seems a natural place in which to place such an identificatory control and guidance device; the slave girl, too, of course, is an owned animal. Thus it seems appropriate that she, too, wear her device in the same place.
I looked down on the slave before me. She lifted her head to me. It was almost entirely covered by the tightened slave hood. 'I thank you for my collar, my Master,' she whispered. 'I am yours, and I love you.' I took her hands in mine and I crouched down, and, lifting them, touched their small fingers to my face. 'My Master has removed his mask!' she said surprised. 'But then it does not matter,' she laughed, wryly, 'for I am well and effectively hooded.'
I then released her hands and stood before her. Immediately she assumed the position of the pleasure slave.
I looked upon her, at length. She was quite beautiful, the former Miss Henderson, now only a rightless, nameless slave at my feet.
With my hand under her chin I then indicated to her that she should draw herself up from her heels. She did so, this action bringing her body upward and forward, and bringing her knees more closely together. 'Master?' she inquired. I then untied the straps of the slave hood. 'Am I to be unhooded?' she cried. 'But Master is not masked!' I loosened the hood. I might then remove it from her. 'Am I to be permitted to see the face of my Master?' she whispered. She put her hands on mine. Her lips trembled. 'Truly?' she asked. 'Truly?' She felt my hands at the edges of the slave hood. 'But wait a moment, Master,' she begged. 'Let me first kiss your feet!' I permitted this. She put her head down, the slave hood loose on her head. I felt her lips kissing my feet. 'I love you, my Gorean master,' she said. 'I love you, and I am yours.' She then lifted her head, the slave hood loose upon it. 'Now unhood me, or not, as you will, my Master,' she whispered.
I took the hood with my two hands, and, keeping the edges under, getting a good grip on the sides, rolled it an inch or so upward on her face. I could now lift it from her with one motion. Still, of course, as it was placed, she could not see. I looked down upon her. 'I love you, and I am your slave, my Gorean master,' she whispered.
I flung aside the slave hood and, quickly, holding my left hand behind the back of her neck, covered her mouth, pressing it tightly shut, with my right hand. I feared that she might cry out my name, and that it might then be necessary to put her again under the whip, for such an insolence. Her eyes, over my hand, were wild, and incredulous. I held her mouth pressed shut for some time, that she might collect herself and make her adjustments. Then, when her breathing was calmer, though still deep and swift, I released her mouth. I stepped back from her. I saw consternation in her eyes, and confusion and uncertainty. She did not speak. She did not know what to do. She did not know how to relate to me.
To make it easier for her I went to the wall and removed the slave whip from its hook.
'You?' she said. 'You are my Gorean master? It was you who did those things to me?'
'Yes,' I said. I shook out the blades of the Gorean slave whip.
'The strength, it was yours?' she said.
'Yes,' I said.
'And it was you who forced slave yieldings from me?'
'Yes,' I said.
'I am unclothed,' she said.
'Of course,' I said. I saw that she thought of turning from me, and covering with her hands, as best she could, her nakedness. But she did not do so. She still did not know how she must behave with me.
'I was whipped,' she said. 'Did you do that?'
'Yes,' I said.
'I was well whipped,' she said.
'Of course,' I said.
'This collar?' she said, touching it.
'It is mine,' I said.
'Yours?' she said.
'Yes,' I said.
I saw that she had not yet called me 'Master,' but, too, I noted that she had, as well, carefully refrained from using my name. She was a highly intelligent girl.
'Surely you will now take the collar off me,' she said.
'No,' I said.
'Surely you know the meaning of such a collar on Gor,' she said.
'Yes,' I said.
'I cannot take it off myself,' she said.
'I suppose not,' I said.
'Then how am I to get it off?' she asked.
'You are not,' I told her.
'It designates bondage!' she cried.
'Yes,' I said.
She drew back, and looked at me. Then she laughed, with rather an uneasy, forced merriment I thought. 'What a joke!' she laughed. 'What a little fool I was! I thought for a moment that you were serious, that you might have an actual intention of keeping me as a slave!'
I did not bother responding to her.
'It is a joke!' she cried.
'You have been stripped, and collared and whipped,' I said. 'Does that seem to be a joke to you?'
'No,' she said, suddenly, angrily, 'it does not!'
'Do you object, in the least?' I inquired.
'No, no,' she said, quickly. 'Of course not!' I smiled inwardly. How uncertain she was as to her position, and condition. Slaves, of course, are not permitted to object to what is done to them.
She looked at me. 'Now you have made me speak to you as though I might be a slave,' she chided.
I did not speak.
'Your joke has gone far enough,' she said, uncertainly, 'now, please, please, let me rise, and take off my collar and bring me clothes.'
I did not move. She remained on her knees.
'You cannot be serious about keeping me as a slave,' she said.
I did not speak.
'You did not keep me as a slave before,' she said.
'No,' I said.
'See!' she laughed.
'I have no intention of repeating that mistake,' I said.
'You cannot keep me as a slave!' she cried.
'Why not?' I asked.
'Because I am a woman of Earth, and you are a man of Earth!' she said.
'Men of Earth have often held women of Earth as slaves,' I said. 'Surely you are aware of this. Historically, slavery has been one of the most widespread and successful of human institutions. Most of the admired civilizations of the past have, in effect, been founded on slavery. Even today, on Earth, slavery is openly practiced in many parts of the world, and, in other parts of the world, it is known that there are men who keep their women secretly as slaves. Seeing a woman on the street it is often difficult to know whether, in the secrecy of her house, she is a slave or not. Too, who knows what will be the future course of civilizations on Earth. It is not impossible that slavery may again become a widespread and significant component in social fabrics, even in those of technological societies. The future is hard to read.'
'Then the fact that I am a woman of Earth and you are a man of Earth need not protect me,' she said.
'Of course not,' I said, 'no more than it has protected other women of Earth who, over the long ages, have found themselves placed in bondage.'
'I see,' she said.
'Incidentally,' I said, 'I reject not only your contention as being false, and obviously false, but its supposition, as well.'
