On the four hundred and eightieth day, Iven paid the third six-fee award instalment before buying the boots he had ordered.
The account keeper entered the receipt against his retained labour earnings. Forty-eight of the fixed fifty-four had now reached the holding account. One payment remained. Asa’s mother had still chosen not to draw her allocation, and the keeper did not turn that choice into permission to spend it elsewhere.
Iven took his receipt, put on the new boots and went to the ascent.
The catch had passed its loaded test the previous afternoon.
A broad beam worked between the old anchor beds, its bearing surfaces newly fitted and its release kept inside the guarded station. If the carriage overran its proper holding place, the catch would take it against a designed length of yielding timber and rope. The used test pieces lay on the ground beside Fera Noll’s feet.
She had kept them for the crew to see.
“That’s what it does,” she said, pointing to the crushed wood. “We replace that after a catch. We don’t straighten it and say it looks serviceable.”
Iven bent to look. His own fitting marks remained on the iron shoes above it. The test had not shifted them.
