I looked up at the stars.
I listened to the jungle noises, and the small, quiet crackle of the burning wood in the campfire.
Tende knelt beside Kisu, bending over him. I could hear her licking and kissing softly at his body. Her hands were tied behind her, a line running to the small tree which served us in the camp as slave post. Her ankles, too, were crossed and tied.
Both Janice and Alice, now asleep, lay near me. Neither was secured.
"Ah, excellent, Slave," said Kisu. He then took her by the hair. "Excellent," he said.
He then released her hair, and she put her head down on his belly. "Find me pleasing, Master," she begged.
"I do," he said.
"I love you, Master," she said.
"You are the daughter of my hated enemy, Aibu," he said.
"No, Master," she said. "I am now only your conquered love slave."
"Perhaps," he said.
"Do you think me any the less conquered than Janice and Alice, my white sisters in bondage?" she asked.
"Perhaps not," said Kisu. "It is not easy to tell about such matters."
"I, too," she said, "am only a slave, lovingly and helplessly a slave."
"But you are black," he said.
"It makes no difference," she said. "I, too, am a woman. And you have made yourself my master, fully."
He did not speak.
"Do you hate me, Master?" she asked.
"No," he said.
"Do you not like me, just a little?" she asked.
"Perhaps," he said.
"I love you," she said.
"Perhaps," he said.
"Can you not trust me, just a little?" she asked.
"I do not choose to do so," he said.
"It is strange," she said. "The other girls sleep free beside their master and I, who am so helplessly yours, surely as much a slave as they, am kept in severe constraints."
He did not speak.
"Why, my master?" she asked.
"It pleases me," he said.
"How can I convince you of my love?" she asked. "How can I earn your trust?"
"Do you wish to be whipped?" he asked.
"No, Master," she said.
He rolled over and took her by the arms, and put her to her back.
"It seems a small thing," she said, "that a girl beg to be permitted to sleep at her master's feet." She lifted her lips and kissed him. Then she lay back. "Do you think me less than the white slaves?" she asked.
"No," he said. "You are neither more nor less than they. You are all alike in being slaves."
"But I am the only tied slave," she said.
"Yes," he said.
"Could you not at least unfasten my ankles?" she asked.
"Ah," he laughed. "You are a little slave, Tende."
When he had finished with her, he did not retie her ankles.
"You have not retied my ankles," she said. "Does this mean that you are now moved to treat me with a bit more kindness?"
"No," he said. "It is merely that I may want you again before morning."
"Yes, my master," she laughed. She then snuggled against him. Soon they were both asleep.