Dancer of Gor

29 The Meadow

"Not enough! Not enough!" cried the small, twisted fellow, with the yellowish, sallow complexion, crouching down, his back to us, pointing to the blanket spread there on the ground. The entire right side of his face was a whitened mass of ancient scar tissue. The ear on the right side of his head had been half torn away. It was almost as thought the right side of his face had been abraided by some terrifying, fierce passage, by some swift, lengthy, terrible friction, as of being dragged over rock. So disfigured one might doubt if he dared consort with his own kind. He seemed obviously to be held in contempt by the five men who squatted near him, on the other side of the blanket. To the right of the blanket, on the ground, there was a pack, filled, it seemed, with trinkets, a peddler" s pack. The small man was, it seemed, a peddler, or one who was concerned, at least, to give that impression.

"If you disapprove of our offer," said the leader of the five (382) men, a bearded fellow, "return to Tharna, and there mine the difference."

The small fellow sat back on his heels, angrily. "Too, there was to be meat, much meat!" he said.

"Do not be stupid," said one of the men squatting across from him. "We have brought you a quarter of a dried tarsk. That is enough for you to chew on for a month."

"It is not enough!" said the small fellow. "We need more!"

Do you have a pen of sleen?" asked one of the men.

The small fellow did not answer. But then, after a time, he repeated, guardedly, "We need more."

"You can buy more with the silver," said the man across from him, the leader of the five men.

The small fellow had two cohorts with him, who, like the others, were squatting down, but to our left. These felloes looked uneasily at one another.

"We are offering fifteen pieces of silver, fifteen solid, sound, unclipped silver tarsks," said the leader. "That is enough."

"It was to have been twenty-five!" said the small man. "Five for each!" "We will give you three for each," said the leader, putting his finger on his helmet, which was beside him, upturned, in the grass.

"No!" said the small fellow, and leaped up, angrily, and limping, approached us. "See them!" he said.:There is not one there who, stripped, would not bring high bids on the block! Is there one there whom a man would not dream of marching home naked before him, to fasten her to his slave ring! See those faces, those slave curves! There is not one of them who is not worth five tarsks!" "Three tarsks for each," said the leader. "Good tarsks."

"These two," said the small fellow, indicating Tupita and myself, "served in the tent of Pietro Vacchi. I know! I was in the camp!" he, then, I assumed, must be the human contact, or one of them, of the beasts. "And this one," he said, pointing to Tela, "was an overseer" s choice, a man who could pick from almost a hundred women, all slaves!"

"Work slaves," said the leader.

Tela stiffened in her bonds. To be sure, she had been brought to the camp of the black chain as a work slave. So had we all, for that matter.

"She was a rich woman from Lydius!" said the small fellow.

"She now wears a brand," pointed out the leader.

"And this one," said the small fellow, returning his attention to me, "is a dancer!"

"Dancers are nothing," he said. "They go ten for a tarsk."

I tightened, angrily. Men in Brundisium had been willing to pay much for me. I had been supposedly, one of the finest dancers in that city.

"And these two," said the small fellow, indicating Mina and Cara, "are obviously beauties."

"Work slaves," grinned the leader.

Tupita was to my right. Tela was to my left. Then came Mina, and Cara. We were kneeling. We had been backed on our knees to a railing, until the backs of our necks were in contact with it. This railing, is front of the remains of what had apparently once been a long low building, perhaps a stable, or bunk house, or ranch house of sorts, was a hitching device, for beasts, probably tharlarion. At one time, I supposed, this might have been a ranch for tharlarion, or perhaps a boarding or training facility for racing tharlarion. Venna was not far away. It was now abandoned. Once we were in contact with the railing, once we could feel it hard against the back of our neck, we were roped to it, by the neck. Our hands were tied behind us. That had been done as soon as we had been brought up from the pit. That had been a frightening ascent, crouching in the bucket, supported by it, swaying back and forth, clinging to the rope, while being drawn upward. We made little noise during this ascent, terrifying though it might have been, for we had coiled and placed binding fiber in our mouths, this in accordance with instructions called down to us from above. Lengths for Tela, Tupita and myself had already been in the pit, it apparently having figured, with a long rope, in our descent. Lengths had been dropped down for Mina and Cara. The long, doubled rope used in lowering us had, in their cases, apparently simply been put under their wrist chaining. In this way, at least with Tela, Tupita and myself, they recovered their fiber, which would be used, in any case, again, and, in this particular mode of transporting it, prevented us from communicating, at least by explicit utterances, our terror to the others still below. By this device, too, of course, with the lengths dropped to them, Mina and Cara were kept quiet in their ascent. I was only too pleased when the hooked stick reached out and drew the bucket and rope to where a man could reach me. I was then knelt on the grass by the well. The binding fiber I must quickly force from my mouth with my tongue into a man" s hand. It was then, still wet, used to secure my hands behind me. I did not mind this, though, so pleased I was to be once more on the ground. I had then been taken to the railing, knelt, backed against it, and roped to it. Then my ankles, too, had been crossed, and tied. Tupita had already been so secured. After me had come Tela, and then Mina and Cara. In the case of Mina and Cara the binding fiber had been simply threaded through links close to their manacles and shackles. These links had then, with the fiber, been drawn close to one another and then tied there, closely together. Thus, in our various ways, all of us, the five of us, had been made absolutely helpless, exactly where and as we had been placed. We had been all, in our various ways, secured with typical Gorean efficiency. From where we knelt we could see the remains of the well, about forty yards away. It seemed to rise up from a small meadow, rather behind us, and to the left, trees across from us, smaller and wilder, had probably been abandoned for years.

I noted the eyes of one of the men across the way on me. I had inadvertently, it seems, let my knees draw a bit too closely together. I immediately spread my knees much more widely, as I could, as was compatible with the binding on my ankles. This was appropriate for one such as I, a kajira, before a free male. He smiled. I put my head down.

The small fellow returned, angrily, to squat behind the blanket, across from the leader of the five men.

"Twenty-five!" he said. "And meat, much more meat!"

he had been very angry, almost from the moment these five fellows had appeared, coming through the trees, for they had not simply completed the transaction, according to the terms, which, I took it, had been previously agreed upon, but, it seems, had even seen fit, as, under the circumstances, would have seemed superfluous, to conduct, or seem to conduct, critical examinations of the merchandise.

The fellow across the way grinned at me. I put my head down again. How I had squirmed, bound kneeling and helpless, the rail tight behind the back of my neck, my neck roped to it, under his touch! The work tunics of Mina and Cara had been thrust back, over their arms and torn down. The remains of the bodices of these tunics now hung back about their wrists. The remainder of the garments, in front, torn apart, hung low on their bellies, below their navels. Their breasts were very beautiful, and the line of their waists, and the beginning of the flare of their hips. Too, their skirts, and Tupita" s too, and the slave strips, or G-strings, of Tela and myself had been lifted up, or aside, and let fall again, perhaps to see if we were depilated, or shaved, or if such cloth might conceal some defect. All in all, we had been handled intimately, and with authority. We were slaves.

"Twenty-five!" said the small fellow.

The small fellow, I had gathered, might have once been from Tharna. That is a city far to the north and east of Venna. It is well know for its silver mines. So, too, incidentally, is the city of Argentum, where I had been owned by Tyrrhenius of Argentum, and had served him as a lure girl. One can usually recognize a man of Tharna by two yellow cords, each about eighteen inches long, thrust over the belt. Such cords are suitable for binding a female, hand and foot. In seeing such cords the woman understands that it is possible for them to be used to put her at a man" s mercy. The meaning of these cords has something to do, apparently, with the history of the polis of Tharna. Interestingly there are supposedly almost no free woman in Tharna. Further, it is said that the slavery of a woman in Tharna seldom brings slaves into the city or, indeed, sell them out of the city. It is their own women, it seems, whom they keep in bondage, and a bondage of a very severe sort. Even when a slave begs to be sold out of the city, this is usually denied her. One might almost think that the slavery of the women in Tharna was not an ordinary slavery but in some sense rather different. It is almost as though it had been imposed upon them as a punishment; it is almost as if they had been sentenced to it. Surprisingly, however, and scarcely to be expected in such a stern polity, the city itself is ruled by a Tatrix. Her name, it is said, is Lara. Also, paradoxically, Tharna" s first minister, who stands second only to the Tatrix, is not of high caste but of lowly origin, only of the metal workers. His name, it is said, is Kron. Such things, I think, make Tharna an unusual city. She defends herself well, incidentally, and some, though perhaps they jest, speculate that her silver may be safer even than that of Argentum, which is an ally of Ar. One man of Tharna, it is said, is a match fro ten from most cities. Whereas that is doubtless not true, it is not disputed that Tharnan warriors are among themost dangerous on Gor. it is indicative of this sort of thing that Tharnan mercenaries usually command high fees. Many mercenary companies use them as cadre and officers.

"No," said the bearded man, squatting across the blanket from the small fellow. The small fellow, however, did not wear in his belt the two cords of Tharna. This suggested to me that if he had ever been of Tharna he now, at any rate, was no longer of Tharna. Perhaps he had been cast out of the city. Perhaps he had been banished or sent into exile. The bearded fellow had jested to him, somewhat cruelly, I thought, about the mines. Perhaps he had once served in them? If so, that suggested he might have once been a slave or criminal. In such a case then, surely he would not be anxious to return to them. Perhaps it had been in the mines that he had been injured, in them that he had been so disfigured, in them that perhaps he had acquired even the impediment of his gait.

"Yes!" cried the small fellow.

"I do not want to stay long in this vicinity," said the bearded fellow. "We were in the camp of Pietro Vacchi this morning. There is much concern there over this second disappearance of a wench from the camp. There may be a search. There is even a fellow in the camp now who has a sleen. He came in from the Vitkel Aria, from around Venna, last night."

"A sleen does not exist who could follow the trail," said the small fellow. "You are not afraid of sleen?" asked the bearded fellow, skeptically. "No," said the small fellow.

"What is more to be feared than sleen," he asked, "saving perhaps a larl?" "There are things," said the small fellow.

"Men," grinned the bearded fellow.

"Sometimes," said the small fellow, uneasily.

"Your girls are pot girls," said the bearded man, "kettle-and mat girls, laundresses, stable sluts."

