Chapter 4. The Treasure-Hoard of the Thain

A few days later, Pippin found himself almost relieved to be seeing the last of the Brandybucks on their way – meaning Merry and Estella, of course, who'd lingered after the rest of the contingent had taken their leave. 

The young Thain found himself thinking about the small group of Tooks that had departed for Buckland immediately after the convocation, travelling with the bulk of the Bucklanders who had attended: the Thain's chief engineer, Aldebrand, in charge of any project involving digging and building, and four of the hobbits under him, with the aim of gaining additional insight into the uses of black powder. The Tookish engineers hadn't seemed at all reluctant about leaving again despite the general Tookish opinion of Buckland and the hobbits who lived there. 

Pippin didn't blame his cousins for their eagerness. They had spent most of the spring and early summer learning the properties of black powder. Before sailing away, Gandalf had shared the secret of the stuff with the Brandybucks, that the art of fireworks should not be lost from Middle-earth with his departure. The Bucklanders had been practising and refining their knowledge ever since, including the use of the powerful substance to blow great holes in earth and rock. Pippin still found it astonishing that the wizard had identified the descendants of the Oldbucks as the most appropriate keepers of such knowledge amongst all the Peoples of Middle-earth. But then, he had to admit that Merry was one of the steadiest fellows of his acquaintance. The Brandybucks evidenced a certain quality of solidity, balance, and good sense, perhaps because their ancestry mixed the blood of all three ancient groups of hobbits: Fallohides, Harfoots and Stoors.

Even now, the Brandybucks kept the secret close. Though Pippin had persuaded Merry that the trained engineers amongst the Tooks could use black powder responsibly, all manufacture of the stuff was confined to Buckland, and the Brandybucks continued to tightly control access to the product to only those Tooks and Brandybucks who were trained in the art of digging and delving.

Thus, it was a major concession on the part of the Brandybucks that shortly before Midyear's Day, Pippin's engineers had returned from Buckland bearing quantities of the powder in barrels. In briefing the Thain and Steward on all he'd learned, the Thain's chief engineer had confessed that he craved a few weeks of additional training to safely use the dangerous stuff. After this consultation with Aldi, Pippin had ordered that the barrels be stored in the Tookland's deepest and most secure store-hole – near the Smials, but not too near. He'd also taken Aldi's caution to heart and arranged a further visit for him and several of his subordinates. The rest, of course, were needed on digging projects that must be completed before winter set in. 

From the way the farewelling Tooks had carried on, one might have thought that going to Buckland was more dangerous than staying home and dealing with the explosive powder, although only half-trained. But then, the Tooks had a long history with the Brandybucks. Their general knowledge of the black powder, at this point in time, mainly concerned Gandalf's fireworks. How could something so beautiful be deadly dangerous? But that is the way of things, Pippin thought to himself. The less the Tooks know about a matter, the more they think they have to say. And I've seen an awful lot of deadly but beautiful things in my short life... including the Lady Galadriel and Queen Arwen... and my own Troll's Bane when freshly polished.

Pippin had heard too many Tooks asking one or another of the group of Tookish engineers departing for Buckland two days earlier, 'Are you sure you want to go back to the Wilds o' Buckland?'

Now he stood in the rosy light of early dawn in the courtyard of the Smials, one hand grasping Merry's reins as Merry mounted his pony, and laughed up at his cousin in the saddle. 'Are you certain you want to go back to the Wilds o' Buckland?' he said, echoing those earlier farewellers. 

'Completely!' Merry responded in the same vein. 'Why, if I stay any longer, I might become so accustomed to civilisation, I might forget how to cross over the River on a Ferry!' 

'And that would be a bad thing?' Pippin retorted. Seeing the barely concealed concern in his older cousin's eyes, he kept a broad grin on his face. 'Ferries are completely unnatural, as you well know! Give me a good, solid Bridge any day!' 

Estella, for her part, hid a yawn and said bad-temperedly to Merry, 'Bad enough that you rousted me out of bed extra early this morning, that we might make a leisurely ride of it and still arrive at the Cockerel by teatime... but now you make me sit here through hours of farewelling...' 

'It has hardly been hours! The Sun's barely rubbed the sleep from her eyes!' Merry protested. 

