Blood Brothers of Gor

Chapter 43 WHAT OCCURRED WHEN WE VISITED A YELLOW-KNIFE CAMP

"You must make swifter progress in learning Yellow Knife," said Iwoso to Bloketu, in Kaiila.

"It is hard for me," said Bloketu. The two girls knelt, Bloketu behind Iwoso. Bloketu was combing Iwoso's hair. They were in a lodge. We could observe them through the tiny aperture we had opened in the rear of the lodge, behind them, with the point of a knife. A small fire burned in the lodge. The two girls knelt behind the fire, between it and the rear of the lodge, opposite the entrance.

"I learned Kaiila swiftly," said Iwoso.

"You were captured as a child," said Bloketu. "It took you two yeard before you spoke Kaiila passably."

"Are you insolent, Maiden?" inquired Iwoso.

"No, Mistress," said Blokety, quickly.

"Perhaps I should switch you again, tomorrow," said Iwoso.

"Please do not do so, Mistress," said Bloketu. I gathered that Iwoso's switchings, in their way, tended to be quite efficient. They were probably administered to the bare skin, with the girl tied in such a way as to maximize their effect.

"Beg properly," said Iwoso.

"Bloketu, the maiden, begs her mistress not to switch her," sobbed Bloketu.

"Perhaps," said Iwoso. "We shall see what my mood is tomorrow."

"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu.

There was a yellow, beaded collar about Bloketu's reddish-brown neck. Such collars tie in front. It was snug. It was doubtless Iwoso's.

"As you will recall," said Iwoso, "I learned Kaiila very quickly."

"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu.

"You, on the other hand," said Iwoso, "are quite slow."

"Yes, Mistress. Forgive me, Mistress," said Bloketu.

"But you are not really that unusual," said Iwoso. "Kaiila woman are generally stupid. They are almost as stupid as white female slaves."

"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu.

Bloketu wore an unfringed, unornamented shirtdress. It was extremely simple and plain. It contrasted markedly with the exquisite, almost white, soft-tanned tabukhide dress, with its beats and finery, worn by her mistress. She, too, had not been given knee-length leggings, of the sort common with the women of the red savages, or moccasins. Her feet were wrapped in hide.

"It is pleasant owning you," said Iwoso.

"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu.

"Even though you are worthless," added Iwoso.

"I was the daughter of a chief!" cried Bloketu.

"Even the daughters of Kaiila chieftains are worthy only to be the slaves and maidens of Yellow Knives," said Iwoso.

"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu, sobbing.

"Do you like your clothes?" asked Iwoso.

"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu.

"They are far better then you deserve, aren't they?" asked Iwoso.

"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu.

"That is because I am kind," said Iwoso.

"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu.

"Do you think that I am too kind," asked Iwoso.

"I do not know," said Bloketu.

"Answer 'Yes' or 'No'," said Iwoso.

"Please, Mistress," moaned Bloketu.

"Yes or no?" asked Iwoso.

"No, you are not too kind," said Bloketu.

"You dare to criticize me?" asked Iwoso, imperiously.

"No, Mistress," said bloketu.

"You seemed to suggest by your remark that I am perhaps insufficiently kind," said Iwoso.

"No, Mistress!" said Bloketu.

"Your answer then is 'Yes'?" inquired Iwoso.

"Yes, yes!" said Bloketu.

"Yes, what?" asked Iwoso.

"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu.

"Yes, Mistress, what?" asked Iwoso.

"Yes, Mistress, you are too kind!" said Bloketu.

"You dare criticize me again!" said Iwoso.

"No, Mistress," wept Bloketu.

"But you are perhaps right," said Iwoso. "After all, a slave must tell the truth."

Bloketu sobbed.

"I have been much too lenient with you," said Iwoso. "I now see that, upon reflection. Thank you Bloketu. I shall attempt to mend my ways. I must try in the furture to treat you more as you deserve, with much greater harshness."

"Please, no, Mistress," begged Bloketu.

"After all, you are only a slave."

Yes, Mistress,"

"Are you crying?" asked Iwoso.

"You tricked me!" said Bloketu.

"It is not difficult to trick a stupid slave," said Iwoso.

"No, Mistress," sobbed Bloketu.

"How offensive that I was once your maiden," said Iwoso. "How appropriate that you are now mine."

"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu.

"Do you know one of the great pleasures of owning a slave?" asked Iwoso.

