There was no gag. Mustaf tied her hands and raised them to a bough. Miss Corey Gibson stood naked and alone in an African wasteland and waited to be whipped, a whipping she had requested with all the sincerity she could muster. The Master who owned her body whipped it with keen appreciation but an eye to preserving its saleability. Half way through to emunciate clearly: 'Thank you, Master, you whip me beautifully.' Mustafa climaxed into his dirty robe, but after the briefest pause continued to stripe the taut white skin.
Corey's weals were not severe but laying on the ground there was a tenderness. She bore it with a quiet smile as she arranged herself within her chains to sleep. Winning was painful but she scented victory. It was the following day it happened.
It was midday. The girls were marching in the swinging cadence which they themselves had envolved. Each girl's thoughts were busy far away. None but Corey beheld the shadow. She looked apprehensively at her Master, but Mustafa on his donkey was as lost in reverie as were his slaves. A quick glance to the rear showed Selim equally somnolent. By the time she had turned back to confirm her suspicion Mustafa had seen the shadow too. Seth Burdett stood motionless and menacing on the low eminence of a rock. He had allowed the coffle and its owners to approach to a confrontation he himself had staged. The Arab slave trader's motions were instinctive and swift. But the sighting of his rifle was too late. Burdett's bullet plucked him from the donkey's back and slid him neatly to the ground. The coffle halted in dismay, its cadence lost. At the rear Selim sat on his diminutive steed in an open mouthed astonishment that rapidly changed to a broad grin.
The girls were frightened, all except Corey. Her spririts soared, her heart beat high. Joyfully, she heard her own voice in urgent command: 'It's all right. He's a friend. You won't be hurt.' Seeing their wide eyed apprehension, she added: 'He'll be kind to us, he'll be kind…!'
'You be good girls or I whip.' Selim admonished cheerfully. 'We now are meeting nice gentleman. You most lucky.'
The shadow advanced into the sunlight.
It was the smae Australian saunter, lithe power in every step. It was the same sardonic Australian grin. Seth Burdett took his time. A quick glance at the dead man, a leisured survey of twenty naked girls, a cheerful recognition of the man on the donkey.
'Greetings, Selim.'
'Greetings effendi. That good quick shot.'
They were evidently old friends. Corey Gibson was piqued that the masculine scan of its new possessions had failed to focus on her white skin, but she watched breathlessly as the two males talked earnestly in Selim's own tongue. She sensed instand rapport, the orderly progression of a plan. The coffle was told to sit and rest while Mustafa was stripped and buried. When the march resumed it was with Burdett riding ahead as Mustafa had done. The girls had become pleasantly excited, their cadence returned full swing. Still chained in the coffle, Corey Gibson had constantly before her vision the broad shouldered maleness of her Australian Master. But Seth Burdett had said no word, the white slavegirl was ignored. Irritably she kept pace with her giggling companions.
It was Selim who freed Talifa and herself for the evening chores. Corey observed her Master cock a surprised eye, but he said no word. She was hurt by his seeming obliviousness to her existence. He had filled her thoughts since Ben Sirah, quite evidently she had not filled his. Yet she was only a slave on a coffle of girls, and there might be forces and undercurrents of which she was unaware. In their previous times together he had pledged her nothing, all the avowals had been her own. Chagrined, she threw a load of wood beside the fire and demanded: 'What's the matter, Seth? Why don't you speak to me?'
He spared her his usual lazy amusement. 'You sure you got the right address, love?'
Corey stamped an expressive foot. 'Alright then! Please, Master, what's the matter?'
'Nothing. Couldn't be better.'
'But you keep me chained! You don't speak!'
'You ain't chained now. Did you expect me to go down the coffle shaking hands?'
'You're being deliberately unkind.'
'You're being deliberately foolish. Get me a cup of water.'
Seth Burdett's grin was infuriating. Corey, the slave, threw the water in his face. naked and enraged, she hurled the cup at his feet. 'And you know what you can do with that!' Breasts heaving, she faced him defiantly.
Carelessly, he beckoned an entranced but horrified Talifa. 'Take this silly bitch over there on the grass and tie her while we eat. Selim can free you another girl to help.'
Shame ans humiliation mantled Corey's cheeks scarlet as she walked the few paces to the spot indicated. Evidently she was beneath the attention of men. Even her punishment was delegated to a girl.
'You foolish slave! Why you be so silly?' Talifa was intrigued. 'You got hot cunt for big man. Talifa easy tell.'
Corey sniffed. She had nothing to say. Pouting petulantly, she crossed her wrists behind her back. It was a familiar gesture almost automatic. She winced but did not complain as Talifa tie them tight.
'Talifa not tie pretty elbows unless she told. But now you lay down.'
Miserably the delinquent slave obeyed. It looked like being a sad suppertime. She winced again as her ankles were deftly roped. When the rope was taken on up to join her wrists she tensed and objected: 'Oh, Talifa, you don't have to hog-tie me. Please don't tie me like that.'
'Why not? It keep you nice and quiet.'
'Because it hurst, that's why. He just said tie me up. He didn't tell you to hurt me.'
'You don't struggle it don't hurt. Keep still.'
Corey sniffed again. She was far more angry with herself than with the girl who was binding her, or with the man who had given the order. She had asked for this. It served her right. She gasped as the tensioning rope drew her feet and hands together to bow her back. It was a beastly way for a girl to be tied. She hated it.
With Talifa gone, Corey tried to relax. She could not get loose, and she was too close to observant eyes to struggle. She wanted to cry, but the eyes would see that too. Angrily she blinked back her tears and settled herself down to endure her punishment. The less she moved the less she hurt. She watched the mealtime preparation, feeling abandoned, lonely and misused. She made a bitter resolution that if she ever got back on the coffle she would stay there and keep her mouth shut. Sulkily, she ate the few scraps Talifa's fingers poked into her mouth when the meal was done. The evening was well advanced, and Corey was stiff and cramped and sore when Seth Burdett picked her up and carried her into the trees.
'Damned impatient, weren't you, love?'
'It wouldn't have hurt you to look at me.'
He dumped her on the ground. 'Look, girl, if you want to pout and be sulky you can stey here like that for the night. I'll go back to camp.'
'Noooooooooo!' Corey struggled wildly against Talifa's knots. 'Please, Master… P-L-E-A-S-E!!!'
'Try an apology.'
Careless of wether she was right or wrong, Corey Gibson embraced humility with abandon. 'I'm sorry, Master. I really am sorry. I do apologise for not knowing my place. I forgot I was a slave.'
'Hmmmmmm, a bit stilted.'
'I'm in love with you, you big oaf. Don't you know that?' The declaration sprung out of her, uncontrolled.
'You'll be whipped for the big oaf bit.' Seth said dispassionately. 'And if a slave loves her Master it doesn't mean she's privileged. You're one girl on a coffle. I can't single you out for extra rations.'
'You don't have to keep me on that damn chain.'
'Why?'
'Beause…' She sniffed unhappily. 'Oh, never mind!'
Slowly he untied Talifa's knots. 'I warned you before.' He said broodingly. 'I'm a slave trader. In a way, you've a better chance of freedom than I have. We don't mix.'
'We could if you'd try.'
He turned her about as though she was a kitten and bound her hands again in front.
'You're going to whip me?'
'Yes.'
It was a matter of fact statement, leaving her nothing to say. She had no wish to plead. She was not even sure about the whipping. Perhaps she needed it. In sulky silence she allowed herself to be suspended to stand on her
