"Oh!" said the red-haired girl, first in the coffle, startled as the point ofhis lance had scraped the back of the black-iron collar on her neck. Then shewas quiet. He was lifting her sheen of red hair on the point of his lance,moving it in the sun, to see it glisten and reflect the light. He was curious asto such hair. It is extremely rare in the Barrens. Grunt had not permitted herto cut it, or even to trim and shape it. That could be done later. Now he wantedit to grow, and to be, apparently, as long as possible. The Fleer let the hairfall from the lance, and then he laid the side of the metal point of the lanceon the edge of the girl's collar, the metal touching the right side of her neck.

She shuddered, but she did not otherwise move. She, a slave, was under gooddiscipline. I thought that was fortunate for her. Her movement, of course, theshuddering, this responsiveness, was revealing, and would have been to any manfamiliar with female slaves. It did not escape the detection of the Fleer.

Curious he now returned his kaiila to the position of the last girl on thecoffle, whom we were calling Pimples, the Gorean translation of her former name,originally given to her by a Kaiila master, "Wasnapohdi'. In Dust Leg,incidentally, the expression has the same meaning. I could detect, subtly, now,that Grunt was tense. He wanted the Fleer to be gone by now. I found myself,too, probably because of Grunt, growing more tense. I hoped that our reactionswould not be evident to the Fleer, who was several yards away. One by one, withthe side of the lance, the Fleer, moving along the line, touched the girls.

Pimples cried out, softly, touched on the right thigh. Then, at various places,on the calf, or the thigh, or ankle or neck, unexpectedly, not knowing wherethey would be touched, the other girls, too, were touched, Priscilla, Inez,Lois, Corinne, Evelyn, Ginger and the red-haired girl. Each of the girls couldnot help but respond in her own way to the Fleer's test, that of the unexpectedtouch of a man's weapon to her body.

"I trust he will not want any of them," said Grunt.

"I hope not," I said. We did not object to the assessment of the girls, ofcourse, for they were slaves. Their assessment was no different from theassessment of kaiila, except, of course, that somewhat different properties, onthe whole, would be under assessment What we did not want was trouble.

The Fleer backed his kaiila from the red-haired girl. With the side of his lancehe had touched her left thigh, and then, with the point of the lance, he badraised the hem of her skimpy tunic to her waist. Then, riding before her, hehad, with the point of the lance, thrust aside the sides of her tunic. She hadthen been well revealed to him. The exposed slave, the former Miss MillicentAubrey-Welles, the debutante from Pennsylvania, I saw, was quite beautiful. Inthe Barrens she might well be worth five hides of the yellow kailiauk.

We regarded the Fleer, who had now ridden his kaiila again before us.

He did not come so close to us that he could not, easily, drop his lance intothe attack position.

"Do not move," said Grunt to me, smiling at the Fleer.

The Fleer suddenly smiled broadly. He shifted his lance to his left hand, whichpleased me. He held his right hand near his body, with the palm down and thethumb close to his left breast. Then, with his right arm horizontal, he swepthis hand outward and a bit to the right This meant "good," that which is levelwith the heart. Re then pointed to the girls. He moved his fiat right hand in ahorizontal circle, clockwise, as Earth clocks move, not Gorean clocks, in frontof his chest. This meant "all," the circle being complete. He then grinnedagain.

Grunt then lifted his right band, the back of it near his right shoulder. Hisindex finger pointed forward and the other fingers were closed, with his thumbresting on his middle finger. He then moved his hand a bit to the left and, atthe same time, touching the thumb with the index finger, made a closed circle.

"Yes," had said Grunt. He then made the sign for «all» and the sign for "good," in that order. "AU is good," or "all right," he had said. He then extended hisbands in a forward direction, the palms down, and lowered them. "Thank you," wasthe meaning of this sign. He then held his hands at the level of his chest, withhis index fingers pointing forward and the other fingers closed. He drew backhis right hand, to the right, some inches, and then he brought it forward again,the index finger still extended, and moved it over his left hand. The firstportion of this sign means "time," and the second portion indicates, presumably,the forward movement of time. Literally this sign, in both its portions,indicates "future," but it is used also for "good-bye," the rationale beingperhaps similar to that in locutions such as "I'll be seeing you' or "Until wemeet again'. The sign for past, incidentally, is also the sign for "before." Thesign for "time," predictably, enters into the sign for "before," but, in thiscase, it is followed by the thrusting forth and drawing back of the right hand.

This is perhaps to suggest moving backward in time.

The Fleer grinned, and shifted his lance again to his right hand. Then,suddenly, with a wild whoop, and kicking his heels back into the flanks of hiskaiila, he raced away.

"I have always had good relations with the Fleer," said Grunt I watched the rider racing away. He was a member of the Blue-Sky Riders. Onedoes not come easily into membership in such a society. I was sweating.

"I thought he might want one or more of the girls," I said.

"He probably has, on the whole, as good or better in his own camp," said Grunt.

"Perhaps," I said.

We looked at the girls. Several were still trembling, from the Fleer'sassessment. The red-haired girl smoothed down the skirt of the tunic and, withher small hands, drew together, as she could, the sides of the tunic. She, ofall, it seemed, was the most shaken. To be sure, it was she, of all of them, whohad been the most objectively assessed.

"The Fleer was impressed," said Grunt. "Did you see?

"Yes," I said.

"I am proud of all of them," said Grunt. "Did you see bow they responded to thetouch of his lance?"

"Yes," I said.

"They are good stuff," said Grunt.

"I think so," I said.

"And I am grateful to you, for your help, in beating them, and helping to teachthem their bondage," he said.

I shrugged. I had, it must be admitted, derived much pleasure from the coffle,picking out one or another of them, when the whim or urge might strike me, formy slave use. I regarded them. Their necks were lovely in their iron collars andchains. Last night I had had Priscilla, the English girl, weeping in my arms.

Before that I had had Lois, the short, blond American girl. She lookedparticularly well in chains.

"Your tutelage of them in submission and servitude, the instructional abuse towhich you have subjected them," said Grunt, "may prove to be instrumental insaving their lives."

"They are eager pupils," I said, "having now come to understand that they aretruly slaves."

"Good," said Grunt.

I wondered why Grunt had administered so little, if any, of this form ofinstruction to his coffled properties. Surely he could see, as well as anyother, their desirability and beauty.

"Up with your burdens, my pretty beasts!" called Grunt. "Do you think you arefed for nothing? Do you think we can dawdle here all day! No! We must march!"

"What do you think the Fleer was doing here?" I asked.

"He was probably left behind to kill survivors," said Grunt.

"We are, of course, in Fleer country," I said. "He was in the paint of war," said Grunt "He did not show hostility towards us," I said.

"We were not involved in the action," said Grunt.

"The site of the action, I gather," I said, "is quite close."