be one.'
'Perhaps,' I said.
'It is just as well,' he said. 'If she were to fall into our hands, here in the delta, it would be a court-martial for her.'
'And then?' I asked.
'Is it not obvious?' he asked.
'What?' I asked.
'The impaling spear.'
'I see,' I said.
'I wish you well,' he said.
I was silent.
'I am sorry,' he said, 'that you so hate the men of Ar.'
'I have excellent reason for doing so,' I said.
'True,' he said.
'What were you doing here?' I asked.
'Hunting,' said he.
'You seem to have had little success,' I said.
'We cannot live in the delta,' he said, 'and we cannot escape it.'
'Ar would have done well to have considered such matters before she entered the delta,' I said.
'Undoubtedly,' he said.
'You are to me as my enemies,' I told him.
'Be pleased then,' said he 'for we perish.'
1 did not respond to him.
'1 wish you well,' he said.
I did not respond to him.
He then made his way away, rather to the southeast, testing his footing carefully.
I watched him until he had disappeared among the rence. An anger and hatred flooded over me then for the men of Ar, at whose hands I had been so cruelly treated. I hated them then, and in my heart reviled them. Let them perish in the delta then, or at its edges, under the swords of mercenaries, thought I. It would be difficult enough for a single man to leave the delta, or a man and a woman. How much more difficult then for a group. I then made my way back slowly toward the raft.
Ina, as I appeared, quickly knelt. She looked at me with a sort of awe. She spread her knees very widely, moving the sand in a small hill on either side of her knees.
'You do not have permission to speak,' 1 told her. She was silent.
I must think.
'Turn about,' I said, 'and put your head down, to the sand.'
I must think.
Surely death to the men of Ar, I thought.
'Oh!' she said.
'Be silent,' I warned her. She gasped.
They had mistreated me. What mattered it if they perished, to a man, in the green wilderness of the delta?
'Keep your head down,' I told Ina, absently. They were nothing to me, I told myself.
'Oh, oh,' said Ina, softly. I did not admonish her for the softness of her moans. Her small hands, her wrists tied together by the binding fiber, twisted behind her back, her fingers moving.
It would be difficult enough for one man to escape the delta, or a man willing to accept, say, the handicap of a helpless, beautiful captive, without worrying about more, perhaps even a squad or more.
'Oh!' she gasped, suddenly.
The odds of being detected, by rencers, by a patrol, by a tarn scout, by a guard at the edge of the delta, by someone, increased considerably with each addition to the party.
'Oh, oh, oh!' she wept, eagerly, helplessly, gratefully.
'Ah!' I said.
'Ohhh,' she said, softly, unbelievingly.
I then lay beside her, she now on her stomach. She had been very useful. I had now reached my decision. Slaves are often used for similar purposes.
'You may speak,' I informed her.
But it seemed she still did not dare speak.
I moved up, beside her, on my elbow. She looked at me, timidly.
Still she did not dare to speak.
'The sand is warm,' 1 said.
She made a small noise, and lifted herself a little in the sand.
'You are bound,' I said.
She whimpered, pleadingly, and lifted herself yet a bit more in the sand.
She looked at me. 'May I truly speak?' she whispered.
'Yes,' I said, 'that permission was granted to you. To be sure, it may be instantly revoked, at my will.'
'Touch me again,' she begged. 'Yes!' she said.
'You may be interested in what transpired on the other side of the shrubbery,' I said.
'Yes!' she said. 'Yes!'
'You needn't jump so,' I said, 'but you may do so, if you wish.'
'Oh!' she said. 'Your touch!'
I observed her fingers moving. Then, suddenly, they straightened, tensely.
1 then withheld my touch for a moment. She was now mine.
'It was not an animal, as you thought,' I said, 'but, as it turned out, a man, as I thought.'
She looked at me, frightened, but, too, teetering on the brink of an uncontrollable response.
'It was a fellow of Ar,' I said.
'Oh, no!' she whispered.
'— whom I managed to save,' I said.
She closed her eyes, tightly.
'Perhaps you are interested to know what became of him?' I asked.
'Yes,' she whispered.
'He returned to his fellows,' I said. 'Apparently their camp is not far from here.'
She looked at me with terror.
Then, as it pleased me, I touched her again, once, briefly.
'Oh!' she said.
'He does not know, of course,' 1 said, 'that you are with me.'
'Good,' she said.
I again touched her, once. 'Good! Good!' she said. 'What is wrong?' I asked.
'Every particle of me begs to respond to you!' she wept.
'It is just as well they do not know you are with me,' I informed her, 'for, as you feared, by now the treachery of Saphronicus, and that of those closely associated with him, such as the Lady Ina, is well understood.'
She moaned.
'I see you feared as much,' I said.
'Yes,' she said.
I was letting her subside a little. I could bring her back to the brink of her response, as I chose. This she knew.
'He brought up your name,' I said, 'not me.' She groaned in the thought of it.
I turned her to her back, in this way, in the circumstances, I made her even more vulnerable to me. Too, I could better see her face. It was very beautiful, the lips parted, the hair about it.