"What, Mistress?" asked Bloketu.

"Knowing," said Iwoso, "that one may do with her whatever one pleases, fully."

"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu, frightened.

"Continue combing," said Iwoso.

"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu.

"Do you know tha tsome men have been known to find the bodies of female slaves of intrest?" asked Iwoso.

"I have heard that," said Bloketu.

"Only low men, of course," said Iwoso.

"Of course, Mistress," said Bloketu.

"What do they see in such luscious, obedient sluts who must please or die?" asked Iwoso.

"I do not know, Mistress," said Bloketu.

"You are a female slave," said Iwoso.

"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu.

"What do you think of men?" she asked.

"I fear them terribly," she said, "particularly since I became a slave."

"Interesting," said Iwoso.

Bloketu trembled.

"I have seen men looking at you," said Iwoso. "Do you know that sometimes they are looking at you?"

"Sometimes, Mistress," she said.

"Your body is nicely curved," said Iwoso. "Doubtless some of these men, doubtless low men, might find you of intrest."

"Of intrest, Mistress?" asked Bloketu, frightened.

"Yes," said Iwoso, "-sexually."

"Perhaps, Mistress," said Bloketu, frightened.

"Perhaps I shall have you thrown to them," she said.

"Please, no, Mistress," begged Bloketu.

"I own you," she said. "I will do with you whatever I want."

"Yes, Mistress," sobbed Bloketu.

"Your father was a traitor," said Iwoso. "And you, too, were a traitor. Sometimes I think the best thing to do with you would be to bind you and have you turned over to the remnants of your people, for their judgment. Doubtless they have ways of dealing with traitors."

"Do not give me for judgment to my people," begged Bloketu.

"Do you beg, rather, to remain my maiden?" asked Iwoso, amused.

"Yes! Yes!" said Bloketu.

"Beg properly," said Iwoso.

"Bloketu, your maiden, begs mercy of her Mistress," said Bloketu. "She begs to be permitted to remain the maiden of her mistress."

"Perhaps," said Iwoso. "We shall see."

"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu.

"Continue combing," said Iwoso.

"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu.

With one long, even, swift stroke of the knife I opened the back of the lodge. Cuwignaka and Hci, swiftly, before the girls could react, had pressed into the lodge and seized them, throwing them to their backs and holding their mouths shut.

I followed them into the lodge. I handed each a rolled ball of hide and fur. Thses were thrust, loosening and opening, into the mouths of the girls, expanding immediately to fill their oral cavities. I then handed Cuwignaka and Hci two long, flat strips of leather. With these, looped about and then drawn back tightly between the teeth, and then looped about again, and again drawn back tightly between the teeth, and then tied behind the neck, the packing of hide and fur was inflexibly, unexpellably, fixed in place. The girls looked up at us, terrified, gagged.

We then, with thongs, Cuwignaka working with Bloketu and Hci with Iwoso, tied each girl's hands together before her body. Cuwignaka then removed the pieces of hide, tied on with strings, which had served Bloketu as a subsitute for moccasins, from her feet. Hci removed Iwoso's moccasins. He then, too, drew from her legs the soft, almost white, tabaukhide knee-length leggings which she had worn. Cuwignaka then, with another thong, tied together Bloketu's ankles and Hci, working swiftly, served Iwoso in the same fashion. Quickly then, with knives, their clothing was cut from them. Only the collar was left on Bloketu's neck, Iwoso's collar.

We looked down upon our handiwork. We were pleased.

I then produced two long, specially prepared leather sacks. Iwoso shook her head wildly.

We then slipped each girl, feet first, into a sack. These sacks, by design, are a relatively close fit for a girl. In them she can do little more than squirm. Each sack, further, has two sturdy leather handles which come up, high, quite high, one on either side of the occupnat's head; if these handles are held together, or tied together, the closure between them will usually be twleve to eighteen inches over the girl's head. By means of these handles, of course, the sack may be provided with a variety of means of transport.

We then, by means of eyelets at the top of the sack, and thongs, and looping the tongs about the necks of the girls and tying them through the eyelets, fastened each girl in her sack. It was now impossible for them to inch or squirm their way free. Hci, with evident pleasure, tied the thongs under Iwoso's chin. there is also an interior edge, some twelve to eighteen inches in height, on each sack. This edge, however, we left folded in. By means of this edge, and its own eyelets, which are aligned with the lower eyelets, to make lacing in the lower position convenient, the sack may be, if one wishes, brought out to its full length and closed completely over the head of the girl. This, too, of course, makes it impossible for the occupant, then totally inclosed, to free herself.

