"Be silent, slave girl," I said.

"Yes, Master," she wept.

Twice more the staff fell on the male slave, who now shuddered in the net. Appanius, too, interestingly, was weeping. He then raised his staff against Lavinia.

I held the staff. "No," I said. "Her discipline is mine."

"I should have sent her out of the city on the first night I owned her," he said, "after having cut off her ears and nose."

Lavinia shuddered in the arms of the male slave.

"She is not yours," I said. "She is mine."

"Seductrix!" he said to her.

She made herself as small as she could, in the net.

"If you had listened carefully," I said, "you would have heard your slave admit his guilt in this matter. Clearly he turned the head of my little Lavinia."

"Look at her!" cried Appanius. "See the sleek, curvaceous little thing, naked, in her collar! Do you truly think she is guiltless in this matter?"

"Perhaps she is a little to blame, or, at any rate, her wanton, owned slave curves."

"Look there," said Appanius. "See the wine, the sweets, on the table, there, beside the couch? Do you doubt that this has been arranged?"

"That is an interesting point," I said.

"Slut!" said Appanius.

"Yes, Master!" she said.

"These things," he said, "or the moneys with which they were purchased, did they come from the resources of your master?"

"Yes, Master," whispered Lavinia.

"See!" said Appanius.

"Yes," I said.

"Forgive me, Master!" said Lavinia to me.

"Do you doubt her guilt now?" asked Appanius.

"No," I said.

"It is I who am wholly guilty," said the male slave.

"He spoke without permission," I said. "Also, in the light of your point, he has lied."

Appanius then, as Lavinia wept, struck the male slave twice more with his staff for speaking without permission, and twice again, for lying.

He moaned in the net, beaten.

"Get him out of the net," said Appanius, angrily, "and chain him."

In a moment the male slave lay on his stomach on the furs, chained, hand and foot. A heavy collar, too, was locked on his neck. To this was attached a chain leash. He was then drawn from the couch and put on his knees, at the feet of his master. Lavinia, still under the net, knelt to one side on the couch. I went to her and extricated her from the net, dropping it to the side. She then, frightened, wide-eyed, knelt near me.

"Master?" she asked, looking up.

"Be silent," I said.

"My Milo, my Milo!" wept Appanius, looking down at the much-beaten slave. "The most beautiful slave in Ar! My beloved slave! My beloved Milo!"

"He has betrayed you," said one of the retainers.

"How could you do it?" asked Appanius. "Have I not been good to you? Have I not been kind? Have you wanted for anything? Have I not given you everything?" The slave kept his head down. I think he was sick, and I did not much blame him. He had taken a fearful beating. His back and shoulders were covered with welts. I did not think that anything had been broken. I wondered if he had ever been beaten before. Perhaps not. I myself have doubtless been responsible for a few of those blows, but then they had been appropriately administered. His behavior, after all, had contained errors.

"He is an ungrateful slave," said another of the retainers.

"Send him to the fields," said one of the retainers.

"Sell him," said another.

"Make him an example to others," said the first retainer.

"We can fine you a better, Appanius," said another.

"One even more beautiful," said one.

"And one with appropriate dispositions," said another.

"And he, too, if you wish, can be trained as an actor and performer," said another.

Marcus looked at me, puzzled. He did not really follow this conversation. I did not react to his look.

"What shall I do with him?" asked Appanius.

"Let all your slaves learn that they are your slaves," said one of the retainers.

"Speak clearly," said Appanius.

"Rid yourself of him," whispered the fellow.

"Yes," said another.

Appanius looked down at the chained slave.

I now had some understanding of the jealousy of the retainers for the slave. The slave had doubtless enjoyed too much power in the house, too much favor with the master. They were eager to bring him down.

"How?" asked Appanius.

"He has been unfaithful to you," said a retainer.

"He had made a fool of you, with a woman," said another.

This remark seemed to have its effect with Appanius.

"If this gets out, you will be a laughing stock in Ar," said another.

I doubted this. It is natural enough for a male slave to have an eye for female slaves, and it is not unusual for a female slave to occasionally, say, find herself taken advantage of by such a fellow. To be sure, it is much more dangerous for a male slave to accost a female slave than for a free man to do so. Unauthorized uses of female slaves are almost always by free men. They have little, or nothing, to fear, for the girls are only slaves. The masters, if they are concerned about such things, may put the girls in the iron belt, particularly if they are sending them on late errands, or into disreputable neighborhoods.

Appanius seemed to be becoming angry.

I looked at the slave. His hands were manacled closely behind his back. The chains on his ankles would hardly permit him to walk. The chain leash dangled to the floor, where it lay in a rough coil.

"So, Milo," said Appanius, "you would make of me a laughing stock?"

"No, Master," said the slave.

"One can well imagine him laughing about how he betrayed you with a woman," said one of the retainers.

"It will be the whip, and close chains for you, Milo!" said Appanius.

"No," said one of the retainers. "Let him serve as an example to all such slaves as he!"

"Yes!" said another retainer.

"Let it be the eels!" said another.

"Yes!" said the fourth.

"No!" screamed Lavinia. "No!" She leaped to her feet and ran to Milo, to kneel beside him, holding him, weeping. She turned to Appanius. "No, no, please!" she wept. "No! Please!"

I took her by the hair and threw her back, away from Milo, to the floor, where she scrambled to her knees and, tears in her eyes, frantic, regarded us. Many estates, particularly country homes, have pools in which fish are kept. Some of these pools contains voracious eels, of various sorts, river eels, black eels, the spotted eel, and such, which are Gorean delicacies. Needless to say a bound slave, cast into such a pool, will be eaten alive.

I looked closely at Appanius. He was white-faced. As I had suspected, he was not enthusiastic about this proposal.

"It must be the eels," said the first retainer.

"Nothing less will expunge the blot upon your honor," said another.

"What blot?" said Appanius, suddenly, lightly.

The retainers regarded him, speechless.

"What is it to my honor," asked Appanius, "if I have been betrayed by an ungrateful, worthless slave? It is scarcely worth noting."

"Appanius!" said the first retainer.

"Do you wish to buy a slave?" asked Appanius of me, as though lightly. But I saw that he was desperate in this matter. Indeed, I was touched. His problem was a difficult one. He wanted to save both his honor and the life of the slave. As outraged as he might be, as angry, as terribly hurt as he was, even as sensitive of his honor as I supposed he might be, he was trying to save the slave. I was startled by this. Indeed, it seemed he might care for him, truly. That development I had not anticipated. I had thought that things would have worked out much more simply. I had expected him to be outraged with Milo and be ready, in effect, to kill him, at which point I was prepared to intervene, with a princely offer. If he were rational, and the offer was attractive enough, as it could be, as I had a fortune in gold with me, I could obtain the slave. That is the way I had anticipated things would proceed. If Appanius would not sell Milo, then I could simply keep Appanius, and the others, with the exception of Milo, bound and gagged somewhere, say, in the pantry in the back, and use Milo, still the slave of Appanius, to achieve my objective in a slightly different fashion, one then merely involving two steps rather than one. If he would not sell Milo, certainly he would be willing to sell another, one who might, for a time at least, be too dangerous to acknowledge, too dangerous to free, too dangerous to keep.