I heard Tupita gasp in anger, tied to my right. She had been the "first girl" in a much-frequented tavern in Brundisium. Then she shrank back, very quiet. She was afraid she might have attracted their attention. Sometimes a slave wants very much to attract the attention of a man, but sometimes, too, she does not. Sometimes she hopes that he, at least officially, will not take notice of her. It is not pleasant to be cuffed. Too, the whip hurts. I myself, too, however, though I was more restrained than Tupita, was not much pleased either. I had been first, at least for a time, on at least some of the lists at the baths in Brundisium. Too, I had been a fine dancer, one of the finest, I suspect, in Brundisium! If they could have seen me curling about a man" s feet in an alcove, licking and kissing them, then inching upward, piteously, hopefully, then kneeling beside him, looking up, kissing, licking, pleading, I do not think they would have been so quick to dismiss me as a mere "pot girl." Tela, too, I am sure, was angry. After all, not only had she once been a rich free woman, of high family and significant station, of a fine city, Lydius, but even after her capture, and her prompt reduction to total and absolute bondage, she had been found so beautiful, so luscious and desirable, that she had been chosen over many women for the rectangle of red silk in the tent of Aulus. Mina and Cara, too, I think, were not too pleased. Certainly the beauty of neither was negligible, and I am sure they were both well aware of this. Both, and I am sure they understood this, would be likely to bring a high price on the slave block. Had there been originally any doubt in the minds of these fellows as to our desirability, or potential, those doubts, surely should have been dispelled earlier, in the authoritative, intimate examinations to which we had all been helplessly subjected. What more would they have wished to do, put us to their full pleasure? Perhaps they could take us home for a week on a trial basis! "Very well," said the little fellow. "Consider them pot girls, cleaning slaves, laundresses, what have you, it matters not to me. Put them to your lowest servile tasks. Whip them back when they would crawl pleading on their bellies to your couches! What does it matter to me!"

I think we were all startled to hear him exclaim in this fashion. Certainly we were exquisite slave flesh, all of us! I doubted that there were many slave bars on Gor to which five women such as we were fastened. To be sure, almost all female slaves on Gor must expect to be put to domestic labors, cooking, sewing, cleaning, washing, ironing, and such. We were women. Even free women, in households without slaves, perform such labors. How, then, could we expect to be exempt from them? Sometimes even high pleasure slaves in the palaces of Ubars must, if only to remind them that they are slaves, on their hands and knees, stripped and chained, scrub floors. Still, surely we were good for far more than such things. Did the beauty of our faces, and our slave curves, not suggest that? Surely the first and most essential office of the female slave, and, indeed, of any sort of female slave, is to be pleasing to the master.

"But," said the small fellow, "whatever you choose to call them, or however you choose to think of them, we made a bargain!"

"You have no Home Stone," said the bearded man.

I shuddered. In such a fashion he had informed the small fellow that he was not such that one need keep faith with him. There is a Gorean saying that only Priest-Kings, outlaws and slaves lack Home Stones. Strictly, of course, that is an oversimplification. For example, animals of all sorts, such as tarsks and verr, as well as slaves, do not have Home Stones. Too, anyone whose citizenship, for whatever reason, is rescinded or revoked, with due process of law, is no longer entitled to the protections and rights of that polity" s Home Stone. That Home Stone is then no longer his. This suggested to me, again, that the small fellow might have been cast out of Tharna, perhaps exiled or banished. He did not seem to me a likely candidate for an outlaw, at least in the fullest sense of the word. Indeed, the fellows with whom he was dealing, such rough, dangerous, unkempt brutes, seemed to me much more likely candidates for such an appellation.

"Beware," said the small fellow.

The leader of the five men regarded him, puzzled. "What then is your Home Stone?" he asked.

The small fellow looked down, angrily. He pulled up a handful of grass. "You do not have a Home Stone," announced the leader, with a grin.

"Twenty-five silver tarsks for the women," said the small fellow. "And meat, much meat!"

"You do not have a Home Stone," grinned the leader.

"Five for each," said the small fellow, "not three!"

"Very well," said the leader.

"Good!" said the small fellow.

"Not three," said the leader, "but two."

"No!" cried the small fellow.

"Then one for each," said the leader.

"Beware!" cried the small fellow.

"Beware?" inquired the leader. "Are you mad? To whom will you sell these pot girls, if not to us? Will you take these two back to Vacchi, to see if he will buy them back? Will you take the other three back to Venna?"

"Deal with us fairly," said the small man.

"There are five of us here," said the leader, indicating himself with a jerk of his thumb, and then the others, behind him. "I have three more waiting with a closed slave wagon on the other side of the trees. That is eight. There are three of you."

"There was to have been more meat," said the small fellow. The leader laughed. "Apparently you are reluctant to sell these women to us, in spite of your agreement to do so. Very well. The decision is yours. We shall not buy them. We shall simply take them with us."

Tupita and I, and the others, shrank back in our bonds, then, in terror, pushing back against the rail to which our necks were tied. If we could have we would have forced it from its posts.

The leader of the five men looked at us, and laughed. But did he think our terror was motivated by the fear of coming into the clutches of such masters, distressing though such a disposition might be? The small fellow, and his two cohorts, squatting behind him, to his left, did not move. They were all very still.

"What is wrong?" asked the leader.

Then suddenly one of his men screamed weirdly, lifted up, his legs jerking wildly. We screamed. The thing must have been eight feet tall. We had seen it lift its head, in the tall grass, some seven or eight yards behind the five men, and to their left. It had perhaps been hidden in a pit, or burrow. Its ears had been upright. It bit through the back of the neck of the man and cast the body down, with the quarter of the dried tarsk which they had brought.

Almost instantly another of the men had begun to draw his sword, but the beast, before the blade was half from the sheath, on all fours, scrambling, tearing the grass behind it, moving with incredible swiftness, not like anything on two legs, seized him and tore open his throat with a single slash of those terrible fangs.

We screamed in terror, bound, twisting at the railing, half choked.

"Do not draw your swords!" cried the small fellow. "Do not draw your swords! It is harmless! It is harmless!"

The beast then regarded the men, who shrank back from it, their hands at the hilts of their swords but not daring to draw them. The beast then took the second body and threw it with the first, together with the quarter of a dried tarsk.

"Do not run," said the small fellow, quickly. "It will pursue you then. Stay here. Do not move. Do not draw your weapons. It is friendly. It will not hurt you."

The beast now crouched near the two bodies. Its mouth was red, and the fur about its jaw and snout. It looked up at the men, balefully, and a deep growl warned them back.

"Do not approach it closely," said the small fellow.

That I surmised was the last intent of the three men.

The beast then lowered its head, but its ears remained up. I think even a tiny sound, perhaps a movement of grass, might have been audible to it, certainly the slipping of steel from a scabbard.

I looked away, sick.

"There is little to fear," said the small fellow. "It prefers tarsk." "It is not eating tarsk," said one of the men.

"It is hungry," said the small fellow. "Do not be harsh with it. The tarsk is dried. The other is fresh. You should have brought more meat."

The beats looked up at them, feeding.

"See the hand," said one of the men.

The paw, or hand, had long, powerful, thick, multiply jointed digits. Such hands, those of this creature, or of one like it, had held the bars of the girl pen, and thrust them apart, admitting its bulk.

"There are six fingers," whispered another man.

"What is it?" asked the leader of the men.

"A beast," said the small, lame man, noncommittally. "I do not really know what it is called. I met them outside of Corcyrus, last year."

"Them?" asked the leader.

"Yes," said the small fellow. "There are two more, somewhere about." The men looked about, frightened. Even the two cohorts of the small fellow, who had remained much in their places, seemed uneasy. This thing had arisen as though by magic from the grass. As large as these things were they were apparently not unskilled at concealment, and perhaps stalking.

"What do you mean, you "met them outside Corcyrus?" said the leader. "When Corcyrus fell to Argentum, in the Silver War," said the small fellow, "when proud Sheila, the ruthless Tatrix of Corcyrus, was deposed, they apparently fled the city."

I had heard something of the Silver War when I was in Argentum. Sheila, the Tatrix, said to be as beautiful as she was proud and ruthless, had apparently escaped for a time but, later, had been caught in Ar, actually, and amusingly, and doubtless to her shame and humiliation, by a professional slave hunter. She had been put in a golden sack and taken back to Corcyrus to stand trial. Her final disposition was as follows: she became the property of the man who had taken her, the professional slave hunter.

"They broke from their confinements in the confusion, in the taking of the city?" said the leader.

" I do not think they were confined," said the small fellow.

"They were kept as pets?" said the leader, awed.

"No," said the small fellow.

"I did not understand," said the leader.

"I was encamped not far from Corcyrus," said the small fellow. "I had come there hoping to make cheap purchase of valuable loot, from the soldiers. These things came to my camp. They had smelled food, I think. I threw them my food, in terror. That was where I first met them. Before that I had not even known there were such things."

"They have been with you since?" asked the leader.

"Yes," said the small fellow.

"Look!" said one of the men, pointing to the beast.

At his exclamation the beast, curious, looked up at him.

He stepped back.

The paw of the beast was wrapped about the strings of one of the fallen men" s wallets. It then jerked it from the belt, breaking the thongs. Then, watching the men, it similarly relieved the second body of its wallet.

"You have trained it to steal," said the leader, startled, awed.

The beast then opened the wallets and poured the contents into its paw. There it moved the coins about, in the palm of one broad paw, by means of a digit on the other paw. It was dexterous, for so large a beast. Those were clearly sophisticated prehensile appendages.

I watched this with horror.

The beast then poured the coins back in one of the wallets, and threw it to the blanket, before the small fellow.

"They find me of value," said the small fellow. "As you can imagine it would be difficult for them to enter a town, go to the market and purchase goods." "I do not understand," said the leader, white-faced. "These things are animals, beasts!"

"Yes," said the small fellow.

"It is hard to believe that such things were pets in Corcyrus."

"They were not pets," said the small fellow.

"I do not understand," said the man.

"They were allies," said the small fellow.

"Who is captain here?" asked the leader, frightened.

At his point the beast rose from behind the bodies. It was some eight feet, or so, in height. It must have weighed eight or nine hundred pounds. Fangs protruded from the sides of its jaw. It had a double ring of teeth. Its mouth, jaws, now, were red with blood. It wiped them with the back of one of its long arms. It looked at the leader of the men. "I am captain," it said. "Spare us," begged the leader. "Take our coins! Leave us our lives!" He then removed his walled and tossed it, hastily, timidly, onto the blanket, beside the other wallet, that which contained the coins from the two fallen men. His remaining two men did so, as well.

"No, no," said the small fellow. "You do not understand. We mean you no harm. It was you who did not intend to deal fairly. We now have the meat which we needed, though I would surely have preferred another form of it. He took only what we all knew had been agreed upon. He was merely exacting his due. Similarly, we want only the five silver tarsks for each of these women."

"We do not want them," said the leader.

"Do not be silly," said the small fellow. He then, crouching, down by the blanket, took the leader" s wallet and removed several coins from it. He put these in small piles on the blanket. There were five such piles. Each contained five silver tarsks. He then handed the leader back the wallet. The other two men, too, retrieved their wallets. "The other money, of course, from those two fellows," said the small fellow, "is forfeit."

"Of course," said the leader.

I think they all wished to turn and run.

"Do not be afraid," said the small fellow. "He will not hurt you. He is friendly."

The beast, then lifted its head, its ears erected. Too, very carefully, alertly, it sniffed the air. Such a thing then, I suspected, had unusually keen senses. I was aware of the excellence of its night vision. I had more than enough evidence of its ferocity and strength. Too, I had seen it count money. I had heard it speak. It could bend bars. It could destroy men. Such a beast, I feared, was some type of dominant life form. How small and weak humans seemed compared to such a thing. How I feared then for my species! I now wanted to be sold as quickly as possible to the brigands, and taken from this place, to be locked in the closed slave wagon. Would I be safe even there, or could such a thing tear off the plates, those bolted, iron plates which confined us so well within, in the darkness, to get at us› I had not been given permission to speak, and dared not ask it. If I had I would have begged release from the railing and submission to any bonds my captors might choose, even body cages or wire jackets, simply to be taken from this place!

