'What am I offered for this blonde?' called the auctioneer. 'Weren't they sold before?' asked the first fellow. 'Not all, I think,' said the second man.
I left their sides and pushed through the crowd, making my way nearer the high, round, sawdust-strewn block.'Watch where you are going, Fellow,' snarled a man.
I stopped by the ready cage. Inside, sitting on a wooden bench, behind stout, closely-set bars, miserable, clutching sheets about themselves, some with glazed eyes, sat some ten girls. I clutched the bars, from the outside, looking within. She whom I sought was not there. One girl rose from the bench, her left ankle pulling against the chain and shackle that held her with the to others, and dropped the sheet to her waist.'Buy me,' she begged, putting her hand toward me. I stepped back. 'This is not an exhibition cage,' said an attendant, putting a hand on my arm.
'You many not loiter here,' 'Buy me,' begged the girl, reaching toward me. I gathered that she, unlike several of the others, apparently, had had masters.
'Are these all the items that remain for sale?' I asked the attendant. «No» he said. 'Are there girls of Kliomenes who remain to be sold?' I asked, desperately. 'I do not know,' he said, 'I do not have the manifests.'
Miserably, I turned about and went back to sand with the others in the vicinity of the block. The blonde went for six tarsks.
'And here,' said the auctioneer, 'we have another blonde. This one, like many of the girls now in the ready cage, was free.' There was much laughter, 'Make her kiss the whip!' called a man.
'Down, Wench, and kiss the whip!' ordered the auctioneer. The girl knelt and kissed the whip. There was more laughter. He then began to put her through slave paces.
There were some 200 men at the sale. Such sales occur frequently in the various sales barns of Victoria, sometimes running for several nights in a row. The spring and summer are the businest seasons, for these are the seasons of heaviest river traffic and, accordingtly, the seasons when pirates, after their raids, are likely to bring in their loot. Many of the men at the salves barn were professional salves, from other towns and cities, looking for bargains.
'Sold to Targo of Ar!' announced the auctioneer. Manacles were then clapped on the blonde and she was dragged from the block.
I was angry for I did not even know if Miss Henderson was to be sold, or if shse had already been sold. If she had been sold, she might even now, while I stood about, helplessly be being transported from Victoria, a slave, anywhere. My fist were clenched. My palms were sweating.
The next two girls, brunettes, were sold to Lucilius of Tyros. The next four slaves were purchased by a fellow named Publius, who was an agent for a Mintar of Ar.
I waited as the bidding grew more heated and as more men entered the building. Five times the read cage was emptied and fillled, and empted, as girls, freed of their shackles, were ordered to the block's surface for their vending.
'Do none of these women interest you?' ask a man nearby. 'Many are lovely,' I said. Indeed, had i not been waiting desperately, miserably for she whom I sought, I might have been tempted to bid hotly on several of them. To own any one of them would have been a joy and a triumph. The man who has owned a woman or women, knows of what I speak. Perhaps even those who have never owned a woman can sensek dimly, what it might be like. I know of no pleasure comparable to the pleasure of owning a woman, fully. It is indescribably delicious; it is glorious; it fills one with joy and power; it exhalts and fulfills the blood. It teaches a male, in the thunderous currency of intellect and emotion, what is the true meaning of manhood. Compared to it, the ratifiations of pretense and denial, the insistence on suberting one's blood and virility in the name of a false manhood conditioned by a demented, antibiological society, are pallid indeed. let those who can climb mountains climb them; let those who cannot climb them console themselves with denying their existence.
'The brunette four sales ago,' said the man next to me, 'was she not superb?' Yes,' I said. She had indeed been stuning. In this market to her indignation, she had gone for only fourteen copper tarsks. She had been sold to an agent of Clark of Thentis. The next brunette, in my opinion, had been even more stunning. She had gone for a mere fifteen copper tarsks. She had been sold to a Cleanthes ofTeletus.
