'I cannot swim,' she said.
'Good,' I said.
'I am bound!' she protested.
'Excellent,' I said.
I then took the wadding from my belt. 'No!' she said. Then I pushed it, still heavy and damp, deep in her mouth. Then I secured it in place with a folded, twisted strip from the torn sheet I had decided that she would not now, for the time, be permitted to communicate with me. I would remove the gag from her later, if I chose, at my convenience.
'Luta!' called Reginald. 'Are you in there?'
I tossed the board and packet, on its towing rope, outside the window. It caught against her collar. I lifted the helpless girl in my arms.
'Luta! Luta!' called Reginald, angrily. 'Are you in there?'
'No one called Luta is in here,' I called back, cheerily, through the door, 'but there is one here who once was known by that name, one whom I have renamed 'Shirley, giving her, as seemed fitting, the name of an Earth girl.'
The girl squirmed in my arms, writhing in misery, but could not free herself.
'Who are you? Who speaks?' demanded Reginald.
'I am taking your slave, who is quite good,' I said, 'and something else, too, which I have found of interest.'
'Who speaks? Who speaks?' cried Reginald.
'Jason,' said I, 'Jason, of Victoria!' Then I climbed to the shattered window and, holding the girl, crouched there for a moment. She was uttering small, muffled sounds, whimpering piteously. Then I leapt into the water. As I leapt to the water I heard the men outside the cabin begin to hurl their shoulders against the wood.
Chapter 9 — I ACQUIRE ANOTHER GIRL; I RENEW AN ACQUAINTANCE WITH TWO OLD FRIENDS
'Who is there?' called the fellow from the gunnels of the _Tina_. 'Speak, or we shall fire!'
'Jason,' said I from the dark, cold water. 'Jason of Victoria. Help me aboard!'
'It is Jason,' said a voice. I recognized it as that of Callimachus. 'Help him aboard!'
I was towing the girl by the hair, on her back, behind me, in the water. Attached to her collar, floating to one side, on its double rope, was the board and packet.
Hands reached down toward me. Two men, clinging to the gunnels, clambered down to assist me.
'What have we here?' asked one of the men.
'A female slave,' I said, 'and something else, which is of value.'
The girl was lifted up, by her bound arms, by two men, and hauled over the bulwarks, the board and packet striking against the side of the ship, with her.
I climbed up, after her. In a moment I stood, shivering, on the deck of the _Tina_.
Callimachus seized me by the arms. 'We had feared you were lost,' he said.
'We must make ready to withdraw,' I said. 'We cannot withstand an attack in the morning.'
'We were waiting for you,' said Callimachus.
I bent down beside the girl and removed the board and packet, on its rope, from her collar. 'Put this in the cabin of the captain,' I said to a man.
'Yes, Jason,' said he.
'What is it?' asked Callimachus.
'I shall explain later,' I said.
'There seems light and consternation on the deck of the _Tamira_,' said a man. To be sure, we could see ships' lanterns moving about on the _Tamira_, some two to three hundred yards across the water.
I smiled. I did not think Reginald would be quick to report his loss to the fleet commander.
'What have we here?' asked a man, lifting a lantern, indicating the girl, who was kneeling on the deck at our feet.
I jerked the blindfold down from her head, until it hung about her neck.
'A pretty one,' said the man.
'Yes,' said another.
The girl looked wildly about, frightened, a prize, among the enemies of her former master.
'You are in the presence of men, Woman,' I said. 'Put your head down, to their sea boots.'
Immediately, kneeling, she put her head down to the deck.
'The _Tamira_ is coming about,' said a man. 'I think she means to attack.'
'She must be very anxious to recover whatever it was which you took,' said Callimachus.
The girl lifted her head, startled.
'Not you, Pretty Slave,' I told her, 'that which was of value.'
She looked at me, tears in her eyes, over the gag, angrily. 'Tie her legs, and throw her below decks,' I told a man.
'Yes, Jason,' he said.
'Oarsmen to your benches,' said Callimachus. 'All hands to your stations.'
The _Tamira_ must be mad to threaten three ships,' said an officer.
'She is desperate,' said another.
'Reginald may be ready to lose his ship,' I said, 'that his loss may be covered, that it may have seemed unavoidable, a fortune of war.'
'Surely he would have no orders to leave the line,' said Callimachus.
'No,' I said, grinning. A cloak was thrown about my shoulders, to warm me from the chill of the water. The girl, her ankles now bound, was carried backwards, her body over the shoulder of a man, to the nearest hatch, that amidships, leading to the hold. Her eyes were wild over the gag. She would be thrown in the hold, and the hatch would be secured. I realized that she would have to be beaten as she had, earlier, raised her head without permission. Such negligences on the part of a slave seldom go unnoticed on Gor.
'It is clear,' said an officer. 'The _Tamira_ plans to attack.' He seemed perplexed.
'It is as I had hoped,' I said to Callimachus. 'She will, thus, open a hole in their lines.' To be sure, I had not expected Reginald to notice his loss so quickly. I had hoped to have more time to formulate my plans with Callimachus.
'I shall have the signal horns sounded,' said an officer to Callimachus.
'No,' I said, 'no, Callimachus!'
'Do not sound them,' said Callimachus to the officer. 'It is not yet time to alert and confuse the fleet.'
'Precisely,' I said. Orders, at our proximity with the _Olivia_ and _Tais_, could be, for the moment, verbally conveyed.
'Is it your intention to exploit that aperture in the enemy line?' asked Callimachus. 'It will not remain long. The movement of the _Tamira_ will be quickly noted.'
'Not directly,' I said. 'That would be transparent Kaissa, as it is said. Yet the enemy will expect us to dart for that opening.'
'Accordingly, they will shift to cover the position,' said Callimachus.
'Producing numerous realignments of ships, and perhaps consternation,' I said.
'The very wall may be dismantled,' said Callimachus, 'opened, in a dozen places.'
'It will not be understood why the _Tamira_ left her position,' I said. 'It may be assumed by many ships that the attack has been ordered.'
'The _Tamira_ is bearing down upon us,' said an officer. 'Shall we engage her?'
'No,' cried Callimachus. 'Helmsmen, hard to starboard! Oar Master, full stroke!'
'Full stroke!' called the oar master. 'Port oars inboard!' cried Callimachus. 'Port oars inboard!' echoed the oar master.
The _Tamira_, her port shearing blade passing to port like a quarter moon of steel, slid past our hull,
