that the officer of the court had ever tasted. On Terennia, the water in certain town reservoirs, such as that in which the officer of the court had resided, tended to be heavy with the taste of various sanitizing chemicals.
Chocolate, too, of course, of which the officer of the court had taken a considerable portion, and was eating even now, on her way to the stream, tends, predictably, to make one thirsty.
“Fat!” called the salesgirl after her.
“I am not fat!” said the officer of the court, angrily.
The stream was not far from the camp, where the capsule was. The officer of the court walked through the trees. They were tall and thick, on both sides of her. There were many shadows at any time in that place, but there were a great many more now, as it was rather toward dusk. As she
made her way toward the stream she finished the chocolate. She wiped her fingers on the thighs of her “same garb.” Near the edge of the stream, no more than a few yards from it, she stopped. Ahead, a few feet back from the edge of the stream, fallen, she saw an object. She approached it more closely and discovered it to be the container which the woman in the pantsuit had borne toward the stream, to fill with water. Almost at the same time she heard, from her right, tiny, helpless, muffled sounds. She turned in that direction and saw, to her consternation, the figure of the woman in the pantsuit. Her back was to a large tree, and her arms were back, one on either side of the tree. Behind the tree her wrists had apparently been linked by some device, perhaps a foot of rope. The lower portion of her face seemed muffled in heavy cloths.
The officer of the court did not know what to do. She took a step, a frightened, uncertain step, toward her, but the woman shook her head, wildly. Then the officer of the court thought she saw a shadow among the trees, and then another. The tiny, muffled cries emanating from the bound woman seemed clearly enough to constitute a warning.
The officer of the court turned about and fled back toward the capsule.
She broke into the small clearing of the camp, and her distraught condition startled and alarmed the salesgirl, who leaped to her feet.
Breathless the officer of the court, her eyes wide, pointed back wildly toward the stream.
She had no sooner turned back toward the camp, gasping for breath, than she detected, emerging from the opposite side of the camp, not far from the capsule itself, the stumbling figure of the young naval officer. It seemed he had been pushed forward. But she could see no one behind him. His upper body was swathed with rope. Cords had been tightened in his mouth, pulled back tightly between the teeth.
“Run! Hide!” wept the officer of the court and she fled toward the capsule. The salesgirl, terrified by her demeanor, followed her. They hastily entered the capsule and closed the hatch, spinning the wheel which secured it.
They crouched inside, in the darkness.
“I can’t breathe!” said the salesgirl.
“Go outside,” said the officer of the court, angrily.
For a time there was silence about, and then the two young women cried out, suddenly, in alarm, startled by a sudden pounding of metal on the outside of the capsule.
“They can’t get in,” said the officer of the court.
“Who are they?” asked the salesgirl.
The officer of the court crept to one of the tiny ports, something like four inches in diameter.
“I cannot see who they are,” she said.
Then she drew back, because a stone, held in a fist, struck against the port.
“They cannot get in,” said the officer of the court, backing away.
There was more pounding on the exterior of the capsule. They could also hear the external hatch wheel being tried. It would not open, of course, as the hatch had been sealed from the inside. Then there was more pounding at the port. After a time the heavy material in the port was chipped away. A stick was thrust into the capsule, jutting in, then rimming flakes of glasseous substance away.
“We are safe,” said the officer of the court. “They cannot enter.”
The salesgirl drew a deep breath. It was less stifling now in the capsule. Air could enter through the opened port.
“Are they men?” asked the salesgirl.
“I do not know,” said the officer of the court.
“Look!” said the salesgirl.
“You look!” said the officer of the court.
The salesgirl rose to her feet and timidly looked out the nearest port.
She quickly drew her head back.
“What are they?” asked the officer of the court, crouching on the floor of the capsule, anxiously.
“They are men,” said the salesgirl.
“What sort of men?”
“By their garb — barbarians,” said the salesgirl, crouching down.
“Be pleased,” said the officer of the court, bitterly. “You will make a pretty little slave girl.”
“So, too, would you!” said the salesgirl.
“I jest,” said the officer of the court. “It is fortunate for us that they are barbarians. That means we have little to fear.”
“How is that?” asked the salesgirl.
“As barbarians,” said the officer of the court, “they will be stupid. They will have no patience.
They will soon leave.”
“What if they do not?” asked the salesgirl.
“They will,” said the officer of the court. “They are stupid.”
“I have heard that barbarians enjoy making slaves of civilized women,” said the salesgirl.
“If they can get them,” said the officer of the court.
“What if they wait outside?” asked the salesgirl. “We have nothing to eat or drink within.”
“They do not know that,” said the officer of the court.
“I am afraid,” said the salesgirl.
“Do not be afraid,” said the officer of the court. “They are barbarians. They are stupid. They will quickly grow weary of waiting, and depart. We will then leave the capsule, and escape. Nothing could be simpler.”
“We shall outsmart them,” said the salesgirl.
“Certainly,” said the officer of the court. “We are far more clever than they are. We are civilized women.”
“How then is it,” asked the salesgirl, “that we are bought and sold, and kept as helpless slaves, on so many worlds?”
“It is quiet outside now,” said the officer of the court.
“What of Oona and the ensign?” asked the salesgirl.
“We must think of ourselves,” said the officer of the court. “They were stupid enough to permit themselves to be captured.”
“It seems very quiet,” said the salesgirl.
“Perhaps they have already left,” said the officer of the court.
The salesgirl stood up and looked through a port. “They have not left,” she whispered.
“Then they are not as impatient as I thought,” said the officer of the court.
“No,” said the salesgirl. “They are even more impatient than you thought.”
“They are leaving?”
“No.”
“I do not understand.”
“But they are not as stupid as you thought,” said the salesgirl.
“I don’t understand,” said the officer of the court.
“They are bringing brush, and wood,” said the salesgirl, “and placing it about the capsule.”
In a few moments the flames were roaring about the lower hull of the capsule.
“I cannot breathe!” wept the salesgirl.
“Ai!” cried the officer of the court, touching the side of the capsule.
