“Here it is. I will quote verbatim:
” ‘Foolishness ‘twould be to demand of any established commercial firm that it limit its transactions with its divers customers merely to the immediate purchase involved at any specific moment in time. For none but reactionary pedants, who fail to grasp the nature of modern industry’s rise and growth, can think that any single instance of commercial exchange is but a fleeting node in the complex matrix of modern economic intercourse. Of necessity, both material and moral, all such transactions must be covered by legal bonds which encompass in their implicit nature the whole of modern society’s inescapable interdependence.'”
Zulkeh was silent for many long moments, as he examined this logic in his mind. At length, he nodded his head slowly. “The argument is irrefutable, I must admit. However, it remains the case that it cannot be applied to myself, for I was never informed of this provision when I purchased my ticket. Surely the Consortium is under the obligation of informing its customers of the full ramifications of buying a ticket from them!”
“By no means!” countered Mustelid. “The Consortium’s long-standing policy of ‘Silence is Consent’ has been upheld in court. I refer you, in this regard, to that well-known case in the annals of Groutch jurisprudence, The Consortium vs. Little Johnny Waif. This case was decided by that other most eminent of Groutch jurists, the Honorable Judge Greased Hand. His opinion concluded with the following impeccable reasoning—” Another quick searching of the pages.
” ‘No legally constituted firm of good reputation and proven stability can be held responsible for the time-consuming dissemination of all the picayune details and minutia of its manifold implicit contracts to other parties who may be involved in the endless permutations of such inherent contractual obligations. For, should such a slavishly legalistic doctrine be allowed to prevail, no concern operating along sound commercial lines could long endure, so burdened would it become by foolish and unnecessary paperwork.'”
Again Zulkeh was silent for some time, as he pondered the problem. Again he nodded his head slowly.
“The logic cannot be faulted. It appears, then, that I have behaved precipitously. I shall have to recompense the Consortium.”
“Nay, sir, do not so!” interrupted a voice suddenly. Turning in his seat, the mage beheld a youth seated at a nearby table.
“You addressed me, sirrah?”
“I did!” responded the youth, rising and advancing upon Zulkeh’s table. “I made my voice known!”
“What else is new?” sneered Mustelid. “Know, good sir,”—this by way of an aside to the wizard—”that this inflammatory stripling is a well-known malcontent, whose irresponsible frothings have plagued fair Grotum since he left the domain of his prominent family’s estates.”
Favoring the lawyer with fleering nostrils and a gaze in which scorn and contempt commingled in his feverish eyes, the youth spoke again to the wizard.
“Know, citizen, that my name is Holdabrand, and that I hold the Banner of Justice aloft!”
“Such is commendable,” spoke Zulkeh, “but what has it to do with me?”
“Forgive, citizen, my intrusion! But I could not help but overhear the poisoned words of this lackey of the moneyed interests! Thus do I hasten to counter his oily filth with the Right!”
The lawyer sputtered, but Zulkeh stilled him with a gesture. Turning back to the youth, he spoke. “Counter it, then, since you have made so bold your claim.”
Holdabrand took a chair and spoke in an urgent voice.
“Citizen, you cannot help but have seen with your own eyes how in recent years the fair land of Grotum, once known the world over for its happy and contented people, its stern but fair-minded rulers, its harmony of classes and masses, its simple but righteous ways, its noble customs and traditions—”
“How many more clauses, d’you think?” sneered Mustelid. “Twenty? Thirty?”
The youth glared but drove on: “—has become overrun by this foreign monstrosity, this alien arachnid, this avaricious octopoid, this slimy parasite, this—”
“Forty? Fifty?”
“—this Consortium—whose lust for wealth has led it to corrupt and bring down the most ancient and pure mores of our land, whose insatiable rapacity has led it to plunder even the smallest of Grotum’s treasures, to exploit even the feeblest of our resources—”