"Andre Norton - Moon Singer 1 - Moon of Three Rings" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

and any crime committed within was given speedy punishment. So that
this meeting place was also a site for the cautious sounding out between
lords for the settlement of feuds, and perhaps the making of new alliances.
The penalty for any man breaking the peace of the fair was outlawry—the
same as a sentence of death, but perhaps in its way, more torturous and
lingering for the criminal.

This much we all knew, though we sat in patience as the guide tape told
it over again. For on a Trader one does not ever push aside any briefing as
unnecessary or time-wasting. Then Foss launched once more into the
apportioning of planetside duties. These varied in rotation among us from
world to world. There was always a guard for the ship—but the rest of us
could explore in pairs in our free time. From the morning gong until
midafternoon we would man our own booth for meeting with native
merchants. Foss had visited Yiktor once before, as second in command of
the Coal Sack, before he had his own ship, and now drew upon his notes to
refresh his memory.

As is true on all Free Traders, though the cargomaster handles the
main cargo and the business of the ship at large, each member of the crew
is expected to develop some special interest or speciality, to keep his eyes
open, and to suggest new products which might add to the general
prosperity of the voyage. Thus we were encouraged to explore all such
marts in pairs and to take an interest in local produce, sniffing out a need
of the natives which we might in the future supply, or picking up some
hitherto overlooked export.

The main cargo from Yrjar was Lidj's concern; it was sprode, a thick
juice pressed from certain leaves, then hardened into blocks which could
be easily stored in our lowest hold after we had emptied it of bales of
murano, a shimmering, thick silk which the Yiktor native weavers seized
upon avidly. They patiently unraveled its threads to combine with their
finest material, thus making a length go twice as far. Sometimes a lord
would pay a full season's land tribute for a cloak length of unadulterated
fabric. The sprode blocks, transferred at section base to another ship,
would end up halfway across the galaxy, where they were made into a
wine which the Zacathans declared heightened their mental powers and
cured several diseases of that ancient lizard race. Though I can't imagine
why a Zacathan needed his mental powers heightened—they already had
quite a start on mankind in that direction!

But the sprode would not provide a full cargo, and it was up to us to
discover odds and ends to fill in. Guesses did not always pay off. There
were times when what seemed a treasure turned out to be a worthless
burden, eventually to be space-dumped. But gambles had done so well in
the past that we were certain they would pay off again for all of us.

Any Trader with a lucky choice behind him had a better chance for
advancement, with hopes for not too long a time before he could ask for an
owner's contract and a higher share in a venture. It meant keeping your