We stood in the vicinity of the high desk of the wharf praetor.
'There seemed no reason to ring it earlier,' said the man. 'It was thought she would be soon picked up, by guardsmen, or the crew of the Palms of Schendi.'
'She was to be shipped on that craft?' I asked.
'Yes,' said the man. 'I suppose now her feet must be cut off.'
'Is it her first attempt to escape?' asked another man.
'I do not know,' said another.
'Why is there this bother about an escaped slave,' demanded a man, his clothing torn and blood at his ear. 'I have been robbed! What are you doing about this?'
'Be patient,' said the wharf praetor. 'We know the pair. We have been searching for them for weeks.' The praetor handed a sheet of paper to one of his guardsmen. People were gathered around. Another guardsman stopped ringing the alarm bar. It hung from a projection on a pole, the pole fixed upright on the roof of a nearby warehouse.
'Be on the watch for an escaped female slave,' called the guardsman. 'She is blond-haired and blue-eyed. She is barbarian. When last seen she was naked.'
I did not think it would take them long to apprehend her. She was a fool to try to escape. There was no escape for such as she. Yet she was unmarked and uncollared. It might not prove easy to retake her immediately.
'How did she escape?' I asked a fellow.
'Vart's man,' said he, 'delivered her to the wharf, where he knelt her among the cargo to be loaded on the Palms of Schendi. He obtained his receipt for her and then left.'
'He did not leave her tied, hand and foot, among the bales and crates for loading?' I asked.
'No,' said the man. 'But who, either Vart's man, or those of the Palms of Schendi, would have thought it necessary?'
I nodded. There was reason in what he said. Inwardly I smiled. She had simply left the loading area, when no one was watching, simply slipping away. Had she been less ignorant of Gor she would not have dared to escape. She did not yet fully understand that she was a slave girl. She did not yet understand that escape was not permitted to such as she.
'Return the girl to the praetor's station on this pier,' said the guardsman.
'What of those who robbed me!' cried the fellow with the torn clothing and the blood behind his ear.
'You are not the first,' said the praetor, looking down at him from the high desk. 'They stand under a general warrant.'
'Who robbed you?' I asked the man.
'I think there were two,' said the man. 'There was a dark-haired she-urt in a brown tunic. I was struck from behind. Apparently there is a male confederate.'
'She approached you, engaging your attention,' I asked, 'and then you, when diverted, were struck from behind?'
'Yes,' said the fellow, sourly.
'I saw two individuals, who may be your friends,' I said, 'on the north walkway of the Rim canal, leading to the vicinity of this very pier.'
'We shall send two guardsmen to investigate,' said the praetor. 'Thank you, Citizen, for this information.'
'They will be gone now,' said the man with the blood behind his ear.
'Perhaps not,' I said.
The praetor dispatched a pair of guardsmen, who moved swiftly toward the Rim canal.
'Be on the watch for an escaped female slave,' repeated the guardsman with the paper. He spoke loudly, calling out, over the crowd. I heard him adding to the available information. New data had been furnished to him from a wharf runner, who had her sales information in hand, brought from the records of the house of Vart. This included, however, little more than her measurements and the sizes of the collar, and wrist and ankle rings that would well fit her.
I went over to the edge of the pier, some hundred yards or so away, to where the Palms of Schendi, was moored. Longshoremen, bales and crates on their shoulders, were filling her hold. They were being supervised by the second officer. It was now grayishly light, a few Ehn past dawn. I could not yet see the golden rim of Tor-tu- Gor, Light Upon the Home Stone, rising in the east over the city.
'Are you bound for Schendi?' I called to the officer.
'Yes,' said he, looking up from his lading list.
'I would take passage with you,' I said.
'We do not carry passengers,' said he.
'I can pay as much as a silver tarsk,' I said. It did not seem well to suggest that I could afford more. If worse came to worse I could book passage on another vessel. It would not be wise to hire a ship, for this would surely provoke suspicion. Similarly, it would not be wise to take one of my own ships, say, the Dorna or the Tesephone, south. They might be recognized. Gorean seamen recognize ships with the same ease that they recognize faces. This is common, of course, among seamen anywhere.
'We do not carry passengers,' said the second officer.
I shrugged, and turned away. I would prefer, of course, to have passage on this ship, for it would be on this ship that the girl, when apprehended, would be transported. I did not wish to risk losing track of her.
I looked up to the stern castle of' the Palms of Schendi. There I saw her captain, Ulafi, engaged in conversation with one whom I took to be the first officer. They did not look at me.
I stood there for a few moments, regarding the lines of the Palms of Schendi. She was a medium-class round ship, with a keel-to-beam ratio of about six to one; that of the long ship is usually about eight to one. She had ten oars to a side, two rudders, and two, permanent, lateen-rigged masts. Most Gorean ships were double ruddered. The masts of round ships are usually permanently fixed; those of long ships, usually single-masted, are removed before battle; most Gorean ships are lateen-rigged; this permits sailing closer to the wind. The long, triangular sail, incidentally, is very beautiful.
I turned away from the ship. I did not wish to be observed looking at it too closely. I wore the garb of the metal workers.
According to the tide tables the first tide would be full at six Ehn past the seventh Ahn.
I wondered if Ulafi would sail without the blond-haired barbarian. I did not think so. I hoped that he had not put out a silver tarsk for her simply because she had struck his fancy. That would indeed be infuriating. I was certain that he would wait until she was regained. If he missed the tide, however, I did not think he would be pleased.
There seemed to be something going on now at the post of the wharf praetor, so I returned to that area.
'It is she!' said the fellow in the torn tunic with the blood behind his ear, pointing at the small, dark-haired girl. She stood before the high desk of the praetor, her wrists tied be-hind her back. Beside her, his hands, too, bound behind him, stood the fellow who had been her accomplice. They were fastened together by the neck, by a guardsman's neck strap. The girl, interestingly, was stripped, the brief, brown tunic having been taken from her. I had not removed it. I had only thrust it up, over her hips. It did not seem likely to me that the guardsman, either, would have removed it, as she was, I presumed, a free woman. Yet it was gone, and she was naked.
'We found them both trussed like vulos,' laughed a guardsman.
'Who could do such a thing?' asked a man.
'It was not guardsmen,' said a guardsman. 'We would have brought them in.'
'It seems they picked the wrong fellow to waylay,' said a man.
'It is she,' said the fellow with the blood behind his ear. 'She is the one who diverted me, while her fellow, he, I suppose, struck me.' He pointed then to the man.
The girl shook her head; negatively. It seemed she wanted to speak.
'What do you have in your mouth, Girl?' asked the praetor.
One of the guardsmen opened her mouth, not gently, and retrieved the coin, a rather large one, a tarsk bit. Ten such coins make a copper tarsk. A hundred copper tarsks make a silver tarsk.
