"Have you anything to say?" asked Mahpiyasapa.
The girls, their heads down, the heavy staff behind thier necks, did not speak.
"You are found guilty," said Mahpiyasapa.
They trembled, sobbing.
"As one of you was once the daughter of a Kaiila chieftain, Watonka, who was once a great warrior amongst us, and was once my friend, and one of you was once her maiden, I shall not have you subjected to tortures."
"Mahpiyasapa is merciful," said a man.
"Our women will not be pleased," said another man.
"You will be treated with the dignity of free women," said Mahpiyasapa.
"Let the sentence be passed," said Kahintokapa, he of the Casmu Kaiila, he of the Yellow-Kaiila Riders.
bloketu put down her head.
"Proceed," said Iwoso. "Pass your sentence! I do not fear slavery!"
"In the morning," said Mahpiyasapa, "take them to the summit of the trail, where we had placed the barricade. There, then, from that place, let them be flung to the rocks below."
Bloketu looked at him, aghast.
"No," cried Iwoso. "No! No!"
Chapter 50
WHAT OCCURRED AT THE SUMMIT OF THE TRAIL
The wind was cool at the summit of the trail, near where the barricade had been placed.
It was shortly after dawn.
The two prisoners were brought forth, stripped, their hands tied behind their back. The hair of both, now, was unbound. They seemed ashen. They seemed numb. It seemed they could scarcely stand. They were brought forth, slowly. Cuwignaka conducted Bloketu by the arm. Iwoso's arm was in the grip of Hci.
"Let their ankles be tied," said Mahpiyasapa.
Bloketu and Iwoso stood while Cuwignaka and Hci, crouching down, looped thongs about their ankles. They tied their ankles together in the fashion characteristic of close hobbles, the ankles not crossed but parallel to one another. In this way the girls, though well secured, could remain standing.
"Are the prisoners present?" asked Mahpiyasapa.
"Yes," said Cuwignaka.
"Yes," said Hci.
"Are their wrists tied?" asked Mahpiyasapa.
"Yes," said Cuwignaka.
"Yes," said Hci.
"Are their ankles tied?" asked Mahpiyasapa.
"Yes," said Cuwignaka.
"Yes," said Hci.
"Let the sentence be carried out," said Mahpiyasapa. Behind him, and standing about, as well, were the members of the council. Others, too, stood about.
Cuwignaka seized Bloketu from behind by the arms. "No, no!" she cried, wildly, throwing her head back. Cuwignaka forced her inexorably, implacably, to the edge. "I beg the alternative!" screamed Bloketu. "I beg the alternative!" screamed Bloketu. "I beg the alternative!"
Cuwignaka looked at Mahpiyasapa.
"What alternative?" cried Iwoso, wildly.
Mahpiyasapa made a sign and Cuwignaka, at the very edge of the surface, released Bloketu. She fell to her knees and scrambled back from the edge, her knees abraded on the rock. She, kneeling, her hands tied behind her, her ankles thonged, wildly, faced Mahpiyasapa. "I beg the alternative," she wept, hysterically, "Master!"
"Master?" asked Mahpiyasapa.
"Yes, Master!" she cried. "As a slave I must address all free men as 'Master'."
"You are not a slave," said Mahpiyasapa. "You are a free woman."
"No, Master!" she cried. "I am a slave! I am a slave! I pronounce myself a slave! I have been a slave for years, a secret slave. I now confess my deception, acknowledging that I am, and have been, a slave, only a slave, for years! Forgive my, Masters!"
"Look at her knees!" said a man.
The girl looked down, strartled. Her knees, without her even having thought of it, widely spread, were in slave position. It had been done inadvertently, unpermeditaitively, naturally, unconsciously. Such things can betray a woman. But she did not, then, draw her knees together. She remained, agonized, frightened, in the shameful position.
"Slave!" cried more than one man, scornfully.
"Are you a white female?" inquired a man.
"We are all sisters," she said. "I am no more than they."
"You have pornounced yourself a slave," said Mahpiyasapa, wonderingly.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Now," said Mahpiyasapa, "you are a slave, even if you were not before."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"What is your name?" asked Mahpiyasapa.
"I have no name," she said.
"This being a slave," said Mahpiyasapa to the members of the council, standing about him, "clearly it is not fitting that she be subjected to the honorable death of a free woman."
The members of the council nodded their agreement.
"Later, shameles slave," said Mahpiyasapa to she who had been Bloketu, "you whohad the insolence, the punishable audacity, to pretend to be a free woman, it will be decided what is to be done with you."
The slave, trembling, put down her head.
"This one, at least," said Hci, seizing Iwoso from behind by the arms. "is a free woman."
"Then," said Mahpiyasapa, angrily, "let the sentence, as passed, be carried out in her case!"
"No!" cried Iwoso, helpless as a doll in Hci's merciless grip. "I beg permission to kneel!"
Hci looked at Mahpiyasapa. Then he let Iwoso fall to her knees. She was weeping. "I, too, am a slave," she wept. "I, too, am a slave!"
She threw her soft body to the rock at Mahpiyasapa's feet. Lying on her belly before him, her hands bound behind her back, her ankles thonged, she pressed her lips, again and again, helplessly, to his moccasins, covering them with kisses. "I, too, am a slave!" she wept.
"On your knees," he sternly ordered her.
She struggled up to her knees. She noticed, startled, that her knees were spread widely. But then, no more than the other girl, did she close them.
"Speak!" ordered Mahpiyasapa.
"I pronounce myself slave," she said. "I, too, I confess, have been a secret slave, one masqurading for years as a free woman!"
"Is this true?" asked Mahpiyasapa.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"She lies to avoid the rocks," said a man, sneeringly.
"She may think she is lying," said Mahpiyasapa, "but recourse to such a lie would be ahd only by one who is truly a slave."
"That is true," said a man, musingly.
"In any event," said a man, "she has now pronounced herself a slave."
"Yes," said another man.
"You understand, do you not," asked Mahpiyasapa of the girl, "that the words alone were sufficient, that in speaking them you became a slave, even if you were not a slave before?"
"Yes, Master," she said. Matters such as intention, as I have earlier indicated, are in such cases irrelevant to the legal enactments involved.
"What is your name?" asked Mahpiyasapa.
"I have no name," she said.
"These women are slaves," said Mahpiyasapa, turning to the council. "No longer is it fitting that they be subjected to the honorable death of a free woman."
The council grunted its agreement.
"The sentence then," said Mahpiyasapa, "is rescinded."
The girls looked up at him, elated.
"Now give them to the woemn," said a man.
"They will be pleased to get them," said another.
"That should have been done in the first place," said another.
"Please, no," begged she who had been Bloketu.
"As slaves," said Mahipyasapa to the girls, "you may now be subjected to lengthy and insidious tortures, and not even necessarily for crimes, at so little as the whim of a master."
The girls looked at him, trembling, their eyes wide with terror.
"Give them to the women," laughed a man.
"Take us as slaves, "begged she who had been Bloketu.
"Please, Masters!" wept she how had once been the proud Iwoso.
"I do not accept you as slaves of the Kaiila," said Mahpiyasapa.
The girls shuddered, rejected.