Vagabonds of Gor

8 The Pursuit has Continued

"I would speak with your officer," I said to the fellow, he tethering my ankles to a stake.

"I have spoken to him," said he. "Such permission has not been granted."

I was then thrust back to the sand. Another fellow then put the rope on my neck, that I might be again affixed, bound, between two stakes.

"You know something of the delta, do you not?" asked the fellow who had tethered my ankles, standing near me, looking down at me.

"Something of it," I said. I had once come to Port Kar through the delta.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"Only a rencer would know, if he," I said.

"We are well within the delta," he said.

"Yes," I said, "two or three hundred pasangs." "Further," said he.

"Perhaps," I said. That could be true.

"Where are your fellows, the Cosian sleen!" he suddenly cried.

I was silent.

"Do not expect to be fed," he snarled.

"There is little enough to feed anyone," said a fellow, wearily, nearby.

The delta, of course, is teeming with wildlife. To be sure, the men of Ar, in their numbers, in their haste, with the relentlessness of their pursuit, only lately slowed, had not been in a position to take advantage of it. Too, the disturbance of their passage, given the noise, the splashing and such, had doubtless driven much of the normal game, particularly birds and fish, from the area.

"He is to be kept alive," said one of the men.

"Very well," said the first fellow. "I am sure we can find him something to eat, something delicious, something fit for a spy." He looked down at me, in hate. He fingered the hilt of the dagger at his belt. "But not tonight," he said.

He turned away from me.

"How could we not have yet closed with the sleen of Cos?" asked a fellow."

"In the delta, one could hide a dozen armies," said another. "Surely we would see some signs of them," said another fellow.

"Yes," said another. "How is it that we have seen no signs of them?"

"We have seen signs of them," growled another.

"Yes," said another.

I doubted that this was true.