"What is it?" asked the small fellow of the beast.

"Sleen," is said.

"Do you detect men with it?" asked the small fellow, anxiously.

"No," it said.

"It is then a wild sleen," he said.

"It is past noon," said the leader of the other men. "It is late in the day for a sleen to be abroad." The sleen is predominantly nocturnal.

"It is probably on the trace of tabuk, from last night," said the small man. I pulled at the binding fiber which confined my wrists. It was still damp, from having been in my mouth, when I had been brought up from the well. I squirmed on my knees, my neck bound at the railing. If there were a sleen about we were helpless. We could not even run. It was almost as though we were fastened on a meat rack.

"We did not even come into the area until it was light," said the one of the leader" s men.

From the remark I gathered that it was not likely that the animal, if there were one about, would be concerned with us. A sleen will usually follow the first scent it picks up when hunting, and then follow it tenaciously. There are stories of such beasts on the trail of something actually running between, or among, other animals, and even men, and paying them no attention.

"Too, sleen seldom attack groups," said the leader. "They prefer isolated animals."

I took some courage from these remarks.

"Let us move the women," said the leader. "We have been too long in this place." I was pleased to hear this resolution. I would have been zealously cooperative even if I had been a free woman, hodlng forth my limbs to be bound, putting forth my neck for the coffle collar, and not a mere slave.

"Free their ankles," said the leader of the men.

"Look," said one of the small fellow" s two cohorts, pointing across the meadow. One of the leader" s two men had scarcely bent to unknot the bonds on Tupita" s crossed ankles when he stopped, given pause by this utterance. He stood up, shading his eyes.

Two beasts were approaching, doubtless the companions of the one with us. One thrust a man before it. The other was dragging behind itself, through the grass, a belt, with an attached scabbard and sword.

"No," cried Tupita, in misery.

The fellow, pushed forward by the beast, looked at her, dully, angrily. I pulled back a little, the railing hard against the back of my neck. I saw him regard me, with frustration, with hatred.

"What are you doing here?" asked the small fellow of the prisoner.

He was silent.

There was a growl from the beast behind him.

"He came to seek me," said Tupita, boldly.

"No," said the man, looking at her.

"What then? What then?" asked the small fellow.

"I followed that thing," he said, rubbing his arm, where the beast had gripped him.

"He is from the camp of Pietro Vacchi," said the leader of the men. "I saw him there, two days ago."

"Yes!" said the small fellow. "I, too, I am sure, saw him there!" "He is one of Vacchi" s men," said one of the small fellow" s cohorts. "There must be others about, too, then!" said the other, alarmed.:They are seeking the two women."

"I am not of the company of Pietro Vacchi," said the man.

"How came you here?" asked the small fellow.

"I followed that," he said, indicating the beast, "as I told you." The beast growled, menacingly. I take it, it did not care to accept the fact that a man might be able to follow it.

"You are a hunter?" asked one of the leader" s men.

"In a way," he said.

"You are a brave fellow," said one of the leader" s men, "to pursue such a beast."

"It was not the beast which I was interested," he said.

"How many are with you?" asked one of the small fellow" s cohorts. "I am alone," he said proudly.

"What are you doing here?" asked the small fellow. "What is it you seek?" "I seek the blood of a slave," he said, regarding me.

I put down my head.

Tupita sobbed.

Surely he had given himself up for lost. It was hard to understand otherwise the pride, the grandeur, with which he spoke. He had risked all, and lost all. He stood there with folded arms. For my blood he had dared even to follow so terrible a beast. This was no small measure of his hatred of me and his determination. He looked about himself with scorn. He disdained to conceal his intent or objective. He had not understood, however, it seemed, in his single-minded pursuit of his bloody goal, that there might be others of that kind about. They had taken him. I did not doubt but that they, too, in their way, were hunters.

"Kill it," said the largest of the beasts, their leader.

Tupita screamed in protest, but the nearest beast to the captive struck him from the side with the back of its closed paw. There was a sickening sound, and the captive" s head snapped to the side. The other beast reached down and lifted up the figure, and threw it on the store of meat beside the blanket. "No, no," wept Tupita, "no, no, no!"

"There may be others about," said the leader of the men. "Let us reconnoiter the area."

"Do you understand?" asked the small man of the largest beast.

The beast looked at him, and its long, dark tongue came out of the side of its mouth, and it licked at the bloody fur at the side of its jaw. Then it looked around, its ears lifted.

"He wants to look," said the small fellow, making a large, circular motion with his hand, encompassing the meadow. "He wants to look. There may be others." The beast then again fixed its gaze on the small fellow, and he stepped back, in trepidation.

"Yes," it said. "We will look."

"Spread out," said the small fellow to his cohorts, and the others. "We will return here."

I looked at Mirus, of Brundisium. The side of his head was bloody.

"It is your fault!" cried Tupita, turning her head, in her neck ropes, toward me.

"Forgive me, Tupita!" I wept.

"You are safe now!" she wept. "Rejoice! If I could get my hands on you I would kill you myself!"

"Please, Tupita!" I begged. "I, too, am in sorrow! He was kind to me!" "This is what you wanted!" she cried.

"No," I said. "Never, never!"

"It is you who have killed him!" she wept. "It was you who drove him to madness! It was you who change him, who made him some crazed beast, who made him thirst for blood! It is you who are responsible! It was you who did this to him!" "No!" I wept. "No!"

Then she began to weep uncontrollably, her head back.

"Forgive me, Tupita," I said. "Forgive me!"

"You killed him!" she sobbed.

"No! No! I said. Then, I, too, in my sorrow, wept. We could not, as men had put us, wipe our tears. They coursed down our cheeks. Their salty flow fell even upon, and ran down, our bodies. I looked upon the bloody, still figure, cast upon the bodies and the quarter of a tarsk. "Tupita!" I said.

She did not respond, so lost in her grief she was.

"Tupita," I whispered. "I do not think he is dead."

"What?" cried Tupita.

"Look," I said. "He is still bleeding."

"Oh, Master!" she cried, suddenly, frightened.

"He is very strong," I said. "I do not think he is dead."

"No!" she said. "He is alive! My master is alive! He lives!" she looked at me, wildly, in her neck ropes. She laughed, sobbing. Her tears now were tears of joy. Then suddenly she looked at me. She was very frightened. "Oh, Tuka," she said. "You are in terrible danger."

I tightened in the binding fiber, shuddering. "He may not recover consciousness before we are taken away," I said. "Perhaps the beasts may not notice he is alive. Perhaps he can make good his escape."

Suddenly Tela, to my left, made a frightened noise. "There," she said, suddenly. "There, beside the well!"

"What is it?" asked Mina.

I could not see anything. I tried to lift my head but, bound as I was, kneeling, tied by the neck at the rail, I could do very little. I sobbed with frustration. "What is it?" said Mina, insistently.

"You cannot see it now," said Tela. "I think it is behind the well." "What was it?" asked Mina.

"There!" cried Tela, frightened. "A sleen!"

Terror coursed through us.

"It is probably not on our scent," said Tupita. "Do not move!"

We could see it now, by the well, its head lifted above the grass.

It was looking at us.

"Do not move," said Tupita.

I did not know if we could move, we were so frightened even had we desired to do so.

The head of the sleen remained immobile for more than twenty seconds. Had we not seen it, had we not known where it was, we might not have noticed it, even though it was only a matter of yards away. It is incredible how still such things can hold themselves. Then, suddenly, it moved. It circled the well. Then, oddly enough, it put its frontpaws, of its six legs, up on the well, and thrust its head over the upper wall of the well, and then lowered its head, apparently peering within. It then withdrew its head from the opening of the well, and slipped back into the grass.

Mirus stirred, lying on the two bodies. He groaned.

"Oh, Master," moaned Tupita, almost silently, "do not awaken now. Do not make noise!"

"He has blood on him," said Cara. "It will come this way!"

"It must not come this way," said Tupita. "It might hurt the master." "What of us!" said Cara. There was a small sound from her wrist chains, where the links near the manacles had been bound together by the binding fiber. Surely the animal could hear that!

"We do not matter," said Tupita. "We are only slaves."

Cara moaned.

"Do not awaken, Master," whispered Tupita to Mirus. "Lie still." He, I think, though, could not hear her, or could not understand her.

Interestingly, though I think such a beast might easily detect the small sounds, even the whispers, we made, it did not seem to notice them. It seemed, rather, intent upon some other business.Mirus groaned, and lifted his head. He lifted his body, too, a little. He was a very strong man.

"Lie still, Master," whispered Tupita. "There is a sleen about." "It is on a scent," whispered Tela. "Look at it!"

the animal now seemed to be very excited. It was near the well, its snout to the ground. It circled the well twice, and then circled it again, increasing the size of the circle. I heard it making small, eager noises. Then it hurried in our direction for a moment, and then stopped, and then, again, began to move toward us.

Groggily Mirus, blood running down the side of his head, crawled toward the scabbard and blade, taken from him by one of the beasts, which lay near him. The blades, too, for that matter, of the two slain fellows were also in the vicinity, one still in its sheath, the other half drawn.

"Go away! Go away!" cried Tela to the sleen.

Its eyes were now very bright. It was a gray hunting sleen.

Mirus staggered unsteadily to his feet, discarding the scabbard. He nearly fell, but regained his feet. He held the hilt with two hands.

He came toward me, reeling, bleeding. I then realized it was his intention to strike me.

"There is a sleen behind you!" cried Tupita. "Turn around! Turn around!" "That is not a wild sleen!" cried Mina.

It wore a collar, a large, heavy, spiked collar.

Mirus reeled about. He stood then, sword drawn, between the beast and us. Tela put her head back and screamed, wildly, shrilly, helplessly/ The beast regarded us.

"I is Borko, the sleen of Hendow!" cried Tupita. "It has come to kill us!" it had come after us, pursuing us, doubtless, as runaway slaves!

I suddenly recalled the reference to an inquiry, or inquiries in Argentum, that on the part of my former master, Tyrrhenius. I had been sold shortly thereafter. I also remembered that I had walked barefoot on the Viktel Aria, at the stirrup of Aulus, and, too, had so trod the camp of Pietro Vacchi.

"No," said Mirus. "It is on one scent. It is after only one quarry." I saw the sleen view me.

"Master," I called out to Mirus. "Defend me!"

But he, both hands on the hilt of his sword, holding it at rest now, pointed downward, backed away. He stood between the beast and Tupita.

Borko looked at him. he remembered him, doubtless, from Brundisium.

Without taking his eyes off the sleen, by feel, Mirus cut the ropes that tied Tupita to the railing, and then cut free the binding fiber on her ankles, and wrists."

"Do not mind me," wept Tupita. "Do not let him kill Tuka!"

But Mirus held her by one arm, and backed away.

"I find this," he said to me, "an acceptable and suitable vengeance, superior even to the sword, or to the thousand cuts, that you, my dear Doreen or Tuka, or whatever masters now choose to call you, you stinking, worthless, curvaceous, treacherous slave slut, should be torn to pieces by a sleen!"

