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But as soon as this question is resolved, another one rears up. Just how many books are you going to be grabbing? Shifting gears abruptly, you walk over to the nearest of the table, and set down 'stick and 'sack, so you may appraise what capacity inside the pack remains to you. There is certainly still space left … though much of it is in the smaller auxiliary pockets or the carry netting – on the inside, where you would haul books, things have been getting rather snug. The box with the duelist's pistols and the five books you pinched from the master's bedchamber is a considerable bulk – and not an inconsiderable weight, either. If you filled the compartments large enough to accommodate books to the brim, you would say that you would fit two in the larger one in the rear, and one more to the smaller one to the fore. But three books – to be sure, three books is three more than no books - yet to winnow all of the books in this room, save for those on the barred shelf, to just three … that strikes you as sour. You aren't keen on over-encumbering yourself, but you are near-enough to being within spitting distance of the Closet and your cart, and as for bundles and armfuls of books looking inconspicuous … well, you have what appears to be a musket strapped to your pack – the ship hasn't just sailed on being inconspicuous, it fraying sunk!
Beyond what you can fit in your pack then … looking at the linen sheets you have on hand to improvise purses and slings with, and considering how much you can carry in your arms, tired – and in the case of the left, battered – as they are, you get as sense that you can squeeze … say, nine more books of a typical size and weight for a text. That is three in your arms, one in each of the three of your primary apron pockets, two in an improvised sling across your chest and one with the remains of the strickening striker. All told, that will be twelve books, and that is without making a second trip, or having to dump anything. To tell it true, you don't expect winnowing all of these to twelve quickly and without overlooking anything worthwhile … you just think that it is going to be easier than winnowing to three.
You start to the nearest shelf to start scanning – then you realize that it might smooth the sailing if you were to take three of the five books from Aldoin's bedchamber, and make the slings and the room in the purse for them now. Not wanting to wash back and forth on something, you resolve that at this point, any progress is good progress, and set about making a sling out of one of the linen sheets that you pilfered from the second floor. While you are thinking about it, you take off the linen towels you used to augment your footwraps – not wanting them to come to the harm that they surely would if you were to wear them outside.
