"You are branded!" said the red-haired girl. "You are only branded slaves! ' "Consider the mark burned into your own lovely hide," said Ginger.

The girl regarded her own thigh, fearfully.

"It is no different from that which we wear," said Ginger.

The girl regarded her with horror.

"It marks you well, does it not?" asked Ginger.

"Yes," said the girl, in misery.

"As ours do us," said Ginger.

"Then I, too, am nothing but a branded slave!" said the red-haired girl.

"Precisely," said Ginger.

"Then I, too, at least in theory, could be put up for sale," she said, aghast.

"Bids have already been taken on you," said Ginger. "You are up for sale."

"No!" cried the girl. "I am Millicent Aubrey-Welles, of Pennsylvania. I cannotbe for sale! ' "You are a nameless slave animal, being vended for the pleasure of Masters," said Ginger.

"I am not for sale!" cried the girl.

"You are," said Ginger. "And I, for one, would not pay much for you."

Wildly the red-haired girl tried to attain her feet but the auctioneer, his handin her hair, twisted her and threw her on her belly before him. Twice he lashedher with the quirt "Oh!" she cried. "Oh!" He then stepped away from her. Helaughed. She had squirmed well. Her body was obviously highly sensitive. Thisportended well for her quality as a slave. She lifted her head, wildly, toGinger. "I am truly to be sold?" she begged.

"Yes," said Ginger.

"Oh!" cried the girt, in pain, again quirted by the auctioneer. "Oh! Oh!" Shehad again spoken without permission. Then she lay quietly, scarcely moving,beaten, frightened, on the block. She did not care to feel the quirt again. Ithink, lying there, she now began, more fully and explicitly than she had daredbefore, to comprehend the actuality of her condition, that she might be, infact, what she seemed to be, a lashed, soon-to-be vended slave.

"What were these women inquiring of you?" inquired a man, of Ginger.

"They desired a clarification of their condition, Master," responded Ginger.

"Are they dim-witted? ' asked the fellow.

"I do not think so, Master," said Ginger. "It is only that they come from aworld which has not prepared them to easily grasp the nature of certainrealities, let alone that they might find themselves implicated in them."

"I see," said the man.

"But do not fear, Master," said Ginger, "we learn swiftly."

"That is known to me," he grinned.

Ginger looked down, swallowing hard. It was true. On Gor, girls learned swiftly.

I saw the fellow in the broad-brimmed hat, behind Ginger and Evelyn, make a signto the auctioneer.

"If there is no one here now who wishes further to examine the tavern girls,prior to their sale, I will have them removed to a holding area," said theauctioneer.

Ginger and Evelyn, startled, exchanged glances. As no one spoke, the auctioneernodded to two of the attendants. In a moment the girls, the upper left arm ofeach in the grasp of an attendant, were conducted, bewildered, through a sidedoor from the hall.

The fellow in the broad-brimmed hat, I gathered, had influence in Kailiauk. Hewas, obviously, at any rate, taken seriously in the house of Ram Seibar.

When the heavy door had closed behind the tavern girls, he said to theauctioneer, "One five apiece."

"Are there any other bids? ' inquired the auctioneer.

There was silence in the room. It interested me that there were no other bids.

"One five," agreed the auctioneer. "One five, for each."

The fellow in the broad-brimmed hat then pointed to the girl on the centralblock. This did not surprise me. I had gathered that he might be interested inher. The purchase of the two tavern girls, further, I had surmised, wasintimately connected with this interest. He wanted them, doubtless, to be usedin her training, in particular, I supposed, with her training in Gorean. Otheraspects of her training he might see fit to attend to himself. Needless to say,it is pleasant to train a beautiful woman uncompromisingly to one's mostintimate pleasures. Further, there was no doubt that the girl on the block was abeauty. Yet, in some way, I still found his interest in her somewhat puzzling.

She was, obviously, in complexion, coloration, refinement, figure and beauty,quite different from the other girls he had purchased. Perhaps he was a fellowwith wide divergence in his tastes.

"We have a bid on the slave of six nine," said the auctioneer. With his foot hemoved her bound hands a bit upward on her back. He then stood with his rightboot on the small of her back. "Six nine," he said, looking at the fellow in thebroad-brimmed hat.

"Seven five," said the fellow.

The auctioneer then removed his boot from the prone body of the slave and, bythe hair, pulled her up to her knees.

"Seven five," said the fellow.

The auctioneer then, by the hair, pulled the girl to her feet. He then, with hisquirt, indicated that the girl should suck in her gut and lift her head. She didso.

"Very well," said the fellow in the broad-brimmed hat. "Seven eight."

The auctioneer seemed hesitant.

"Seven nine, then," said the fellow.

This, I took it, was the bid the auctioneer had been waiting for. It was an evensilver tarsk, or an even hundred copper tarsks, of the sort common in Kailiauk,figured in multiples of ten, over the earlier standing bid of six nine.

"Are there any other bids?" called the auctioneer. I sensed there would not beany. Too, I did not think the auctioneer expected any. To be sure, it wasdoubtless his business to inquire explicitly into the matter.

The girl trembled, her chin obediently high.

No more bids were forthcoming. No one, it seemed, cared to bid against thefellow in the broad-brimmed hat. I found this of interest. I had not found thissort of thing before in a Gorean market.

"Deliver her to the holding area," said the auctioneer, addressing himself to anattendant near the foot of the block. The fellow, then, climbed to the height ofthe block. "She is yours," said the auctioneer to the man in the broad-brimmedhat. The attendant seized the girl by the arms. It was only then, I think, thatthe former Millicent Aubrey-Welles, from Pennsylvania, realized that she hadbeen sold. She was conducted from the surface of the block.

"That," said the auctioneer, "concludes the final auction of the evening. Permitme to remind you all that the market is not yet closed. It remains open foranother Ahn. Peruse now, if you would, in the time remaining before we close,the lovely morsels, dainties for your delectation, fastened on the slave platesto the sides. In a lesser house any one of them would doubtless be worthy thecentral block. Yet, here, in the house of Ram Seibar, in this house of prizesand bargains, no one of them is likely to cost you more than a silver tarsk!"

I glanced about, at the girls on the side blocks. A few pretended to brazenindifference. Most, however, only too obviously, were terrified. I think therewas not one among them who did not, now, understand that she was a slave. Ithink there was not one among them who did not now realize that she might soon,and totally, belong to a man.

"To the side blocks, please, Noble Sirs, ' invited the auctioneer, with anexpansive gesture of his open hand, "to the side blocks!"

The men began to drift to the side blocks. Several went toward the block of thegirl with whom Ginger had spoken. She had looked well under the attendant'swhip. Several of the girls whimpered. A woman's first sale, I suspected, isoften the hardest.

"Come with me," said the fellow in the broad-brimmed hat. He then turned about,and went through a side door.

Puzzled, I followed him.

On the other side of the door we found ourselves in a holding area, a long, shedlike structure ancillary to the main hall. It was wooden-floored and the narrowfloorboards were laid lengthwise. About every five feet a linear set of theseboards was painted yellow, thus, in effect, making long, yellow lines, parallelto the sides of the structure, on the floor. At the head and foot of theselines, also in yellow, were painted numbers.