'Next time, put a cocklebur under his saddle pad,' Pippin said behind his hand to Estella, who grinned back at him in one of her quicksilver changes of mood as he added, 'That's what I always do.' 

'I'll keep that in mind!' she answered, and turning her pony's head towards the road, she urged the beast into movement, calling over her shoulder, 'Last one to the Cockerel's a mouldy apple!' 

'Can't have that!' Merry cried cheerily, turning his pony to follow as Pippin released his hold on the reins, stepped back and gave the pony a slap on the hindquarters to encourage him on his way. 

'Fair journey!' the Thain shouted to his cousin, and was reassured to see a jaunty wave in return. 

And now to get back to the pressing business of the Tookland, which this day involved putting away in a safe place the unexpected windfall – miraculous blessing was more like it – that had resulted from the outpouring of generosity on the part of so many of the Shire-folk who had attended the convocation. To think of the wonder of that day still took his breath away. Though perhaps, the Thain thought to himself, this was the Outer Shire's way of fulfilling any lingering obligation to the Tooks for throwing the ruffians out and ending the Troubles, even though Pippin himself would have given full credit for it all to Frodo and Merry. 

In any event, Hoard Hill was waiting, ready to be pressed into further service, for it was already sheltering the small remainder of Tookland's supply of ready coin, along with the relatively recently arrived black powder from Buckland. The "treasury" – if one could call it that – had been significantly diminished after Pippin had withdrawn the requisite amount necessary for quarterly salaries and contracted payments and the hefty entrance fees for the All-Shire Race. The generous purses from the Race were supposed to swell the amount even after taking care of several pending obligations. 

They might as well have stayed home from the races. The next infusion of cash would not come until the annual pony sale took place, followed by the Tournament where archers would come from all over the Shire and as far away as Bree to shoot for the golden arrow. They would certainly have to count their pennies between now and then...

At least we have a few pennies to count, bless my fellow hobbits' generous hearts, Pippin thought.

In any event, if all went well this day, Pippin might be able to mix business with a little personal pleasure... if he could only get past Regi's stubborn insistence on upholding tradition, that was. 

Which was not at all as easy as it might be, once he was back in the study, confronting his Steward. 'This deep in the Shire proper, I hardly need an escort to travel a few miles...' 

'Have you forgot that sounder of swine...?' Regi countered. 

Pippin waved a nonchalant hand. 'Which Reni's hunters dispatched, quite handily too as I recall, to the last boar in that sounder. And even with the females farrowing, there have been no reports of wild swine menacing the farmers in the area since the Spring.' 

'Stray dogs...' was Regi's next stock argument. As Pippin had known it would be. This was not the first time they'd had this discussion, nor would it be the last. 

'We've had no reports of sheep-worrying since Ferdi's encounter with that pack of dogs,' Pippin countered. 'He shot the largest of them, and Starfire trampled the most aggressive of the pack under his hoofs, from all reports...' 

'After Ferdi was savaged by the beasts and nearly eaten alive,' Regi said grimly. The head of the Thain's escort, tracking a lost and wandering Faramir over uneven ground, had been set upon by a pack of stray dogs bold enough to pull down his pony. The pack might well have torn both Ferdi and his Dapple to pieces but for the timely intervention of the fiery stallion of Rohan, drawn perhaps by Dapple's shrieks as the dogs attacked her. 'Do you honestly consider that occurrence an argument in your favour?' 

'I'll have my sword,' Pippin began, but his steward interrupted. 

'And you'll have your escort at your side, with their bows in hand.' 

Pippin met his Steward's challenging gaze for a moment before he sighed and capitulated. 'One escort,' he said. 'With his bow in hand.' 

Regi nodded. 'Very good, Sir,' he said, and Pippin had the feeling that the Steward had argued for a full escort for the very purpose of making the ever-present attendance of one hobbit of the escort palatable to the Thain. In other words, Reginard had won the ongoing conflict. Once again. 

Still, I have a few tricks up my sleeve yet, he thought to himself after Regi left to arrange the loading of the pack ponies. Though Pippin had resolved that he would no longer try to manipulate his cousins to do his will, this case hardly fit such a designation, he thought. All he wanted was a little peace and quiet. A little time alone to think without interruption. Was that asking too much?

'Going to Hoard Hill,' he told his head of escort after summoning Ferdibrand to the study. 'I don't like keeping all that coin lying around... it's untidy, and too tempting to spend it all, just sitting there, all convenient and that.' 