'Sold to Var, of Port Cos!' called the auctioneer and a redhead was taken from the platform.'And here,' called the auctioneer, 'we have one of the cathces of Kliomenes, taken near Lara. He tore the sheet away from the girl on the block, throwing it to the side. She wore only her sales collar with her sales disk on which was written her lot number, wired to the steel.
'A cold, prissy, little Earth slut,' called the auctioneer, 'and yet one not without interst as you can see.' he bent her back, his hand in her hair, exposing the bow of her beauty to the men. There was a sound of pleasure from the crowd.
'She is already branded,' said the auctioneer, 'but has served primarily as a display slave, and not a use slave.'
He then turned her, still keeping his hand in her hair so that those on his left might better see her. 'Accordingly,' he said, 'she is not yet fully broken to the collar.' There was laugher fromthe crowd. He then turned her so that those on his right might better see her. 'In my opinion,' said he, 'it is now time for this girl to learn the various uses to which a slave can be put.' Yes!' shouted more than one fellow. He then, as she gasped, bend her back a bit more, turing her again toward her left, so that she was presented exquistitely to the men. 'Does she not appear ready for taming and heating?' inquired the auctineer.
'Yes,' shouted several men, 'yes!' The girl trembled. She knew she nmight belong to any one of them. 'What am I bed?' called the auctioneer. 'Two copper tarsks,' called a man. 'Four!' cried another. 'Six!' 'Seven!' Nine!' 'Eleven!'
'This is an exquisite little slut!' called the auctioneer. He then released her hair. 'Stand straight,' he ordered the girl. She did so. He walked about the platform with the whip.
'Twelve!' Thirteen!' She was beautiful enough to be a display slave,' said the auctioneer. 'Fourteen!' was called out. 'Now you can have her for your own work and use slave!' 'Fifteen!' I heard.'Consider her, surrendered, squirming in your furs!' he said. 'Sixteen!' I heard.
'Do I heard only sixteen tarsks for this equisite little bargain?' inquired the auctioneer, incredulously. 'Sixteen,' repeated the man.
The auctioneer spun to face the girl. 'Kneel, and kiss the whip he ordered her. Swiftly the girl, frightened, knelt before him. She took the coild of the whip in her small hands and lowering her head kissed them.
'On your feet,' barked the auctioneer. 'I will have a fit price for you.' The girl, terrified, sprang to her feet. 'Put her through her paces!' called a man. 'Let us see what she can do!' called another.
The auctioneer shook out the coils of the whip. He then, rapidly, loudly, clearly, in a seris of orders, sometimes cracking the whip, commanded the girl, one by one, swiftly to assume an intriately patterened series of postures and attitudes. Seldom, I think in so brief a compass could a woman be displayed so fully as a female. He then cracked his whip and ordered her to stand straight upon the platform, sucking n her gut. She was breathing heavily; there were tears in her eyes; she was trembling; she was covered with sweat and saw-dust. He had permitted her no respite or quarter. The buyers now well understood the nature of the goods on which they were bidding.
'Twenty-two tarsks!' called a man. 'Twenty-three!' called another.
So stunned I was that I had not even entered the bidding. I had never dreamed she could be so beautiful. What fools are the men of Earth, I thought, for the woman on the block was an Earth woman, to let their women off so lightly. What fools they are not to own their women and force them to manifest the true fullness and desirability of their beauty. The woman on the block was an Earth woman. Did she not show, in her own person, how beautiful the women of Earth could be.And yet I knew that on Earth such women commonly languished, their beauty denied its meaning and fulfillment, their beautiy not summoned forth, not commanded forth, for the pleasure, the sport, and service of strong men.
Twenty-five tarsks!' Twenty-six!' Twenty-seven!' Twenty-eight!' 'Thirty!'
'Buy her,' a voice seemed to say to me.'Buy the slave! Make her yours!' 'No, no!' I said, half aloud. 'I cannot!'. 'What did you say?' asked the man next to me. 'Nothing, nothing!' I said.
'Thirty-five!' I heard. 'Forty!' I heard.Forty-two!' I could not even enter the bidding. I could scarcely breathe. My heart was pounding. I had never dreamed she could be so beautiful. It seemed I could not een speak. I could
