I shrugged.
'He will wish for her to be returned to his lodge a better slave than she left it,' said Cuwignaka.
'Perhaps,' I said.
'Lash her awake,' said Cuwignaka. 'Set her, without mercy, about her duties. Let her be in no doubt that it is men who are her masters.'
'I think I shall let her sleep,' I smiled.
'As you wish,' said Cuwignaka.
'She has suffered enough for one day, I think,' I said.
'As you wish,' said Cuwignaka.
'But,' I said, 'I think I shall go to see Grunt.'
'And look for Wasnaphodi,' laughed Cuwignaka.
'Maybe,' I said.
'Poor Wasnapohdi!' lauhed Cuwignaka.
Chapter 8
I TAKE MY LEAVE FROM GRUNT'S LODGE
'I am sorry,' said Grunt. 'Wasnapohdi is not here. She is out picking berries. I do not know when she will be back. After that she is to help some of the other women.'
'Oh,' I said.
'If I had known you might want her,' said Grunt, 'I could have kept her here for you, naked, tied hand and foot, at the side of the lodge.'
'That is all right,' I said. 'It is nothing.'
'You made a mistake with Winyela,' he said.
'Oh?' I said.
'She was sent to you to be punished,' he said. 'You should have done so.'
'Do you think so?' I asked.
'I know red savages,' he said. 'Yes.'
'I did not do so,' I said. Indeed, I had even let her rest, and then sleep.
'That was a mistake,' said Grunt.
'Perhaps,' I said.
We spoke within Grunt's lodge, one put at his disposal by his friend, Mahpiyasapa, civil chief of the Isbu Kaiila.
'I spoke to Cuwingaka earlier today,' I said. 'He told me that you seemed troubled.'
'Oh?' he asked.
'Yes,' I said. Grunt wore the broad-brimmed hait, that one with which I was so familiar. It was interesting to me that he wore it even within the lodge. I had never seen him without it.
'Is anything wrong?' I asked.
'I don't think so,' he said.
'What is it?' I asked.
'Have you heard the rumors?' he asked. 'About the Yellow Knives? That they are going to send a delegation even into the camp?'
'I have heard rumors, even today,' I said, 'about the possiblility of a peace being arranged with the Yellow Knives. I had not reallized, however, that things had proceeded so far, that a delegation was to be welcomed into the camp.'
'Yes,' said Grunt.
'Negotiations are much more advanced than I realized then,' I said. 'It seems, now, that there may be a real possiblitly for peace.'
'I do not like it,' said Grunt.
'Why?' I asked. 'Surely you welcome the prospect of peace.'
'I do not trust the Yellow Knives,' he said.
'Why?' I asked.
'I have never had good relations with the Yellow Knives,' he said.
I smiled. Grunt divided the tribes of red savages into those with whome he had had good relations and those with whome he had not had good relations. He had had good relations, for example, with the Dust Legs, the Kaiila and the Fleer. He had not, on the other hand, had good relations with the Yellow Knives. Grunt pulled down his hat further on his head, an interesting guesture, on about which he was apparently not really thinking.
'Are they any worse, really,' I asked, 'than the Kaiila, or the Kailiauk or the Fleer?'
'I suppose not,' admitted Grunt.
'If peace comes about,' I said, 'this might even open up new possiblities for trade.'
'Let others, then, exploit them,' said Grung, irritably.
'You do not seem overly fond of Yellow Knives,' I observed.
'No,' said Grunt.
'Do they hate you?' I asked.
'I would not suppose so,' he said.
'You seem to dislike them,' I said.
'Do I?' asked Grunt.
'Yes,' I said.
'Perhaps,' he said.
'Why?' I asked.
'Never mind,' said Grunt. 'It is not important.'
I rose to my feet. 'It is getting late in the afternoon,' I said. 'It is time for me to awaken Winyela and retun her to the lodge of Canka.'
'I wish you well,' said Grunt.
'I wish you well, too,' I said.
I then took my leave from Grunt's lodge.
Chapter 9
THIS OCCURRED IN THE LODGE OF CUWIGNAKA
Gently I put my hand on the girl's small, soft shoudler, it under the hide blanket. I shook her twice, gently.
'No,' she said, 'no. Surely it is not time already to go to the office.'
'Awaken,' I said.
She opened her eyes, registering her surroundings. She laughed softly, lying under the hide blanket. 'I awaken naked, in a man's collar, on a distant world,' she said. 'no, it is not time for me to go to the office.'
'No,' I said.
She then rolled to her stomach and, under the hide blanket, stritched. Her ody moved dleiciously under the hide.
'That concealed slaverly is behind you now,' I said. 'Your slavery is now of a more open nature.'
'Yes,' she said.
I then lifted the hide blanket back, and down to her claves. Such may be done with a slave. Her curves were marelous.
I listened for a moment to the sounds of the camp outside. Somewhere I heard a girl crying out, being beaten. It was probably a white slave girl.