Ferdi snorted. 'As if you'd go to the market with the Tookland's entire income, at least until the Tournament and Pony Sale, just to buy a few ribbons and a pocketful of boiled sweets!' 

'It sounds quite tempting at that,' Pippin said. 'And perhaps a carved box to keep all my ill-gotten gains in! Be that as it may, there's no good place to put the stuff here at the Smials, so we might as well make the treasure-hoard of the Thain live up to its name.' 

The treasury was gone, of course. Vanished under Ferumbras, or perhaps the old hobbit's mother Lalia, before him. In the place of Tookland's gold, silver and jewels, someone had substituted sacks full of worthless pebbles in the dusty trunks, barrels and chests stored in the cavern at a little distance from the Great Smials. Ferdi had seen for himself the bags of unremarkable pebbles when Pippin had introduced him to the storage-hole before they'd left for the All-Shire Race. One might even say that Hoard Hill was home to a different sort of treasure these days, considering how the barrels of Tookland's store of black powder far outnumbered the few chests containing gold and silver.

And now, Pippin presented the head of escort with a dilemma he hoped Ferdi would have difficulty solving. 'I'm of a mind to go afoot, this trip, leading the pack-ponies,' he said. 'It's a beautiful day, and I have a yearning to stretch my legs.' He sighed. 'I can't go very far or for a long time, of course,' he said, 'not like Bilbo or Frodo after him, who were often away from home when the urge to wander took them.' 

For want of anything better, such as a Ring that would allow him to disappear at will and escape an escort's notice, he jingled the few coins in his pocket and gazed into a far distance. 'Of course, I'm in good company, considering our family history. Hildifons... Isengar...' 

'None of your nonsense now, cousin,' Ferdi said, but then the head of escort quickly apologised. 'I beg your pardon, Sir, it's not my place...' 

Pippin laughed. 'No,' he said, 'It's quite Regi's place to rein me in when my fancy takes the bit in its teeth and begins to run away with me...' He could see that this further display of whimsy on his part was only increasing Ferdi's discomfort, which might work in his favour, in any event. 

'But here is my quandary,' he went on, suddenly serious. 'As you well know, the treasure-store of the Thain is a tight secret,' he said. 'A handful of hobbits know about the place: the Thain, the Steward, the Chief Engineer, and yourself, as the Head of the Thain's Escort.' 

'True,' Ferdi acknowledged uncomfortably. 

Keep him off balance, that's the ticket, Pippin thought rather uncharitably to himself. But he was fighting for a breath of free air, a chance to think his own thoughts. The Thainship was suffocating him, as it were. The respite at his family's farm after the All-Shire Race had been both blessing and curse: blessing for the rest and restoration it had afforded, and curse for the same reason – for now he could perceive the walls that imprisoned him here at the Great Smials, walls that felt as if they were closing in. 

Ah, for a breath of fresh air! Unencumbered, as it were... 'So,' he forged on. 'I intend to walk, at a pleasant pace, pack a picnic, wander – as if aimless, but not aimless, if you take my meaning, as I will fetch up against Hoard Hill eventually...' 

Ferdi was following this wandering speech with some difficulty, Pippin thought. He was sure his no-nonsense cousin was itching to tell him to get to the point. 

Which Ferdi wouldn't, of course. As a "working hobbit" (despite being a direct descendent of the Old Took), having become a hunter after the loss of his father's fortune, and now head of the Thain's escort, Ferdi knew his place and kept strictly to it as best he could manage. 

'So if you accompany me,' Pippin said now, going to the crux of the argument he'd constructed for just this occasion, 'you'd have to ride a pony, which would quite spoil the feeling of being "just" a hobbit walking-party rather than a serious journey...' 

'I...' Ferdi began, but Pippin held up a hand to stop him. 

'...and yet if you send another of the escort instead, why then, that would be letting another hobbit in on the secret. And you know what they say about secrets shared...' 

'I can walk,' Ferdi said firmly. 

'Well of course you can walk!' Pippin agreed heartily. 'But,' he said, tilting his head to one side and looking at his head of escort consideringly, 'is it fair of me to ask you to walk such a distance? With your leg, and all.' Although Ferdi had healed enough to ride the pony of Rohan in the All-Shire Race after his encounter with the vicious dogs, Pippin had noticed that his limp tended to return towards the end of the day, though most hobbits would have been too polite to mention it. 

