"We have much to do," I told my men. "The wall is to be destroyed. After that you may divide what supplies and treasures exist here and take your leave. Any who leave before the work is done, trailed and recaptured, are to be staked out among the fallen tabuk."
The men looked at one another, uneasily. They did not care to become feasting meat for the scavenging jards.
"We are hungry," said a man.
"Imnak," said I, "go to the platform. Keep watch. You shall be relieved in two Ahn."
He grunted and went to the platform.
"We are hungry," said men.
"I, too," said I. "Make a feast, but there is to be no drinking of paga. It is late now for commencing our labors. Morning for such work will be soon enough."
There was a cheer.
In the morning they would work with a hearty will. I did not think it would take long to destroy the wall, surely not more than the days to the first passage hand. We had more than three hundred and fifty men for work. In many places, too, the wall had been weakened by the buffeting tabuk over the past weeks.
I heard the miserable cries of two girls. A man was coming from the cook shack, where Thimble and Thistle had hidden themselves. He now dragged them before us, bent over, a hand in the hair of each.
"What have we here!" cried a man cheerfully.
"Slaves!" cried others.
"Hold," said I. "We are honest men, and are not thieves. Release them."
The man loosed the hair of the girls. Swiftly they knelt, frightened.
'These girls," said I, "belong to Imnak."
"He is a red hunter," said a man.
"He is one with us," I said.
There was an angry cry.
I drew my blade. "None may use them without his permission," I said. "I shall maintain discipline, if need be, my comrades, by the blade."
I looked down at the kneeling girls. "There are many men here," I said. "Doubtless they are quite hungry. Perhaps you should consider scurrying to the cook shack, to be about your duties."
"Yes, Master!" they cried.
"Pull down your camisks," I warned them.
Weeping they fled to the cook shack, trying with their small hands to adjust their garments so that they would reveal less of their beauty. The men roared with laughter. I smiled. The brief, open-sided camisks they wore had not been designed to permit a girl much success in such a project.
"We are now alone," I told her.
It was early afternoon, on the first day of the passage hand.
"All alone?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"Completely?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"Where have the men gone?" she asked.
"The work is finished," I said. 'The wall, burned and uprooted, has been destroyed. Other buildings, too, with the exception of this hall, have been fired. The laborers, in various groups, laden with goods and gold, have filtered away, scattering, returning to the south."
"They have taken my gold?" she asked. She was sitting at the side of the hall, her back against its wall of horizontally fitted logs. Her ankles were drawn up. The same thongs which, looped about her stomach and threaded through a ring behind her, holding her to the wall, led to her ankles, drawing them back. The original thongs on her ankles, which had served as leather ankle shackles, I had had removed. She still wore, however, the tether on her wrists, the loose end of which had been taken up behind her and tied about her neck, the handle portion of the handle tie.
"Ten strongboxes were found," I said, "and forced open. Their contents were divided. Few men are discontent to have earned fees so rich for their services."
"I am now without economic resources," she said.
"You are pretty," I said, "perhaps men might be persuaded to let you live."
"You are a beast!" she said.
"Captured guardsmen and hunters," I said, "released, given supplies, have also taken their way south."
"You are generous," she said.
"Sometimes," I said. "-with men."
She shrank back in her bonds.
"They labored well with the others to destroy the wall," I said.
"What of the red hunter?" she asked.
"He alone, of all who worked at the wall," I said, "treks northward."
"What of the two girls? she asked.
"He drives his pretty beasts before him," I said. Imnak had fashioned a sled, which would be of use in crossing Ax Glacier. Thimble and Thistle drew it now across the tundra toward the snows. Before he had left he had had them sew northern garments for themselves, under his instruction. From the furs and hides among the spoils at the wall they had cut and sewn for themselves stockings of lart skin, and shirts of hide, and a light and heavy parka, each hooded and rimmed with lart fur. Too, they had made the high fur boots of the northern woman and the brief panties of fur, to which the boots, extending to the crotch, reach. On the hide shirts and parkas he had made them sew a looped design of stitching at the left shoulder, which represented binding fiber. This designated the garments as those of beast. A similar design appeared on each of the other garments. About their throats now, too, they wore again the four looped strings, each differently knotted, by means of which a red hunter might, upon inspection, determine that their owner was Imnak. This morning Imnak, walking behind and to one side of the sled, had left the camp's area. Because it was warm he had not permitted the girls to wear their hide shirts or parkas. Northern women often do not do so in warm weather. When he had cracked his whip they had put their shoulders to the traces. The sled was heavily laden, but with little gold. More significant to Imnak had been sugars and Bazi tea, and furs and tools. Interestingly he had also placed much wood on the sled, both boards and poles, for it is of great value in the north. Wood can be used for sleds, and tent frames and the frames of kayaks and umiaks, the large, broad vessels which can hold several individuals, sometimes used in whaling. Trees do not flourish in the land of Imnak and their needs for wood must largely be satisfied by occasional finds at the shore, driftwood, from hundreds of pasangs south, dragged from the chilled water. Imnak's whip cracked and she who had been Barbara Benson. a middle-class girl, and she who had been the rich, upper-class Audrey Brewster, now Thimble and Thistle, cried out and began to draw their master's sled. I watched them leave. Both were now leveled women. Both would now have to compete in absolute equality, beginning at the same point, neither with an advantage, as pure females, and as slaves, for the favor of men. I did not know which might be more pleasing. In time I thought both might prove superb.
Sidney Anderson, tied sitting at the wall, looked up at me. "You, too," she said, "had better flee."
"The laborers," I said, "have not fled. They are simply returning to their homes."
"You have remained behind," she said.
"Of course," I said.
"I do not understand," she said. Then she said, "Do not touch me!"
I released her from the wall and removed the thongs, too, which had held her ankles. I pulled her to her feet. I slipped my fist into the handle of the tie she wore and, looping it about my fist twice, tightening it, thrust her before me toward the door of the hall.
"Where are you taking me?" she asked.
I tightened the tie more. "Oh!" she said. Then she was quiet. She bit her trembling lip. Outside I scanned the skies. They were clear.
Sidney Anderson looked about. Buildings were burned. No one was in sight. The wall had been destroyed. The platform, too, had been pulled down, and had then been burned. Ashes were about, and debris, and turf cut by the feet of many men.
I thrust her before me, toward the whipping platform, which I had ordered remain intact.
"What are you going to do?" she asked.
"Tarnsmen," I said, "will soon be here, will they not?"