"No!" screamed Tupita.

"Kill, Borko, kill!" he cried, indicating me with the point of his sword.

I closed my eyes, sobbing.

I felt then, however, the huge, cold snout of the beast thrusting itself under my left arm. I gasped, and cried out, softly. But there had been little, if anything, of menace in the gesture. Perhaps it was confirming my scent, prior to its attack. Then, again it rubbed its snout on my body. This seemed clearly an act of affection. I had seen it act so with Hendow himself. It was nuzzling me. Then I felt its large tongue lick across my body.

"Good Borko! Good Borko!" cried Tupita.

"Kill!" cried Mirus. "Kill her!"

Borko looked at him, quizzically.

"Very well, then, stupid beast," he said. "I shall do so myself!" he then raised his blade. Immediately the entire attitude of the sleen altered. It suddenly became alive with menace and hate. Its fur erected, its eyes blazed, it snarled viciously.

Mirus, startled, stepped back.

I think perhaps if the sleen had not known him from Brundisium, and as the friend of his master, he might have attacked him. Certainly, it seemed, as it was, he had no intention of letting him approach me.

"It is protecting her!" cried Tupita, delightedly. "See! It will kill you if you try to hurt her! Come away! Let her go! Why fuss with a slave?"

Mirus then, in fury, held the blade with one hand. If he raised it, even a little, Borko growled, watching him.

"Free the other girls, Master," said Tupita. "Then let us away, before the beasts return!"

Mirus regarded her in rage.

"At one time you used to muchly pleasure yourself with me," said Tupita. "Am I not still of interest to you? Have I become so unattractive? Have you forgotten? It is so long ago?"

Mirus made a noise, almost like an animal.

"See Tela there," she said. "She was an overseer" s girl. See Mina, and Cara! Both are beautiful! You can put sword claim on us all!"

Mirus, in fury, lashed back with his hand, striking Tupita from him. She fell back, her mouth bloody, by the post to my right, that supporting the rail on that side.

He wavered. Fresh blood shone then at the side of his head. He staggered. "Look!" cried Tupita, pointing across the meadow.

Mirus sank to one knee. He was weak from the loss of blood. It seemed he could scarcely hold his sword.

We looked where Tupita had pointed. Another figure was treading the meadow now, toward us. I could not mistake him, though he now seemed much different from when I had remembered him.

"It is Hendow!" cried Tupita.

"Yes!" I said.

But it was not the Hendow I remembered from Brundisium. It had the same stature, and shoulders, and mighty arms, but it was now a bronze, leaner Hendow, one even more terrible and fierce than I had known, one who held now in his hand a bloodied sword.

"Mirus!" he cried. "Old friend! What are you doing here?"

"Hendow!" said Mirus, tears in his eyes. "Beloved friend!"

"You are hurt," said Hendow.

"You are welcome here," said Mirus, weakly.

"Forgive me, old friend, for thrusting you aside in Brundisium," said Hendow. "I was a fool."

"How did you find us here?" asked Mirus.

"I was following Borko," said Hendow. "Then I heard a scream." That would have been Tela" s scream. Others, too, of course, might have heard that scream. "Masters, let us away!" said Tupita.

"Your sword is bloody," observed Mirus.

"I met one who disputed my passage," said Hendow.

"Let us away, please, Masters!" said Tupita.

"Kneel," said Hendow to her, with terrible, savage authority.

Immediately Tupita knelt, and was silent.

Hendow came toward me, and crouched down before me. "Good Borko," he said. "Good Borko!" the sleen pushed his snout against him, and licked his bared arm. Hendow touched me on the side of the head, with extreme gentleness. "Are you all right?" he asked.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"They have you well secured," he smiled.

"As befits a slave, Master," I said.

"There are others about," said Mirus. "There were six men here, and three strange beasts, not sleen."

"Somewhere," said Tupita, "there is a slave wagon. Another three men are said to be there."

"I saw no slave wagon," said Hendow.

"You finished a man?" said Mirus.

"It would seem so," said Hendow. "His head is gone."

Then there are still five about, at least," said Mirus, "and the beasts, they are most dangerous."

"There are side to be three at a slave wagon, Master," said Tupita. "Can you fight?" asked Hendow. "It would be like old times, before the tavern." "I can be of no help to you," said Mirus. "It is hard to see. I am weak. I think I have lost much blood. I can hardly hold my sword. I fight to retain consciousness."

"I have no intention of leaving you here to die," said Hendow. "Better that we would perish together."

"No," said Mirus. "Better that only one die."

"I will not leave you," said Mirus.

"Do but one thing for me, before your departure," said Mirus.

"I am not leaving you," said Hendow.

"Put the fangs of Borko to that slave," said Mirus, indicating me, "or, if you wish, slay her for me, with your sword."

"Beloved Mirus!" said Hendow.

"She betrayed me to the chains of Ionicus!" said Mirus.

"False! False!" cried Hendow in fury.

"It is true," said Mirus. "I swear it by our love,"

"Is this true?" asked Hendow of me, incredulously.

"Yes, Master," I wept.

"She was a lure girl!" cried Tupita. "Must we not obey, as we are slaves!" "It seems," said Hendow, "that there is one here whose neck might well be consigned to the sword."

"Yes," said Mirus.

"Have you the strength to strike?" asked Hendow.

"I think so," said Mirus.

"You would prefer, surely, to do this deed yourself," said Hendow.

"Yes," said Mirus, rising unsteadily to his feet. He gripped the sword again with two hands. I did not know if he could stand for more than another moment. "Very well," said Hendow. "Strike Tupita."

"Tupita?" asked Mirus.

Tupita shrank back, small, where she was kneeling in the grass.

"Yes," said Hendow. "I caught a thief, to whose lair I was led by Borko. He spoke quickly, after only his legs were broken. Tupita stole Doreen, duping her into leaving the house, she thinking she was still first girl, and intended to sell her, using her price to secure tarn passage from Brundisium in the guise of a free woman. she is, thus, a runaway slave. Moreover, I now put sword claim upon them both. Dispute it with me, if you will. I further learned from the thief they were both sold in Samnium. I spared his life, as he was cooperative. He is now doubtless, with his fellows, stealing other women. It was in Samnium I again picked up the trail. Borko and I have followed it for weeks. We lost it many times, but, each time, managed to find it again. Most recently we found it on the Vitkel Aria, south of Venna. Thus, you see, had it not been for Tupita, for her running away, for her betrayal of a sister in bondage, for her willingness to assume the habiliments of a free woman, in itself a great crime, this slave would not have been in Argentum, to lure you. if one is covered with guilt here, surely it is Tupita. Accordingly, I now give you my permission to strike her."

"No!" cried Mirus.

"Perhaps both should have their necks to the sword," said Hendow.

"No!" cried Mirus. He put himself between Hendow and Tupita. "Run!" he said to Tupita. "Run!"

"Remain on your knees, slave," said Hendow, in a terrible voice. "Before you could run two steps I would put Borko on you."

Tupita remained where she was.

"Why did you feel Hendow?" cried Mirus to Tupita.

"You were no longer there!" she wept. "You had been sent away. You were gone! I was consumed by hatred for Doreen, because of whom Hendow dismissed you. I decided to sell her, and show you all, escaping from Brundisium."

"But you did not escape, did you?" asked Hendow.

"No, Master!" she wept.

"You are now obviously a slave, collared, half naked, kneeling in the grass, fearing for your life!"

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Even had you made your way from Brundisium, where would you have gone?" he asked. "In what city or village would you expect your antecedents not to be inquired into? Where would you get your collar off? Would you still not wear a brand?"

She sobbed.

"Is there escape for such as you?" he asked.

"No, Master," she wept. "There is no escape for such as I."

"Why would you have done such a thing?" asked Mirus, not taking his eyes off Hendow. I did not think Mirus could long remain on his feet.

"Do you not understand?" she wept. "I did it because of you!"

"Absurd," said Mirus.

"I did not want to be without you," she wept.

"Little fool," he said.

"Too, I was jealous of Doreen. O thought you cared for her!"

"Certainly I found of her of interest," said Mirus, "as I have many slaves, but she, though, perhaps more beautiful than most, was never more to me, really, and I know that now, and have for a long time, than another wench whom I might, from time to time, for an Ahn or so, to the tune of my whip, if I pleased, put to my pleasure in an alcove."

"Oh, Master!" she breathed.

"But what are such things to you?" he asked.

"Do you not understand, Master?" she sobbed. "Though you scarcely know I exist, though you may despise or hate me, though you might scorn me or laugh at me, I am your love slave!"

He seemed startled.

"Yes," she cried. "I am you love slave! I have known this from the first time you put me to your feet! If you weighted and wrapped me with a thousand chains and a thousand locks they could not hold me more helplessly than the love I bear you! Alas, I have confessed! Kill me now, if you will!" she put down her head, sobbing.

"If you will not put her to the sword," said Hendow, "it seems, then, I must do so."

"No!" cried Mirus.

"Do you think, in your condition, you can adequately defend her?" asked Hendow. "I will defend her to the death!" cried Mirus.

"Do you think she is a free woman?" asked Hendow. "She is only a slave." "She is worth more to me than ten thousand free women!" cried Mirus. "A slave slut?" asked Hendow, scornfully. "A woman who may be purchased from a slave block?"

"Yes!" cried Mirus.

"Stand aside," said Hendow.

"Have pity on her!" cried Mirus. He could barely hold the sword. I feared he might collapse at any moment.

"Show mercy, Master!" I begged, Hendow.

"You are losing blood, old friend," said Hendow. "I do not think you will long be able to stand. Perhaps then, while you have the strength, you will wish to attack."

"By the love you bear me," said Mirus, weakly, "do not kill her." "You would kill this slave, would you not?" inquired Hendow.

"Yes," said Mirus.

"But you do not wish Tupita to die?" he asked.

"No," said Mirus.

"Perhaps then," said Hendow, smiling, "we might negotiate."

Mirus looked at him, unsteadily, wildly.

"It is too late!" wept Tupita. "Look!"

We looked up, to see, encircling us now, some yards away, men. There were five of them. With them, too, were the beasts.

Borko growled, menacingly.

"There is a sleen," said the bearded man, he who was the leader of the men who had come to pick us up. "It is unfortunate we do not have spears with us." The small fellow, he who had been dealing with the leader, hung back. His two cohorts were somewhat in advance of him. Both were rough, grim-looking men, armed with blades. I thought them, though, perhaps less to be feared than the leader and the man with him. He had left, I recalled, with two. Two of the beasts came forward. They snarled, as Borko snarled. I realized, suddenly, they did not fear even a thing as terrible as a sleen. Armed only with their own teeth and jaws they regarded themselves as superior to it.

"What are those things," asked Hendow.

"Where is Licinius?" asked the bearded man.

"They are certainly big fellows," said Hendow. "I, too, would not mind having a spear."

"Your sword is bloody," said the bearded man.

"Perhaps then I met Licinius," said Hendow.

"You should have fled," said Mirus.

"No," said Hendow.

"Beware of him," said the bearded man. "I think he may be skilled." "Come closer," said Hendow. "Examine the blood on the blade. Perhaps you will recognize it."