Iwoso made angry noises, almost inaudibly, muffled in her gagging.

"Would you like to tell us that we will not be able to get away with this?" asked Hci.

Iwoso nodded vigorously, and Hci smiled. She then, in fury, in frustration, was silent, her words having been so easily anticipated.

"You look well tied in a slave sack," said Hci to Iwoso.

Iwoso's fury was but inadequately expressed because of her bonds, the sack and the gag.

"I am sorry, Lady Iwoso," I said, "but we did not have any sacks on hand which were appropriate for a free woman, sacks compatible with their dignity. We had to make do with what we had."

Iwoso regarded me with fury, and then looked away.

Bloketu made piteous, tiny noises, trying to attract the attention of Cuwignaka.

At last he looked at her.

She whimpered piteously.

"Be siletn, slave and traitress," he said to her.

She put her head back, moaning. Tears ran from her eyes. She trembled. She had hoped to trade on te affection which she knew he had once held for her. Surely he would let her go! Surely he would show her mercy! But her pleas had gone unheeded. She shuddered, helpless in the confining leather. Her eyes were wild. Her worst fears, it seemed, might now be realized, that she be returned to the Kaiila nation, there to face the stern justice of her people.

"go to your stations," I said to Cuwignaka and Hci. "Leave the kaiila hobbled outside. I will meet you at the prearranged rendezvous."

"The Kaiila will rise again," said Hci.

"Our plans proceed apace," said Cuwignaka.

"Yes," I said. "The council of all the bands of the Kaiila, of the Isbu, the Casmu, the Isanna, the Napoktan and the Wismahi, of all the remnants of the Kaiila people, will take place at Council Rock at the end of Canwapegiwi."

Cuwignaka, Hci and I clasped hands. Then Cuwignaka and Hci, as silent as shadows, moving through the cut I had made in the back, left the lodge.

I looked at the fair captives, helpless in their sacks, and then built up the fire a bit. I must wait for a time.

Iwoso uttered tiny, desperate, entreating noises. "Please be siletn, Lady Iwoso," I said to her, putting my finger gently across my lips.

She was then silent.

The fire, then, after a time, suitably subsided.

It had served as a clock. Factors such as impatience can occasionally distort one's subjective estimations of the length of various temproal intervals. These confusions and distortions, of course, are eliminated, at least to a large extent, by having recourse to various stages in some presumably continuous,

objective process. It this not the sort of thing which is involved in the ringed candles, in the tiny stream of water in the clepsydra, in the falling sand in the Ahn glass, in the alternation of day and night, and in the calendar of the stars? I stirred up the fire again, so that I might better see what I was doing. By now Cuwignaka and Hci should be in place.

I stood up.

The girls looked at me in fear.

Their fears were not allayed in the least when I, having fetched a stout rawhide rope, crouched down next to them and tied one end of this rope about the handles of Bloketu's sack and the other end about the handles of Iwoso's sack.

Iwoso began to utter desperate noises, moving her head, the gag packed in her mouth.

"You would like to speak, would you not, Lady Iwoso?" I asked.

She moved her head affirmatively, desperately.

"If I remove your gag," I asked, "would you promise to be quiet?"

She nodded, vigorously.

"I could, of course, hold a kife point at your throat," I said. "and at the slightest sing of trickery or refractoriness plunge it into your throat."

She turned pale.

"Under such conditions would you still care to speak?" I asked.

She nodded.

My hands moved toward the gag. then I stopped. "I dare not remove the gag," I said. "You are an extremely intelligent and cleaver woman. You would doubtless trick me somehow."

She shook her head negatively, reassuringly.

"Perhaps I should remove your gag," I mused.

She nodded.

"No," I said. "I must not do so. Indeed, I have been warned, even before we left our camp, against doing so. Masters fear I would be tricked. Thus you must, at least for a time, continue to wear it."

Iwoso looked at me for a moment in fury, and then put her head back in helpless frustration.

"I am sorry," I said.

Iwoso looked at me, puzzled.

"I can understand your feelings," I told her. "How offensive it is that you, a loftly free woman, are tied naked in a sack, as though you might be a mere slave, as though there might be no difference between you and the Kaiila slave girl who lies beside you."

