He was standing on boxes, carrying a box. I had not even seen him.

"The chains," he said, "are behind you and to your right."

Swiftly I sped away, in the general direction he had indicated. Then, when I was confident I was out of his sight, I resumed, as nearly as I could, given the bundles, the boxes and crates, my original direction.

Then I found myself in a blind alley, a place where the passage was closed by a sheer wall of boxes, several feet over my head. I hurried back and tried another passage. It, too, to my misery, was blocked. Then I suddenly realized I had lost my direction. Between the boxes, at places, darknesses in the darkness, there were narrow cracks. I did not know which ere passages and which were mere places where several boxes had been removed. I struck with my fists at the wall of boxes.

Then, suddenly, I heard a tarn scream, and not more than o or three hundred yards away.

Too, I saw a lantern approaching behind me.

I darted through an opening, came to a wall, and crouched between two boxes. I saw the light of the lantern on the boxes ahead of me, a WO it was lifted at the passage I had entered.

"She came this way," said a voice.

I heard the two men entering the passage.

"There she is!" said one of them. I gasped, in terror.

Then I heard a sudden scrambling. "I've got you, you little she-sleen!" he said. I heard a small body flung to the dirt. Then I heard the snapping on of slave bracelets.

"Turn her over," said a voice.

I heard a body moked.

"She's a pretty one," said a voice. "Read her collar."

"Our little thief is Tula, of the chain of Ephialtes," said the other voice. "I stole nothing, Masterl" cried the girl.

"Thrust up her tunic," said the first voice. "Now split your I legs, Tula. Good girl. Now, what were you saying?" girl "It was only one pastry, Master," said the girl. "For all Tula! Do not beat herl"

"Keep those legs wide, Tula," said the first voice. con

"Yes, Master," whimpered the girl. imp I then listened, with misery, while the two men, one after hap the other, in the narrow passageway between the boxes, used brutal, forceful use of her almost overwhelmed me psychologically. How helpless, how dominated are slavesl I touched then myself. To my horror, I, too, was wet. I gritted my teeth. I her hoped they could not smell me. I trembled. I tried not to feel, with It was almost as though they, in inflicting themselves on that pathetic slave, were subjecting me, as well, to those in so debasing, masterly thrusts. Yet, of course, they were not, pum in this, to my scandal, I felt keen frustration. I found myself, envying her. I wondered what it would be like to be held not in the arms of such brutes, a cringing vessel for th pleasure, choiceless but to rhapsodically succumb. time forced such thoughts from my mind. Surely I must n such thoughts. Surely they were appropriate only for a slave I looked up, miserably. The sky was becoming gray n In a few minutes, perhaps, the cage would be lowered. my absence would be noted. girl.

Me entire camp, then, and its vicinity, I did not doubt, would be subjected to an inch-by-inch search, one that it uld be impossible to elude.

I had failed to escape.

"On your feet, Tula," said one of the men.

"Tula has served you well, has she not?" begged the girl. I heard her pull at the slave bracelets.

"Put down her tunic," said the first man.

"There," said the second.

"When we called to you to stop, Tula," said the first man, "you ran. Have You ever run away before?"

"I was not really running away," said the girl. "I just did want you to catch me."

"Must a question be repeated?" asked the first man.

"No, Master," she said, quickly. "I have never run away before!" That is fortunate for you," said the man. shuddered, crouching between the boxes. The first time a runs away she is commonly only beaten. Many girls, m they first go into a collar, do not realize that escape, for practical purposes, is impossible for them, or how easily, imonly, they can be picked up and caught. The practical ~ossibility of escape is a function of several factors. Perhaps one of the most important among them is the closely nature of Gorean society. In such a society it is difficult to establish false identities. Other factors which might be A are the support of the society for slavery, the absence i place to run, so to speak, and the relentlessness with such slaves are commonly sought.

Other factors are such as the distinctive garb of the slave, the encirclement of neck with a collar and the fact that her body is marked t a brand. The best that a slave can commonly hope for is she might fall into the power of a new master. The usual punishment for a girl's second attempt at escape is hamstring the severing of the tendons behind the knees. This does completely immobilize the girl, for she may still, for cxle, drag herself about by her hands. Such girls are sometimes used as beggars, distributed about a city by wagon in morning, and then picked up again at night, with what earnings they may have managed to obtain during the You will not beat me though, will you?" wheedled the "No," said the first man.

"Thank you, Masters!" said the girl "You have, however," said the man stolen a pastry, lied to me about it to us, and run away."

"You said you would not beat me!" protested the girl.

"We shall not," said the man. "Ephialtes might."

"Do not tell him, I beg you!" she cried.

"Do you really think that you can do the things you have done with impunity, you, a slave?" asked the man.

"No, Master," she wept.

"We have discovered you have a taste for sweets," said the and man.

"Ephialtes will discover if you have a taste for leather."

"Have pity on me, Masters," she wept. "I am only a mg helpless, braceleted slavel" I "Turn about, Tula," said the man. "You are on your way back to your master."' As I heard them leaving, I looked about the corner of my hiding place. I saw two large men. Preceding them, her hands locked behind her in slave bracelets, was a beautifully shaped little slave. She had dark hair. Her slave tunic, which was extremely short, was red.

I followed the men down the passageway. I stopped once, when they stopped, to extinguish the lantern.

Following them I came to an opening between the through which they had taken their way.

They had led me out of the maze. bacl I then saw many wagons and could smell tharlarion, and straw. I made my way swiftly through this area.

I then stopped, startled. "Me great cry of a tarn smote I fell to my hands and knees as two men passed, on the other side of a wagon. I rose up and sped as furtively and swiftly as I could toward the area from which I had heard the bird's scream. I said stopped, seeing a bird take to the air, a tarn basket, on long The ropes, trailing behind it. I put out my hands. There seemed to M be a platform in front of me. It must have been fifty yards char long. On it there seemed to be two broad, leather skids. On these skids, some twenty yards or so in front of me, there. by were four or five tarn baskets. I heard the snapping of wings I saw ropes being fastened between the tarn and the et now first in the line. I crawled forward and, as the were concerned with the tarn, it moving about and occasionally stretching and snapping its wings, crawled into the basket. Within that basket was a blanket, one which had ably been used to cover some cargo brought to the camp. w the blanket over me and lay quietly in the bottom of basket. was becoming lighter now, and I was becoming more iore afraid. ave myself little chance to escape, but I could do noth- ore. I had done all that I could. seemed I lay there for an Ahn. The heavy fiber of the et cut into my skin. I did not, however, so much as