"Do we have enough combatants on hand for a melee?" asked Petrucchio.
"Doubtless much depends upon definitions," said Chino, "but we must make do as best we can."
"I really do not think we can muster the numbers necessary for a genuine melee," insisted Petruccio.
"Then," said Chino, "we must substitute a duel to the death."
"To the-death?" inquired Petruccio.
"Yes, I am afraid so," said Chino. "It seems that only one of us can leave the field alive."
"Only one?" asked Petrucchio.
"Yes," said Chino.
"That is not very many," said Petruccio.
"True," granted Chino.
"But you have no weapons," said Petrucchio.
"There you are mistaken," said Chino.
"I am?" inquired Petruccio, anxiously.
"Yes," said Chino, drawing forth from his pack a large pair of cloth-workers shears.
"What are those?" asked Petruccio, alarmed.
"Fearsome engines of destruction," said Chino, "the dreaded paired blades of Anango. I have never yet lost a fight to the death with them." At this point he snipped the air in his vicinity twice, neatly. "Though to be sure," he said, moodily, "I suppose there could always be a first time. There is seldom a second in such matters."
"The sun glints hideously from their flashing surfaces," said Petrucchio.
"I shall do my best," said Chino, "not to reflect the sun into your eyes with them, thereby blinding you, making you helpless, and thereby distracting you from your charge."
"Are they efficient weapons?" inquired Petrucchio, shuddering.
"Against one such as you, doubtless they will be of small avail," said Chino, meditatively, "but against lesser warriors, war generals, high captains, pride leaders, battle chieftains, instructors in swordmanship, and such, they have proven more than adequate. Let me say simply that they, in their time, have divided the tunics, so to speak, of hundreds of warriors."
"Perhaps the women are not all that beautiful," said Petrucchio.
"What!" cried Rowena.
"Stay on all fours, Lana," warned Chino.
"Yes," said Rowena, quickly adding, as Lecchio lifted the switch menacingly, "-Master!"
"They do seem to be slaves," said Petrucchio.
"Clearly," said Chino.
"We are free!" cried Rowena. "Ai!" she cried, in misery. Her outburst had earned her a smart stroke from Lecchio's switch. She was then silent, the chain clinking, dangling from her collar.
"Perhaps it would be churlish of me," said Petrucchio, "to slay you here upon the road, after we had become such fast friends."
"I would really think so, honestly," said Chino.
"I spare your lives," said Petrucchio generously.
"Thank you," said Chino, warmly.
"That is a relief," said Lecchio. "I was preparing to return a tarsk-bit to Chino from whom I borrowed it last year. Now I need not be in a hurry to do so."
"Furthermore," said Petrucchio, grandly, "I give you the slaves!"
"Slaves!" cried Rowena. Then she again cried out sharply, in pain and protest, and then again, Lecchio having seen to it that a certain portion of her anatomy had renewed its unwilling acquaintance with his fierce switch, was quite docile, and quite silent.
"That is an act of incredible nobility!" cried Chino, overwhelmed.
"Do not even consider it," said Petruccio, as though the astounding magnanimity of such a gesture could possibly be dismissed lightly.
"I cannot praise your generosity to highly," said Chino, leaving it to the audience to interpret this perhaps somewhat ambiguous remark.
"It is nothing, my friend," said Petruccio, modestly.
"Surely the glory of such an act must be long remembered in the songs of Petrucchio, Captain of Turia," exclaimed Chino.
"Have you heard such songs?" inquired Petrucchio.
"In a hundred halls," said Chino, "about a thousand campfires."
"Really?" asked Petrucchio.
"Surely you know them well?" asked Chino.
"Well, some of them," said Petrucchio.
"Your modesty, then, and our time, they being so numerous and lengthy, forbid me recounting them to you."
"Naturally," said Petrucchio.
"We wish you well, noble captain," said Chino, shaking Petrucchio's hand, warmly. "I do not think we shall soon forget our chance encounter with the great Captain Petrucchio."