Iwoso's mind, I had little doubt, that quick, clever mind, was working feverishly.

Then she looked at me with soft, mild reproach. She nodded her head, pathetically.

"I am sorry, Lady Iwoso," I said. then I began to loop the rope carefully, from its center, that the ends of which were attached to the handles of the girls' sacks.

Iwoso, then, began to whimper timidly, piteously, trying to attract my attention.

I looked down at her.

Her eyes were soft, and pleading, and seemingly submissive and humble. She moved her head, lifting her mouth, with its heavy, sodden packing and its tight straps, towards me.

"Do you wish to speak to me?" I asked.

She shook her head negatively.

"That is good," I said.

She whimpered, piteiously, again lifting her head toward me, the gag bound so tightly, so effectively, in her mouth.

"Do you want me to remove the gag?" I asked.

She shook her head again, small, piteous momvements, negatively.

"What, then?" I asked.

She whimpered, lifting her head again to me.

"It is uncomfortable, isn't it?" I asked.

She nodded vigorously.

"Red savages," I said, "sometimes treat women too fiercely, do they not?"

Iwoso nodded her agreement.

"I suppose," I said, "that it would do no harm if I loosened it a little."

Iwoso whimpered, gratefully.

Bloketu then lifted her head, piteously, whimpering pleadingly. "Be silent, slave slut," I said to her. "You are not a free woman. You will continue to wear your gag in its full effectiveness, as a slave."

Bloketu lay back, tears running out of her eyes.

I then unknotted the gag behind the back of Iwoso's neck. I loosened the straps with my finger and then, putting my finger in her mouth, loosened the packing as well. Then, as though fearing I had been too lenient, I retightened the straps, closely, but not as tightly as they had been earlier. I then fastened the straps together behind her neck with a simple over-and-under knot. This would hold for a time because of the tightness of it and the strap friction. It would not hold, however, for very long, particularly if tested. I then pretended to secure that knot with a second knkot, to prevent slippage. I did not, of course, actually do so. The stressing and jerking of the straps, which Iwoso could feel through the back of her neck, was the result, merely, of my looping part of one strap about the other and then jerking against it, the secont strap end, of course, falling free as soon as I released it, leaving only the first knot in place, the simple over-and-under, or overhand knot. The security knot, as far as Iwoso could tell, was in place.

Bloketu lay on her back, sobbing.

"Is that better?" I asked Iwoso.

She whimpered, pleadingly.

"I dare not make it any looser," I said.

She whimpered, more pleadingly.

"I can always," I said, "make it tighter."

She shook her head, negatively.

"It is better, isn't it?" I asked.

She nodded her head.

"Perhaps I should make it tight again, as it was," I said.

She shook her head negatively, pleadingly.

"Are you grateful?" I asked.

She nodded her head.

I then looked away from her and returned my attention to the coiling of the rope. Inwardly I smiled. Did she really think that a woman such as she, luscious slave meat, would be truly accorded any consideration whatsoever?

I then, taking the rope with me, exited through the cut in the back of the lodge. I unhobbled the kaiila waiting there. It had a high-pommeled saddle on its back. It was to be ridden to the hunt nor to war. I looped the rope about the pommel of the saddle, dropping a few coils of it to either side, it then, on either side, descending to the ground and trailing back into the lodge. I threw a robe over my head and shoulders. I then mounted. Then, not hurrying, the robe muchly about me, I moved the kaiila away from the lodge, drawing from the lodge, through the cut it its back, my means of the rawhide ropes attached to their handles, the two sacks.

I heard Iwoso making tiny, desperate noises. I think, then, she was truly frightened. I think then she fully realized, perhaps for the first time, that it might acually be possible for us to take her, with all the consequences which might then accrue to her in virtue of this, from the Yellow-Knife camp.

But I was, as yet, in no hurry to leave.

Without haste, muchly concealed in the robe. I moved the kaiila out inot the browd, empty lane between the Yellow Knife lodges, amost a busy, triumphal way. In such a lane sometimes young swains, on kaiilaback, in their paint and finery, parade before damsels; in such a lane sometimes are kaiila races held; and in such a lane, sometimes, slave girls, for humliation or punishment, or sport, are dragged back and forth in sacks.

I felt the tension in the ropes, on either side of the kaiila, as I entered into the long lane, some two hundred yards in length, the sacks, their weight negligible for the strength of the kaiila, being drawn lightly behind.

