locutions such as 'I'll be seeing you' or 'Until wemeet again'. The sign for past, incidentally, is also the sign for 'before.' Thesign for 'time,' predictably, enters into the sign for 'before,' but, in thiscase, it is followed by the thrusting forth and drawing back of the right hand.
This is perhaps to suggest moving backward in time.
The Fleer grinned, and shifted his lance again to his right hand. Then,suddenly, with a wild whoop, and kicking his heels back into the flanks of hiskaiila, he raced away.
'I have always had good relations with the Fleer,' said Grunt I watched the rider racing away. He was a member of the Blue-Sky Riders. Onedoes not come easily into membership in such a society. I was sweating.
'I thought he might want one or more of the girls,' I said.
'He probably has, on the whole, as good or better in his own camp,' said Grunt.
'Perhaps,' I said.
We looked at the girls. Several were still trembling, from the Fleer'sassessment. The red-haired girl smoothed down the skirt of the tunic and, withher small hands, drew together, as she could, the sides of the tunic. She, ofall, it seemed, was the most shaken. To be sure, it was she, of all of them, whohad been the most objectively assessed.
'The Fleer was impressed,' said Grunt. 'Did you see?
'Yes,' I said.
'I am proud of all of them,' said Grunt. 'Did you see bow they responded to thetouch of his lance?'
'Yes,' I said.
'They are good stuff,' said Grunt.
'I think so,' I said.
'And I am grateful to you, for your help, in beating them, and helping to teachthem their bondage,' he said.
I shrugged. I had, it must be admitted, derived much pleasure from the coffle,picking out one or another of them, when the whim or urge might strike me, formy slave use. I regarded them. Their necks were lovely in their iron collars andchains. Last night I had had Priscilla, the English girl, weeping in my arms.
Before that I had had Lois, the short, blond American girl. She lookedparticularly well in chains.
'Your tutelage of them in submission and servitude, the instructional abuse towhich you have subjected them,' said Grunt, 'may prove to be instrumental insaving their lives.'
'They are eager pupils,' I said, 'having now come to understand that they aretruly slaves.'
'Good,' said Grunt.
I wondered why Grunt had administered so little, if any, of this form ofinstruction to his coffled properties. Surely he could see, as well as anyother, their desirability and beauty.
'Up with your burdens, my pretty beasts!' called Grunt. 'Do you think you arefed for nothing? Do you think we can dawdle here all day! No! We must march!'
'What do you think the Fleer was doing here?' I asked.
'He was probably left behind to kill survivors,' said Grunt.
'We are, of course, in Fleer country,' I said. 'He was in the paint of war,' said Grunt 'He did not show hostility towards us,' I said.
'We were not involved in the action,' said Grunt.
'The site of the action, I gather,' I said, 'is quite close.'
'I fear so,' said Grunt.
'Perhaps we should ride well ahead of the coffle,' I said.
'I think that is probably true,' said Grunt.
16 The Kur; I Meet Waniyanpi; I Hear of the Lady Mira
'It occurred here,' said Grunt, 'obviously.'
We looked down from the rise, onto the valley below.
'I had thought it would be worse,' I said. I remembered the grisly aftermath ofthe attack on the Hobarts' men.
Below us there lay little more, seemingly, than overturned and scattered wagons,some burned. Harness was cut. The carcass of a draft tharlarion, here and there,loomed in the grass. Most of the animals, however, had apparently been cut freeand driven away.
'It could be worse than you think,' said Grunt. 'Much death might lie about inthe grass.'
'Perhaps,' I said.
Yet there seem few scavengers,' he said.
I looked behind us. The red-haired girl, first in the coffle, stood near us. Theother girls, then, and the Hobarts, in their place, came up with her.
We had forgotten them, in coming over the rise, in seeing the wagons. Now thereseemed little purpose in warning them back. Too, it did not seem as sickening aswe had feared, what lay before us.
'The attack presumably did not take place at dawn,' said Grunt, 'and,presumably, it would not have occurred late in the day.'
'Your surmise is based on the scattering of the wagons,' I said, 'that they arenot defensively circled, but are aligned, as for the march.'
'Yes,' said Grunt.
'And the attack would not take place late in the day,' I said, 'because of thepossibility of survivors escaping under the cover of darkness.'
'That is it,' said Grunt. 'It is my speculation that the wagons were beingopened and aligned for the march.'
'If that is true,' I said, 'we should find the remains of evening fires, largecooking fires, with circled stones, near the wagons, not the absence of fires,nor the smaller remains of midday fires.'
'Yes,' said Grunt.
We then began to move our kaiila down the rise, toward the wagons. There wereseveral of them. Some were turned awry; some were overturned, and some stoodmute and stark in their tracks, unattended, as though waiting to be utilized,the grass about their axles, the heavy beams of their tongues sloping to theearth. Most of the wagons were charred to one extent or another. In none was thecanvas covering intact. It had either been torn away or burned. The curvedsupports for the canvas, which were metal, in most cases remained. Against thesky they had a macabre, skeletal appearance, not unlike exposed ribs. Theirregular line of the wagons extended for something like a pasang. As we camecloser we could see, here and there, and sometimes within the wagons, discardedand shattered objects. Chests had been overturned and broken open. I saw a dollin the grass and a man's boot. Flour from rent sacks had been scattered on thegrass.
'There are the remains here of evening fires,' I said, moving the kaiila pastsome circles of stones.
'Yes,' said Grunt. These fires presumably would have been within the wagoncircle. The attack, then, it seemed clear, would have occurred in the morning,probably during, or shortly after, the hitching up of the draft tharlarion. Thenumber of cut harnesses suggested the second alternative. Here and there I sawan arrow in the grass. The comparative fixity of these objects, almost upright,leaning, slim and firm, contrasted with the movement of the grass which, in thewind, bent and rustled about them.
The kaiila suddenly, with a snort, shifted to the right. I kept the saddle. Irestrained the beast, forcibly. I jerked the reins to the left and kicked back,into the silken flanks of the animal.
'What is it?' asked Grunt.
I was looking down, into the grass.
'What is it that you see in the grass?' asked Grunt.
'Death,' I said. 'But no common death.'
I threw the reins to Grunt, and dismounted. 'Stay back,' I warned the girls.
I examined what was left of the body.
'No Fleer or Yellow Knife did that,' said Grunt.