Borko crouched low, his front shoulders a bit higher than his head. He growled. "I free you, Borko, old friend," said Hendow. "Go. Return to the wild. Go. You are free!"

But the beast remained where it was, beside its master.

"As you will," said Hendow. "The choice is yours, my friend."

"We are lost," said Mirus. "I cannot help you."

"Stand near me, behind me," said Hendow.

But Mirus sank to one knee, where he was. I did not understand how it was that he could remain even so. He must have been a man of incredible strength. "You are surely ugly fellows," said Hendow to the two beasts. They were coming forward very warily. "Ho, lads," called Hendow. "Do not send your pet urts before you. Come forth boldly yourselves. Show that you are men!"

"Do not respond to his taunts!" said the bearded man. "The blood of Licinius warms you to caution!"

"Clever lads!" laughed Hendow.

"Watch out for the sleen!" cried the small fellow to the beasts. "They are dangerous!"

The lips of one of the beasts, it very near now, only some fifteen feet away, drew back, about its fangs. It seemed an expression, oddly enough, of amusement. Then I recollected these things were rational.

"Run, Master! I said. "Run!"

But Hendow did not move. His whole body seemed as alert, as alive, as ready and as vital as that of Borko. He would not, of course, leave Mirus. Too, of course, he could not outrun the beasts. I had seen them move. I sobbed.

"Beware the beasts, Master," I said. "They are rational. They can think. They can speak!"

"So," said Hendow, "you still have a lying tongue in that pretty little head of yours. Perhaps you remember the last time you lied to me?"

I moaned. I had been whipped. Then I must perforce kiss the whip. Then I had been put to my knees, my head down, my hands clasped behind the back of my neck, and, in that common slave position, raped. "I am not lying, Master," I said. "You there, you big ugly brute," called Hendow to the leader of the beasts, which stood back a bit. "She is lying, isn" t she?"

Its lips drew back. "Of course," it said.

"I thought so," said Hendow.

I felt confused and frightened, but, too, elated, for I thought I understood then, by his response to the beast, that he had believed me, even when I had made what must have seemed so strange a claim. But then, in a moment, I realized that their capacity at least to understand human speech had surely been suggested by the small fellow" s admonition, and by the one beast" s response. I realized then that Hendow had used me, in his way, to distract the beasts, and to play with them. He had used me, a slave girl, in his strategy. How superior he was to me! How right it was that I should in the order of nature be only the slave of such a man!

"You fellows are some sort of urts, are you not?" asked Hendow.

The leader of the beasts rose up to his full height. The fur seemed to leap up about its head and shoulders, crackling. Its eyes blazed. Tela screamed. Its ears, oddly, then, lay back, flattened against the sides of its head. So, too, were Borko" s. This, I supposed, was a readiness response, making them less vulnerable, less likely to be torn or bitten.

"I have never seen urts so large!" called Hendow.

"We are of the People!" said the leader of the beasts.

"Amazing," said Hendow to the small fellow, whom, he took it, rightly, was in association with the beasts. "How do you make them talk?"

"Do not let him anger you!" called the small fellow to the beasts. "Can you not see? He is tricking you!"

But I think they were not prepared to listen to him. Their attention was on Hendow. I moaned, bound at the rail, helpless. I moved my wrists. How helplessly they were held in place, so perfectly behind me, by the binding fiber! I could not begin to free myself!"

"It is a marvelous trick," called Hendow to the small fellow. "Do it again! Make them seem to speak!"

The leader of the beasts, then, in fury, and in some inhuman, snarling, barbarous, fierce tongue, something like the roar of a lion, the hiss of a sleen, the snarl of a panther, yet clearly, frighteningly, an articulated stream of sound, some form of modulated utterance, communicated with its fellows. He then pointed to Hendow. In these moments, of course, the sleen was forgotten. It, however, had never taken its eyes off the nearest of the beasts. The first beast charged at Hendow but never reached him. Borko sprang for its throat, seized it in his jaws, and clung to that great body, his back four legs tearing and ripping at its belly. The other beast leaped to the aid of its fellow, but Hendow struck it on the back of its neck with his sword. It did not penetrate. It was stopped by thick vertebrae, but blood drenched its back. It spun about to seize Hendow, but he thrust at it with his sword. The blade entered its body by six inches, but the beast stood there, then, slowed, stopped, regarding him. It did not fall. Hendow stepped back. I think only then did he fully comprehend the nature of the beasts, their power, strength, their energy, how difficult it might be to kill or disable such a thing. The two fellows of the small man rushed forward. Hendow stepped back to meet their charge. Mirus tried to rise, but could not. I felt Tupita" s hands at my bonds. She was trying to untie them. The beast Hendow had struck returned to the fray with Borko. The leader of the beasts crouched near them, on all fours, circling them, wild-eyed, waiting its chance. Borko and the two beasts rolled in the grass, snarling, turning and rolling, tearing, biting in a savage blur. It was hard even to tell them apart, or where one might be, so swiftly did their positions change. "Sword! Sword!" said the leader of the beasts, near the fighting beasts. He himself perhaps knew the danger of entering such a violent, unpredictable tangle of teeth and claws. With a sword one might perhaps strike from the outside. The fellow who had been with the bearded man, at the instigation of his commander, hurried to the fighting animals, to try and strike the sleen. To be sure, there is not inconsiderable danger even there. Suppose the sleen, struck, suddenly turns on you. Tupita freed my neck from the railing. Hendow felled one of the cohorts of the small fellow. Then he turned to engage the bearded fellow who, after urging his man to the fray of the beasts, not caring to join it himself, had come cautiously forward. He preferred, it seemed, a human antagonist. But he had, too, as I realized in a moment, a plan. The other cohort of the small fellow, frightened, backed away. The bearded fellow defended himself desperately. He, too, was very skilled. He was protecting himself. It is difficult to strike a man, I gather, who is primarily concerned to defend himself. "Fight!" cried Hendow to him. "Strike the other fellow!" called the bearded man to the cohort of the small fellow. "Kill him!" Mirus could not defend himself. Tupita screamed in misery, leaving off in her labor to free me. The cohort of the small fellow raised his blade and rushed on Mirus. Hendow turned to defend Mirus, and did so, stopping the assailant, spitting him on his blade, but, in doing this, of course, as the bearded man had doubtless hoped, he had opened his own guard. i screamed, and saw Hendow stiffen, thrust through by the bearded man" s weapon. The bearded fellow sank to his knees, beside Mirus, then went to all fours. The bearded man kicked away the weapon. Hendow, of course, had realized that in defending Mirus he would have exposed himself to the blow of the antagonist on his left. But he had not hesitated. Tupita had fled from behind the railing, where she had been attempting to free me and ran to cover the body of Mirus with her own. The bearded man, however, was not interested in Mirus. Perhaps, even, he thought him already dead. His sword, still clutched in his hand, was down. He wiped it on his leg. He then went to where the animals were, but not too closely.There, too, but not too near them either, was the small fellow. The other man, too, who was the last of those who had come forward with the leader to acquire slaves earlier, now stood back. He was white-faced. He held his arm. It was lacerated. His sword was bloodied. I did not even know if he had managed to strike the sleen. I had been concerned with Hendow and Mirus. One of the beasts in the tangle, oddly, seemed inert, trapped, dragged about. Its head was loose on its shoulders, almost like a toy on a string. Then the bulk of the beast, freed, fell to the side, lifeless in the grass. It had been the first of the beasts to approach Borko and Hendow, the one which had seemed amused upon hearing the warning of the small fellow. It had learned, however, and its fellows, as well, now, I think, the dangerousness of the sleen. The second beast grappled with Borko, thrusting his head up and back. Such beasts had not only the teeth and claws of predators, but prehensile appendages of a sort not unlike those selected for in arboreal or climbing forms of life. Both it and Borko were covered with blood. I thought it might want to break Borko" s neck, but then I realized it was only trying to expose the throat. Meanwhile Borko" s hind legs, the four of them, were tearing at its abdomen. The beast bit at Borko" s throat but there it encountered the heavy, spiked collar. The spikes cut through the sides of its face and tongue. Blood gushed from its mouth. It howled in rage. In this moment, the leader of the beasts, which at times had been sitting back, almost catlike, observing, and at other times had been crouching, and moving about the fighting animals, waiting to strike, seeing its opportunity, leapt to the fray, seizing Borko" s collar from the back, but, I think to its astonishment, it might as well have tried to grasp an exploding bomb, for the sleen spun about, twisting in the collar, biting and tearing. The leader of the beasts, astonished, fell back. he put his paw to his breast and wiped blood from his fur. He looked at it, disbelievingly. It was his own blood. Borko tried to leap at him but one of his hind legs was caught in gut. The other beast screamed in pain. It seized Borko then by the hind leg, dragging him back, back from attacking his leader. The leader crouched growling on the grass, warning Borko away. But he did not seem eager to again enter the range of the sleen" s jaws. "Kill it!" screamed the small fellow to the engaged beast. "Kill it!" he screamed to the bearded man, and to the other fellow, with the torn arm. "Use your sword!" said the bearded man to his cohort. "Use yours," said the fellow, bitterly. Tupita wept over Mirus, who had fallen, who was unconscious. With her hands and hair she tried to stanch the flow of his blood. Hendow, on all fours, lifted his head. The grass was drenched with blood on his side. His sword was gone. The engaged beast, now that it was behind Borko, holding him, began to inch up his body, clinging to the fur with its claws and teeth. Borko" s attention was still focused on the leader of the beasts, who, warily, bleeding, was beyond his reach. Hendow groped for the knife at his belt. I saw the huge, balled fist of the engaged beast lift tand then come down like a hammer on the back of Borko, again and again. I think such a blow might have shattered railings. It then loosened the collar from behind, and cast it aside, and lifting the sleen into the air, bit through the back of its neck, then dripped it to its feet. The leader of the beasts leaped in its place, up and down, howling, lifting and raising its arms. The victorious beast, itself a mass of blood and wounds, stood over Borko. I then, curiously, observed its abdomen. With one paw it thrust back into its belly the exposed gut. Hendow staggered to his feet, his knife raised. The victorious beast turned to look at us. Its lips drew back, over the fangs. Then Hendow drove his knife into its breast, to the hilt. The bearded man rushed forward and struck Hendow from behind, twice. Then Hendow fell to the grass, dead.The beast, too, a moment later, fell dead. The men were white-faced, and trembling. Even the leader of the beasts, I think, was shaken.

There had been five men who had come to acquire slaves. Of these two survived, including the bearded man, who had been their leader. The other fellow, not the bearded man, had been lacerated, probably in an attempt to interfere in the tangle of fighting beasts. Indeed, he may even have struck, perhaps with an uncertain blow, not Borko, but the other beast, who had perhaps then, or the leader, turned on him, biting at him, forcing him back. He had not cared, it seemed, the unwisdom of such a project perhaps now clearer to him, to approach the beasts a second time. Three men had been in league with the beasts. Of these only one survived, the small fellow. There had been three beasts. Of these two were dead, one by Borko, the other by Hendow. The leader of the beasts, too, was bloody, but I think his wounds were not grievous. He had been probably protected by the width of his body, affording little place for the closing of jaws, and the sturdiness of his ribs.