As I rode slowly along I looked back. The heads of the girls were off the ground, held off the ground, when we were in motion, by the construction of the sack with its handles, and the draw of the rope. Iwoso was uttering tiny, deserate noises. They were muffled and almost inaudible. They reminded me of the squeakings of an urt in terror. I did not think they could be heard more than a few feet away. Surely ot in the lodges on each side of that broad thoughfare. A domestic sleen did emerge from between the lodges, its ears pricked up, but when it saw what was ensuing, it turned away, paying us no more attention. Such sights and sounds were not unfamiliar to it.

I looked back again. Iwoso was squirming madly in the sack. Did the well-tied little thing really think she could free herself? Did she not know she had been tied by a warrior, Hci, of the Kaiila? But there is a simple way to stop such squirming. One increases the speed of the kaiila. I did so.

When I came to the end of the thoroughfare I turned the kaiila in a broad circle, not to foul the lines to the sacks, and began to retrace its length, even more quickly.

The sacks into which the girls had been inserted, naked and bound, were slave sacks. They were extremely stout, heavy sacks and heavily, and doubly, sewn. The intent of this is to make them sturdy leather prisons, containers from which a girl cannot escape and in which she is absolutely helpless. A consequence of the thickness of the material and the sturdiness of the construction, of course, is that the sack, almost inadvertently, affords the girl a great deal of protection. Neither Iwoso nor Bloketu would sustain skin or body damage as a result of what was being done to them. And certainly we would not have wanted them marked. Most men prefer soft smooth slaves. Indeed, in the cities, some slaves are even shaved or depilated.

I turned the kaiila about, again, at the far end of the thoroughfare or promenade, that long, dusty avenue between the Yellow-Knife lodges, and began to make my way back, once more, along its length.

I looked back. Dust, from the paws of the kaiila, was billowing behind me. Let the girls fight for breath. I grinned. I wished that I were within the coup system. Surely some sort of high coup would be involved, dragging a high lady of the Yellow Knives, one of their own proud free women, in a sack, up and down, back and forth in their own promenade lane, like a common slave girl. Surely that would be worth at least a feather or some sort of marking on a feather.

I increased my speed.

I wondered if Iwoso had speculated on why their heads had been left uncovered, or why we had not inclosed one girl completely and left the head of the other free, why we had treated the slave and the free woman identically. Slave girls, when being transported in sacks, for example, on wagons or on the shoulders of men, are usually completely within the sack, it being tied shut over their head. This helps keep the girl in ignorance as to her whereabouts and what is going on about her. This is thought suitable for slaves. She is also, after having been in a sack for a time, likely to be extremely grateful to he who releases her and very fearful that he might, if displeased with her, return her to it. Also, of course, many sorts of commodities on Gor are transported in this fashion. In the cities, of course, when inserting girls within sack bonds, it is common to observe a difference, where it exists, between a slave and a free woman. Commonly a slave would be inclosed completely in the sack and a free woman, if no risk were involved in doing it, would be bound in the sack only from the neck down. This kind of difference in binding, or shackling, in which the free woman wears easier or more comfrotable bonds than the slave, is in deference to the status of the free woman. When she, too, is enslaved, then, of course, she and the slave will be likely to wear identical bonds. To be sure, much depends on context.

For example, if the two sacks were to be dragged in the dust behind tharlarion then it might be the case that the free woman, for her greater comfort, would be inclosed completely in the leather confinement and the slave would be bound only from the neck down, this once again and again to the determent of the slave, observing the distrinction in not be familiar with binding distinctions in bindings beween the. Iwoso, of course, would presumably not be familiar with binding distinctions in the cities. Had she, thus, been bound more leniently than Bloketu, particularly since she was being bound by Hci, who seemed to bear her great hatred, she might have become suspicious. Thus we left the heads of both of the girls uncovered. This fitted in well, incidentally, with common practices among the red savages in dragging slaves about for, say, punishment or sport.

The heads of the slaves are usually left free. Similarly they are seldom gagged. In these ways they provide greater amusment for the spectators. Their expressions may be the more easily seen and their cries for mercy, or promises of better service, or assurances of reformed behavior, or even of perfect behavior, may be the more clearly heard. Sometimes the young men organize races in which slave girls are dragged behind kaiila. When the young men set themselves to the developement of such plans small slave girls in a camp, particularly white ones, tend to become afraid, for they know that they are not much weight for a kaiila to pull.

