“Having made up their minds how they would improve the property when they got it, they informed the King that they desired to foreclose the mortgage. He made no defense and instructed the authorities to throw no obstacles in the way. The foreclosure was advertised in the usual way and when the day of sale arrived there was the usual crowd of loafers, but no bidders except the Lunarians. They bid three million kiks for the whole outfit—one million each for the two frigid zones and one million for the two satellites, and the property was of course knocked down to them, considering the importance of the sale it was a quiet, tame affair.—The King was not a little displeased when he found they had bid in the property for less than the billion, billion, billionth part of their claim, thus leaving the debt practically unreduced. He supposed they would bid the face of their claim and thus wipe out the debt. Still, however, he made no attempt at redemption; in fact nobody would have given any more for the property than was bid. The title was confirmed to them by the court and they entered into possession.” CHAPTER XV. The Great Debt. “The King began to be much concerned in regard to the great debt. He called his bankers together and had them compute it down to date. Then after brooding over the matter for some days he called his council and the Lunarian claimants together and made them a speech. He declared he was sick and tired of “paying interest.” True, he had never paid any, but it constantly added to the already most appalling debt to be found in the solar system. “In fact it is so great (said he) that we have no single words to express it. It is written by setting down 20 and then annexing to that a string of 153 ciphers. The original debt left by my illustrious ancestor the father of the canals was 1,000,000 kiks, at least that is all his successor assumed, and it is that insignificant sum that has grown to such overwhelming proportions.