"It is a bloody afternoon," said the bearded man.

"My beautiful friends are dead," said the small man, looking at the beasts. The leader of the beasts growled at him.

"Who were these two?" asked the fellow with the torn arm, indicating Hendow and Mirus.

"That one," said the bearded man, indicating Hendow, "was a fine swordsman." "But what was he doing here?" asked the small man.

"He had a sleen," said the bearded man. "He was doubtless a slave hunter." "The other one may still be alive," said the fellow with the injured arm. The blood was slow on it now, as he had his hand clasped over the wound. Blood, as he held the wound, was between his fingers, and was visible also in rivulets, running to his wrist and the back of his hand.

Tupita looked up, frightened, from where she crouched over Mirus. His eyes were now open. Her hair and hands were covered with blood. She had stopped the bleeding. I did not think, however, he could rise.

"Kill him," said the bearded man to his cohort.

"No!" protested Tupita.

"No," said the man.

"He is helpless," said the bearded fellow.

"Do it yourself, if you wish," said the wounded man.

"Very well," said the bearded man.

"No, please!" begged Tupita.

The bearded man regarded her, amused.

"Please, no," she wept.

"And what is he to you?" he inquired.

"I am his love slave!" she wept.

"Ah, yes," he said, amused.

"Do not hurt him," she wept. "I will do anything for you!"

"Do you think you are a free woman," he asked, "bargaining for the life of her lover, willing to surrender all her fortune that he might live, willing perhaps even to strip herself and make herself my slave, to serve me thenceforth with all perfections, if I will but spare him?"

"No, Master," she wept. "I am not a free woman."

"Do you bargain?" he inquired.

"No, Master," she said.

"Do you have anything with which to bargain?" he asked.

"No, Master," she wept. "But I beg you to spare him!"

"Do you really think I am going to leave an enemy behind me?" he asked. "Please, Master!" she begged.

Mirus regarded him, dully, half conscious. He could not rise.

"He came here," said the bearded fellow, amused, it seems, for the blood of a slave, and if I recall the intent of his glance, for that slave." He indicated me. "Is that not so, my dear?" he asked.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"We have saved your life, then," he said.

I nodded. I supposed they had, or the beasts.

"If we leave this fellow behind us, and he recovers, as he seems a very determined fellow," he said, "I would expect he would resume your pursuit." "Yes, Master," I said. That seemed quite probable.

"You untied her neck from the railing," said the bearded fellow to Tupita. "Apparently you wanted her free. Very well, free her, then. Finish freeing her." "Please, no," said Tupita.

"Do not fear," he said. "She will not be free long."

"Please," wept Tupita.

"Now," said the bearded man.

Tupita, weeping, came to where I was, before the railing. Sobbing, fumbling with difficulty she freed my ankles. it seemed she was loath to free my hands. "Callisthenes approaches," said the fellow holding his arm. He was looking back over the meadow.

"He will be concerned with the delay," said the bearded man to the small fellow. "We left him with the slave wagon, with Alcinous and Portus."

The approaching fellow hesitated, understandably enough, in seeing the beast. Yet, noting that his fellows stood with it, and that they beckoned him forward, he continued to advance, though with some caution.

"What has happened?" asked the newcomer. "What is that?"

"Do not mind it," said the bearded fellow, lightly. "It is friendly." "There has been war here," said the other man.

"Alcinous and Portus are anxious to be on their way," said the newcomer. "It will soon be dark." He looked at the body of Borko, in the grass. The collar had been removed by the second beast. "There may be sleen about," he said. "That is a domestic sleen," said the small fellow.

"It was killed by our friend here," said the wounded man, ironically, indicating the beast that had slain Borko.

"These have been well worth waiting for, have they not?" asked the bearded man. The newcomer" s eyes glistened. "An excellent bag of slaves," he said. "And surely they are worth at least five silver tarsks apiece," said the small fellow.

"Surely, at least," agreed the newcomer.

"Solid, unclipped silver tarsks," said the small fellow.

"Surely," said the newcomer.

The small fellow looked at the bearded man.

"We had some trouble with these two," said the bearded man, indicating Hendow, and the prostrate Mirus, "but there is nothing to fear now."

The newcomer looked around, apprehensively.

"Are things all right at the wagon?" asked the bearded man.

"Yes," said the newcomer. "There was a traveler on the road a few Ehn ago, but he is gone now."

"Go back to the wagon," said the bearded man. "Tell Alcinous and Portus we will be along in a moment."

He turned about, and retraced his steps across the meadow. The wagon, I supposed, was hidden somewhere in the woods, away from the level area, away from the road.

The wounded man" s arm had apparently stopped bleeding, or nearly so. With one hand, and his teeth, he tore his tunic, and bound cloth about his arm. Some blood came through the cloth, but very little, little more than a sudden, fresh stain, then nothing.

He looked down at me. I was still on my knees. Tupita had stopped working at the bonds on my wrists when the newcomer had appeared. My wrists were still bound behind my back. He was the fellow who had looked at me, before, during the dealing. Again, frightened, as before, I opened my knees more widely. My relationship to him was very clearly defined.

He grinned, and I, again, put my head down.

I recalled how the eyes of the other man, too, he who had come from the wagon, had looked upon us, all.

"Have you not finished untying her?" asked the bearded man.

"Forgive me, Master," said Tupita, and bent again swiftly, to her task. It was hard for her, for the knots had been tied by a man.

"Stupid, slow slave," said the bearded man, and came behind me. He thrust Tupita to the side. He then put his blade beside him, on the grass. He then undid the knots. From the fact that he had not cut the fiber I gathered that I was to be again confined in it. He retrieved his blade. He then stepped back from me, and motioned that I should get up. I did so, unsteadily, for I had been closely bound, hand and foot.

I stood before the rail. Tupita was back of me, and half under the rail, where she had been thrust. She, frightened, was partly on her side, and partly on her elbow. She as very beautiful there, bare-breasted, her neck in the slave collar of Ionicus, about her hips and thighs the brief shreds of the skirt of her work tunic, that tunic sacrificed that I might have at least the little I wore, a slave strip thrust in a narrow belt of rolled cloth. Tela, incredibly luscious, in the rectangle of red silk, which she had had to wear on the orders of Aulus, and Mina and Cara, half-stripped, scarcely less beautiful, bound in that order, still neck-roped to the rail, were to my left.

"Step forward, my half-naked beauty," said the bearded man, coaxingly, gesturing with his hand.

I came out a little from the rail.

"There," he said, pointing, grinning, "is the fellow who followed you, who would have your blood."

I looked at Mirus.

"What a fortunate slave you are, to have him so at your mercy," said the fellow. I looked at him. I did not really, completely, understand him. Surely they were not going to let me run away. He had told Tupita I would not be free for long. Too, they would surely not be concerned for me. Too, they had paid five tarsks for me, silver tarsks.

"Should you recover, you would follow her again, would you not?" he asked Mirus, crouching down by him, eagerly.

Mirus looked at him weakly, but in fury and pride. "Yes," he said. "I would." "There," said the bearded fellow, "id the sword of the slave hunter in the grass. We give you our permission to go to it, to pick it up. Yes, you may touch it. You may hold it for a moment or two. Yes, even though you are a slave. You may use it to finish this fellow now. Then you will be finished with him. No longer then do you need to live in terror, shrinking back at every strange sound, every shadow in the darkness."

"Do not, Tuka, I beg you!" cried Tupita. "He cannot move. He is helpless. Do not hurt him!"

"Doubtless she will not make a clean job of it, with her girl" s strength," said the bearded man to Mirus, "but I am sure, in time, she will get the job done." Tupita burst into tears.

I did not even want to go near the sword. It was almost as though it radiated out warnings, and alarms and terrors, and invisible flames that might burn me. It was a weapon! I dared not even approach it.

"Do not be afraid," said the bearded man.

Too, I did not want to touch it because it had been the sword of Hendow. Too, he had used it to save the life of his beloved friend, Mirus, though in doing the deed he must have understood, opening himself to the blade of his enemy as he had, that he had made his own life forfeit. How ironic then, how unthinkable, that I should use that same blade now to kill Mirus.

Mirus turned his head toward me. Even in his weakness, his eyes blazed with hatred. "Pick up the sword," he said. "Use it while you can!"

I looked at him, in misery.

"Expect no mercy from me," he said. "If ever I should be able, I shall seek you out. I shall hunt you. I shall pursue you with the relentlessness of a sleen." "Go ahead," urged the bearded man, eagerly. "Do not be afraid! Show that you are brave! Show that you are strong! Show what you are made of! Do it! We will admire you! We will praise you!"

I fell to my knees in the grass.

"I may not touch a weapon!" I said.

"You have our permission!" said the bearded man.

I shook my head, frightened.

"You are afraid," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"You are a weakling," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said. "But even if I were not a coward and a weakling, I would not do it."

"Brave Tuka!" cried Tupita.

"I am a female slave," I said. "I exist for the pleasure, service and love of men. I may not hurt them. Too, I do not wish to do so. Kill me if you must." "We will give your freedom, if you do so," said the bearded man.

"Forgive me, Master. No, Master," I said.

"Put you head down to the grass," he said. "Throw your hair forward, exposing the back of your neck."

I obeyed.

"Please, no, Master!" cried Tupita.

I felt the edge of the sword at the back of my neck. I felt it above the collar, move against the small hairs on the back of my neck. The blade seemed very sharp, for the sturdiness of the weapon.

"Please, Master, do not!" cried Tupita.

"Perhaps you have changed your mind," said the bearded man.

"No, Master. Forgive me, Master," I said.

I felt the blade lift from my neck. I closed my eyes. Then I heard him laugh. I opened my eyes, startled.

I heard the sword thrust into its sheath, its guard halting its further progress.

"Bara!" he snapped.

I flung myself to my belly in the grass, putting my hands behind me, wrists crossed, and crossing my ankles, too.

I lay there in confusion, in obedience.

He went to pick up the binding fiber which had been removed from my ankles by Tupita, from my wrists, a bit before, by himself.

I had been spared!

He returned to crouch over me. Tightly then were my wrists and ankles tied. He knew well how to tie women. "Oh!" I said, as my ankles were pulled up and fastened to my wrists. He then pulled me to my knees and I knelt helplessly, closely and perfectly bound, before him. He seemed amused.

"Master?" I asked.

"You are an excellent slave," he said.

"Master?" I said.

"It is to that that you owe your life," he said.

"I do not understand," I said.

"And your slave intuitions are excellent," he said.

"My slave intuitions?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

"I do not understand, Master," I said.

"Do you truly think we would have let you live, if you had slain a free man?" he asked.

"You promised me my freedom," I whispered.

"Once you had done the deed," he said, "we would have cut off your hands. Then we would have cut off your head."

"You promised me my freedom," I said.

"And we would given it to you after the deed, have no fear, for a moment, for our amusement," he said. "Then we would have returned you to bondage for your punishment."

"Yes, Master," I said, trembling.

"Thus, we would have seen to it that you were punished as a slave, and died as a slave."

