his master gives him. But a
free worker for pay gets money which he can spend for whatever he wants,
and he can save money, and if he finds that he can make more money
working for somebody else, he can quit his employer and get a better
job."

"We hadn't thought of that," Khreggor Chmidd said. "A slave, even a
chief-slave, was never allowed to have money of his own, and if he got
hold of any, he couldn't spend it. But now...." A glorious vista seemed
to open in front of him. "And he can accumulate money. I don't suppose a
common worker could, but an upper slave.... Especially a
chief-slave...." He slapped his mouth, and said, "Freedman!" five times.

"Yes, Khreggor." That was Ridgerd Schferts (Fedrig Daffysan; Fiscal
Management). "I am sure we could all make quite a lot of money, now that
we are freedmen."

Some of them were briefly puzzled; gradually, comprehension dawned.
Obray, Count Erskyll, looked distressed; he seemed to be hoping, vainly,
that they weren't thinking of what he suspected they were.

"How about the Mastership freedmen?" another asked. "We, here, will be
paid by our Lords-Mas- ... Lords-Employer. But everybody from the green
robes down were provided for by the Mastership. Who will pay them, now?"

"Why, the Mastership, of course," Ridgerd Schferts said. "My
Management--my Lord-Employer's, I mean--will issue the money to pay
them."

"You may need a new printing-press," Lanze Degbrend said. "And an awful
lot of paper."

"This planet will need currency acceptable in interstellar trade,"
Erskyll said.

Everybody looked blankly at him. He changed the subject:

"Mr. Chmidd, could you or Mr. Hozhet tell me what kind of a constitution
the Mastership has?"

"You mean, like the paper you read in the Convocation?" Hozhet asked.
"Oh, there is nothing at all like that. The former Lords-Master simply
ruled."

No. They reigned. This servile _tammanihal_--another ancient Terran
word, of uncertain origin--ruled.

"Well, how is the Mastership organized, then?" Erskyll persisted. "How
did the Lord Nikkolon get to be Chairman of the Presidium, and the Lord
Javasan to be Chief of Administration?"

That was very simple. The Convocation, consisting of the heads of all
the Masterly families, actually small clans, numbered about twenty-five
hundred. They elected the seven members of the Presidium, who drew lots
for the Chairmanship. They served for life. Vacancies were filled by
election on nomination of th