"A silver tarsk!" cried a woman. "Let us see him!"

"A silver tarsk!" called the girl in the white gown, who had pretended to be an Earth-girl slave She was quite pleased. She thrust my chin up with her whip. "An excellent bid for one of the opening bids!" she congratulated the woman who had called out.

"But a moment!" laughed the Ladv Tima. She signaled to an attendant, a burlv fellow who brought forth and set at one side of the platform a large, shallow bronze dish, containing cubes of wood. He set a torch into this wood, which had apparently been soaked with oil. The wooden cubes sprang immediately, briefly raging, into flame. I did not understand the meaning of the dish, or its flaming contents.

"We are ready now, are we not," asked the Lady Tima, "to remove his clothing?"

There were affirmative shouts from the tiers.

The Lady Tima nodded to the two men who held me. They shifted their grip to my wrists.

The Lady Tima then signaled again to the burly fellow who, with a knife, from the back, cutting at the back of the coat, and at the sleeves, cut and tore away the coat. He threw it into the dish of burning, oil-soaked wood. He then removed, similarly, my jacket, which, too, he threw into the dish of burning wood. I looked at the coat and jacket, burning. They had been things I had had from Earth. The men who held me returned their grip to my arms.

"Morel Let us see more of him!" cried a woman.

"But first," called the Lady Tima, "permit me to congratulate you, my lovely, and generous and noble clients, for cooperating so splendidly in the joke we played upon this poor slave. You were silent. He thought himself attempting to escape to freedom, abetted by a woman of his own world, which role was played by the lovely Lady Tendite" She indicated the girl in the white gown, who had pretended to be an Earth-girl slave. She whom I had thought bore the exciting slave name of Darlene, whom I now understood to be Tendite, a lady of Gor, nodded and smiled, lifting her whip to the crowd. Many in the tiers struck their left shoulders with the palms of their right hand, in Gorean applause. "Instead," she laughed, "he finds himself only a slave being marketed," There was much laughter. "You were superb," she told them. "The House of Tima is grateful," she said. Several of the women continued to applaud her. She was clever. The crowd, enlisted in the sale, was in a splendid mood.

Suddenly I was furious.

I began to struggle wildly. To my astonishment, in spite of the two men who held me, and their large size, I almost freed myself. I think the men, too, who held me, were astonished. They were almost thrown from my body. Then, again, they held me firmly fixed between them. I looked out with rage at the crowd. I was confident that had there been only one man he could not have, in spite of his size, held me. I had not realized I was so strong.

I think the women in the tiers, and the Ladies Tima and Tendite, too, had not realized this.

They exchanged-glances.

"Is he tame?" asked one of the women in the second tier.

I could see, to my surprise, that several of the women were alarmed. In the back of the tiers I saw two guards, with spears, go to the top of one of the aisles, whence they might descend quickly into the tiers if it should be necessary.

I was pleased though, breathing heavily, I gave no sign of this. I had become, in my time on Gor, given the exercise and diet, more formidable than I could have dreamed, from my sedentary, refined existence on my native world.

"Many of you own tharlarion," said the Lady Tendite, calling merrily to the crowd. "They are much stronger than he," she laughed. "And perhaps they are more clever!" she added.

There was some uneasy laughter.

"Who wants a stupid slave?" called a woman.

"The Lady Tendite jests," said the Lady Tima, quickly. "The slave is highly intelligent. The House of Tima vouches for this."

"Yes!" said the Lady Tendite. "I but jested. The slave is quite intelligent."

"Perhaps he is too intelligent," said one of the women.

"Look at his eyes," called another. "He does not look like a slave."

"Perhaps he is a master," said another woman, her voice trembling.

"Would you sell us a master for our boudoir?" inquired another. I heard several women gasp, taken aback at the boldness of the question. I was startled. There had been something unmistakable in their response, an expression of excitement, of thrilled, scandalized pleasure. Was that what they desired, I wondered, a master in their boudoir? But if that were true surely they knew that then they, in their own boudoir, would be only slaves.

I knew I must be mistaken.

"No, no, no, no," laughed the Lady Tima. "No!" She seemed amused, but I could tell she was not pleased at the sudden turn the sale had taken. No more bids, I noted, had been forthcoming. "His intelligence, which is quite high," she. said, "is that of a man of Earth. He is trained to use his intelligence to anticipate the desires of women, and to obey and serve them. The intelligence of the men of Earth is at the disposal of women. They do what women tell them."

"Are there no masters among them?" asked a woman. "Are they all silk slaves?"

"That is my understanding," said the Lady Tima. "They are all the silk slaves of women."

Surely that is false, I thought. I had known large and strong men on Earth. Yet it was true that many such men, of masculine configuration and size, hastened to obey women. They had been taught that they would not be true men unless they did what women wished. On Gor, of course, it is the women who obey, if they have been made slaves.

"The men of Earth are only silk slaves," said Lady Tima.

I was certain that she was wrong. Somewhere on Earth, here and there, I was certain, there were honestly strong men, in the historical and biological sense, men before women knelt as smaller and weaker creatures, and objects of intense desire. I had thought that I had been such a man. Then I had found myself a slave on Gor. I wondered if more than a handful of men on Earth would ever recollect their manhood. I thought not. It is easier to fear and castigate manhood, than to assume it. The first is well within -the reach of the weak; the second is only within the grasp of the strong.

"Only silk slaves!" said the Lady Tima.

"No," I cried, in agony. "No!" There must be true men on Earth!

The whip of the Lady Tendite, suddenly, its blades folded back against its staff, struck me on the side of the face.

"Oh, Jason," said the Lady Tima, pityingly, "did you speak without permission?"

Again I struggled, fiercely, to throw off the men who held me. Then again, helplessly, was I held.

"That is no silk slave," I heard.

"Send him to the quarries!" cried a woman.

"Chain him at a rowing bench," called another. "Let him draw an oar!"

"Bring forth the next slave for sale!" called yet another.

"Begin the next sale!" called yet another.

"Wait! Wait!" called the Lady Tima.

The crowd subsided.

"Have we truly fooled you, Ladies?" she laughed.

The crowd was silent.

She turned to me. "You did well, Jason," she said. "You played your role well, pretending to be imperfectly tamed." I looked at her, my arms held.

She turned again to the crowd. "Forgive me, Ladies," she laughed. "It seems my jest was but a poor one. I had thought all knew that the men of Earth were mere slaves. Thus, when you saw the slave struggle, obedient to my signal, I thought the farcicality of his activity would be evident. But I see that you are not truly familiar with the males of Earth, fearing that some of them might be men. Is he not a fine actor?" She faced me and struck her left shoulder, as though applauding my performance. Some of the women, too, uncertainly, in the tiers, struck their left shoulders.