'I can walk,' Ferdi repeated, gritting his teeth as he began, until he took himself once more in hand and spoke calmly again. 'If I have to, I can walk the length of Middle-earth and back again, in performing what is only my duty.' His look said, Remember, Thain, that the hobbits of your escort must be able to shoot accurately, ride with skill, and run far.

'And swim, if I have my way,' Pippin said under his breath, to be met with a startled look from his cousin. But his determination that the hobbits of his escort would learn to swim as one of their requirements to serve in that position was neither here nor there, at least at this particular moment. He hadn't quite argued Regi around to this point, but he had every confidence in doing so, no matter how long it took. And with Regi's backing, the hobbits of the escort would not have a leg to stand on between them, in a manner of speaking. Of course, swimming didn't involve standing, as it were. The exercise might even strengthen the muscles in Ferdi's damaged leg. Pippin brightened at the thought. 

As if the lightening of his expression was a signal, Ferdi gave a firm nod. 'Right then,' he said. 'I saw the stable lads bringing out pack ponies just now when Hilly said you'd sent for me. So let us not keep them waiting on the stones. Do you need me to fetch food from the kitchens?' 

'Regi has already seen to all the arrangements,' Pippin said. He gave Ferdi a matching nod, surrendering this round to his steward and head of escort. 'Let us make the best of this beautiful day.' 

Each took hold of two pack ponies, and they started out of the courtyard, in the direction away from Tuckborough, deeper into the wild, high Green Hills to the west of the Great Smials that separated Tuckborough from Tookbank, though they soon turned southward. There were no roads in this part of the country. Some tracks could be found, skirting the side of one great hill or another, most of them leading to isolated farms or cots. But no trail had been deliberately laid down to reach their particular destination. The Thain or Steward's infrequent journeys from the Great Smials to the hidden storage place gave the grass plenty of time to spring up again after the passage of a hobbit and pony or two, leaving no sign of their passage. 

A beaten track might emerge, Pippin mused, now that the engineers had stored Tookland's supply of black powder in the Dwarf-built storage hole in Hoard Hill. In which case, he might need to ask his Chief Engineer to dig another hole for the treasury, such as it was. At the moment, it didn't seem to him to be a pressing need. Especially now, with Strider's Edict in place these past seven years, banning Men from the Shire. He could see no need to go to great lengths to hide the treasure hoard these days. 

The day was turning out quiet, pleasant but boring, quite as Pippin had intended. Tedium, that was just the ticket. If the duty could be made boring enough, Ferdi himself might join Pippin in his campaign to persuade the Steward that an escort was not absolutely necessary every time the Thain stirred from his study. 

'How did you mean to manage it?' Ferdi said out of the blue, when they'd been walking for perhaps an hour. 

'What was that?' Pippin said, jarred out of his thoughts. 

Ferdi's gesture took in the ponies following them. 'Four ponies,' he said. 'How did you mean to manage four ponies by yourself, had your scheme to discourage me from accompanying you been successful? Even though each pony carries two chests' worth o' coins, and each chest is divided between two bags... Did you intend to lift those heavy bags off the ponies by yourself? For as I recall, though I could lift one of those chests by myself if I had to, it seemed much less onerous to carry one chest between two hobbits from the storeroom to the Thain's quarters and from the Thain's quarters to the stables where we loaded the ponies...' 

' 'Twas that obvious, was it?' Pippin said. 

'But your leg,' Ferdi said in a passable imitation of Pippin's voice. 'And you know what they say about secrets shared...' 

'I suppose I was obvious, at that,' Pippin said. He waved his free arm at the surrounding hills. 'But look around us! Calm, peaceful...' He tapped the sword at his side. 'And even if it weren't, well, my faithful Troll-bane here would go a long way to discourage any problem that might pop up.' 

'So how did you mean to manage it?' Ferdi persisted. 'Four ponies?' 

'I would have made two trips,' Pippin said, glancing at his head of escort out of the corner of his eye. 'I'd have had Old Tom put up two of the ponies, to wait until I returned from the first trip. Summer days are long enough, I'd ha' managed to be back from the second journey before darkness fell. And I'd be accomplishing a necessary task into the bargain, giving the Tooks no reason to grumble. I'd make two glorious journeys, there and back again...' He sighed at the thought. 'Just think on it. Having the entire day to myself...' 

