discussed.
'The camp is quite close,' said Cuwignaka. 'Let us be on our way.'
'You are welcome to accompany us,' I told the young man, 'and you may, if you wish, bring the female.'
'I want to bring her,' he said.
'Very well,' I said.
Again the girl smiled. It had been explicitly discussed, whether or not she would be brought with us.
'I will conceal, as I can, the signs of our encampment,' said Cuwignaka.
'I willload the travois,' I said.
'Are you truly a slave-Mira,' asked the girl.
Mira cast a glance at me.
'You may respond,' I told her.
'Yes, I am a slave,' said Mira, 'totally.'
'What was he doing to you, before?' asked the girl.
'You watched?' asked Mira.
'Yes,' said the girl.
'he was enjoying me and using me as what I am, a slave,' she said.
'Are you embarrassed?' asked the girl.
'No,' said Mira. 'A slave is not permitted modesty.'
'You seemed ecstatic with pleasure, overcome with gratitude and joy,' said the girl.
'It was my yielding,' she said.
'Need you have yielding like that?' asked the girl.
'Yes,' said Mira. 'The slave is given no alternative other than to yield to the master fully.'
'But you would want to yield like that, wouldn't you?' asked the girl.
'Yes,' said Mira.
'Then the slave is forced to do what she, in her most secret heart, most deeply desires to do,' said the girl.
'Yes,' said Mira. 'But you must understand that a slave's lot is not an easy one. We are often worked long and hard.'
'But is there now a pleasure in such a service?' asked the girl.
'At one time I would not have thought so,' said Mira, 'but I know now, now that I am an owned slave, that there is.'
'How must a slave act?' asked the girl. 'What must a slave do?'
'We are to be absolutely docile, totally obedient and fully pleasing,' said Mira.
'Horrifying!' said the girl.
'Perhaps,' laughed Mira.
'And what if you are not?' asked the girl.
'But we are,' laughed Mira. 'The masters see to it.'
'but what if you rebel?' asked the girl.
'Only stupid girls rebel,' said Mira, 'and they are soon taught its uselessness.'
'But can you not even protest?' asked the girl.
'We may protest, of course, if the masters see fit to permit it,' said Mira, 'but then, when we are finished, our discipline is reimposed upon us, perhaps even more severly.'
'Discipline?' breathed the girl.
'Yes,' said Mira, 'the slave girl is subject to discipline and punishment. She is owned, like a sleen or tarsk is owned. She is owned, literally owned. You must understand that in its full sense. Accordingly, anything may be done with her that the master wishes. She may even be slain, if the master wishes.'
'Then the slave girl is totally helpless,' said the girl. 'She is totally at the mercy of the master.'
'Yes,' said Mira.
'I would like that,' said the girl.
'Oh?' asked Mira.
'Are you happy?' asked the girl.
'Yes,' said Mira, 'incredibly so.'
'Do you not desire freedom?' asked the girl.
'The only freedom I would now desire,' said Mira, 'would be the freedom to be totally a slave.'
'I have so much love in my,' said the girl, 'I, too, would be a slve.'
'But you have no master,' said Mira, smiling.
'Stand,' I said to Mira.
She struggled to her feet.
I unbound her hands and put the thongs in my belt. She then knelt before me and kissed my feet.
'What are you doing?' asked the girl.
'I am kissing the feet of he who is to be as my master,' said Mira.
The young girl rose to her feet and went and knelt before the young man.
'What are you doing!' he cried, startled.
'I am kissing your feet,' she said.
'That is a slave's act!' he cried.
She lifted her head, proudly, definatly. 'Yes!' she said.
He shrank back, frightened. 'We are Sames,' he said.
'No,' she said, 'we are not. You are a man and I am a woman.'
'No,' he cried. 'No!'
'I would be a slave,' she said.
'No, no,' he cried. 'No!'
'Do I displease you?' she asked. 'Am I not attractive? Am I not desireable? Am I not beautiful? Do you, truly, not wish to own me?'
'Of course I want to own you!' he said. 'JUt to look at you is to want to own you! For years I have wanted to own you!'
'Own me,' she said.
He cried out in misery and bent over, clenching his fists.
'What is wrong?' she asked.
'It is the thought of owning you,' he said. 'It is so over whelming. It would mean such power, such joy!'
'Own me,' she said.
He looked down at her, trembling.
'There is something to be said for the idea.' I said, 'particularly if you are not going to leave her behind.'
He looked at me, puzzled.
'She is a white female,' I said. 'Few white females, if any, in the Barrens are free. We are going to an encampment of red savages. She is attractive. If you do not want to enslave her, I have little doubt but what someone else will do so.'
He looked down at her.
I went to the travois and freed the coil of narrow, braded rawhide rope I had used for Mira's collar. I cut off a suitable piece. I then replaced the balance of the rope on the travois, securing it in place.
'Stand,' he said to the girl. She stood.
I handed him the length of rope. He stood there, looking at her, the rope in his hands.
'You understand, do you not,' I asked the girl, 'the meaning of this?'
'Yes,' she said.
'You may freely enter into the state of bondage,' I told her, 'but you may not freely leave it. This thing, once it is done to you, is, on your part, irreversible. It is not then within your power to break, alter or amend it in any way. You will then, you see, no longer be a free person, but only a slave.'
'I understand,' she said. She then turned to the young man. 'I am ready,' she said. 'Make me a slave.'
