Afterwards I might go to a tavern, to have a cup of paga and see if I could renta girl to take to my room for the night, to return her in the morning.

"They have not yet been picked over," said the man. "This little plum, juicywith pleasures for a master," he said, indicating the girl on the platform withhim, with a gesture of his kaiila quirt, "is one of the sorriest of the lot."

This, in my opinion, was not true. I thought she would have ranked rather highamong the girls. To be sure, the most luscious merchandise, presumably to besold rather late in the evening, had probably not even been put in the pits.

"Display her, Lads," said the fellow. The two slaver's men thrust the womanforward, toward the crowd, and bent her backwards. She whimpered.

"And this is one of the worst of the lot," said the fellow. The two slaver's menturned the woman first to one side, and then to the other. "Meat so fresh thatit has not yet even been marked!" said the fellow. "That is enough, Lads," hesaid. They then turned the woman about and dragged her down the steps and backinto the compound. "If you would see more," said the man to those of us gatheredabout, about the outdoor platform, "you must come within. Within you may buyher, and others like her, from the side blocks. Too, even more lusciousmerchandise you may seek from the central block in open bidding!" I wondered ifthe woman knew that she was, in all likelihood, to be soon branded. In mostGorean cities it is illegal to offer an unbranded woman in a public sale. Thisis presumably in deference to the delicacy and sensibilities of free women. Thebrand draws a cataclysmic gulf between the Gorean free woman, secure in herarrogance, beauty and caste rights, and the stripped, nameless, rightlessslaves, suitably vended as the mere lovely beasts they are in the flesh marketsof this primitive, gorgeous world. Unbranded women, of course, may be soldprivately, for example, as fresh captures to slavers, or, say to men who havespeculated that they might find them of interest.

"Barbarians! Barbarians for sale!" now continued to call the fellow on thewooden platform outside the gate to the compound of Ram Seibar. "In addition toour usual stock of fine merchandise, we have just received a new lot ofbarbarians. They have not yet been picked over. They will be put up for salewithin the Ahn. Step within, Noble Gentlemen, and examine our offerings.

Patronize the house of Ram Seibar! Free drinks! No purchase necessary!"

I felt a small tug at my sleeve, and then felt my arm delicately held. I felt asoft cheek pressed against my arm. "Master," whispered a voice. I looked down,and the girl, with loose, auburn hair, looked up. She smiled. "Accompany me toRandolph's tavern," she said. "I will give you much pleasure." About her throat,narrow, sturdy and closely fitting, was a steel collar. I stepped back, that Imight see her better. She wore a short, fringed, beaded shirtdress. This camehigh on her thighs. It was split to her waist, well revealing the sweetness andloveliness of her breasts. It was belted upon her with a doubly looped, tightlyknotted rawhide string. Such a string is more than sufficient, in its length,and in its strength and toughness, to tie a woman in a number of ways. She wasbarefoot. About her left ankle there was, about two inches high, a beaded cuff,or anklet. Her garb was doubtless intended to suggest the distinctive,humiliating and scandalously brief garment in which red savages are sometimespleased to place their white slaves. One difference, however, must surely benoted. The red savages do not use steel collars. They usually use high, beadedcollars, tied together in the front by a rawhide string. Subtle differences inthe styles of collars, and in the knots with which they are fastened on thegirls' necks, differentiate the tribes. Within a given tribe the beading, in itsarrangements and colors, identifies the particular master. This is a common way,incidentally, for warriors to identify various articles, which they own.

"It is my hope that Master will find Ginger pleasing," she said.

"Ginger?" I asked.

"Master?" she asked.

"Are you a barbarian?" I asked.

"Once, Master," she whispered. "But I have been trained. I am no longer astranger to my collar."

"Watch out!" cried a man.

"Oh!" cried the girl. I seized her and pulled her from the place where shestood. Two kaiila thundered past.

"Make way!" we heard. "Make way!" There was then the thudding of the clawed padsof kaiila, several of them, almost upon us. "Ho! Ho!" called their drovers,riding behind them, swirling their coiled rawhide ropes in the air. I and theothers backed against the wall of the compound of Ram Seibar. The kaiila,perhaps a hundred and fifty of them, thundered past. I did not think such beastsshould be run through the streets, but it sometimes pleases their drovers to doso. It had happened more than once since I had been in Kailiauk. The kaiila werepresumably from the northern ranches and would be sold in Kailiauk, and in thetowns to the south.

"It is needless for that to be done in that fashion," said a fellow near me.

"There are shorter routes to the corrals and the wired pastures."

"Individuals are sometimes injured," said another man.

"The tavern girls live in terror of them," said another fellow.

I looked down at the girl in my arms. I saw that what he said was true. Thispleased me. It was fitting that slave girls lived in terror of free men.

"They do not come that often to Kailiauk," said a fellow, cheerfully.

"When they come," said another, "it is with a thirst for paga and the wenches ofthe taverns."

"Who can blame them?" said another.

The kaiila ranches, I supposed, were remote, desolate places. Land, which issuitable for farming, and in proximity to towns, is seldom, along the perimeter,put to the uses of grazing.

"They are generally good fellows," said another man.

"They spend their money freely," added another.

"That is a point in their favor," said another.

"A point in our favor," said another.

"Some are dangerous and cruel." said another man.

"Let us hope there will be no killings," said another.

Killings among such men, hot-tempered and aflame with paga, I supposed mightoccur not infrequently. Too often, I suspected, a suspicion of cheating atstones or disks, or a dispute over a slave, might lead to the flash of steel,the sudden movement of a knife.

"You saved me, Master," said the girl, holding to me.

"Perhaps to some extent," I said, "I have protected the investment of yourmaster." It is well to help a slave keep clearly in mind that she is only anarticle of property.

"He had me cheaply," she smiled.

"Perhaps I should not have bothered," I said.

"But I am worth more now," she said.

"Oh?" I said.

"Return with me to the tavern of Randolph," said she. "I will show you." Shethen pressed her body against me, closely and lasciviously, and helplessly, inthe manner of the female slave, that of the woman who knows herself completelysubject to the will of men. She then put her arms about my neck and, standing onher toes, lifting her lips to mine, kissed me. I then, by the arms, held herfrom me. "You kiss well, Slave," I told her, "Thank you, Master," she said.

"Is it true that you are a barbarian?" I asked.

"Yes, Master," she said. "I was sold, even, from the house of Ram Seibar."

"When?" I asked.

"Eighteen months ago," she said.

"You are now no stranger to your collar," I said. The kiss of a slave girl isunmistakable.

"No, Master," she said.

"The central street seemed busy tonight," I said. "I find it hard to believethat you have been sent forth to solicit business, the evening being such as itis, for the tavern of Randolph."

She looked at me, suddenly, frightened.