'With no escort at your heels,' Ferdi said. 'Clever.' 

'I certainly thought so,' Pippin said. 'Obviously I was not clever enough. Perhaps the Tooks ought to have made you Thain instead.' He almost laughed at his cousin's shudder, but said only, 'At this rate, we'll be back well before teatime.' At the next thought that struck him, however, he couldn't seem to help laughing. 'We could always go "there and back again" after returning to the Smials. Nothing stopping us, if you like.' 

Ferdi had no answer to that. Since he was usually off duty after teatime, unless the Thain had a "little commission" for him to fulfil, going "there and back again" once in a day probably suited him perfectly well. 

They had begun by following a track that wound deep into the hills, crossing shallow streams, passing through copses of trees. In another hour, they'd leave this faint trail and strike out into uncharted, unmarked country. Two or three hours after that, depending on how leisurely their pace was, they'd reach their unremarkable-looking destination, indistinguishable from the surrounding hills, unless one knew what one was looking for. 

The entrance to the store-hole, difficult to make out from the base of the hill, or even half-way up it, was three-quarters of the way from the valley floor to the top of the hill. Even if someone were to happen upon it on accident, if he did not know its secret, he'd think it a simple overhang on an outcropping of rock, a place where a traveller might stop to wait out a storm. An old fire-circle of stones stood there, but to Pippin's knowledge, it hadn't ever seen use. It was simply part of the illusion established by the Dwarves who had delved the place and disguised the entrance. 

Upon reaching the hidden entrance, Pippin nodded to Ferdi. 'You know how to open it,' he said. 'Go ahead.' 

'Don't you want to have a bite to eat first?' Ferdi said, but the Thain shook his head. 

'Not here,' Pippin said. 'We'll take care of this business as quickly as we may and then descend the hill before we have our picnic. Near the bottom of the hill, a spring emerges from the hillside. We can water the ponies and ourselves, then hobble them and let them graze for a bit while we do a bit of grazing ourselves from the veritable feast I am sure my wife personally saw to it was packed up for us.' 

'That's another reason why you need an escort, you know,' Ferdi said, running his hand over the apparently bare dirt and rock and then pressing at a certain spot Pippin had shown him on their previous journey to this place. 

'What's that?' Pippin said, watching the opening suddenly appear as what looked like a solid slab of rock swung inward, leaving a gap four hobbits wide and two high. They led the ponies into the cavern. Pippin fastened his ponies' lead ropes to a heavy metal ring driven into the wall near the door. From his pocket, he took out a cloth and tied it around his face, a precaution against dust. 

Ferdi's voice echoed as he answered. 'Knowing the Mistress, they'll have packed enough food for any four hobbits. At least you have me here to help you get rid of the evidence.' 

Pippin stared at his head of escort in astonishment. Had Ferdi just made a joke? 'Rather like clearing away the signs around the traps you all laid for the ruffians, eh, cousin?' he said at last. Regi had told him recently a few details about the laying of the traps around Tookland's borders in the time of the Troubles, including how he'd helped to brush away marks from the edges of one of the pit traps the engineers had dug to catch unwary Men trespassing on Tookish lands. Of course, these efforts had taken place while Pippin was in the Southlands, "busy about other affairs", or so the Steward put it. 

Ferdi snorted. 'Something like that,' he said. 'We wouldn't want the Mistress to come across any indications that you'd forgotten to eat...' 

'Neither Mistress,' Pippin said grimly, 'meaning the Mistress,' (as the Tooks still referred to Eglantine) 'or my Mistress' (echoing the Tooks' title for Diamond as 'the Thain's Mistress'). Unfortunately for him, his mother had been shocked at his rather unwell appearance when he'd arrived from Buckland. As a result, Eglantine and Diamond had joined together in a conspiracy of sorts to stuff him full of food every time he opened his mouth. 

Ferdi moved towards the torches piled up to the side of the door, but Pippin stopped him. 'I had another little chat with Aldi,' he said, naming the Chief Engineer. 'We'll leave the torches here for an emergency, but we'll use the lanterns tied to the pack saddle of Sun-dancer, here, and even so, we'll keep well to one side, away from the barrels of black powder.' 

