'Must a question be repeated?' asked the first man.
'No, Master,' she said, quickly. 'I have never run away before!' That is fortunate for you,' said the man. shuddered, crouching between the boxes. The first time a runs away she is commonly only beaten. Many girls, m they first go into a collar, do not realize that escape, for practical purposes, is impossible for them, or how easily, imonly, they can be picked up and caught. The practical ~ossibility of escape is a function of several factors. Perhaps one of the most important among them is the closely nature of Gorean society. In such a society it is difficult to establish false identities. Other factors which might be A are the support of the society for slavery, the absence i place to run, so to speak, and the relentlessness with such slaves are commonly sought.
Other factors are such as the distinctive garb of the slave, the encirclement of neck with a collar and the fact that her body is marked t a brand. The best that a slave can commonly hope for is she might fall into the power of a new master. The usual punishment for a girl's second attempt at escape is hamstring the severing of the tendons behind the knees. This does completely immobilize the girl, for she may still, for cxle, drag herself about by her hands. Such girls are sometimes used as beggars, distributed about a city by wagon in morning, and then picked up again at night, with what earnings they may have managed to obtain during the You will not beat me though, will you?' wheedled the 'No,' said the first man.
'Thank you, Masters!' said the girl 'You have, however,' said the man stolen a pastry, lied to me about it to us, and run away.'
'You said you would not beat me!' protested the girl.
'We shall not,' said the man. 'Ephialtes might.'
'Do not tell him, I beg you!' she cried.
'Do you really think that you can do the things you have done with impunity, you, a slave?' asked the man.
'No, Master,' she wept.
'We have discovered you have a taste for sweets,' said the and man.
'Ephialtes will discover if you have a taste for leather.'
'Have pity on me, Masters,' she wept. 'I am only a mg helpless, braceleted slavel' I 'Turn about, Tula,' said the man. 'You are on your way back to your master.'' As I heard them leaving, I looked about the corner of my hiding place. I saw two large men. Preceding them, her hands locked behind her in slave bracelets, was a beautifully shaped little slave. She had dark hair. Her slave tunic, which was extremely short, was red.
I followed the men down the passageway. I stopped once, when they stopped, to extinguish the lantern.
Following them I came to an opening between the through which they had taken their way.
They had led me out of the maze. bacl I then saw many wagons and could smell tharlarion, and straw. I made my way swiftly through this area.
I then stopped, startled. 'Me great cry of a tarn smote I fell to my hands and knees as two men passed, on the other side of a wagon. I rose up and sped as furtively and swiftly as I could toward the area from which I had heard the bird's scream. I said stopped, seeing a bird take to the air, a tarn basket, on long The ropes, trailing behind it. I put out my hands. There seemed to M be a platform in front of me. It must have been fifty yards char long. On it there seemed to be two broad, leather skids. On these skids, some twenty yards or so in front of me, there. by were four or five tarn baskets. I heard the snapping of wings I saw ropes being fastened between the tarn and the et now first in the line. I crawled forward and, as the were concerned with the tarn, it moving about and occasionally stretching and snapping its wings, crawled into the basket. Within that basket was a blanket, one which had ably been used to cover some cargo brought to the camp. w the blanket over me and lay quietly in the bottom of basket. was becoming lighter now, and I was becoming more iore afraid. ave myself little chance to escape, but I could do noth- ore. I had done all that I could. seemed I lay there for an Ahn. The heavy fiber of the et cut into my skin. I did not, however, so much as
Then other tarns were brought, one by one, to the
rm. The other baskets were lofted away. Mine only, it ed, remained. o where is Venaticus?' said a man. leeping one off,' said another fellow. angled up in the chains of some slave,' suggested an- think it will be another warm day,' said a fellow. ood,' said one of the men. 'Then they may have the s down on the slave wagons.' hen we dismantle,' said a man, 'you could always drift in the march and see Lady Slicila. She is a pretty little in her cage.' hey are all pretty in chains and behind bars,' said an-man.
hate to think of them shoving an impaling spear up her said a man. know an impaling spear I'd like to shove up her ass,' nother man. ere was laughter. n may do with us what they wish, I thought. Our only
e is to turn them against themselves, and use them for purposes. But in this we frustrate nature, that of men and rselves. How can we win, then? Perhaps, I thought, only sing. But these thoughts were more appropriate to Earth Gor. It did not seem possible to turn the men of Gor
st themselves. Perhaps they were less simple than the Earth, or more simple, more basic and natural. They at any rate, never permitted themselves to be tricked out of their natural rights and powers. The conniving woman of Gor, she who would seek to control and manipulate men, likely to soon find herself at the feet of her would-be victim naked, kissing them, locked in his collar.
There seemed suddenly a storm of wings in the air, beard the striking of tarn talons on the platform. Men, a St immediately, began to work about the basket. I felt the basket move as ropes were fastened, on it and jerked tight. There was a tiny space between two folds of the blanket, through Which I could see, looking then through an opening in the weaving of the basket. With two fingers I drew the blank more together.
'Your face is smeared with lipstick,' said a man, 'and y stink of slaves and paga.'
'I cannot explain that,' said a fellow, as though puzzle 'for all night I have rested comfortably in the tent of cargo riders.'
'The company will not be pleased,' said a fellow. 'if you slept a wink last night I am a purple urt.'
'It is lucky for you then,' said the newcomer, concerned 'that indeed I neglected to slumber.'
'Are you in a condition to fly?,' asked a man.
'I shall sleep in the saddle,' said the man.
'You have a long flight, of several stages,' said a man.
'I shall be well rested then by the time of my arrival Ar,' said the newcomer. 'I am sure the paga slaves will be pleased,' said a ra 'all several hundred of them.'
'Do not neglect to fasten your safety strap,' said a man.
'I shall do so, unless perhaps I chance to fall asleep fir the newcomer assured the fellow.
'What is that sound?' asked a man.
'It sounds like an alarm bar, back in the south part of camp,' said a man. 'I wonder what is wrong,' said another.
'Will I see Bemus in Ar, or Torquatus?' asked the new I comer.
'No, luckily for the paga slaves,' said a man.
'It is an alarm bar,' said a man, 'clearly.'
'I hear another, too, now,' said a man.
'I wonder what is going on,' said the newcomer.
'You will rendezvous with us in ten days, on the south bank of the Issus,' said a man. 'You will be bringing another shipment of Ka-la-na for the officers.' 'I wonder what is going on,' said the newcomer.
'You are late,' said a man, with a rustle of papers.
'I am never late,' said the newcomer. 'It is only that sometimes it takes me longer to be on time than others.'
'I bear other alarm bars, too, now,' said a man.
'Do you think the camp is under attack?' asked a man.
'No,' said a man.
'It is probably a fire,' said a man.
'I do not see any smoke,' said a man.
'Perhaps Lady Sheila has escaped,' suggested a fellow, lightly.
This suggestion was greeted with raucous laughter. The little vulo, doubtless, was still safe in her cage.
It is probably a fight between companies or platoons,' said a mJr, 'probably over gambling or a slave.'
