"Are these, other such conditions acceptable to you?" I asked.

"Yes, Master," she said.

"I accept your use," I said.

"Thank you, Master!" she cried. She seized me about the legs and kissed me. I felt her tears through my tunic.

"Stand," I said.

Joyfully she stood.

"Do you think your lot with me will be easy, Slave?" I asked.

"No, Master," she said, happily.

I went to the travois on which Hci lay. On it, too, were various articles and supplies. I cut a length from a narrow, raided rawhide rope.

"He is going to put her in a collar!" said one of the Waniyanpi women, excitedly, awe in her voice.

"Yes," said another, breathlessly.

"Come away!" said Radish to the women and men. But the women would not budge. The men too, their eyes cast down, save for furtive glances, seemed loath to leave.

I took the narrow rope, then, and looped it about her neck, three times. I then knotted it and ran my finger about, under the loops, making sure that they were unslippable and snug, but not in the least uncomfortable. The point of the collar is to mark the woman as a slave and, in many cases, by means of devices such as particular kind of knot, a tag, and engraving on metal, or a plate attached to it, to identify the master, not to cause her discomfort. Most of the time she will not even be aware she is wearing it. She may always, of couse, be reminded. And if she is in doubt, she may always touch it. It is on her. I let the two loose ends of the braided, rawhide rope, some seven or eight inches in length, dangle between her breasts. They would also make a convenient, short leash, to pull her about with, if I wished.

I looked at the woman, collared. The three loops were about her neck. The ends dangled down, between her breasts. This collaring arrangement, through not unfamiliar on Gor generally, particularly after he fall of a city, when metal collars may not be available in abundance, or in rural areas, is unusual in the Barrens, where leather, thong-tied beaded collars are almost universal. I di dnot think, accordingly, that there would be much doubt as to who it was, to whome her use belonged.

I tought she would make a lovely slave.

"She is collared!" said one of the women, breathlessly.

"Yes!" said another.

"Come away!" said Radish.

I noted that even the men, furtively, with but one exception, obsered the collaring of the beautiful female. I saw that they, too, wished they had a female to collar. I wondered if the sight of her collaring might arouse their manhood. The one exception was Pumpkin. He kept his eyes cast down, determinedly. He was sweating. His fists were clenched. I saw that he, in the approved fashion of the Waniyanpi, would turn his manhood against himself, using it to frustrate himself, using it to cause himself suffering, denying it its fulfillment, its sovereignty and dominance.

"Take the palce of my friend, in the traces of the travois, Slave," I said.

"Yes, Master," she said.

Cuwignaka slipped from the broad, over-the-shoulder strap he had used to exert leverage on the travios and then helped the girl adjust it to her body. She then stood before the travois, very straight and beautiful, the strap on her body. The men and women, with the exeption of Pumpkin and Radish, looked on, thrilled, and in awe and envy. The woman was obviously a slave. She would serve in any way her master chose. She could serve even, obvously, as a draft beast.

"Come away!" said Radish.

The men and women did not move.

"Pumpkin," said Radish. "Pumpkin!"

I saw how she appealed to him, as to a natural leader.

"Yes, Radish," he said.

"Come away," she said. "Come away, Pumpkin!"

"Yes, Radish," he said, and turned meekly about. He took his way from the place. The oters, and then Radish, casting a look of hatred behind her, followed.

I walked over to the girl.

She lifted her head proudly, the strap about her body.

"We have little food," I said. "There will be great danger."

"I am a slave," she said. "Whip me, if I do not please you."

"It is a fitting answer," I said. I regarded her. She was very beautiful.

"It seems to me you took a great risk," I said. "You were very bold, very brave."

"Not really, Master," she said.

"How did you know I would accept your use?" I asked.

"I knew it," she said. "I sensed it."

"When?" I asked.

"As soon as you had me kneel before you," she said.

"Interesting," I said.

"I am a woman," she said. "We can tell such things."

"Interesting," I said. How subtle and deep was the intelligence of women, I thought. How much they know. How much they can sense. How simple and crude, how naive, sometimes seems the intelligence of men compared to the ineligence of women. What deep and wonderful creatures they are. Who can truly understand the emotional depths and needs, eons old, of these flowers of nature and evolution? How natural, then, it is, that hte truly loving man will concern himself not with her distortions and erversions, ultimately barren, but with her emotional and sensous truths, ancient and deep within her, with what might be called her biological and natural fulfillment. Then I shook such thoughts from my mind, for she was simly a slave, and was to be treated as such.

"Oh!" she said.

I cinched the strap closely to her body.

"Master is rough," she said.

"Be silent, Slave," I said.

"Yes, Master," she said, smiling.

"What, now, is our destination?" I asked Cuwignaka.

"We will go north," he said. "We will then proceed north and west of Coucil Rock, into the land of the Casmu Kaiila. There is a place there I know. It is a camping site favored by Kahintokapa."

"I wonder if he survived," I said.

"Let us hope so," said Cuwignaka.

"What sort of place is this?" I asked.

"It is secluded," said Cuwignaka. "There is wood and water. Game is generally available in the vicinity."

"Do Kaiila, generally, know of this place?" I asked.

"Yes," he said. "We are generally familiar with one another's camp sites. This is important if we wish to gather the bands. It can also be important in the winter. Sometimes there is food in one place and not in another."

"Various survivors, then," I said, "might possibly have gone to this place."

"That is not unlikely," said Cuwignaka.

"Let us then be on our way," I said. I picked up the other strap, the rigged harness, the trace, and slipped it over my shoulder, about my body.

"It is we who will pull the travois, is it not?" asked the girl.

"Yes," I said. "We are slaves." Acually I wished Cuwignaka to rest. he was still weak from the dance. Four times in the last five days the wounds on his chest had begun to bleed.

"I am pleased to be harnessed with you, to pull with you, Master," she said.

"Do not slack," I said, "or you will be severly beaten."

"I shall not," she said. She looked behind herslef, uneasily, at Cuwignaka. "Master," she said, "I am bare."

"I am well aware of that, my lovely harness mate," I said.

"Will he whip us?" she asked, in a whisper.

"He will if he wishes," I told her.

Sh swallowed hard.

"When I give the signal," I said, "lean forward and step out with your left foot. Lengthen your stride somewhat, and I shall shorten mine. I shall set the pace. If you cannot keep it, beg for its reduction."

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Now," I said, "step forward."

"Yes, Master," she said.

"I love working beside you, pulling with you, Master," she said.

"I, myself," I said, "would prefer for this work to be done by four or five slave girls, naked, and under whips."

"Yes, Master," she said, looking down.

We continued on our way, northward, drawing the travois through the tall grass.

She was doing very well. Either she did not wish to slaken her efforts or feared, mightily, to do so. Such a slackening, of course, would have been instantly detectable to me, her harness mate. She would then, of course, have been whipped, and made to draw more then her share of the weight.