Boots, I saw, had followed this small exchange from the stage.

"Nine thousand pieces of gold, then," called the Brigella to Boots.

He returned his attention to the stage.

"Eight thousand?" she asked, hopefully.

Boots, with a great flourish, shook out the magic veil and displayed it shamelessly, so cruelly tempting her, awing her with its splendors.

"How marvelous it is!" she cried. "Oh! Oh!"

"Well," said Boots, seemingly folding the cloth, "I must be on my way."

"No, no!" she said. "Five thousand? One thousand!"

"Oh, curse my poverty," cried Boots, "that I cannot take advantage of so golden an opportunity!"

"I must have it," she wailed to the audience, "but I do not know what to do!"

Many were the suggestions called out to the bewildered Brigella from the audience, not all of which were of a refined nature. This type of participation, so to speak, on the part of the audience is a very familiar thing in the lower forms of Gorean theater. It is even welcomed and encouraged. The farce is something which, in a sense, the actors and the audience do together. They collaborate, in effect, to produce the theatrical experience. If the play is not going well, the audience, too, is likely to let the actors know about it. Sometimes a play is hooted down and another must be hastily substituted for it. Fights in the audience, between those who approve of what is going on and those who do not, are not uncommon. It is not unknown, either, for the stage to be littered with cores and rinds, and garbage of various sorts, most of which have previously, successfully or unsuccessfully, served as missiles. Occasionally an actor is struck unconscious by a more serious projectile. I do not envy the actor his profession. I prefer my own caste, that of the warriors.

"May I make a suggestion?" inquired Boots.

"Of course, kind sir," she cried, as though welcoming any solution to her dilemma.

"Disrobe in private," he suggested, "and while disrobing consider the matter. Then, if you decide, in your nobility, to deny me even the briefest of peeps, what harm could possibly have been done?"

"A splendid suggestion, kind sir," she said, "but where, in this fair meadow, at the side of a public road, will I find suitably privacy?"

"Here," said Boots, lifting up the veil.

"What?" she asked.

"As you can see," said Boots, "it is as opaque as it is beautiful."

"Of course," she said.

"You can see it, can't you?" he asked, suddenly concerned.

"Of course! Of course!" she said.

"Then?" asked Boots.

"Hold it up high," she said.

"Boots obliged. "Are you disrobing?" he asked. The men in the audience began to cry out with pleasure. Some struck their left shoulders in Gorean applause.

"Yes," called the Brigella.

She was quite beautiful.

"I shall mention this in my complaint to the proper magistrates," said the free woman from her position near the stage.

"Are you absolutely naked now?" asked Boots, as though he could not see her.

"Totally," she said.

"A silver tarsk for her!" called a fellow from the audience. The Brigella smiled. It must have been he, then, who had expressed a interest in her.

"A silver tarsk, five!" called another fellow.

"A sliver tarsk, ten!" called another.

These offers clearly pleased the Br9igella. They attested her value, which was considerable. Many women sell for less than a silver tarsk. Too, the fellows bidding all seemed strong, handsome fellows, all likely masters. There was not one of them who did not seem capable of handling her perfectly, as the slave she was. I suspected that this Brigella was not destined to long remain a member of the troupe of Boots, Tarsk-Bit.

"Do not interrupt the play," scolded the free woman.

"And not a tarsk-bit for you, lady," laughed one of the men.

The Lady Telitsia of Asperiche stiffened angrily and returned her attention to the stage. "You may continue," she informed the players.

"Why thank you, lady," said Boots Tarsk-Bit.

"Are you being insolent?" she asked.

"No, lady!" exclaimed Boots, innocently.

"She should be whipped," said a man.

The Lady Telitsia did not deign to respond to this suggestion. She could afford to ignore it, disdainfully. she was not a slave. She was a free woman, and above whipping. Too, she was perfectly safe. She was on the protected ground, the truce ground, of the Sardar Fair.

"Here I stand by a public road, stripped as naked as a slave," said the Brigella, confidently, to the audience, "but yet am perfectly concealed by this wondrous veil."

"Are you truly naked?" asked Boots.

"See?" she said to the crowd.

"To be sure!" called one of the men, one of the fellows who had bidden on her.

"Yes," she called out to Boots.

"But how can I know if you are truly naked?" inquired Boots, ogling her.

"You may take my word for it," she said, haughtily, "as I am a free woman."

"With all due respect, noble lady," said Boots, "in a transaction of this momentous nature, I believe it is only fair that I be granted assurances of a somewhat greater magnitude."

"What would you wish?" she asked.

"Might I not be granted some evidence of your putative nudity?" he inquired.

"But, sir," she said, "I have not yet decided whether or not to grant you your peep, that moment of inutterable bliss for which you will, willingly, surrender the wondrous veil to me in its entirety."

"Do not mistake me, kind lady," cried Boots, horrified. "I had in mind only evidence of an ilk most indirect."

"But what could that be?" she inquired, dismayed.

"I dare not think on the matter," he lamented.

"I have it!" she cried.

"What?" he asked, winking at the crowd.

"I could show you my clothing!" she cried.

"But of what relevance might that be?" asked Boots, innocently.

"If you detect that I am not within it," she said, "then might you not, boldly, infer me bare?"

"Oh, telling stroke, bold blow!" he cried. "Who might have conjectured that our problem could have succumbed to so deft a solution!"

"I bundle my clothing," se said, "and place it herewith beneath the edge of the veil, that you may see it."

There was much laughter here, at the apparent innocence of this action. This was extremely meaningful, of course, in the Gorean cultural context. When a female places her clothing at the feet of a man she acknowledges that whether or not she may wear it, or other garments, or even if she is to be clothed at all, is dependent on his will, not hers. Boots, in effect, in the context of the play, had tricked her into placing her clothing at his feet. This is tantamount to a declaration of imbondment to the male.

"Hold up the veil," said Boots to the Brigella.

"Why, good sir?" she asked.

"I must count the garments," said Boots, seriously.

"Very well," she said. "Oh, the veil is so light!"

"It is exactly like holding nothing up at all," Boots granted her.

"Exactly," she said. Boots then made a great pretense of counting the garments. The Brigella turned to the audience, as though holding up the cloth between herself and them. "He is so suspicious, and has such a legalistic mind," she complained. Meanwhile Boots thrust the garments into his pack.

"I trust that all is in order," said the Brigella.

"It would seem so," said Boots, "unless perhaps you are now wearing a second set of garments, a secret set, which was cleverly concealed beneath the first set."

"I assure you I am not," she said.

"I suppose even in matters this monumentous," said Boots, "there comes a time when some exchange of trust is in order."

"Precisely," said the Brigella.

"Very well," said Boots.

"I do not see my clothing about," said the Brigella to the crowd, "but doubtless it is hidden behind the veil."