'You will not fool me twice, you scoundrel, you cad!' she replied from her knees.
'I think it is a woman,' said Boots.
'What?' she cried, turning about, half rising, and then collapsed back in confusion, in misery, to her knees. She looked up at Boots, wildly. 'It is Lady Tipa, my rival, from the village,' she said. 'She cannot be allowed to see me like this. What, oh, what, shall I do? Where can I hide?'
'Quickly,' cried Boots, 'here, beneath my robes!'
Swiftly, on her knees, wildly, knowing not what else to do, the girl had scrambled to Boots. IN a moment she was concealed beneath his robes, on her knees, only her calves and feet thrust out from beneath their hem.
'I see, sir,' said the newcomer, who was understood to be the free woman, the Lady Tipa, but was presumably Boots's Bina, usually the companion and confidant of the Brigella, 'that you well know how to pout a slave through her paces.'
'Why, thank you, noble lady,' said Boots.
'I did not get a good look at her as I approached,' said the Bina. 'Is she pretty?'
'Some might think her passable,' said Boots, 'but compared to yourself her beauty is doubtless no more than that of a she-urt compared to that of the preferred slave of a Ubar.'
The Brigella churned with rage beneath Boots's robes. She dared not emerge, of course.
'What is wrong with your slave?' asked the Bina.
'She burns with desire,' said Boots.
'How weak slaves are,' said the Bina.
'Yes,' said Boots.
'I am looking for a girl from m y village,' said the Bina. 'I was told, by two fellows, peddle4s, I think, whom I take to be of the merchants, that she may have come this way.'
'Could you describe her?' asked Boots.
'Her name is Phoebe,' said the Bina, 'and were she not veiled it would be easier to describe her to you, as she is frightfully homely.'
The girl under Boots's robes shook with fury.
'Still,' said the newcomer, 'you might have been able, nonetheless, to recognize her. She is too short, too wide in the hips and has thick ankles.'
At this there was more churning beneath Boots's robes.
'Surely there is something wrong with your slave,' said the Bina.
'No, no,' Boots assured her.
'What is she doing under there?' asked the Bina.
'She begged me piteously to be permitted to give me the kiss of a slave that I, in my weakness, at last yielded to her entreaties.'
There was much furious stirring then beneath the robes.
'How kind you are, sir,' said the Bina.
'Thank you,' said Boots.
There was a muffled cry, as of rage and protest, from beneath the robes.
'Did she say something?' asked the Bina.
'Only that she begs to be permitted to begin,' said Boots.
The robes shook with fury.
'Surely there is something wrong with her,' said the Bina.
'It is only that she is suffering whit need,' said Boots.
'Though she is naught be a meaningless slave,' said the Bina, 'she is yet, like myself, a female. Please be kind to her, sir. Let her please you.'
'How understanding you are,' marveled Boots. 'You may begin,' he said to the concealed girl.
The robes shook violently, negatively.
'What is wrong?' asked the Bina.
'She is shy,' said Boots.
'The slave need not be shy on my account,' said the Bina. 'Let her begin.'
'Begin,' said Boots.
The robes again shook violently.
'Begin,' he said.
Again there seemed a great commotion beneath his robes.
Boots then, with the flat of his hand, with some force, cuffed the girl concealed under his robes. Instantly she knelt quietly. 'Lazy girl, naughty girl,' chided Boots. The tops of her toes, as she knelt, beat up and down in helpless frustration. 'I see that I shall have to draw you forth and beat you,' she said.
'Look!' cried the Bina. 'She begins!'
'Oh, she does, doesn't she?' said Boots. 'Oh, yes!'
'What a slave she is!' cried the Bina. 'How exciting! How exciting!'
'To be sure,' agreed Boots. 'Ah! Yes! Ohhh! To be sure! Eee! Yes! Quite! Oh! Yes! Oh! Oh! To be sure! Eee! Yes! Oh! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Ohhh, yes, yes, yes.' Boots then wiped his brow with his sleeve.
'Has she gone?' called out the Brigella, after a time, her voice muffled from beneath his robes.
'Yes,' said Boots.
The Brigella, as the Lady Phoebe, extricated herself, on her knees, from the robes of Boots Tarsk-Bit. She turned about, still on her knees. 'Tipa!' she cried in horror.
'I thought you had gone,' said Boots.
'Phoebe!' cried the Lady Tipa.
'Tipa,' moaned Phoebe, in misery.
'Phoebe!' cried the Lady Tipa, in delight.
'Tipa!' pleaded Phoebe.
'Phoebe on her knees, as naked as a slave, on a public road, crawling out of a man's robes!' laughed the Bina, pointing derisively at her. 'How shameful, how outrageous, how marvelous, how delicious, how glorious!'
'Please, Tipa,' pleaded Phoebe.
'You are the sort of girl who should have been whipped and collared at puberty!' said the Bina.
The free woman in the audience stiffened at these words. These words seemed to have some special meaning for her. She shook her head and clenched her small fists in the blue gloves.
'You have always been a slave,' said the Bina.
'I am a free woman,' wailed the Brigella.
'Slave, slave, slave!' laughed the Bina. 'This story will bear a rich retelling in the village,' she said hurrying away.
'I am ruined,' wailed the Brigella, rising to her feet, wringing her hands. 'I cannot bear now to return to the village and, if I did, they would put a chain on me and sell me.'
'Perhaps not,' said Boots, soothingly.
'Do you not think so, sir?' she asked.
'It might be a rope,' he said.
'Ohhhhh,' she wailed. 'Where can I go? What can I do?'
'Well,' said Boots, 'I must be on my way.'
'But what shall I do?' she asked.
'Try to avoid being eaten by sleen,' said Boots. 'It is growing dark.'
'Where are my clothes?' she begged.
'I do not see them em about,' said Boots. 'They must have blown away.'
'Take me with you!' she begged.
'Perhaps you would like to kneel and beg my collar?' he asked. 'I might then consider whether or not I find you pleasing enough to lock it on your neck.'
'Sir,' she cried, 'I am a free woman!'
'Good luck with the sleen,' he said.
'Accept me as a traveling companion,' she urged.