"That is for certain," said Lecchio.
"Few do," Petrucchio admitted.
"May we have your permission to tell our children and our grandchildren about this?" inquired Chino.
"Yes," said Petrucchio.
"Thank you," said Chino.
"It is nothing," said Petrucchio, as though it might really have been nothing, the bestowal of so priceless a right.
Chino took the switch from Lecchio, and lightly tapped Rowena on the shoulder with it. "Lana," he said, instructing her as to her new name. "Yes, Master," she said, trembling at the touch of the switch, accepting the name. "Tana," he said, tapping Lady Telitsia on the shoulder with the switch. "Yes, Master," she said, accepting the name. "Bana," he said, tapping Bina on the shoulder. "Yes, Master," she said, accepting the name.
Chino handed the switch back to Lecchio who used it, tapping the girls here and there, and brushing it against them for delicate adjustments, to line them up in an exact and careful order.
"Well," said Chino to Petrucchio, after having satisfied himself with the quality of Lecchio's work, "it is time to be on our way. It is time to herd these pretty little she-tarsks to market."
"I hope you get good prices for them," said Petrucchio.
"I am sure we will," said Chino.
The girls, together, aghast, reproachfully, regarded Petrucchio.
"Come now, girls," said Chino, "we must be on our way."
"Move, Lana!" said Lecchio, speeding her into motion with a swift stroke of the fierce, supple switch. "Move, Tana!" said Lecchio, adding another stripe to her, as she, in her place, hastened to move past him. "You, too, Bana!" said Lecchio, adding a swift, smart stripe to her, as well, as she, moaning, at the end of the chain, tried to hurry past him.
Chino and Lecchio, then, following the neck-chained girls, left the stage.
"I wish you well!" Petrucchio called cheerily after them. He then turned to the audience, twirling a mustache. "And thus," he said, "concludes another of the adventures of Petrucchio, Captain of Turia. This has been the story of how Petrucchio penetrated the disguises of three clever female slaves, masquerading as free women, captured them, and returned them to their rightful bondage. IN it has also been told how he generously bestowed the slaves, asking nothing for himself, upon two needy wayfarers."
Petrucchio then apparently looked into the distance. "Oh! Oh!" he cried. "Is that dust upon the horizon? Or is it perhaps my imagination? It could be a group of verr, browsing in the fields. But, too, perhaps, it is nothing. But, too, perhaps it is men from the warring towns, as reported by the cloth workers, intensely combing the hills the fields for harmless Turians. Perhaps I should teach them a lesson. But then again, perhaps it is nothing, a stirring of wind, or even only my imagination. I wonder in what direction I should go? I shall let my sword decide!" Here he seemingly closed his eyes and swung his word about in vast, eccentric circles. "Very well, sword," he said, opening his eyes. "You have mad the choice. I must abide by it, however reluctantly. It is in this direction that we will seek new adventures, lands to be devastated, armies to be defeated, cities to subdue, noble free women to be protected and guarded on dangerous roads." He then set out in the direction in which the sword had pointed. It was, of course, the direction exactly opposite that in which he had, but a moment ago, fearfully, thought he might have discerned a movement of dust in the distance.
IN a moment, smiling and bowing, all the actors had returned to the stage. Rowena, Lady Telitsia and Bina, freed of their chains, now had their collars bared. The scarves which they had worn about them were now knotted about their hips. They were knotting at the left hips, so that the opening was at their left thighs, were, on the thighs, could be seen the circular, adhesive patches they had worn during the play, those patches which, in the conventions of the theater, informed the audience that they were to be taken, for the purposes of the play, as free women, and not the slaves that they really were. Boots Tarsk-Bit leaped, too, to the stage, bowing to the audience, and, with expansive gestures, proudly displayed his actors. Petrucchio, stepping forward, received the most applause. Boots removed, one by one, the circular adhesive patches from the thighs of the girls, this baring their brands. The theatrical convention was now terminated. Once again the girls were revealed to be what they had actually been all the time, only female slaves.