"Yes, Master," I said.

"See that you continue to serve men well," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"Oh, Tuka, Tuka!" cried Tupita, softly, in joy.

The bearded man turned to look upon her, and she shrank back. "See that you, too," he said, "continue to serve men well."

"Yes, Master," she said.

He then looked at Tela.

"Yes, Master!" she said.

His gaze then fell upon Mina and Cara.

"Yes, Master!" said Mina.

"Yes, Master!" said Cara.

"What of him?" asked the man with the bandage on his arm, indicating Mirus. "I will kill him," said the bearded man. He drew the sword from his sheath. "No!" cried Tupita, running to Mirus, covering his body with her own. "I will kill, her, too," said the bearded man.

"No, please, Master!" I cried.

"I keep the five tarsks!" cried the small fellow.

"Ho, Fulvius! Fulvius!" we heard, a man running toward us, across the meadow. It was Callisthenes, he who had come earlier, from the wagon, who had been ordered to return to it.

The hugs beast, that which had survived, who had been the leader of the others, rose up from where it had been sitting, resting back on its haunches, in the grass, half crouching now, to look. It was no longer bleeding but its entire chest was matted with dried blood.

"I told you to go back to the wagon," said the bearded man, apparently Fulvius. "You were to wait with Alcinous and Portus."

"They are dead!" gasped the man. "I found them dead!"

Fulvius and the man with the bandaged arm exchanged glances.

I saw Tupita draw back from Mirus. He rose up, painfully, on one elbow. "How did they die?" demanded Fulvius. "What was the nature of their wounds?""By the sword," said Callisthenes. "The sword!"

"They were set upon in stealth?"

"From the nature of their wounds it would seem they were attacked frontally," said Callisthenes. "And both their swords were drawn."

"How many assailed them?" asked Fulvius.

"I think, one," said Callisthenes.

"There must be more," said Fulvius. "Alcinous and Portus were not unskilled." "I do not know," said Callisthenes. "Perhaps."

"What of tracks?" asked Fulvius.

"I saw those of Alcinous and Portus, and detected only those of one other," he said.

"What was the nature of their wounds?" asked Fulvius.

"The wound of Alcinous was deft, lateral and to the heart," said Callisthenes. "Portus was run through."

"Portus died second," said Fulvius. "In Alcinous the fellow did not wish to risk the jamming of his blade."

The fellow with the bandaged arm opened and closed his hand, testing its grip. "The wagon is gone, the tharlarion?" asked Fulvius.

"No," said Callisthenes.

"What of the purses of Alcinous and Portus?" asked Fulvius.

"Gone," said Callisthenes.

"Good," said Fulvius. "Then we are dealing with a brigand."

"He had probably fled by now," said the small fellow, eagerly.

"The wounds of Alcinous and Portus were frontal wounds," said Callisthenes. "Why would he not flee?" asked the small fellow.

"Perhaps he had fled," said Fulvius. "We do not know."

"He may linger in the vicinity," said the fellow with the bandaged arm. "He may be hungry for more gold."

"And there my be several of them, a band!" said the small fellow. "Perhaps," said Fulvius. "But I do not think so."

"What shall we do?" asked the fellow with the bandaged arm.

"Can you handle your sword?" asked Fulvius.

"I think so," he said.

"Callisthenes?" asked Fulvius.

"Yes," he said.

"The beast is gone," said the man with the bandaged arm, suddenly.

Its departure had been unnoticed.

"Where is it?" demanded Fulvius of the small fellow.

"I do not know," he said.

"It is wounded," said Fulvius. "Too, I suspect it had had its fill of blood for the day."

The small fellow looked about, anxiously.

"Are you with us?" asked Fulvius.

"I am not a fighter," said the small fellow. "I am going to go away, too!" "Your beast has deserted you," said Fulvius.

"I did without them before, and can do so again," he said. He hastened to his pack, near the blanket.

"Leave the blanket, and the coins upon it," said Fulvius.

"No!" cried the small fellow.

"Throw your purse on it, too," advised Fulvius.

"No!" cried the small fellow.

"Do so, quickly," said Fulvius, "unless you prefer to put your pack and clothes upon it as well and take your leave with no more than a length of binding to your name, that fastening your hands behind you."

Angrily the small fellow hurled his purse to the blanket, shouldered his pack, and hurried from the meadow, going in the direction opposite to that from which Callisthenes had come.

"What if the beast returns?" asked the fellow with the bandaged arm. "I do not think it will," said Fulvius. "If it does, I do not know where our small friend went, do you?"

"No," laughed the fellow with the bandage arm.

"If it is angry, presumably it will be angry with him. Perhaps it will even think it has been deserted. Perhaps it will even track him down."

"In such a case, I would not care to be him," said the mane with the bandaged arm.

"And if it does return here," said Fulvius, " we may pretend to deal with it, as he did."

"You may deal with it," said the man with the bandaged arm. "I want nothing to do with it."

"We need only watch our chance, and kill it. It is wounded. There are three of us."

"Perhaps," shrugged the man with the bandaged arm.

"But I do not think it will return," said Fulvius.

"I hope not," said the fellow with the bandaged arm.

"I did not know there were such things," said Callisthenes.

"I did not either," said the fellow with the bandaged arm.

"I will kill this fellow," said Fulvius. "Then we will go to the wagon, and see if we can find the other."

Tupita again put her body between those of Fulvius and Mirus. Mirus was now sitting up, his head in his hands.

"Kill him later," said the fellow with the bandaged arm. "It will soon be dark." "Very well," said Fulvius.

They then set out in the direction from which Callisthenes had come.

It would have taken but a moment to thrust Tupita aside and kill Mirus, but I sensed that the man with the injured arm, again, had little taste for dispatching a helpless foe. Fulvius, perhaps, more ruthless or practical in such matters, but a judicious tactician, had, I thin, not wished to proceed at that time with an action which might bring about a disagreement or confrontation with his subordinate, one of whose sword he might shortly have need. Too, he could always kill Mirus later. He did not care, as I recalled, to leave enemies behind him.

"Can you walk, Master?" begged Tupita, crouching near Mirus. "Can you run? They are gone! They will be coming back! Get up! Run! Flee!"

Mirus looked over at me, his eyes glazed with pain.

"Get up, Master!" begged Tupita. "Lean on me! I will try to help you!" She helped him to his feet. He stood, unsteadily. He looked at me.

"Good, Master!" cried Tupita. "Lean on me! I will try to help you!" How strong Mirus must be, I thought, that he could even stand.

"Hurry, Master," said Tupita. "Hurry!"

But suddenly he moved his arm and flung her to the side.

"Master!" she cried.

He bent down, nearly fell, and picked up the blade which had fallen from the hand of the man who had been urged earlier by Fulvius to kill him, he whom Hendow had dropped, the blade with which he himself had been threatened. His eyes wild he staggered toward me, the blade lifted over his head, in two hands.

I screamed.

Tupita leaped to her feet and flung herself between us, shielding me with her own body.

"Stupid slave!" cried Mirus. "With draw! Get out of the way!"

"You are out of your head, Mirus!" she cried. "You are not the master I know. She is only a slave. Do not hurt her!"

"She betrayed me!" he cried, the blade poised.

"Hendow, your friend, loved her!" she cried. "He cared for her. He sought her! He saved your life! Will you now kill her with the very blade from which he saved you?"

"She betrayed me!" he snarled.

I was startled to hear her asserveration of Hendow" s affection for me. He was so terrible, so fierce. Yet it seemed he had not in truth followed me to recapture me and punish me, visiting upon me the terrible severities to be suitably visited upon a runaway slave. I remembered how gently he had touched me on the side of the head. I wept, confused, startled, astonished, in wonder, considering his love. Had I been so blind to it? Yet I do not doubt that he would have kept me always, even in his love, as a helpless slave. He was that sort of man. Indeed, how could I, a woman, truly, fully, love any other sort?

I saw he did not want to strike Tupita. Her beauty, so wild and pathetic, bare-breasted, in its collar and shreds of skirt, was between us.

"I tried to warn you, Master," I wept. "I tried to withdraw! You would not let me. You would not listen! Masters were watching!"

"What would you have had her do?" cried Tupita. "Do you no understand? We are slaves, slaves! What do you think her life would have been worth if she had not been successful in her work? If she had even been suspected in her work would this, too, not have been dangerous for her masters?"

"Get out of the way!" he cried.

"You are not yourself," she cried. "Do not kill her!"

"Get out of the way," he cried, "or you will die first!"

"Go, Tupita!" I wept. "Go, run!"

"Move!" cried Mirus.

"No," said Tupita, firmly. "If it is your will, so be it. I will die first."

I saw the blade waver.

"It is my desire to be pleasing to my master," she said.

I saw the blade lower. Mirus stepped back.

"By the love I bear you, if not the love you bear me," she said, "spare her." I saw Mirus look at me, with hatred. But he crouched down then, the point of the blade in the dirt, his hands on the guard, steadying himself with the weapon, almost as with a staff. "She may live," he said. Then he sobbed.

"Oh, my master, I love you!" wept Tupita, rushing to him. "I love you! I love you!"

"I have followed you, hunting for you, even from Brundisium," said Mirus. "I traveled from city to city. I took service here and there. But always I searched for you. I did not wish to live without you. I sought you even in Argentum." I recalled I had asked Mirus if he had been looking for me in Argentum. He had not been. he had claimed he was seeking service, and his fortune. I had been somewhat chagrined by this answer, that he had not been looking for me. I now realized that he had been seeking Tupita. Many Gorean men, in their vanity, will not admit to caring for slaves. Even the thought of it, it seems, would embarrass them. Who would care for a meaningless slut in a collar? Yet too often, for just such women, luscious and helpless, and in bondage, men are prepared to kill. Indeed, had I not still found him so attractive, and had I not, in my own vanity, been so concerned with my own possible beauty and desirability, rather than that of others, too, might have understood that immediately. Certainly he had inquired closely after her. I had not been able to help him. Then he had fallen to the men of Tyrrhenius, later to be sold to the black chain of Ionicus.

"Oh," cried Tupita, "I love you so! I love you so, my master!"

Slave girls must address all free men as "Master." Commonly, however, the expression "my Master," when it is used, is reserved for the actual master of the girl, he who is her literal master, he who literally owns her. For example, when I was in Argentum it was proper for me to use the expression «master» to the men of Tyrrhenius, and indeed, to all free men, but the expression, "my Master," if used, would have been appropriate, suitably, addressed only to Tyrrhenius. To be sure, sometimes a girl will use the expression "my Master" to a man who is not her literal master, to suggest to him that he is to her even as would be her literal owner. Sometimes that is done in an attempt to wheedle with the male, or flatter him. It can be dangerous, however, as it might, say, earn her a cuffing. He knows, of course, he is not her literal owner. As Tupita used the expression though, in such a spontaneous, and heartfelt way, it expressed in its way, I think, a truth of her heart, that she in her heart belonged to him, that she in her heart was his slave.

"Try to stand, Master," urged Tupita.

But he crouched where he had, his hands on the guard of the sword, keeping himself upright with its aid.

