forgotten. I had later learned from he who was then Pumpkin, then one of the Waniyanpi, that nine bodies of beasts had been found on the field. These had not been nuried by had been dragged away, into the fields, by the red savages. Thus I had been unable at the time to determine whether or not Kog and Sardak had been among the Kur survivors of the attack. There had been seventeen wagons with the mercenary column which I had conjectured had contained one Kur apiece, given the irritability and territoriality of such beasts. Subracting the nine beasts which had been slain in the fighting, probably mostly by Fleer, who seemed to have less apprehension concerning their appearance than several of the other tribes, I had arrived at a probable figure of eight Kur survivors.
When Cuwignaka and I had spied on the victory celebration of the Yellow Knives and soldiers at the summer camp we had counted only seven Kurii there, including Kog and Sardak. The eighth Kur, then, as I thought of him, seemed clearly to have been separated from his fellows. I had conjectured that he had perhaps perished on the prairie. Now, however, he had paparenly been taken by Fleer, and within the general vicinity. This was, I suspected, no accident. He had probably been following the warriors, conjecturing perhaps that the movements of such large numbers of men might have to do, in one way or another, with the projects of his peers, with whom, doubtless, he had hoped to resume contact.
'What shall we do with him?' asked a man. 'The Fleer do not want him. Too, some Fleer are uneasy concerning the killing of such a creature.'
'Tell them,' I said, 'to take him to the lodge of the dark guest.'
The man then turned to the Fleer. He pointed to the Kur, and then, with a sweeping guesture, indicated a direction. He then crossed the index fingers of his right and left hand, like lodged poles. He then lifted his head and opened his mouth, as though baring fangs, and lifted a the same time his right hand, the fingers crooked like claws, in a threatening gesture.
The Fleer in charge of the captive nodded and, with a movement of his hand, indicated that his companions, the Kur in their charge, should follow him.
My eyes and those of the Kur met. He, too, I think, recalled our previous encounter.
He was then, shuffling in the dust with bloody feet, from which the claws had been extracted, bound helplessly, dragged on ropes and prodded with the butts of lances, conducted toward the lodge of Zarendargar.
Chapter 52
A BOON
'Take up your sword, I beg you,' said Alfred. He had already seized up his sword from the low, flat rock in the midst of the encircling savages. Kaiila, Dust Legs, Fleer and Sleen. I looked at the sword, lying on the rock. I had little taste for what must be done.
'I do not think you are my match,' I told him.
'If you do not,' he said, 'they will strip me, and put bells on me, and run me for boys on kaiila, as sport for their lances!'
Of the soldiers there had been only five survivors from the fray, Alfred, and four of his officers. Only the four officers had been permitted to draw lots. Of these three would be run for the boys, in the grasses, stripped and belled for lance sport. The other woiuld be returned west of the Ihanke, that an account might be rendered of what had occurred in the Barrens.
'Please!' begged Alfred.
'They respect you as a commander,' I said, 'else they would not permit you this option.'
'Please,' he said.
I did not wish to see Alfred, belled as though he might be a slave girl, running, cut and bleeding under the lances. Circles are painted on the body. Points are scored. The least vulnerable areas, of course, are the first targets. The boys can make such a game last as long as an Ahn.
'You are of the Warriors, are you not?' asked Alfred.
'Yes,' I said. My collar had been removed yesterday. I was now free.
'Please,' he said.
I took up the sword from the flat rock.
It was soon finished.
I had then wiped the blade.
Chapter 53
THE RED-HAIRED SLAVE GIRL
The naked, large-bosomed, red-haired slave licked and kissed at me and then, when I wished, unable to help herself, cried out her yielding to me.
She was still muchly covered with mud and had been somewhat beaten.
I had acquired her as a portion of my share of the loot from the Yellow Knives.
It seemed that when she had come to my lodge she had thought that her life with me, I being white, might be easier than it would be with a red master.
She had then spent the night outside the lodge, naked, in the rain, her hands tied behind her back, her neck tied to a stake.
She lay beneath me in the mud. I had freed her hands, but her neck was still fastened to the stake.
'Master,' she gasped. 'Master!'
'Cespu, Mira!' I called. The girls came running, summoned slaves.
I indicated the large-bosomed redhead at my feet.
'Free her of the stake,' I said, 'and then clean and comb her. Make her sparkle.'
'Yes, Master,' said Mira.
'Then take her to Grunt, as a present,' I said. 'He will know what to do with her.'
'Yes, Master,' said Cespu.
'Yes, Master,' said Mira.
Chapter 54
I RETURN TO MY LODGE
' 'Where is this one called Cuwignaka? ' translated the young, light-skinned, muscular fellow.
The warrior who had spoken was Fleer. This could be told at a glance from the hair, which was worn in a high, combed-back pompadour. He carried a feather lance, with a long iron point, a trade point, socketed, fastened to the lance shaft with two rivets. His kaiila had a notched right ear. It bore various coup marks and exploited markings. Among these, on the flanks, on each flank, therewas a society marking, a flat black line, a semicircular, curved blue line above it, the line of the earth, the overarching blue dome of the sky above it. He was a member of the Blue-Sky Riders. Grunt and I had seen him once before, long ago, in the vicinity of the field of a massacre, where a wagon train had been destroyed. Only recently had we learned that he was a war chief of the Fleer.
'I am Cuwignaka,' said Cuwignaka, stepping forward. He now wore a breechclout. Yet still, the shreds of the white dress clung about his upper body. Cuwignaka's words were translated by the light-skinned lad.
'I had thought,' Gurnt had told me yesterday, 'that I was dead, but I discovered that I was not dead. I had a son, among the Dust Legs.'
Grunt had found the lad in visiting the Dust Legs after the massacure of the summer camp. It had been