I turned the kaiila in a wide circle at the end of the prominade, the bags, like swift, twin plows, taut on their ropes, throwing up two trails of dust.

By now it seemed to me that Iwoso wold have had time to expel her gag.

I had hoped that I had loosened it sufficiently.

I looked back. The bags and ropes were covered with dust. I slowed my speed a little.

Suddenly there was a wild screaming from behind me, and a wild crying out, in what I assumed must be Yellow Knife.

I stopped the kaiila for a moment. It had certainly taken her long enough to get the gag out of her mouth.

Iwoso was sitting up in her sack, her head between its handles. She leaned forward, screaming. Such noise, I was confident, would soon rouse much of the camp.

I then, in order to be near the far end of the promenade, that nearest the open prairie, moved the kaiila appropriately down the long track between the lodges. By the tension on the rope attached to the handles of her sack Iwoso was then jerked backwards and again, almost horizontal, was being dragged behind me in the dust. This time, however, she as screaming wildly. I thought it well to hasten the kaiila, to convince hr that I might be alarmed. I saw more than one Yellow Knive warrior emerging from a lodge. They, I noted, like warriors of the Kaiila, and of the red savages generally, apparently slept naked. The slaves of such warriors, too, are often slept naked, particularly when they are within arm's reach of their masters.

At the end of the promenade, by the last few lodges, I again stopped the kaiila.

From this point I could easily escape into the night.

"Please be silent, Lady Iwoso!" I called to the Yellow-Knife maiden.

She saw fit, however, as I had conjecutred, to ignore my suggestion, well-intended though it might have been.

I could now see more than one man running after us. I was more worried about those I could not see, who might be busy unhobbling kaiila behind their lodges.

Some men and women, too, stood near the nearby lodges, as though trying to grasp what might be taking place.

I permitted Iwoso, for a few moments more, to sit there behind me in the dust, tied in her sack, crying out. I was pleased to note that she was uttering a comlexity of verbiage and, thus, was presumably not merely attempting to summon help. She seemed to be intent upon communicating someting of consequence to the Yellow Knives. I did not speak Yellow Knife but I was resonably confident as to what the main content of her message would be. This was a message, too, which I was confident she would wish to deliver for, in delivering it, she would be attempting to lay the groundwork for her eventual, if not immediate, rescue.

"That will be sufficient, Lady Iwoso," I told her, in Kaiila, and then, with perhaps an overly dramatic gesture, but one whose effect was not lost on the Yellow Knives, I threw aside the robe I had worn. It landed, happily, on a Yellow Knife who was charging from the side, causing him to lose his balance and fall. I kicked back into the flanks of the kaiila and the anilam bolted forward. Iwoso was again jerked to the near-horizontal, that position approved for females being dragged in a slave sack, and was, in an instant, speeding cooperatively behind me. A Yellow Knife warrior lunged wildly for the sack but fell short, sprawling in the dust. I had timed it rather well. A few yards out into the prairie I did stop again. I looked back. The camp was well astir. I heard shouts of rage. Men were running about. Then I again urged my kaiila into the night, drawing the two sacks behind me in the grass. I did not have time to dally. I had two women to deliver, one to Cuwignaka and one to Hci.

I must make it to a certain flat, barren rock. The mode of their delivery we had rehearsed several times, under similar conditions, with Mira. I could not hope, of course, in the ordinary run of things, to outdistance pursing Yellow-Knife kaiila, certainly not with so short a start and drawing the weight of two such deliciously packed slave sacks. We did not want to cut the sacks free, of course. We wanted what was in them.

I heard cries behind me.

Persuit was closer than I liked.

In a few Ehn I arrived at the rock, urging my kaiila up its sloping face. It scrambled, slipping, but then caught its footing, and attained its summit, some forty feet above the level of the plain.

The three moons were full, and beautiful.

I dismounted and pulled the two slave sacks across the stone to my feet. I removed the rope by means of which the two sacks had been drawn from the pommel of my saddle. I then removed the rope's ends from the large, closed, high handles of the sacks.

Across the prairie I dould see riders approaching, some four or five in the lead, and others, drawn out, behind them.

I cut the rope apart in the center. I then threaded one length of the rope through the handles on Bloketu's sack and tied the two ends together, drawing it up from the handles in such a way as to make a long, double loop, the two high protions of the loop well above the handles and adjacent to one another; I then, with the other length of the rope, did the same thing with Iwoso's sack.

