partiularly if she is a new capture, all that remains to be done in that holding area, thus, is to throw her to the ground and put her in a quick ankle-tie. This ankle tie, then, if she is to be moved in the near future, may swiftly be removed and she, already handbound, is promptly read again for the tether or the blows of her herder. The moe elaborate ties of the two girls at this point suggested, then, that women were being brought to this point, rather than being taken from it. Fore example, to take a woman from this point would require two seperate operations rather than one. She would have to be freed of her present bonds and then have her hands retied. The ties of the women at this point suggested, too, that they were being readied not for an imminent transfer to another location but for the pleasure of warriors. Their ties, thus, were an indication of the confidence and arrogance of the enemy.
Cuwignaka knelt beside the body of the fallen Yellow Knife. He drew forth his knife. the bound women shuddered. Then they, as WAsnapohdi, looked away.
'I think you had best dispose of our friend there,' I said, indicating the Yellow Knife.
Cuwignaka nodded. I di dnot much care to look at it, particularly after Cuwignaka had finished with it. Too, if other Yellow Knives should approach the area it scarcely seemed appropriate to ahve it lying about.
In a moment Cuwignaka had returned.
I saw no sign of approaching Yellow Knives.
He looked down at the woman who had screamed, and cried, she whom he had silenced with the command of a master and blow to the side of the face.
He put the point of his lance under her chin and lifted her head. She was terrified. I could see that he was still angry. The point of his lance, dipped, aligned then with the beauty of her soft, bared breasts. Then the point ws raised again, lodging itself again under her chin, holding her head up again, cruelly, that she must look at him.
'Forgive me, Master,' she whispered. There was a drop of blood at her chin.
I myself did not blame her for crying out. She had been frightened. She had been startled. Too, her weeping had been uncontrollable. She had been only a blubbering slave. I wondered if he would kill her.
'Forgive me, Master,' she begged.
He looked down at her, angrily. Then he withdrew the lance point from her chin.
RElieved of its pressure she put herself to her back in the dirt before him. She looked up at him, frightened. 'Please, forgive me Master,' she begged.
'You are well tied for the pleasures of Yellow Knives,' said Cuwignaka scornfully, looking down upon the supine, exotically bound suppliant.
'Forgive me, Master,' she begged. 'Please.' She opened her legs to Cuwignaka, spreading them even more widely than the nature of her tie required.
'Why should Yellow Knives be first?' I asked.
Cuwignaka looked at me.
'Please, Master,' begged the girl.
'Have you ever had a woman?' I asked.
'No,' he said.
'Take her,' I said. 'I will keep watch.
the girl gasped, lifted and held.
'Master!' she breathed.
'Aiii,' cried Cuwignaka, softly.
'Master, Master,' she said. Cuwignaka seemed loathe to let her go. Then he thrust her from him, to her side in the dirt. He stood up.
'I did not know such pleasures could exist,' he said, 'such feelings! Such triumph! Such glory!'
'There is no substitute for a slave female,' I said. This had been known to men throughout history.
Cuwignaka gently, by the hair, pulled the girl to a sitting poistion. She turned the head and kissed and licked at his leg.
'Do you think he received pleasure?' he asked.
'Yes,' I said.
'Might not a slave dissemble in such a matter?' he asked.
'Certain things thier bodies cannot dissemble,' I said. I took the girl by the hair and, gently but firmly, pulled back her head. 'Do you see these discolorations,' I asked, indicating irregular reddish splotches on her fair skin, 'the results of capillarly distention?'
'Yes,' he said.
'They are correlated with her pleasure.'
'Interesting,' said Cuwignaka.
I then turned the girl in profile to him. 'Consider her nipples,' I said. 'They are hard and high, distended, sweet and swollen with blood.'
'Yes,' said Cuwignaka.
'This sign, too,' I said, 'invariably indicates the presence of sexual pleasure in the human female.'
'Are such things generally known to masters?' asked Cuwignaka.
'I would suppose so,' I said. I then released the girl's hair and she put her head forward, and down, humbly.
'It would not be in a girl's best interest, then, to dissemble in such a matter.' said Cuwignaka.
'No,' I said. 'And after a beating or two she will strive with all her might to experience authentic sexual pleasures, and as deeply and fully as possible.'
'Excellent,' said Cuwignaka.
'And thus, in a sense,' I said, 'she sets herself the task of making herself all the more helplessly her master's slave.'
'Superb,' said Cuwignaka.
The girl turned her head again and, softly, timidly, kissed him on the leg.
'But whether she experiences pleasure or not is unimportant,' I said, 'for she is only a slave.'
'Of course,' said Cuwignaka.
The girl put down her head.
'We must get kaiila,' I said.
'We will look for tracks,' he said.
At the perimeter of the holding area we looked back at the two women sitting, bound, in the dirt. The one who had been so frightened of Cuwignaka, and who had placated him with her bound beauty, was looking after us.
'I had not known such pleausres could exist,' said Cuwignaka.
'They can be as long or as brief, as superfical or as profound, as you wish,' I said.
He then gave his attention to the ground, looking for tracks.
I looked back for a time at the two nude, bound women, women who were owned my men, who cold be bought and sold, who were slaves.
'Perhaps you should not have had a slave,' I said.
'Why not?' he asked.
'They may spoil you for other women,' I said.
Chapter 24
WE OBTAIN KAIILA
The three girls screamed, their tethers dropped, their hands tied behind their back.
The Yellow Knife behind them, the arrow in his chest, slipped back, awkwardly, turned, and fell heavily into the dust.
The other Yellow Knife dropped his lance into attack position, cried out rage and kicked his heels back inot the flanks of the kaiila. The animal leapt toward Cuwignaka.
