"Confused men swept about my wagon. I saw Alfred, turning about, wheeling thisway and that, on his kaiila. I put out my hand to him. I cried out to him. Helooked at me, but then paid me no attention. Infantrymen, here and there, werefighting cavalrymen for their mounts. The cavalrymen, cursing, slashed down atthem. The savages from the south and southeast bad struck against the lines ofinfantrymen with their lances. The lines had held."

I nodded, encouraging her to speak. Gorean infantry, with staggered lines andfixed pikes, their butts anchored in the earth, could usually turn an attack oflight cavalry.

"I cried out again to Alfred, but he paid me no attention," she said.

The red savages, I speculated, would have been surprised that they had beenunable to force their way, through the infantry lines. Such lines, of course,can usually be outflanked.

"Men seemed everywhere," she said. "There was the clash of arms, the squealingof kaiila. The savages now from the north and west swept through the wagons.

Some passed within feet of me. Some were naked, none seemed to wear more thanthe breechclout. They screamed hideously. They were covered with paint, andtheir mounts, too. Feathers were in their hair, and tied, too, in the silkenhair of their beasts. I saw a man's brains struck out not more than a few feetfrom me."

"What of the beasts from your own wagons," I asked, those who can bear arms, whocan go on two feet when they chooserShe looked up at me.

"I know of them," I said. "Speak." I slapped the quirt solidly into my palm. Iwould not have had the least compunction in laying it liberally to the beauty ofmy fair interlocutress.

She seemed frighten.

"How many of them were there?" I asked.

"Seventeen," she said.

"What became of them?" I asked.

"When the battle began they emerged from their wagons,* she said. "Some killedsome of the men about, even our own soldiers, who did not know what they were.

Some fought savages. Some were slain by savages. Some, in a small group,together, made their way northward, through the fighting. The savages seemed, onthe whole, reluctant to attack them."

"How many escaped?" I asked.

"I do not know," she said. "Perhaps seven, perhaps eight."

This report seemed congruent with what I had learned from Pumpkin and theWaniyanpi and with my own conjectures.

"Continue," I said to the girl.

"Taking advantage of the confusion, momentary, among the red savages, followingtheir failure to break the line of the infantry, Alfred ordered his men throughhis own infantry lines, and led them again to the southeast. His actiondisrupted the infantry, trampling soldiers, buffeting them aside the red savagesthen poured through the breached line. Some perhaps pursued the escaping columnbut most, I think, remained to finish their battle with the infantry, with whichthey were then, following the escape of Alfred, much embroiled."

"Too," I said, "they would presumably not wish to give the Infantry a chance toreform, to close, its lines again and set up a solid perimeter."

She shrugged. "Perhaps not," she whispered. "Then it seemed, again, that allabout me were hurtling kaiila and screaming savages, and paint and feathers."

"These were doubtless the concerted forces of the red savages," I said, "beingapplied to the destruction of the infantry" I think so," she said.

"Were there any survivors?" I asked.

"I do not think so," she said.

"Alfred made good his escaper' I asked.

"I think so," she said.

"How many men did he have with him?" I asked.

"I do not know," she said. "Perhaps three hundred, perhaps four hundred."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"I lay down in the wagon, and hid," she said. "They found me later, in theafternoon, after the battle. Two men pulled me forth from the wagon bed. Theythrust back my veils and hood. I was thrown to my knees on the grass and one ofthe men held my wrists, crossed, before my body. The other drew back a heavyclub, the termination of which contained a heavy, wooden, ball-like knob. Theywere preparing, apparently, to dash out my brains. A word was spoken. The menstepped back. I looked up to see a tall savage, mounted astride a kaiila. It washe who had spoken. He motioned for me to rise and, unsteadily, terrified, I didso. These men were all hideous, and fearful, in their paint and feathers. Hesaid another word and, in a moment, I had been stripped before him, absolutelynaked. He then leaned down from the back of the beast and pointed to itsforepaws. I shrank back, frightened. He said another word and again, suddenly, Iwas much as I had been before, only now stripped, kneeling on the grass, myhands crossed and held before me by one man, the other readying his club tostrike out my brains. "No, no, I cried, "please, no! The man on the kaiilaagain spoke, and again I was released. Once more he pointed to the forepaws ofhis kaiila." She shuddered. She stopped speaking. There were tears in her eyes.

I saw that it would be difficult for her to continue.

"Yes?" I said.

"Must I continue?" she asked.

"Yes," I said. I did not see fit to show mercy to her. She was a slave.

"This time," she said, "I crawled to them on my belly. I put down my head. Ikissed the beast's paws. I licked and sucked them. I cleaned them of dirt anddust with my teeth, even the nails."

"Excellent," I said.

She looked at me, dismayed.

"Yes," I said, "excellent."

She put down her head.

The woman, of course, had been being assessed for slavery. First, she had beenstripped. In this, once the garments and the tiresome robes of concealment, hadbeen removed from her, once she had been exposed to the view of masters, fully,it had been determined that her face and figure, in themselves, did not militateagainst the plausibility of her being imbonded; they were desirable enough,other things being equal, to be of interest to men. They were good enough, otherthings being equal, to own. There are many beautiful women, of course. Beauty,strictly, is not even a necessary condition for bondage, let alone a sufficientcondition for it. Many women, in fact, do not even become beautiful, trulybeautiful, until after they have been collared.

In the second portion of her test, she had been commanded. On her knees,stripped, held, the club being lifted, she had become aware of the consequencesof failing this second portion of her test. She had then, in effect, petitionedthat this second portion of her test be readministered to her. She had beggedthen, in effect, to be given a second chance to prove her suitability forslavery. This chance, in the mercy of her captors, had been given to her. Shehad crawled to the paws of the savage's kaiila and there, on her belly, cleanedthem with her tongue and mouth. This was a behavior suitable for a slave, evenone who was not, at the moment, desperately striving to save her own life. Herperformance at the paws of the kaiila had apparently been adjudged adequate bythe savages. She knelt now before me, alive.

The significance of the test is clear. In performing such intimate acts, and onthe mere beast of the master, the humbled suppliant, the captured girl,acknowledges to both herself and others, nonrepudiably and publicly, that she isproposing herself as a serious candidate for bondage, that she is begging to beenslaved. Too, of course, such performances give the master an opportunity toobserve the touch, the sensitivity, the techniques and skill of the girl. If shecannot even function at the paws of a kaiila what should one expect in one's ownfurs? If she cannot even do well with an animal, what reason is there to expectthat she could do better with a man? The most significant aspect of this test,of course, is that it gives masters a means for determining not only or not thegirl is truly begging to be enslaved but, more importantly, whether or not sheis, truly, a slave. No girl is regarded as having passed this test who has not,in her performances, made it clear to all, save perhaps herself, that it istruly a slave who lies at the paws of the kaiila. This revelation becomesmanifest through subtle behavioral cues, usual physical, but sometimes verbal,as well.