'He will not simply carry you away,' I said. 'Grunt is a guest of the Kaiila.'
'But what if he wishes to buy me?' she asked in misery.
'Then that is simply a matter of prices.' I said.
'No, no,' she wept. 'You do not understand!'
'I understand very well,' I said. 'You are a slave. You are a piece of property. A man sees you and decides whether or not he is interested in you. If he is, he makes Grunt an offer. It is accepted or rejected. Perhaps bargaining ensues. If they do not come to terms, then you simply have a new master, whom you must then serve completely and with total perfection.'
She collapsed on the robe in the lodge, clutching at it with her small fingers, weeping bitterly.
'I believe you were given a command,' I said. 'I trust that you do not desire for me to repeat it, as your discharge of the task might well, then, be preceded by a severe whipping.'
'No, Master,' she wept. 'I do not desire for you to repeat your cmmand.'
'If your obedience is insufficiently prompt,' I said, 'I may add to my command the stipulations that you will polish trade goods the lodge naked.'
'My obedience is prompt, Master,' she wept, getting up. She began to gather together several pots and pans from Grunt's store of trade goods.
'I am well aware of the tricks of lazy girls to escape from their work,' I told her.
'Yes, Master,' she wept. 'Yes, Master.'
I then hurried from the lodge. I wished to find Grunt, to query him as to the possible significance, if any, of the information I had earlier received from Oiputake, as to the identity of the Yellow Knives in the camp.
'Tatankasa!' called a little boy. 'Throw the hoop for me! Throw the hoop for me!'
'Have you seen Wopeton, the Trader?' I asked.
'No,' he said. 'Throw the hoop!'
'Forgive, me, Small Master,' I said. 'I am on business.'
'Very well,' he said.
I sped on, toward the lodge of Mahpiyasapa.
'Hold!' called a lad.
I stopped, and fell to my knees before him. It was the lad who had been first among the herders, when I had carried the beaded quirt to the girl herd.
'Greetings,' said he.
'Greetings, Master,' I said.
'The blond slave whom you took for wench sport,' he said, 'is no longer in the herd. She was exchanged in a giveaway and her new master, reportedly, is quite pleased with her. It seems she is now to serve in hos low lodge, away from the herd, convenient to him, as a prize slave.'
'That is good news, Master,' I said.
'The credit fot this goes to you, I think,' said the lad. 'You melted the ice in her belly. You made her become a woman, and need men.'
'Thank you, Master,' I said.
'She has been named Oiputake,' he said.
'Yes, Master,' I said. 'Master!' I said, suddenly.
'Yes,' he said.
'Why are you in the village now,' I asked, 'at this time of day?'
'The herds have been brought in,' he said, 'to the edges of te village.'
'What of the guards and pickets?' I asked.
'They, too, have been brought in,' he said.
'Why?' I asked.
'It is upon the orders of Watonka,' said the lad.
'The western edge of the camp, then, is unguarded,' I said. The security for this perimeter was the responsibility of the Isanna.
'It is all right,' said the lad. 'It is the time of the feasts, of the festivals.'
'Have you seen Wopeton, the Trader?' I asked.
'No,' he said.
'May I leave?' I asked.
'Surely,' said the lad, puzzled.
I leaped up and again hurried toward the lodge of Mahpiyasapa. I passed within a hundred yars of the great dance lodge, formed of towering walls of brush. Within would be the pole, the ropes and the skewers, and pained and bedecked, dancing, the young men.
'Mahpiyasapa is not here,' said the woman, kneeling near his lodge, one of his wives. Her gnarled fingers held a bone scraper. She was sharpening the scraper on a stone in front of her. On the scraper there were six dots. It has been used for six years. Two of her fingers had been cut ff at the first joint. She had lost two sons.
'Do you know where he is?' I asked.
'No,' she said.
'Thank you, Mistress,' I said. I rose to my feet, and stepped back. I did not know what to do now, or where to go.
'Why should he not be in the council?' she asked, not looking up.
'Of course,' I said. 'My thanks, Mistress!'
'It will do you no good,' she said. 'You cannot see him there, if he is there. It is not permitted.'
'I really seek Wopeton,' I said. 'Might he be in the council?'
'It is possible,' she shrugged. She did not look up from her work.
'My thanks, Mistress,' I said. 'You have been very kind.'
'If he is in the council,' she said, 'you will not be able to see him either.'
'My thanks, Mistress!' I said. I turned about and hurried from the place. She had been very helpful. I did not think that I would have managed as well had I been a white female slave. Had I been such she might have put me to labors or kept me on my belly, in the dirt, my mouth filled with dirt, before her, for hours. Women of the red savages bear little affection towards the lovely white properties of thier men. White slave girls will often flee at the mere approach of a red female and will almost never meet the eyes of one. In my intense awareness of this being the day of the great dance, pobably a function of Cuwignaka's almost overwhelming concern about it, and in my concern over the fate of Canka, and my concern with the information obtained from Oiputake, I had forgotten that this day, too, was the day of peace council, a day in which was to be seen, supposedly, at least the first stages of the ratiffication of a peace agreement between the Yellow Knives and the Kaiila. I made my way rapidly towards the council lodge. I di dnot know if I could draw Mahpiyasapa out of the council, or if it would be wise to do so, but I was confident that I could, somehow, if he were there, make contact with Grunt.
I was thrown rudely back by the two young warriors. 'Kneel, Slave!' snarled one of them.
I knelt swiftly. Knives were drawn upon me.
'Forgive me, Masters,' I said. 'It is needful that I speak with Wopeton.'
'He is not within,' said one of the warriors.
'Convey then, I beg you,' I said, 'my need to speak with Mahpiyasapa.'
'Neither is Mahpiyasapa within,' said the warrior.
'Neither is within?' I asked.
'No,' he said.
'Forgive me, Masters,' I said.
'They may come later,' said one of the warriors. 'The council has not yet begun.'
'Yes, Master,' I said. 'Thank you, Masters.' I crawled back a pace or two, on my knees, keeping my eyes on their knives. Then I rose to my feet and, facing the, backed away. They sheathed their knives and resumed their stance, arms folded, before the threshold of the great lodge. Its poles were fifty feet in height and it was covered with more than a hundred skins.
I looked about. Again I did not know what to do. I must wait, I suppose, to see if Grunt, or Mahpiyasapa, appeared. By now, however, I would have supposed they would have been within the council lodge. Surely the
