As we passed another tent, a darkened one, I heard the,ounds of chains from within. "Oh, more, Master, I beg you, please, more," I heard, "more, more, please, oh, my Master, more, please more, please more, my Master, I beg youl" How scandalized I was! What was it within, a harlot, a whore! But I feared it was far worse, something a thousand times lower, something a thousand times more despicable and helpless, a slave.

In a few moments we stopped, between some darkened tents. I was then lifted from my feet and placed, sitting, on he ground.

"Why are we stopping here?" I whispered. "Who are you? What are you doing!" My last question was prompted by the fact that one of the men, the larger of the two, he who had held my left arm, had now crossed my ankles. He was now wrapping a long piece of binding fiber about them, sometimes looping them both, sometimes taking it about only one ankle, sometimes snaking it about both ankles and securing it between both with tightly drawn loops. He even, occasionally, threaded an end through other, already secured loops. He then pulled the entire tie tight. What he had done was far more elaborate and complex than was required to hold a girl's ankles. A loop or two, properly knotted, I did not doubt, would be adequate for the perfect accomplishment of such a task. Then, to my surprise, he placed the two loose ends of the binding fiber in my hands. I held them, puzzled. He bad not knotted the tie. Similarly no move had been made to secure my hands.

"Waitl" I whispered. "Nol" I then understood what they intended. The smaller of the two men, he who had been so expert with the locks and chains, placed his fingers across my lips.

"Nol" I whispered. "Don't leave me! Who are you? Why have you done what you have done?"

He increased the pressure of his fingers on my lips, and I was silent.

He leaned close to me and whispered. I did not recognize the voice.

"We have brought you here,," he said. "It is a half of a pasang from the cage." I nodded, miserably.

"The camp will be awake in three Ahn," he said.

I nodded.

He withdrew his fingers from my lips.

"Do not leave me!" I begged.

"The camp will be awake in three Ahn," he said.

"Who are you?" I begged.

He was silent.

"Why have you done what you have done?" I asked.

"Once you did me a kindness," he said. "I have never forgotten." "What kindness?" I asked.

"Our accounts are now squared," he said. "It is done. The matter is finished." "And what, then, is his motivation?" I asked, indicating the', larger man. "It is other than mine," said the smaller man.

The larger man then drew his cloak away from me. I was then sitting in the dirt, naked, with my ankles fastened together, the two ends of the fiber clutched in my hands.

"Do not leave me," I begged. "Keep me. I am prepared even to be your slavel" The larger man suddenly, angrily, reached for my throat. I felt those large hands close about it. For an instant things went black. I know he could crush the life from me at his whim.

"Do not kill her," said the other.

The hands left my throat.

I gasped. I swallowed painfully. The larger man retrieved his cloak.

The two men stood, preparing to take their leave.

"Do not leave me here, I beg you!" I whispered.

"Already, in this," said the smaller man, "you have been granted more than a hundred times the lenience and favor that you deserve."

"Are you not my friends?" I asked.

"No," said he. "We are your enemies."

I looked up at him, in misery.

"Farewell," said he, "Lady Sheila, villainess and tyranness of Corcyrus." "Wait!" I whispered.

But they were gone, and gone in different directions. I thought of crying out, but doubtless they would be away by the time men would come, and with their masks doffed, who would know them? I would succeed in doing little more than calling attention to myself.

"Wait" I whispered softly, piteously. But they had vanished.

"The camp will be awake in three Ahn," the smaller man bad said.

Feverishly I began to unwind and unthread the binding fiber on my ankles. It took me better than an Ehn to do so.

I saw a lantern approaching, held by one of two guardsmen. I cast aside the binding fiber, and then crept to the side, to lie on my belly in the shadows behind a tent. I felt one of the tent ropes on my shoulder.

I heard someone inside the tent stirring in sleep. The lantern of the guardsmen had then passed.

15 Alarm Bars

"Holdl Who goes there?" called a voice. I heard the snarling of the patrol sleen, its jerking at its chain.

Weeping, I fled back among the tents. The guardsman did not release the sleen. He would probably not want it loose among the tents.

I crouched behind a tent, in the darkness. This was the third time I had tried to leave the camp. Once there had been stakes and wire; another time there had been a deep ditch; each time there had been guardsmen with sleen. The sleen, I had little doubt, had been able to detect my approach, and had led the guardsmen to my vicinity. The perimeter of the camp seemed ringed with guards and sleen. The camp was heavily guarded. This was perhaps because it was still within the range of Corcyrus, and perhaps, too, because of a special captive, a Tatrix, thought to be chained in a suspended cage.

I looked up. I moaned. In the moonlight, not more than a hundred yards away, I could see the cage slung from its branch. In my running, and fear, disoriented, and once pursued by drunken soldiers, I had inadvertently returned to its vicinity. If I were caught I did not doubt but what I would soon again find myself the prisoner of those cramped quarters, though doubtless in fresher, sturdier bonds, probably of iron, and not locked, but hammered closed about my neck and limbs. The cage, too, then would probably be closed with plates and rivets, and the guards doubled or tripled about it. I crouched down, my head in my hands. In a little more than an Ahn, I feared, the camp would be awakened. Already it seemed to me that there were more people about than before, more men to avoid.

I shrank back into the shadows. Two men, cooks, I think, from their conversation, were passing.

I heard wings overhead. Looking up I saw a tarn. It was flying northwest. Behind it, on long ropes, dangled a tarn basket. Sleen were no problem for it, I thought bitterly. It was not the first such departure, or, indeed, arrival, I had noted in the camp.

I had hitherto avoided the more fit, busy portions of the camp, generally about the areas for tradesmen, suppliers and sutlers, and the storage, delivery and mess areas.

There were too many men there, and it would be, surely, too easy to be detected. I, then, stealthily, my heart pounding, began to follow, keeping in the shadows, the two men who had just passed. I was terribly frightened.

They were moving toward the center of the camp.

"What are you doing there, Slut, skulking about?" called a man. I had not seen him, between the tents. He had some gear slung over his shoulder. He was apparently waiting there. I backed away from him.

"Let her go," said another man, emerging from a tent. He, too, carried some gear. "You can see she is a slave, returning to her master." I then hurried away. In the darkness they had not detected that I lacked a brand. Too, they had not noticed that my neck was not encircled by a slave collar.

I was now in consternation. I did not see how I could proceed.

People seemed to be getting up now about the camp.

"Ena!" called a girl, hurrying to catch up with another.

I stepped back into the shadows.

A tall, slim girl, naked, turned about. A bit of slave silk dangled languidly from her left hand.