Kissur was by no means sleeping in the bale at that time. He aspired to see his philanthropy's results. To avoid attention, he took the boots off and stuck them in the hay, so that they looked like a sleeper's legs, noiselessly climbed on the barn roof and jumped from there to the main house. He took off his belt with a hook on the end, snatched a post on the roof with a hook and lowered himself down the belt, to a cornice encircling the house. He walked down the cornice to the entry hall. Hanging down there, he heard the peasants being accused of the servant's murder and he heard them breaking down at the torture and confessing their guilt.
In a while, the prisoners were taken away, the headman locked the money in the small metal safe in the corner and everybody left. Having waited for half an hour, Kissur carefully pried the wooden frame open with a knife and climbed inside.
Bemish woke up in the middle of the night — Kissur was missing. 'Where is he hanging his ass out?' Bemish got angry. The moon shined and the roofs of wing houses and utility shacks were clearly outlined on the night sky background. Just then, Bemish saw a man's silhouette sneaking along the main house rooftop with a sack under his armpit. Bemish shuddered and rubbed his eyes. The man jumped over to the garage roof and disappeared inside. 'Hold the thief!' a scream issued, and something glistened in the house. Bemish jumped.
Something boomed in the garage, its gate was thrown wide open and a truck rushed out puffing.
'Jump!' Kissur screamed.
Bemish leaped on the truck, tore the door open and fell on the seat. The truck scurried around the yard, kicked out the gate and sprinted down the slope. Awaken servants rushed after it but, since everybody was afraid that the robbers could start firing and make some holes in the lackeys' hides, — they limited their activities to the loud screams and flashlight hustling.
The headman silently contemplated the stripped safe. 'These robbers are crummy people,' he thought, 'in my benevolence, I didn't prosecute them for the murder and they thanked me in such a way!'
The truck swerved down the night road and, inside the truck Bemish castigated the Empire ex-first minister. Bemish finished and Kissur asked,
'Terence, have you killed anybody at the construction?'
The Earthman only flapped his hands at such a question.
'I also think that you haven't killed anybody,' Kissur agreed, 'then, how did the headman recognize this note?' and he started recounting, what happened between the headman and the peasants.
'I think,' the Earthman said, 'the problem is, that the headman has already sent the girl to his lord and he is afraid to call her back. That's why he kicked this hoax with the money off; the servant ran away somewhere or he will come in a week.'
'You think well,' Kissur said, 'and the peasants likely think the same way. Keep it.'
And to the financier's horror, the Empire ex-minister handed him over a wad of square notes that Bemish immediately recognized to be the Assalah bearer stocks.
'My God,' Bemish moaned, 'what is this?'
'These are your stocks. Do you remember the peasants' story, how the headman requested them as a gift?'
'Why?!'
'You said it yourself, that if you have these shares, you will be able to control Shavash.'
'Kissur! Firstly, I can buy low and sell high but I've never acquired securities yet with a bandit's lock pick. Secondly, exactly five minutes after this story comes out, not a single bank will agree to finance me. Thirdly, this story will surely come out, since the headman will complain about one of the robbers being a foreigner and there are not that many foreigners…'
'He won't run to complain,' Kissur said, 'or he will have to explain, how he got the shares as a gift.'
Bemish gestured with his hand and became silent.
It took them an hour to drive back to the beginning of the destroyed overpass, where Bemish and McCormick had abandoned the car in the morning — the car was still there. Kissur got out of the truck, threw the stolen stuff on the back seat and took the clean clothes out of the trunk.
'Change you clothes.'
Kissur drove the car and Bemish grouched, kept silence and, looking at Kissur, thought, 'He is not a man, he is a walking scandal.' They arrived at a crumbly town and stopped in front of a red lacquered gate. Bemish realized that it was a district precinct. It was probably the same precinct where Krasnov was whipped for an attempt to acquire the shares.
'Are you going to rob another precinct head?'
Kissur, not responding, knocked in the gate. The district head, having learned about the Emperor favorite's visit, put the clothes on and went out to meet them. Kissur introduced Bemish to him.
'We were inspecting the construction till the nightfall and we were barely able to get out,' Kissur explained.
In the morning, even before Kissur and Bemish walked downstairs, a bustle issued in the house. The official reported, bowing.
'Mr. Kissur! Your manor is located nearby, and a modest man named Khanni is the headman there. Yesterday night, two bums robbed the house and stole four hundred thousand! Probably, these two guys also killed his servant and lifted his money — the servant's body was found today in the riverside bushes!
Bemish understood some of the official's talk and froze.
They drove to the headman — a dozen Kissur's servants, that he called that night from the capital, joined them on the way. The district head entered the yard, with a large crowd already assembled, and Kissur stayed in the crowd screened by his servants.
The murdered servant's body was delivered, two peasants were brought in and the headman accused them.
'Everything is clear. These two made a deal with the bandits and robbed and killed my servant — they didn't expect me recognizing the money. You were going to rob the manor together next but, since you were arrested, the bums went ahead on their own. Answer me — where did you bump into them? Imagine it, I was trying to protect you before your lord, turned your sister over to him, so that he would become lenient.'
Here, the crowd moved and Kissur moved out of it surrounded by three sturdy chaps.
'Hey, Khanni! What was this girl you turned over to me?'
The headman went gray in the face with horror. The crowd reacted.
'How much, are you saying, they stole from me?' Kissur continued.
'Four hundred thousand,' the headman fretted. Here Kissur took the sack of his shoulder and emptied it right out for everybody to see.
'Khanni,' Kissur stated, 'when I gave you this manor, I said, 'Don't oppress the people, only take one tenth.' Yesterday, I was passing by, with a friend, and I decided to check, how you obey my orders, and when you arrested the people I gave money to, claimed this money for yourself, and told them that I dishonored their sister that I haven't even met, it looked to me, that you obeyed my orders like a pig you are — that you sucked on the people's marrow and drank their blood. I decided to look in your safe and I carried away from it not four hundred thousand but, rather, six and half thousand and, secondly, I carried away from it the loan agreements signed with my signature — and this is a fake signature. Then I realized that I didn't waste my time poking into this safe, because you would doubtfully have shown me these faked agreements!'
The headman could not speak — he bleated and crawled at Kissur's feet.
'Spit it out,' Kissur barked. 'How many girls have you sold to the whorehouses in my name?'
'Twenty of them, at least,' somebody in the crowd responded.
Here, Kissur leaped at the headman and crushed his nose and many other parts, and then ordered to 'hang this fucker on the gate' — Bemish could barely persuade him to call the lynching off.
They still stuffed the headman in the stocks at the punishment pole. By mid afternoon, hundreds of peasants drifted into the manor.
'That's what happened,' the peasants were saying, 'the damned headman lied to us and cheated the master! Thanks to the master for coming here and sorting things out!'
Kissur ordered to set a table across the pole, sat down at the table and started to hand the loan
