Evelyn immediately knelt. "Please forgive us, Masters," she said. "Please do notwhip us!"

Ginger then knelt, and swiftly, beside Evelyn. "No, Masters," she said. "Pleasedo not whip us."

"Who is your master?" asked the auctioneer.

"Randolph, of Kailiauk," said Ginger.

"Russell, of Kailiauk," said Evelyn.

"No, pretty little slaves," said the auctioneer. "Your master is the house ofRam Seibar."

"Master?" asked Ginger.

"You have been nuisances long enough," said the auctioneer.

"Master?" asked Ginger, frightened.

"Two days ago you were purchased from your respective masters," said theauctioneer. "You have now, as we anticipated, effected your self-delivery."

The girls looked at one another in terror.

"Your time of being bothers to the house of Ram Seibar Is now at an end," saidthe auctioneer.

There was much laughter among the men at the rich joke played on the two slaves.

"Remove their collars," said the auctioneer to an attendant. He removed thecollars. The keys were correct. Doubtless they had been supplied by their formermasters, probably at the time of the transactions effecting their purchase.

"Get your clothes off," said the auctioneer.

Swiftly the girls complied. Ginger removed even the beaded cuff on her leftankle. Evelyn removed even the black-ribbon choker on her throat. They were thenstark naked. Both, I saw, had been well branded.

They looked about themselves, frightened.

Their clothing, with the collars, was collected by an attendant. Such articles,doubtless, would be returned to their former masters.

"We have here, for sale," laughed the auctioneer, " two of the prettiest taverngirls in Kailiauk. Should you doubt this, scrutinize them closely."

The girls shrank back. Men laughed.

"We are willing to consider any bid over a silver tarsk for them," said theauctioneer. "However, we encourage their buyers to see that their pretty, curvedasses are removed from Kailiauk."

There was more laughter.

"Can you communicate with these other slaves?" asked the fellow in thebroad-brimmed hat of the two stripped tavern girls. He indicated some of thegirls on the side blocks.

Ginger approached one of the girls. Evelyn, too, approached her.

"Do you speak English?" asked Ginger in English.

"Yes, yes! ' said the girl, startled.

"What of the others who were with you?" asked Ginger. "Can they speak English?"

"Most," said the girl, "as a second, if not a first language."

Ginger then turned to the fellow in the broad-brimmed hat. "I can communicatewith most of them, I think," she said, in Gorean. "If there is a particular girlyou are interested in I can interrogate her specifically."

The man pointed to the naked red-haired girl, her hands bound behind her, on thecentral platform.

"Do you speak English?" asked Ginger.

"Yes," said the girl, pulling at her bonds, "yes!"

"Yes," said Ginger to the man in the broad-brimmed hat, in Gorean.

He nodded. I could see that he was pleased by this. That seemed to be the womanhe was interested in having understand him, and clearly. I did not think he wasparticularly concerned, truly, about communicating with the others. The uses towhich he intended to put them, I gathered, did not require subtleties ofcommunication. His desires with respect to their performances, I gathered, couldbe adequately conveyed by such means as the boot and whip.

"What is the language in which you have been speaking to these women?" he askedof Ginger.

"English, Master," she said.

He indicated Evelyn. "Does this slave, too, know this English?" he asked.

"Yes, Master," said Ginger.

Evelyn nodded. "Yes, Master," she said.

I smiled. Two girls, doubtless, could train the red-haired barbarian morequickly than one. For example, they could work her in shifts.

"You speak English " cried the girl on the side block, the collar and chain onher throat, "what is this place and how did I come here!"

"This is the world called Gor," said Ginger, "and you were brought here byspacecraft."

"What manner of place is this," begged the girl, lifting the chain on hercollar, "and is this how they treat all women?"

"I shall not expatiate on what manner of place this is" said Ginger, "for you,yourself, shall soon learn, and well. And this is not how they treat all women.

Women on this world, most of them, enjoy a status and freedom of which you, fromEarth, cannot even conceive. Their raiment is splendid, their station is lofty,their mien is noble, their prestige is boundless. Dread them, and fear them-"

The girl looked at her, frightened.

"For you are not such a woman," said Ginger.

The girl clutched the chain, kneeling on the block.

"No," said Ginger, "you are not such a woman. You are less than the dust beneaththeir feet."

"I–I do not understand," said the girl, stammering.

"You are the sort of woman who will wear rags, said Ginger, "who will rejoiceif a crust of bread is thrust in your mouth."

"I–I do not understand," said the girl.

"You will learn the weight of bonds, the lash of the whip," said Ginger. "Youwill learn to crawl, and bend, and obey."

The girl looked at her with horror.

"You will learn that you are an animal," said Ginger.

"An animal?" said the girl, frightened.

"Yes," said Ginger, "and worth less than most animals."

"What sort of woman am I then?" asked the girl.

"Can you not guess?" asked Ginger.

The girl looked at her, terrified.

"A female slave," said Ginger.

"Let us now have a bid on the two tavern girls," called the auctioneer. "We musthave at least a tarsk apiece for them!"

The girl shook her head numbly, disbelievingly. "No," she whispered. "No."

Ginger regarded her.

"It cannot be," said the girl.

"It is," said Ginger.

"Not a female slave," said the girl. She lifted the chain, disbelievingly, onher neck.

"Yes," said Ginger.

"No!" said the girl. "No!" She clutched the chain on her neck in terror.

"Yes," said Ginger.

The girl leaped suddenly to her feet and, crouching over, with the fullness ofher small strength, began to tear wildly at the chain. "No," she cried, "not afemale slave! No!

The men watched, with interest.

Then the girl, sobbing, her small hands raw, and cut, ceased her struggles.

"I am chained," she said, numbly, to Ginger.

"Yes, you are," said Ginger, adding, "-Slave."

There was the sudden lash of the five-stranded Gorean slave whip and the girlcried out and sank down on the block, kneeling, with her head down, makingherself as small as possible. Five times did the attendant lash her beauty. Thenshe lay on her stomach on the block, sobbing, the collar and chain on her neck,her fingernails tight in the wood. "I will be good, Masters," she wept. "I willbe good."

"Do I hear a bid on the tavern girls?" asked the auctioneer.

"Five copper tarsks apiece!" laughed a man.

Ginger bit her lip, in anger. There was laughter.

"Stand straighter Slave," said a man.

Ginger straightened her body, and lifted her head.

"Miss, oh, please, Miss! ' called the red-haired girl, plaintively, on herknees, stripped, her hands tied behind her with the cord, from the centralblock.

Ginger was startled. The red-haired slave had spoken without permission. Sheturned to face her.

"Am I, too, a slave?" called the red-haired girl.

Ginger looked about, and sensed that she might respond, without being beaten.

The experienced slave girl is very sensitive to such things.

We saw the auctioneer remove the kaiila, quirt from his belt.

"Yes," said Ginger, "You are all slaves! ' "And you?" inquired the red-haired girl.

"We, too, are slaves," said Ginger, indicating herself and Evelyn. "Do you thinkfree women would be so rudely stripped and brazenly displayed? We, and theseothers, are on sale! Do you doubt that we are slaves? See our brands!" Sheturned her left thigh to the central platform. Evelyn, too, turned so that thered-haired girl might, as she could, observe her brand.