'That'll suit me just fine,' Ferdi agreed, and seeing some of the tension go out of his cousin, Pippin realised that the hobbit had been wound tight at the idea of being in the same space as the destructive powder while bearing an open flame. 

He removed the lanterns hanging from the chestnut pony's harness and walked outside the cavern to light them, not wanting to strike a spark within the cavern itself. Returning inside, he pushed against the spot on the wall that would close the massive door, leaving them in darkness lit by two small pools of light. 'Here,' he said, extending one lantern to Ferdi. 

After untying and taking up the leads of his pair of ponies, Pippin led them to the far end of the store-hole, where a jumble of unremarkable chests and barrels waited. Ferdi followed with his pair of ponies.

Upon reaching his destination, the young Thain barked a laugh, and at his cousin's inquisitive look, he said, 'It would have been a marvellous thing, when all these were full of gold and silver and jewels... No one would have known the difference. Now, of course, they look perfectly fit to hold what they do.' 

Ferdi knew from their first visit here together, of course, that most of the chests and barrels contained bags of worthless pebbles. Pippin had joked at the time that they might not be altogether worthless; perhaps he could haul away a waggonload and sell them in the marketplace to line people's garden paths. In fact, he'd told Ferdi as they were walking that he intended to bring four pony-loads of pebbles back with them to the Great Smials for the gardeners' benefit. 

Each chose a chest and opened it, removing bags of pebbles and replacing them with the jingling bags that the ponies carried. 'Just don't forget where we put these,' Pippin warned. 'That's one of the reasons I brought you along, you know, for your phenomenal memory.' 

Ferdi snorted at this, but of course he had no grounds to disagree. Pippin often asked him to repeat back entire conversations from when they had met a farmer or merchant whilst the Thain was out and about, and he had always obliged. Now, to change the subject, he said, 'At least the treasury is looking healthier than it did! Four ponies' worth... why, that's eight of these chests! Four times what cousin Bilbo brought back from his travels.' 

'And worth but a small fraction,' Pippin countered. He waved his hand over the chests they'd just finished filling. 'Mostly coppers, a scattering of silver coin ... while he had an entire chest of gold and another of silver. Still,' he said, his tone taking on a philosophical shade, 'we must take our blessings where we can get them.' 

'What's that?' Ferdi wanted to know. If he thought Pippin was about to call eight chests of mostly copper and a sprinkling of silver a blessing, he was in for a surprise. 

'Why,' Pippin said, 'there's no need for me to cart heavy loads of gold about the countryside! All of Tookland's gold fits neatly in the lower left-hand drawer of the Thain's desk!' 

'None of your nonsense now, Pip,' Ferdi said, and then Pippin saw his head of escort shake his head at himself. The hobbit needs food, he thought. Why, he almost sounds cousinly.

They finished loading the ponies with their near-useless burdens and then brushed at the dust on top of the rest of the chests and barrels so that none stood out from the others as recently disturbed. Though Pippin hardly saw any use in such subterfuge, he had learnt caution through hard experience. This copper (and a sprinkling of silver), along with the proceeds from the upcoming Shire-wide archery tournament and fall pony sale, would have to carry the Tookland through the winter. 

He sighed, and at Ferdi's questioning look, he said, 'It's not as if we won't survive this situation,' he said. 'The Tookland will survive, I mean.' 

'The Tookland,' Ferdi said slowly. He'd nearly given his life to protect his homeland in the time of the Troubles and the Battle of Bywater, and Thain Peregrin knew that quite well. 

'Well of course,' Pippin said. 'She's been through worse, after all. Even stood against Lotho's campaign to bring the entire Shire under his thumb, and Saruman after him. Come to think on it, Saruman didn't want any such trifling thing as domination – he meant to see the Shire in ruins, the skies and streams fouled, the Shire-folk crawling in the dust, starving slowly to death...' 

He pressed at the spot on the wall, and the door slid smoothly away from the entrance, flooding the opening with sunshine that was almost stunning in its brightness. 

They led the ponies out, blew out the lanterns and closed up the entrance, concealing the opening from any prying eyes that might happen by. After the lanterns had cooled enough, Pippin hung them from one of the pack saddles once more. 'Well,' he said. 'What are we waiting around a cold fire-circle for? Our feast awaits!'

***