The lead riders, then, had stopped. They seemed confused about the trail. Perhaps it had crossed another trail. Certainly it did not seem likely that it would lead to this upjutting, flat-topped, weathered rock. Other riders, then, from the village, caught up with them.

I scanned the skies. There was no sign of Cuwignaka or Hci.

I looked down at Iwoso, laced securely, helplessly in her sack. "You seem to be missing your gag." I said.

She remained absolutely quiet. Had she not tricked me into the loosening of her gag, in the lodge, giving her an opportunity to cry out and raise the alarm, and opportunity which she had well exploited? It was little wonder she was quiet. Doubtless now, so fully at my mercy, she must be wary of my wrath. I glanced at Bloketu. Her gag was still fixed as firmly, as perfectly, in her mouth, as the first moment it had been put there.

The riders were now again approaching.

Slave sacks, as you may have gathered, are known not only among the red savages but also among the men of the cities. Given their obvious utility, among men who own and master women, they may have arisen independently in both places. Their appearance in diverse loci, for example, need not imply borrowing. Such sacks, however, do have a utility among the men of the tower cities which they are not likely to have, or welucl selcome have, among the bold savages of the Barrens. To understand this utiity it is well to understand that on Gor slaving, like marketing and farming, is a business. One of the problems which often arises in this business is that of getting the capture from, say, her own bedroom to your pens where she may be properly branded and collared, and taught to kiss and obey, later to be retailed naked from a suitable outlet, into her new life as a slave.

I heard cries below me. The riders below had seen the approach of the tarn almost as soon as I had.

Cuwignaka would be in the lead. The large wooden hook dangled from the girth rope of his tarn.

"there are the sounds of pursuers," said Iwoso. "They will soon be here. Free me. You cannot escape."

I lifted Bloketu to her feet, holding her with my left arm, the double loop in my right hand.

"What are you doing?" asked Iwoso.

I kept my eye on the appraoching tarn.

"Free me," said Iwoso. "You cannot escape."

Cuwignaka's tarn seemed suddenly upon us. It was moving at great speed. The wooden hook was no more than four or five feet from the surface of the rock. Iwoso, startled, at my feet, screamed. I flung the double loop over the hook. bloketu, at what must have been a breathtaking acceleration, was jerked upward and away.

"No, no!" screamed Iwoso.

I lifed her to her feet. She squirmed in the sack, her eyes wild with terror.

"Please, no!" whispered Iwoso. Then I had flung the double loop on her sack over the hook on Hci's tarn and she, her scream fading in the distance, was lofted away into the night.

The Yellow Knives, below looked upward in consternation. I trusted that Canka, on one of the tarns we had purloined from teh Kinyanpi, would soon make his appearance.

One of the Yellow Knives pointed to me. I was still on the rock. Two or three of them, suddenly, began to urge their kaiila toward me.

I turned about. Canka's tarn swept by. My own tarn, on a longether, held by Canka, was only yards behind. I heard the scratching of kaiila claws on the rock face. I extened myhands and thrust my arms through the rope netting, it dangling from the girth rope of my tarn, and whipped and snapping, too, at the surface of the rock it skimmed. I seized then the netting with my hands and felt myself drawn up and away from the rock. After I had caught my breath I climbed by the netting and girth rope to the back of my tarn and took my place there. Canka, with a cry of congratulations, hurled me the tether and I coiled it and put it beneath the girth rope. The tarns of Cuwignaka and Hci, with their lovely cargoes, were now far in the distance. I circled once, broadly, looking back. Several of the Yellow Knives, on their kaiila, were now on the large, flat surface of the rock.

I then turned my tarn to follow the tarns of my friends.

To be sure,we had given up one kaiila, but that, perhaps, was not too much considering that we had obtained Iwoso. It was the first time, I supposed, tht the Yellow-Knife beatuty had been, in effect, exchanged for a kaiila. I did not know whether or not it would be the last.

I looked up at the glorious sky, with its moons and clouds. I began to sing, a warrior song, one from Ko-ro-ba.

After a time, looking back, I became aware of another shape in the sky. It was two or three hundred yards behind me, above my tarn and to my right. It was a great, black tarn. I turned my tarn to meet it. We circled one another. Then I took my tarn down to the prairie. The other tarn, too, then, alit near me, on the grass.

"Greetings, old friend," I said. "It has been a long time."