“Don’t worry,” Azzie said, and turned to leave. Then he looked again at the precious stones scattered underfoot. He said, “Look here, Rognir, you seem a good sort for a dwarf. How about if you and I strike a bargain?”
“What did you have in mind?”
“I have a certain enterprise afoot. I can’t say much about it now, but it has to do with the upcoming Millennial celebrations. I need the felixite and your jewels, because without money a demon can do nothing. If I get the backing I expect from the High Evil Powers, I will be able to repay you tenfold.”
“But I was planning to take these home and add them to my heap,” Rognir said. He stooped down and began to pick up his jewels.
“You probably have a pretty big heap already, haven’t you?”
“Oh, it’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Rognir said, with the complacency of a dwarf whose heap could bear comparison with the best.
“Then why not leave these stones with me? Your heap at home is plenty big already.”
“That doesn’t stop me from wanting it to be bigger!”
“Of course not. But if you add them to your heap, your money won’t be working for you. Whereas if you invest this with me, it will.”
“Money working for me? What a curious concept! I hadn’t known money was supposed to work.”
“It is a concept from the future, and it makes very good sense. Why shouldn’t money work? Everything else has to.”
“That’s a good point,” Rognir said. “But what assurance do I have that you will keep your word? All I’ll have is your word that your word’s good if I take this offer, whereas if I don’t take the offer, I’ll still have all my gems.”
“I can make this offer irresistibly attractive to you,” Azzie said. “Instead of following normal banking procedure, I am going to pay you your profit in advance.”
“My profit? But I haven’t even invested with you.”
“I realize that. Therefore, as an inducement, I am going to give you the interest you will make in a year’s time investing with me.”
“And what do I have to do?”
“Just open your hands.”
“Well, all right,” said Rognir, who, like most dwarves, couldn’t resist a profit.
“Here you are,” Azzie said. He gave Rognir two of the smaller diamonds, one ruby with the tiniest flaw, and three perfect emeralds.
Rognir accepted them and looked at them uncertainly. But aren’t these mine?”
“Of course! They are your profit!”
“But they were mine to begin with!”
“I know. But you loaned them to me.”
“I did? I don’t remember.”
“You remember accepting the profit, don’t you, when I offered it?”
“Of course. Who turns down a profit?”
“You did quite right. But your profit was based on loaning me the stones so I could make your profit from them. Now you have several of them back. But I still owe you those that I returned as well as the rest. They are principal. In a year you will get them all back. And you have already gotten the profit.”
“I’m not so sure of this,” Rognir mused.
“Trust me,” Azzie said. “You’ve made a wise investment. It has been a pleasure to do business with you.”
“Wait a minute!”
Azzie scooped up the rest of the stones and, not forgetting the piece of felixite, vanished into the upper world. Demons are able to vanish, of course, and this generally gives them a working sense of theater.
Chapter 6
It was long since Azzie had visited Rome. This city was an especial favorite of demons, and they had long been accustomed to travel there for sight-seeing, sometimes individually, often in groups of hundreds, complete with women and children demons, and accompanied by guide demons who lectured on what had gone on in this place or that. There was no lack of good things to see. Above all, the cemeteries were high on the list of attractions. Reading the tombstone inscriptions afforded much amusement and cemeteries were good melancholy places for reflection, what with their tall dark cypresses and ancient moss-covered monuments. And, too, Rome was an exciting place to be in those days, what with the continual electing of this Pope and excommunicating of that Pope, as well as the opportunity to help things go a little worse.