willing to pay for them went up, because Hoddan had forbidden the sale
of any stock after the pirate fleet appeared.

Now he asked hopefully if he could reimburse the owners of the ship he'd
captured off Walden. He could. Could he pay them even the profit they'd
have made between the loss of their ship and the arrival of a
replacement? He could. Could he pay off the shippers of Rigellian furs
and jewelry from the Cetis stars, and the owners of the bulk _melacynth_
that had brought so good a price on Krim? He could. In fact, he had. The
insurance companies he now owned lock, stock, and barrel had already
paid the claims on the ship and its cargo, and it would be rather
officious to add to that reimbursement.

Hoddan was abruptly appalled. He insisted on a bonus being paid,
regardless, which his lawyers had some trouble finding a legal fiction
to fit. Then he brooded over his position. He wasn't a business man. He
hadn't expected to make out so well. He'd thought to have to labor for
years, perhaps, to make good the injury he'd done the ship owners and
merchants in order to help the emigrants from Colin. But it was all
done, and here he was with a fortune and the framework of a burgeoning
financial empire. He didn't like it.

Gloomily, he explained matters to his attorneys. They pointed out that
he had a duty, an obligation, from the nature of his unexpected success.
If he let things go, now, the currently thriving business of risk
insurance would return to its former unimportance. His companies had
taken on extra help. More bookkeepers and accountants worked for him
this week than last. More mail clerks, secretaries, janitors and
scrubwomen. Even more vice presidents! He would administer a serious
blow to the economy of Krim if he caused a slackening of employment by
letting his companies go to pot. A slackening of employment would cause
a drop in retail trade, an increase in inventories, a depression in
industry....

Hoddan thought gloomily of his grandfather. He'd written to the old
gentleman and the emigrant fleet would have delivered the letter. He
couldn't disappoint his grandfather!

He morbidly accepted his attorneys' advice, and they arranged
immediately to take over the forty-first as well as the forty-second
and-third