"Get up, Master," said Tupita. "Try to stand. Try! Please, Master! We must hurry away, before the men come back!"

"It is too late!" cried Tela, fastened at the rail. I squirmed in my bonds, on the grass. I, too, like Tela, Mina and Cara, though I was not bound at the rail, was helpless.

"We could not find him," said Fulvius.

"Perhaps it is just as well," said Callisthenes.

"Coffle the sluts," said Fulvius to Callisthenes. "We will take them to the wagon. I will finish this fellow off."

"No!" cried Tupita.

"He is on his feet," said the fellow with the bandaged arm.

Mirus had struggled to his feet, holding the sword. "Get behind me," he said to Tupita.

"Master!" she said.

"Now," he said.

She obeyed.

"Ah, Sempronius," said Fulvius to the fellow with the bandaged arm, "look at this!" This was the first time I had heard the name of the man with the bandaged arm.

"I see," said Sempronius.

"There is no point now in your squeamishness," said Fulvius. "You see? There he is! He is up and ready, prepared for a fair and proper fight."

"He can scarcely stand, he can scarcely hold his sword," said Sempronius. "Such upon occasion are the fortunes of war," said Fulvius.

"Take the women, and let him go," said Sempronius.

"You may not have this woman," said Mirus, indicating Tupita.

"Let them take me away!" she begged.

"No," he said.

"I choose not to leave an enemy behind me," said Fulvius. "Do you gainsay me in this?"

Fulvius, I suppose, if nothing else, understood that Mirus, if he survived, would be likely, sometime, to pursue them, perhaps for his honor, perhaps to recover Tupita, or me, perhaps to avenge Hendow.

Sempronius shrugged. "You are first here," he said. "Your sword, if nothing else, makes you so."

"On guard, my friend," said Fulvius to Mirus.

"No!" wept Tupita.

"Back, slave!" said Sempronius. "Let him have at least the dignity of dying on his feet, with a sword in his hand."

Mirus struggled to lift the blade. He held the hilt with both hands.

"Look!" said Tupita, pointing out, over the meadow, behind Fulvius and Sempronius. Callisthenes was to one side. He had delayed in releasing the girls from the rail, to coffle them, apparently choosing to postpone his work until the resolution of the pending affray with Mirus.

Fulvius stepped back a few steps, and turned to look. Sempronius, half turned, was watching something. He removed his blade from his sheath. I heard, too, to my left, and behind me, the blade of Callisthenes leave its sheath.

I tried to rise up a bit on my knees, but, tied as I was, wrists to ankles, I could not do so. I could see little more than the high grass from where I was. "You could not find him," said Mirus. "But it seems he has found you." I could then see, approaching over the grass, a solitary figure.

"It is a brigand," said Fulvius. "He is masked."

I gasped. I feared for a moment I might die. My heart began to beat wildly. I did not wish to faint. I suddenly felt great heat, helpless heat in my belly. It seemed my thighs flamed. I was bound helplessly. My responses were suitable for a slave. I hoped the men could not smell me. Then I was terrified.

"His features are well concealed," said Callisthenes.

"Fan out," said Fulvius. "Callisthenes to my left, Sempronius on my right." Suddenly the stranger moved toward Fulvius with great speed. The suddenness of this attack took Fulvius by surprise. He had barely time to lift his sword. I could not even follow the movements of the steel, so swift they were! Both Callisthenes and Sempronius, after having been arrested for a moment, startled, almost in shock, at the speed of the stranger" s rush, hurried toward the swordsmen, but then they stopped. The stranger had moved swiftly back, warily. Before him Fulvius had fallen. He was on all fours, with his head down. He trembled. He spat and coughed blood. Then he sank to the grass. He slowly rolled to his back. The sword left his hand. Then he stared upward, at the sky, but did not see it.

Tela screamed, only now seeming to comprehend what had been done.

The stranger had not permitted them to take him between them, Fulvius engaging him. Callisthenes and Sempronius seeking their openings from the sides. He had moved too quickly, before they could close their simple formation, before they could join their forces. Even Fulvius, whom I knew from before was a master of defense, had not been able to stand before him. I do not think steel had crossed more than three or four times before the stranger had leapt back, and then backed away.

I shuddered.

I felt terror before this man, this swordsman, this fighter. I had not known one could handle steel like that. it had been an awesome exhibition of prowess. I was shaken, even at the thought of it. For a brief moment, I wanted desperately to run away. But I was bound.

The stranger motioned with his sword that Callisthenes and Sempronius should move together. Reluctantly they did so, carefully keeping blade room between them. Their leader was gone. They could form no plan, it seemed, between them as to who should hold, who should seek an opening. Neither cared, it seemed, to advance. It there was an initiative here, or some advantage, oddly enough it seemed to lie on the side of the stranger, not the pair of them. They kept their eyes on him. Fulvius, I suspect, had been a very fine swordsman. Certainly Sempronius, earlier, had acknowledged his supremacy among them, with the blade. Yet Fulvius had lasted hardly an exchange with the stranger. This could not fail but weigh with them. Too, I did not doubt but what in their minds were the fates of their fellows, Alcinous and Portus, back at the wagon.

I looked about.

The other girls, too, were dumbfounded. I think they, even Gorean girls, in a culture where the knife and sword were familiar, common weapons, had never seen anything like this. Mirus, even, seemed stunned. He had lowered his own sword. Tupita, near him, white-faced, held him, supporting him.

I regarded the stranger. He was tall, very tall. He was broad-shouldered and narrow-waisted. He had long, bronzed arms. His hands were very large. I trembled. He held a steel sword, where such things made law. He was tall, fierce and hard. I was very small, and soft and weak. It was only the swords of Callisthenes and Sempronius which separated him from me. I saw myself then, noting his eyes in the mask, the subject of his gaze. I saw the point of his sword. He, looking at me, moved it, slightly. Inwardly I laughed with joy. I swiftly, in response to his gesture, as I could, spread my knees before him. Callisthenes, first, then Sempronius, hurled their swords, blade first, into the earth at their feet. The handles, upright, were visible in the grass. We belonged to the stranger! I looked wildly at him.

He motioned Callisthenes and Sempronius away from their weapons.

Callisthenes, I suspect, was not a fine swordsman. He had expressed some relief or satisfaction at their earlier inability to locate the stranger. I think he had not really wanted to meet up with him, he who had slain his fellows, Alcinous and Portus. Sempronius, probably more skilled, had been wounded. He ordered Callisthenes and Sempronius to stand to the side. He then approached Mirus. Mirus thrust Tupita behind him, and held his sword, ready to defend himself and his slave. The stranger then, with a decisive movement, sheathed his sword. It cracked into the sheath. Mirus grinned, and lowered his sword. Then, overcome with his exhaustion, his weakness, the loss of blood, he sat down in the grass.

The stranger came to the rail and examined Cara, and then Mina, and then Tela. "You are well curved," he said to Tela. "Thank you, Master," she said. Instantly I hated Tela. Then he came to stand before me. "You, too, are well curved," he said. "Thank you, Master!" I said. I cast a glance at Tela. "And you look well, tied so helplessly," he said. "Thank you, Master!" I said. I cast another glance at Tela. He had said two things to me, and only one to her! But when I looked back he had turned away for me! I squirmed in my bonds. I wanted to cry out "master!" to him, but I did not dare. I did not want to be whipped. Did he think I could not recognize him in his mask? Did he not remember me?

We remained bound for several Ahn, until well after dark. In this time he had walked Callisthenes and Sempronius before him, back toward the trees, in which direction, it seemed, lay the slave wagon. There they had apparently buried three bodies, those of Licinius, who had been slain by Hendow, and Alcinous and Portus, victims, it seems, of his own blade. Too, from the wagon, or its vicinity, they retrieved supplies. These, however, were not immediately fed to us. Sempronius and Callisthenes first busied themselves, under the stranger" s supervision, with burying what humans lay about. The strange beasts were left for jards. Borko, however, was buried beside Hendow. The graves of the men had swords thrust in the earth, that they might thus be marked. Mirus scratched a board, taken from the ruins of the building about, which he fixed on the common grave of Borko and Hendow. I cannot read Gorean. Mirus told Tupita it said, "Borko and Hendow, Hendow was of Brundisium. He was my friend." Most Gorean graves, incidentally, are not marked even in so simple a fashion. Most Goreans do not care for such things. They believe that it is a man" s deeds which truly live after him, and that the difference, great or small, which they make in the world, the difference which he made, for having been there, is what is important. No matter how insignificant or tiny one is, in te Gorean belief, one is an incredible part of history. That can never be taken from anyone. That is better, they believe, than scratched wood or marked stone. There would be no pyres. Such might attract the attention of men about, or perhaps of tarnsmen aflight, even as far away as Venna.

"Shall we now dig two more?" asked Sempronius.

"For whom?" asked the stranger.

"For ourselves," said Sempronius, indicating himself and Callisthenes. "No," said the stranger. "Wash. Perform the customary purifications." Sempronius and Callisthenes looked at one another. "Very well," said Sempronius. After they had washed and performed the rites we were fed. Of slaves only Tupita was permitted to feed herself. She also fed Mina and Cara. I was fed by Sempronius. Tela by Callisthenes. The stranger did this perhaps to torture them, I supposed, that they might be so close to half-naked female slaves and yet be forbidden to so much as touch them.

After we had been fed, and Callisthenes and Sempronius, too, had partaken of food, the stranger directed them to put us in coffle, with the exception of Tupita. He also specified the exact positions we would occupy in this coffle. Accordingly, in a given order, we were roped together by the neck. Mina, Cara and Tela were freed of the rail, and all our ankles were untied. Mina and Cara, of course, still wore their shackles. Thought it was with joyful relief that I fel my ankles at last freed from my wrists and could get up, though in pain, and stretch my legs, my hands still bound behind me, it was with chagrin that I considered my position on the coffle. I was last! Last! Did he think I did not recognize him in the mask? Did he not remember Tela was before me, and she had led a much larger coffle entering the work camp of Ionicus near Venna, that of the black chain. Mina and Cara were ahead of us. And Mina was first on the coffle! How proud she seemed! Look at her, so beautiful, so proud to be first! Callisthenes and Sempronius supported Mirus between them, and helped him toward the woods. Tupita followed, closely. After them came the stranger. He paused, on his way, to pick up the swords of Callisthenes and Sempronius. He had also taken the blanket and the silver, and purses, which had been on it. The bodies, too, I gathered, of those who had been about had been relieved of what coins or valuables they might have carried. The coins of Hendow the stranger had given to Mirus. He was, then, truly a brigand! A masked brigand! But how he could handle a sword! How he had fought!

The group now made its way toward the woods. We, Mina, Cara, Tela and I, in coffle, followed it. Ti did not even seem that they were paying any attention, to see if we came or not. We followed them, of course, docilely, like tethered animals! But, of course, we were tethered animals. We were slaves.

I looked back in the moonlight once, at the grave of Borko and Hendow. I could see the hilt of Hendow" s sword there, and, behind it, the narrow board fixed in the earth by Mirus, that simple, crude marker, not bearing much of a message, really, little more than the data that Hendow had been of Brundisium, and had had a friend.

I cried on the way to the woods.