"I saw it," she said. "I saw it!"
"What was its predominant color?" he asked, sharply.
"Yellow," she said.
"No," he said.
"Red!" she said.
"No!" he said.
"Blue, pink, orange, green!" she cried.
"Apparently you are a slave," he said, grimly. "You should not have tried to masquerade as a free woman. There are heavy penalties for that sort of thing."
She put her head in her hands, sobbing.
"I wonder if I should turn you over to magistrates," he said.
"Please, do not!" she wept.
"I will give you another chance," he said, reaching behind his back, to where he had supposedly hidden the veil at the first sight of the supposed brigands. "Now," he said, thrusting forth his hands, "in which hand is it?"
"The right!" she cried.
"No!" he said.
"The left!" she wept.
"No," he said, "it is in neither hand. I left it behind my back!"
"Oh, oh!" she wept.
"On your knees, Slave," he said, sternly.
Swiftly she knelt, in misery.
"Do not fret, girl," said Boots. "Surely you know that you have slave curves."
"I do?" she asked.
"Yes," he said. "In any event, you are far too beautiful to be a mere free companion."
"I am?" she asked.
"Yes," he said. "Your beauty, if you must know, is good enough to be that of a slave."
Here several of the men in the audience shouted their agreement.
"Is it?" she asked, laughing.
"Yes," said Boots, struggling to keep a straight face.
"Good!" laughed the Brigella.
There was more laughter from the audience.
"Mind your characterizations!" called the free woman in the audience.
"Forgive me, Lady," said Boots, trying not to laugh.
"Forgive me, Mistress," said the Brigella.
"Continue," said the free woman.
"Are you in charge of the drama?" inquired a man.
The free woman did not deign to respond to him.
"Will you not then accept me as a free companion, noble sir?" called the Brigella to Boots, in his guise as the merchant.
"It is the collar for you, or nothing," said Boots, grandly.
There was a cheer from the men in the audience.
"Though I may be a slave in my heart," cried the Brigella, leaping to her feet, "I am surely not a legal slave and thus, as yet, am bond to neither you nor any man!"
"Many are the slaves who do not yet wear their collars," said Boots, meditatively, and then suddenly, turned about and, to the amusement of the men in the audience, to sudden bursts of laughter, started directly at the outspoken, troublesome, arrogant free woman standing in the front row, below the stage. He could not resist turning the line in this fashion, it seemed.
"Sleen! Sleen! she cried.
There was much laughter.
"is it true that you are as yet merely an uncollared slave?" asked a man of the free woman.
"He is a sleen, a sleen! cried the free woman.
"I must soon be on my way, " said Boots to the Brigella, chuckling, trying to return to the play. He was well pleased with himself.
"Go!" she said, grandly, with a gesture.
"If you wish," he said, "you may kneel and beg my collar. I might consider granting it to you. I would have to think about it."
"Never!" she said.
"What are you going to do?" he asked.
"I shall return to the village and take my chances," she said.
"Very well," he said, "but watch out for those two fellows approaching. I fear they may be slavers."
"They appear to be peddlers, merchant, to me," she said.
"They do seem so," admitted Boots. "But that may be merely their disguise, to take unwary girls unaware."
"nonsense," she said. "I know a peddler when I see one."
"At any rate," he said, "let us hope that they are no worse than slavers."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I heard there were two feed hunters in the vicinity," he said.
"What is a feed hunter?" she asked.
"One who hunts for feed, of course," said Boots.
"Feed?" she asked.
"Usually for their sleen," he said, "They are pesky, careless, greedy fellows, little better than scavengers, in my opinion. They will settle for almost anything. They are particularly pleased when they can get their ropes on a juicy girl."
"Surely there are better things to do with a girl than feed her to sleen," she said.
"It probably depends on the girl," said Boots.
"No!" she cried.
"I am inclined to agree with you, though," said Boots, "all things considered, but then, of course, I am not a feed hunter."
"You are trying to frighten me," she said.
"Have it your own way," said Boots.
"You have fooled me already today, perhaps many times," she said. "Do not seek to do it again!"
"Have it your own way," said Boots.
"I wish that my clothes had not blown away," she said.
"Yes," said Boots. "That was too bad."
"I am on my way," she announced.
"Good luck!" he called.
She then, in accordance with a common Gorean theatrical convention, trekked about the stage in a circle, while Boots withdrew to one side. In a moment, of course, she had come into the vicinity of the two aforementioned fellows, they entering from the other side of the stage. So simply was the scene changed. These two fellows, of course, were Boots's Chino and Lecchio, now largely garbed in tatters of yellow and white, the colors of the merchants.
"Greetings, noble merchants," said the girl.
"Hah!" snarled the Chino to his fellow, Lecchio. "Our disguises are perfect! She takes us for merchants!"
"Would you please step aside, good sirs," she said. "I desire to pass."
"It is warm today," said Chino.
"True," she said.
"But even so," he said, "it seems you are somewhat lightly clad."
"My clothes, I fear, blew away," she said.
"That is what they all say," said Chino.
"That is not really what they all say," said Lecchio, scratching his head, through the hood. "Some say other things. One said her clothes were dissolved by magic in the bushes. That must have been frightening for her, to have had her clothes dissolved by magic in the bushes."
"No," protested the girl.
"Doubtless they were torn from your body in a recent hurricane," said Chino.
"No!" she cried.
"Removed from your body by an ardent suitor, then, who neglected to replace them?" asked Chino.
"No!" she cried.
"Eaten in a moment by ravenous insects?"
"No!"
"You were attacked by cloth workers with scissors, who desired to replenish their stores?"
"No!"
"Magic?" asked Lecchio.
"No, no!" she cried. "It is as I told you. They just blew away!"
"Do not lie to us, Girl," said Chino, sternly.
"Girl?" she asked.
"This morning," said Chino, "you were simply sent forth stripped."
"Sent forth?" she asked.
"Yes," said Chino, folding his arms.
"I think that you are under a grave misapprehension, sirs," she said, righteously. "Simply because I might be somewhat lightly clad this evening, do not mistake me for a slave."
"Do I understand you correctly?" asked Chino. "Have we the honor of being in the presence of a free woman?"
"Yes," she said.
"You mean that no one owns you, that you are totally unclaimed?"
"Yes," she said, proudly.
"Excellent!" said Chino.
"Wonderful!" said Lecchio.
"Sirs," she asked, "why is it that you are drawing forth coils of stout ropes from beneath your robes?"
"Why to bind your pretty arms to your sides, and to put a good rope on your neck, my dear," said Chino.