"Enough!" called Kisu, happily. Tende stopped dancing. He then, to her surprise, with a leather strap, as she stood on the rock overlooking the falls, tied her hands behind her back. He then took her by the hair, bent her over, and waded her back to the shore. We followed him, I stopping to look once more downriver, at the tiny objects so far away, yet objects I knew to be filled with men.

Kisu and I thrust the canoe into the shallow water. As I held it he placed Tende on her knees in the canoe. He then crossed and tied her ankles. He then took two lengths of rope. He tied them both on her neck and then took the free end of one and tied it to a thwart forward of her position and the free end of the other and tied it to the thwart aft of her position, thus fastening her between these two thwarts.

"Master?" she asked.

"That should hold you," he said.

That was an understatement. Kisu tied well.

"Why are you placing me under such great security, Master?" she asked.

"Bila Huruma is now behind us," he said. "You will not, now, go running back to him."

She put back her head and laughed. "Oh, Master!" she protested.

"What is wrong?" he asked.

"I do not wish to run away from you," she said.

"Oh?" he asked.

She looked at him. "Do you not know, by now, my Master," she asked, "that Tende is your conquered slave?"

"No chances will be taken with you, Slave," he said.

"As my master wishes," she said, putting her head down.

I saw then, as I think that Kisu did not, that the proud Tende, who had been so haughty and cold, was now naught but a surrendered love slave. I smiled to myself. She was now, indeed, politically worthless.

"What of the remains of the fire?" asked Ayari. "Should we not dispose of such evidence of this brief encampment?"

"No," said Kisu. "Leave it."

"But it will mark our trail," said Ayari.

"Of course," said Kisu. "It is my intention that it do so."

We then moved the canoe, wading beside it, with the exception of Tende, fastened within it, out into the river.

Kisu,waist deep in the water, turned to lock back, over the falls. He lifted his fist and shook it. "Follow me, Bila Huruma!" he cried. "Follow me, Bila Huruma, if you dare!" His voice was almost indistinguishable against the roar of the waters. He then lowered his fist and slipped into the canoe, taking his place at the stern. Ayari and Alice entered the canoe. I then slipped into the canoe and, taking the blond-haired barbarian under the arms, drew her into the canoe. I did not immediately release her. She turned her head back, over her left shoulder. "Did you see it," she asked, "on the rock, he danced her naked!" "Of course," I said. "She is only a slave." "Yes, Master," said the blond-haired barbarian. "Like yourself," I said. "Yes, Master," she said. I then thrust her ahead of me, to her place. "Take your plane, Slave Girl," I said. "Yes, Master," she said. We then lifted our paddles and lent our strengths to the task at hand.

Once she looked back at me. But my stern gaze warned her to direct her attention again to her work and the river.

I smiled to myself. I saw that the slave girl in her was now well ready to be released. This very night, I thought, she would beg explicitly for her master's touch.

34

The Blond-Haired Barbarian Dances; What Occurred In The Rain Forest Between A Master And His Slave

"Watch out!" I said.

The tarsk, a small one, no more than forty pounds, tasked, snorting, bits of leaf scattering behind it, charged.

It swerved, slashing with its curved tusks, and I only man. aged to turn it aside with the point of the raider's spear I carried, one of four such weapons we had had since our brief skirmish with raiders, that in which we had obtained our canoe, that which had occurred in the marsh east of Ushindi. It had twisted hack on me with incredible swiftness.

The blond-haired barbarian screamed.

I thrust at it again. Again it spun and charged. Again I thrust it back. There was blood on the blade of the spear and the animal's coat was glistening with it. Such animals are best hunted from the back of kaiila with lances, in the open. They are cunning, persistent and swift. The giant tarsk, which can stand ten hands at the shoulder, is even hunted with lances from tarnback.

It snuffled and snorted, and again charged. Again I diverted its slashing weight. One does not follow such an animal into the bush. It is not simply a matter of reduced visibility but it is also a matter of obtaining free play for one's weapons. Even in the open, as I was, in a clearing among trees, it is hard to use one's spear to its best advantage, the animal stays so close to you and moves so quickly.

Suddenly it turned its short wide head, with that bristling mane running down its back to its tail. "Get behind me!" I called to the girl. It put down its head, mounted on that short, thick neck, and, scrambling, charged at the blond-haired barbarian. She stumbled back, screaming, and, the animal at her legs, fell. But in that moment, from the side, I thrust the animal from her. It, immediately, turned again. I thrust it again to the side. This time, suddenly, before it could turn again, I, with a clear stroke, thrust the spear through its thick-set body, behind the right foreleg.

I put my head back, breathing heavily.

Pressing against the animal with my foot I freed the spear.

I turned to the blond-haired barbarian. "Are you all right?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. There was blood on her left leg, on the outside of the leg, about six inches up from the ankle.

I crouched down beside her. "Give me your leg," I said.

I looked at the leg. She sat on the floor of the rain forest, Her leg felt good in my hands.

"Is it serious, Master?" she asked.

"No," I said. "It is nothing. It is only a scratch." She had been fortunate.

"It will not leave a scar, will it?" she asked.

"No," I said.

"That is good," she said. She leaned back in relief, bracing her body on the palms of her hands. "I want to be pretty," she said, "both for myself, and for my master, or masters."

"You are pretty," I said. "Indeed, in the past few weeks, you have become even beautiful."

"Thank you, Master," she said. She looked at me. "I'm yours, you know," she said.

"Of course," I said.

"Yet you have not taken me since Schendi," she said.

"That is true," I said.

"You made me yield well to you there, and as a full slave," she said.

I did not speak.

"And when you threw me on my back, head down, over your sea bag, and raped me with such brutal dispatch I well learned that I was no longer a free woman."

"It is a useful lesson for a slave girl to learn quickly," I said.

"And I remember the girl I saw there, briefly in the mirror. She was so beautiful."

"Yes," I said.

"But she was so beautiful she could be only a slave."

"Yes," I said.

"But I am an Earth woman," she said. "I could not dare to be that girl."

I smiled. Did she not realize that she had seen in Schendi, in those brief moments, the slave she had for so long concealed within herself, that she had seen then, frightened, scarcely daring to recognize her, her own self? What cruelties could men inflict upon women, I wondered, which could half compare with those they inflict upon themselves.

She leaned forward, and examined the wound on her leg.

"It is superficial," I said. "It will not scar."

"I have a slave's vanity, don't I?" she asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Is it permissible?" she asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Good," she said.

She continued to look at the wound on her leg.

"I do not think I could stand to bring a lower price than Tende or Alice," she said.