In my opinion one of the mistakes of the white cavalries of the perimeter areaswas their reliance on the crossbow, which is primarily an infantry weapon. Itdoes, of course, have various advantages. It has considerable striking power, itmay be kept ready to fire almost indefinitely, and, for most men, it is easierto fire with accuracy from the saddle than the straight bow. It will also, atshort ranges, penetrate most of the hide shields used by the red savages.

Its major disadvantage is its slowness in rate of fire. The cavalry crossbowdoes have an iron stirrup in which the rider, without dismounting, may inserthis foot, thus gaining the leverage necessary for drawing the cable back withboth hands. If the rider is right handed he usually inserts his right foot inthe stirrup and leans to the right in drawing the cable; this procedure isreversed, of course, usually, if the rider is left handed. While this procedurepermits the rider to reload without dismounting and tends to improve, at somecost to striking power, the bow's rate of fire, it still provides, in myopinion, no adequate compensation for the loss of rapidity of fire. I think itnot unlikely that the red savage could discharge three to five shafts in thetime a single quarrel could be set in the clumsier weapon. In my opinion, if thecrossbow, of the lighter, more quickly loading type, had proved to be a superiormissile weapon in the typical combats practiced in the Barrens the red savageswould have had recourse either to it, or to something analogous to it. But theyhave not.

I opted, accordingly, taking them for my authorities in the matter, for a weaponsimilar in design to theirs, one which had, apparently, proven its usefulness inthe abrupt, sudden and fierce engagements characteristic of war on the vastgrasslands of the Barrens. Unable to find Grunt, I feared I must enter theBarrens alone. Already, early this morning, the Lady Mira of Venna, and Alfredof Port Olni, with their mercenaries, had left Kailiauk.

The fellow leaning on the rail turned to look at me. "Why do you wish to findGrunt?" he asked.

"I wish to enter the Barrens," I said.

"It is madness to do so," said he.

I shrugged.

"It is unfortunate you did not come to Kailiauk a month ago," he said.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Settlers, armed, with two hundred wagons, crossed the Ihanke," he said. "Men,women, children. There must have been seven or eight hundred of them. You couldhave accompanied them. There is perhaps safety in such numbers."

"Perhaps," I said. Such a. party, however, I knew must travel slowly. Also, itwould be impossible to conceal its trails and movements.

"You are a big fellow," he said, "and seem quick, and strong. Why did you notsign articles with the troops who left this morning?"

I did not respond to him.

"It was the largest mercenary band ever to leave Kailiauk," he said. "You shouldhave gone with them."

"Perhaps," I said.

"I'm chained! I'm chained!" wept one of the girls in the pit below. She knelt,nude, in the mud. With her small hands, her tiny wrists in their close-fittingmanacles, she seized the chain attached to the collar on her neck. She jerked ittwice against the back of her neck. It cut at the back of her neck. "I'mchained," she wept, disbelievingly. "Where am I? What has become of me? Whereare my clothes? Who are these men? How is it that they dare to look at me? Inwhat place do I find myself?"

"They cannot even speak Gorean," said the man beside me.

"Barbarians," I said.

"Yes," he said. The girl had spoken in English. This had confirmed my surmise asto their origin. I had come to Seibar's market out of curiosity. I had heard hewas the major dealer in Kailiauk for barbarian slaves. I did not know, but Isuspected that he himself was not in league with Kurii, but merely purchasedwholesale lots of such girls from one or more of their agents. Such girls, Igathered, from my conversations with the teamster with whom I had ridden to FortHaskins, were sold at various points along the perimeter. I had, earlier in theafternoon, on one of my purchased kaiila, scouted the terrain north and south ofKailiauk. In my ride I had come to one place, sheltered among small hills, inwhich I had found scorched grass and several, rounded six-inch-deep impressionsin the earth. It had been there, I speculated, that one of the steel ships ofthe Kurii had landed. Also there were wagon tracks leading away from the area,toward Kailiauk. I was less fortunate, at various small camps and outlyingfarms, in obtaining information as to the possible whereabouts of a white tradernamed Grunt. I did not approach the Ihanke, nor did I wish to do so, ifpossible, until I knew exactly what I was doing. I did not know, for example,even if it were guarded or not.

"Even if such girls understood Gorean," said the fellow next to me, amused,"they could probably not even understand what was required of them. Theyprobably do not even know the hundred kisses."

"They could be taught," I said.

"That is so," he laughed.

"Stand aside, Gentlemen, if you would," said a voice near us, that of a slaver'sman.

We stepped back and he, from a basket, hurled an assortment of scraps, such ascrusts of bread and rinds of fruit, into the muddy pit. It was the refuse, thegarbage, I gathered, from a meal of the slaver's men.

In the pit the girls regarded the refuse with horror. Then I saw the small,chained hand of one reach forth toward a piece of roll. She picked it up andthrust it in her mouth. Another girl then reached to a bit of fruit. Anotherthen snatched at a gravy-sopped wedge of yellow Sa-Tarna bread. Then, in aninstant, in their chains, they scrambled in the mud after the garbage, twistingand shrieking, caught and restricted in their chains, scratching, and rollingand fighting, for the least of the tidbits cast to them by a free man.

"They are slaves," said the man near me, as we returned to the railing.

"Yes," I said. Too, I saw that their education had begun.

"There is better stock inside, I hear," said the man, "hidden away until thetime of the sale, some even in the barbarian garments in which they werecaptured."

"That is interesting," I said.

"But they, too," said the man, "will learn to take food on their belly."

"Of course," I said. Then I turned away from the railing. I was angry that I hadnot been able to locate Grunt, the trader. In the morning, with or without him,I would enter the Barrens.

"Barbarians! Barbarians for sale!" called the fellow, standing on the circularwooden platform, outside the opened gate of the large, palisaded enclosure.

From within I saw a nude woman, her hands tied behind her back, being draggedforth, each arm in the charge of a slaver's man.

"Barbarians for sale!" call the fellow on the platform. He was a gross,corpulent fellow, and wore a long, opened, soiled shirt of blue-and-yellow silk.

His leather trousers were fastened with a wide, triply buckled belt. To thisbelt was fastened a substantial, beaded sheath, apparently containing a stout,triangular-bladed dagger. He wore, too, kaiila boots, with belled, silver heelpoints, kaiila goads. In his hand there was a long, supple kaiila quirt of blackleather, about a yard in length. His hair was bound back with strands oftwisted, blue-and-yellow cloth. His caste, even in the town of Kailiauk, wasthat of the slavers.

The woman, her hands tied behind her, each arm in the rude grasp of the slaver'sman, was thrust to the height of the platform, beside the corpulent fellow.

"In addition to our stock of fine merchandise," called the corpulent fellow, "wehave just received a new lot of barbarians!"

These would be the same girls of whom I had seen several this afternoon, in theslave pits within the compound. I had come again, in the evening, after supper,to the compound of Ram Seibar. I thought I might look in on some of the sales.