"Master," said the girl.

"Yes," I said.

"You need not have struck me, earlier this afternoon," she said. "But I suppose that you are the judge of that, for you are the Master," she added, airily.

I looked at her.

"Surely one needs a reason for striking a slave," she said.

"No," I said.

"I see," she said, putting her head down. She trembled.

"Come here," I said. "Kneel before me, back on your heels."

She did so, looking at me. "Master?" she asked.

Suddenly I struck her, a fierce blow which flung her, mouth bloodied, to her side in the dirt.

I stood up. "Do you see?" I asked.

"Yes, Master," she whispered, looking up at me, horrified.

"Now kneel before me and kiss my feet," I said, "and thank me for having struck you."

Tremblingly, she crawled to me, and knelt before me. She put her head down. I felt her lips on my feet. "Thank you for having struck me, Master," she whispered. She looked up at me.

"Do you now understand that you are a slave?" I asked.

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Do you still think that a master requires a reason to strike you?" I asked.

"No, Master," she said.

"And why is that?" I asked.

"Because I am a slave," she said.

"It is true," I said.

"Yes, Master," she said.

I then sat down again, cross-legged, and turned my attention to Kisu. He was displaying the strip of cloth, about a foot wide and five feet in length, to Tende.

I hoped that the blond-haired barbarian had learned her lesson. It might help her to survive on Gor. A girl does not question what her master does to her. She is slave.

Tende knelt before Kisu and put her head to the dirt. "I beg clothing, Master," she said.

"Earn it," said he to her.

"Yes, Master," she said, eagerly, and then well did she earn it. When she was finished Kisu threw her the strip of cloth which she then, delightedly, wrapped about her hips, tucking it closed. He then, from a sack brought from the canoe, threw her two strings of colored wooden beads, blue, and red and yellow, which we had obtained in trade from the fishing village earlier.

"Thank you, my master," breathed Tende, and she then displayed herself before him, the brief bark cloth, scarlet, snug about her hips and the beads about her lovely throat.

"It is now time to tie you for the night," said Kisu.

"Yes, Master," she said.

The first blond, Alice, gazed enviously upon Tende. She then crept to me, head down. "I beg clothing, Master," she whispered.

I looked upon her.

"I am a humbled, naked slave," she said. "I beg clothing of my master."

"Are you prepared to earn it?" I asked her.

"Yes, Master," she said, smiling.

"Whore!" cried the blond-haired barbarian.

I took Alice in my arms, kissing her, and she put her head back, with her eyes closed.

"Whore! Whore!" cried the blond-haired barbarian.

"What do you think slave girls are for," laughed Alice, her eyes still closed, delightedly, "you silly girl?"

"Whore! Whore!" cried the blond-haired barbarian.

I kissed Alice. "Gather some wood for the fire. Build it up a little," I said to the blond-haired barbarian.

"Yes, Master," she said.

Alice looked up at me. "Your touch is masterful," she said. She smiled up at me. "The Earth woman yields to her Gorean master," she said.

The fire had now burned low.

It was some two Ahn before dawn.

Alice, her wrists bound now behind her, tethered by them to a tree, to which Tende lay similarly secured, lay asleep. About her hips was the wrap-around skirt, tucked shut, of scarlet bark cloth, which she had well earned. I had cut the skirt for her following her performance. I had also given her, as Kisu had Tende, two strings of wooden beads. They were attractive on her. She, too, now, like Tende, was a clothed, ornamented slave. Tende was asleep. So, too, were Ayari and Kisu.

I looked over to the blond-haired barbarian who sat by the fire. She poked at the fire with a green stick.

"Go sit by the slave post," I said to her, referring to that slim tree to which the other girls were secured, which served us as slave post, "and cross your wrists behind you."

She did so.

"Oh," she said, as I, with the end of a long, narrow strip of leather, fastened her wrists, tightly, together. I then tied the free end of the tether about the slave post, or tree, fastening her to it.

"Master," she said.

"Yes," I said.

"Am I not to be given clothing?" she asked.

"Are you ready to earn it?" I asked.

"If you command me," she said, "I must obey. I am slave."

"And if I do not command you?" I asked.

"Master?" she asked.

"Would you beg for the opportunity to earn clothing? I asked.

"Never!" she said. "Never!"

"It is time now to go to sleep," I said.

"I want clothing," she said. "Please, Master!"

"Lie down," I said. "It is time to sleep."

She lay down on her side. "I cannot beg clothing," she sobbed. "I am an Earth woman."

"So, too, is Alice," I said.

"She is a slave," said the blond-haired barbarian.

"And you?" I asked.

"Yes," said the blond-haired barbarian, sobbing. "I, too, am a slave."

"Beg, if you wish," I said.

"I cannot," she wept.

"Go to sleep now," I said. 'The day will be long and hard tomorrow."

"Master," she whispered.

"Yes," I said.

"You taught me a lesson this evening, did you not?"

"Perhaps," I said.

"That a master requires no reason, to put me under even the harshest of disciplines."

"That is true," I said.

"In your cruel way, are you not kind," she asked, "to a girl who is a slave?"

"Do you wish to be whipped?" I asked.

"No, Master," she said.

"Your slavery will be of little use to men," I said, "if you, through your ignorance, must be soon thrown alive to sleen or tharlarion."

"I see," she said, bitterly. "You are not kind."

"No," I said.

"You are merely training an animal to know her station in life."

"Yes," I said. I smiled. I resisted an impulse to tenderness. I resisted, too, an Impulse to seize her fair ankles, turn her to her back by means of them, throw them apart, and then rape her in the dirt.

She struggled up to one elbow. She looked at me. "What do men want of a slave girl?" she asked.

"Everything," I told her.

She lay back in the dirt, miserably.

"Master," she said.

"Yes," I said.

"A man may do to me whatever he wants, at any time, may he not?" she asked.

"Yes," I said.

"He needs no reason," she said.

"No," I said.

"But a man, commonly," she asked, "would not hurt me or abuse me without a reason, would he?"

"He may do so, if he wishes," I said, "particularly in your training, but, of course, normally he would not do so. There would simply be no point to it. There are better things to do to a woman, once she is trained, than hurt her."

"If I please my master, he will not hurt me, will he?" she asked.

"He will, if it pleases him," I said.

"But if I am totally pleasing to him, fully, and as an abject slave girl," she pressed, "he will not be likely to be pleased to hurt me, will he?"

"No," I said, "of course not. You must understand, of course, that if you are displeasing in the least particular that will be a sufficient reason for him to put you under whatever discipline he desires."

"I understand that, clearly," she said. "But I will try to be pleasing to my master."

"Totally pleasing, and fully, and as an abject slave girl? I asked.

"Yes," she said, "I shall strive with all my might to be pleasing in that way to my master."

"Masters," I said.

She swallowed hard. "Yea, Masters," she said. She knew she might have many masters on Gor.

I saw that the slave girl in her was near the surface.