"Please!" I begged.

I felt him disengage the large clasp at the back of the belt, to which both strands of coins, on each side, were fastened.

"Please," I said.

He took the belt and dropped it into the nearby sack, with the coined necklace and the coins I had picked up and brought back from the dancing floor, weighty in my lifted silk.

He looked down at me. My head came only to his shoulders.

"Do you beg?" he asked.

"Yes!" I said.

"Who begs?" he asked.

"Doreen begs," I said.

"Doreen what?" he asked.

Doreen, the slave, begs!" I said.

"To my lips, slave," he said.

Gratefully, eagerly, I pressed forward, rising on my toes, he half lifting me, his hands under my arms, holding me.

I melted to him.

"Unbind me!" I begged. I wanted to put my arms about him.

"Do you wish to be beaten?" he asked.

"No, Master!" I said.

We kissed, so together, the two of us, as to be almost one thing, and I almost swooned in his power. I fought, seemingly only half conscious for a moment, to keep my hands together behind my back. then he put me down and back a little. "I am still bound!" I moaned.

"And you may stay that way," he said, huskily.

"As Master pleases!" I said, sensing the urgency in him.

He then held me from him, by the arms.

"You have the ruby on its chain, which was on my forehead, and the pearls which were in my hair," is aid. "You have the coins cast by masters on the dancing floor, which I gathered for you. You have the necklace, the belt! The other things, the ornaments, the slave beads, the bells, are in the box. Surely now, you wish to store my silk!"

He smiled.

"Tear off my silk," I begged. "Take me here, on the tiles, in the passageway! I am ready! I beg for it!"

"Coin check," he said.

"Of course, Master!" I wept. How well he reminded me I was a slave! "Open your mouth," he said. I felt his finger run about within my mouth. Mirus was efficient. He would not forget to subject me to coin check.

"Hold still," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said.

He was thorough.

Some girls, I had been told, sometimes try to swallow small coins but this is foolish. The coin can be produced swiftly enough in such cases by emetics and laxatives. Similarly, her wastes my be subjected to unscheduled examinations. Too, even if she is successful in recovering the coin herself, there is usually little she can do with it. There are few places to conceal such objects in a cell or kennel. Similarly, she is often under surveillance, of one sort or another, by other slaves or free persons. Also, if she should be found to be in possession of a coin or coins, for example, by a tradesmen, guardsmen, or any free person, she will be expected to have an excellent explanation for this anomaly, which is then likely to be checked with her master. In most cities, even the touching of money, unless in an authorized situation, is prohibited to slaves. They cannot, of course, own money, any more than any other form of animal.

I looked at Mirus, tears in my eyes.

"What is going on here?" asked Hendow, who had approached down the passageway. Swiftly I knelt, and put my head to the floor before my master. My hands were still held behind me, as I had been bound by a man" s will.

"She has danced," said Mirus.:We have just completed coin check." "Lift your head," said Hendow.

Immediately I did so, and then knelt there, in the dancing silk, my knees wide, my hands behind my back, a woman before men, a slave before masters.

"I trust all the coins are accounted for," he said.

"I have not yet counted," said Mirus.

"Should she not be back on the floor by now?" asked Hendow. "She does not return to the floor tonight," said Mirus, "unless you wish to send her forth there."

"It is so on the schedule?" asked Hendow.

"Yes," said Mirus.

"Very well," said Hendow, and then continued on his way, through the curtain, out to the public area.

I looked up at Mirus.

"Stand," he said.

I did so. Then I was before him, again. My hands were still behind my back. He looked at me.

I lifted my rib cage a little. I pulled my arms back a bit, further accentuating my figure.

"Please," I whimpered.

"You should be returned to the slave area," he said, "or put in your kennel, where you belong."

"I do not belong in my kennel now," I pouted.

"Where do you belong now?" he asked.

"In your arms," I said.

"I do not think Hendow is pleased that I should hold you," he said. "I am free to all his men," I said, "and you are one of his men." "True," he said.

"Will you not summon me to your quarters tonight?" I asked, plaintively. "It is perhaps better that I not do so," he mused.

"As Master pleases," I said, indifferently, shrugging. I did not dare, of course, take my hands from behind my back.

He looked at me, and I tossed my head, haughtily, and looked away from him. I had not been dismissed yet, of course. I could not see his eyes, but I supposed he was considering whether or not I should be whipped. It could be done to me as simply as by his whim.

"So you think you are a free woman?" he asked.

"No, Master," I said.

"I thought you might," he said.

"No, Master," I said. "I am under no delusion on that score."

He must have been looking at me. I had the feeling I was being looked at, as a slave.

"Am I dismissed?" I asked.

"Beware," he said.

"Perhaps I have concealed a coin in my halter," I said, "or in a fold of my slave silk."

"Have you?" he asked, amused.

"You will not know, will you," I asked, "unless you have checked?" "You look well in slave silk," he said.

"Thank you, Master," I said.

"You would look better without it," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said. He then unknotted the silk of the halter, from about my neck, and behind my back, and drew it away from me. I stood as close to him as I could, without actually daring to touch him.

I saw him lean forward and, his eyes briefly closed, revel in the scent of my perfume. It was perfume of a sort not worn by free women on Gor. It was slave perfume. Such perfume says to men, in effect, "This is a slave. Use her as you will."

"Are you haughty now?" he asked.

"No," I said.

"There are tears in your eyes," he said.

"My need is on me," I said, "and I am helpless."

He dropped the silk to the floor, beside him.

"You may kneel," he said.

Swiftly I knelt, and then looked up at him.

"Speak," he said.

"I, Doreen, the slave, beg use," I said.

He looked down upon me.

I squirmed on my knees before him, in misery and frustration, my hands behind my back.

"You are ready, aren" t you?" he asked.

"Yes, Master!" I said.

"Please touch me!" I wept.

"You beg it?" he said.

"Yes, Master!" I wept. "I beg it!"

"Since first I saw you, when I had unroped the shipping blanket, and put its folds to the sides, revealing you, helplessly manacled, when you first came to the house from Market of Semris," he said, "I dreamed that you would one day be so hot and needful before me, and would beg me for my touch."

I was astonished and delighted to hear this, that so mighty a man as this Gorean master, second in this house to Hendow, my master, might have found me attractive, and from so long ago. But this did not, of course, relieve in the least the desperate needs I felt. It did not reduce my tensions. It did not diminish or assuage my sufferings. I still knelt helpless before him. "It is interesting," he said, "what can be done with a woman."

"Please, Master!" I wept. I who had once been Doreen Williamson, a shy, lovely librarian on Earth, had now begun to feel slave needs. To be sure, at that time, kneeling before Mirus, I had no idea how acute such things could become. He looked down at me, amused.