I could then could no longer deny it. I wanted Miss Beverly Henderson as my slave girl.

"We will pay the tribute in the morning," said another man. "We have no choice," said another. "We should never have entered into difficulties over the matter," said another. "True," said another man.

The smoke stung my eyes. The man had by now stopped ringing the alarm bell. The crowd was mostly silent. One could hear the flames."We have been taught our lesson," said one of the men.

"Policrates owns Victoria," said another. "It is true," said another.

I turned about and left the crowd. I made my way slowly away from the wharves. I began to walk slowly back toward the tavern of Tasdron.Many were the thoughts in myhead.

I had seen a free woman of Victoria stripped with no more mercy than would have been shown a slave. I had seen her kneel naked before a pirate and his blade at her throat with her own hands, tie the knot of bondage in her hair, in full view of her fellow citizens.I had seen the disorganization, the fear, the demoralization of the men of Victoris. I had seen the insolence of the pirates, the burning of buildigs. And the men of Victoria, though greatly outnumbeirng the pirates, had not fought. The tribute would be paid.And too, I had learned and I mused on this, that I wanted to own Miss Beverly Henderson, yes literally own her, as a man on Earth might own, say a tarsk or a pet sleen or, lower than either, as he might own a slave.

"Do not!" I cried. I seized the figure, his body poised, hunched over the sword, its point to his belly, its hilt in his hands, barced against the stones of the dark street. "No!" I cried. I struggled briefly with him. Then with the bottom of my foot I kicked the sword to one side and it slid upward, tearing through the tunic. He dropped to his hands and knees, vomiting and scaambled for the sword, seizing it. He cried out in fury and frustration, the blade now in his hands. He rose to to his feet, reeling. "Who are you to interfere in the matter?" he howled. He lifted the blade and apporached me. I saw it waver. He steaded it, placing one hand upon the other on the hilt. It again lifted. I stood my ground. I did not think he would strike me. Then the blade lowered and the man sobbed, and backed against the wall and lowered himself sitting to its base the sword on the stones beside him. He bent over, his head in his hands."Who are you to interfere?" he wept.

"Surely there are others betten than yourself against whom you might turn your sword," I said angrily.

"Give me a drink," he said. "How has it come to this," I asked him, "the glory, the codes, the steel?" I want a drink," he said sullenly.

"I have just returned from the wharves," I told him. "Surely you and the others from the tavern of Tasdron did not fail to hear the alarm?"

"There is no business of mine at the wharves." he said. "Yet," said I, "you had left the taavern. Will you tell me you were not bound for the wharves?" I can do nothing," he said. "I could do nothing."Yet sick, your senses swirling you left the tavern," I said. "This street leads to the sharves."

"I fell," he said, "I could not even walk."

"Do you wish to hear what occurred at the wharves," i asked angrily."I am useless," he said. "I could do nothing. I am no good."

"At the wharves," I said,"there were pirates, few more than half a hundred of such men, under the command of Kliomenes, lieutenant to Policarates." "I do not wish to hear of these matter," he said.

"In the view of hundreds of those of Victoria these men, so few of them, burned and looted, laughing and with impunity, as it pleased them. And in the view of hundres of those of Victoria, angry, but inactive and cowering, not daring to protest, were lofty free women of this town publicly stripped and bound, thence to be carried into shameful slavery, to wear their collars at the feet of buccaners."

"Women belong in collars," he said angrily. "And would you then, " I asked, "willingly deliver them, prizes more fittingly yours, into the hands of such men as Kliomenes and Policrates. Are they more men than you, that such buties should kneel at their feet rather than, fearfully, at yours?"

He lowered his hands head again, putting it in his hands. "I would have thought," I said, "that it would be men such as you who might strike terror into the hearts of men such as they, that it would be men such as you whom groveling slave girls, wary of the whip, might fear even more to displease than they."Give me a drink," he said.

"You are then so fond of Kliomenes and Policrates that you are willing, graciously, to surrender to them the woman and other treasures of this town." "I am not of Victoria," he said."Few in Victoira," I said " are of Victoria, it seems. Yet many reside here. If not men such as we, who then is of Victoria?

"I am sick," he said."There was no leadership at the wharves," I said. "Insult was done upon this town with impunity. I saw hundreds of men, fearful, milling about, with no one to lead them. I saw them intimidated by a handful of organized, ruthless fellows strutting and vain as vulos. I saw free men impressed into the service of loading the goods of the town onto the galleys of the thieves. Men, unprotesting, fearful, saw their properties purloined and burned. Flames linger yet on the wharves. Smoke hangs in the air."He was silent.

"We missed you on the wharves," I said."Why did you interfer in my affairs?" he asked."Once," said I, "in the tavern of Tasdron you saved my life. Is it not my right, then to save yours?" We are then even," he said bitterly. "We now owe each other nothing. Go now. Leave me."

"I have seen Glyco,a merchant, a high merchant, of Port Cos, these several days in earnest converse with you. I think, surely, that he, fearing the union of the pirates of the east and west, was entreating you to lend support to some scheme of resistance."You are shrewd," said the man.

"Yet his entreaties, I gather, have proven fruitless." "I cannot help him," said the man.

"Yet that he came to you suggests that your couarge, your brilliance in such matters, have never been forgotten"

"I am no longer who I once was," he said."I gather that you once stood high among the guardsman of Port Cos," I said."Once I was captain in Port Cos," he said. "Indeed it was I who once drove the band of Policrates from the vicinity of Port Cos." He looked up at me. "But that was long ago," he said. "I no longer remember that captain. I think he is gone now.

"What occurred?" I asked. "He grew more fond of paga than of his codes," he said. "Disgraced, he was dismissed. He came west upon the river to Victoria."

"What was his name?" I asked."I have forgotten," he said sullenly. "Had you been upon the sharves," I said, "things might have gone differently." "Why did you not lead them?" he asked angrily.

"I am only a weakling and a fool," I said, "and I am untrained."He said nothing."One such as you might have made a difference." He extended his right hand. It was large, but unsteady. It shook.

"At one time," he said, "I could strike a thousand blows, to the accuracy of a hair. I could thrust a thousand times within the circle of half a hort, but now — now, see what has become of me." His hand, shaking, then fell. He closed his fist and pressed it against the stones of the dark street. He wept. "Policrates could hve killed me in the tavern," he said. "He knew my weaknesss. But he did not do so For the sake of old memories, I deem, vestiges of vanished realities, he spared me."He looked up at me. "We were youths together on the wharves of Port Cost," he said. "East of us turned to the trades of steel, I to that of the guardsman, he to that of the marauder."

"What did Glyco wish of you" I asked."A plan, a rally point, a flag of memory, a leader, an assault upon the stronghold of Policrates."And what did you tell him?" I asked."It would take a hundred siege ships, and ten thousand men to take the stronghold of Policrates," he said.