"I do not understand!" she said.
"She will make a juicy morsel for our sleen, will she not, Lecchio, my friend?" inquired Chino.
"That she will," agreed Lecchio.
"You are feed hunters!" cried the girl in horror.
"What is a feed hunter?" asked Lecchio of Chino.
"That is exactly right, my dear," Chino confirmed her darkest suspicions.
"But you cannot feed me to sleen!" she cried.
"You are free to be taken," Chino informed her. "It is all perfectly legal. You are neither claimed nor owned."
"But I am a slave in my heart!" she cried.
"That is not good enough," said Chino. "All free women are merely uncollared slaves."
AT this line more than one man in the audience turned to look at the veiled free woman in the audience, she of the scribes. She, however, of course, her back stiff, pretended not to notice that she was the object of this rather obvious attention.
"Oh, misery, misery!" cried the Brigella.
"You do not have a legal master," said Chino. "Thus you are eminently qualified for sleen feed. Come now. Do not be difficult. Let us get these ropes on you."
"No, no!" she cried, and, turning, sped away. AS she again retraced the circle on the stage, this time hastily, suggesting her journey, Chino and Lecchio watched her depart. "We must soon begin our fierce pursuit," Chino informed the audience.
In a moment or two the Brigella had again reached the vicinity of Boots Tarsk-Bit who turned about, congenially enough, effecting some surprise at the sight of her. "Greetings," he said.
"I kneel before you as a naked slave," cried the girl. "I beg your collar! I beg your collar!"
"Your head is rather high," said Boots.
Immediately the girl put her head to the ground.
"I wonder how you would look on your belly," said Boots.
Immediately she lay on her belly before him.
"My sandals are rather dusty, from the road," said Boots.
Immediately the girl began to lick his feet and sandals, cleaning them.
"You may kiss them, as well," Boots informed her.
Immediately the girl began to add fervent kisses to her ministrations.
"Did you wish to speak to me?" inquired Boots.
"I beg your collar!" she said hoarsely. "I beg your collar!"
"You may kneel before me, with your knees spread," said Boots.
The men in the audience cried out with pleasure. The Brigella was so beautiful! Too, a woman is so marvelously vulnerable and attractive in this position. It is no wonder that it is a portion of a common position of a Gorean pleasure slave.
"Now," said Boots, "what was it that you wanted to speak to me about?"
"I want your collar," she said. "I beg it!"
"I have given some thought to this matter," said Boots, "and I have decided against it."
"No!" she cried.
"Yes," he said. "I have decided that, after all, you are a free woman."
"No, I am not," she said. "I am only a miserable slave, a rightful slave, one pleading for her collar."
"How can I know that you speak the truth?" he asked, thoughtfully.
"I am prepared to offer any evidences that you might suggest," she said.
There was a cheer from the men in the audience.
The Brigella laughed.
"Are you?" asked one of the men in the audience to the free woman in the audience.
"Get her on her knees naked, too," said another man of her.
"With her knees spread, and well," added another.
"Collar her," said another.
"Give her a taste of the whip," said another.
"Teach her quickly to lick and kiss," said another.
"Teach her what being a woman is all about," said another.
"Did you not see?" asked the free woman. "She laughed! She lost her characterization!"
"It is sometimes hard to keep one's characterization in such a play," I said.
"Perhaps," she said.
"Do not be too hard on her," I said. "She is only a slave."
"Slaves are to be shown no mercy," said the free woman, coldly.
"Do I detect that you are critical in some respects of her performance?" I asked. The Brigella seemed to me to be very talented.
"She is undoubtedly quite good," said the free woman, "but many of her lines, I think, could have been better handled, or at least differently handled, particularly in this form of farce, more broadly, both verbally and gesturally."
"Interesting," I said.
"May we have Lady Telitsia's permission to continue," inquired Boots, not too pleased with the interruption.
"You may continue," she said.
"Thank you," he said. "You are very kind." He then returned his attention to the Brigella. "No," he said. "I am sure you are a free woman, not a slave."
"No, no!" she said. "I am a slave! I swear it! I swear it!" She cast a wild glance back over her shoulder. AS yet, supposedly, Chino and Lecchio were not in sight.
"It is true," said Boots, "that at one time I thought you might be a slave."
"Yes!" she said.
"But I think I was wrong," said Boots.
"No, no," she said. "You were right! You were right!"
"You are a slave, really?" asked Boots.
"yes," she said. "I am really a slave! I swear it!" Again she looked over her shoulder.
"You do have slave curves," admitted Boots.
"Yes, yes!" she cried.
"Very well," said Boots. "I acknowledge, unqualifiedly, with no reservations whatsoever, uncompromisingly, that you are a slave."
"Collar me!" she cried.
"I think," said Chino to Lecchio, at the other side of the stage, "that it is nearly time for us to begin our fierce pursuit."
"Surely you must understand," said Boots to the Brigella, "that two quite different matters are under consideration here. One is whether or not you are a slave, a matter which has now been settled in the affirmative, and the other is whether or not I might be interested, in the least, in having you as my own slave."
She looked at him in disbelief.
"Not every man wants to own every slave," he said, "or, at least, it would not be too practical for a fellow to own every slave, for that would be a great many slaves."
"Please," she begged.
"Too, slaves can be expensive. One must feed them and, if one wishes, find them a rag to wear."
"Our fierce pursuit begins," announced Chino to the audience, and Lecchio began to describe a circle about the stage, carefully, bending over, hesitating now and then, apparently tracking the lovely fugitive.
"Disciplinary devices, such as whips and chains, too, can be expensive," said Boots.
"I fear they are coming!" she cried, turning back from looking over her shoulder.
"Who?" asked Boots.
"Oh, no one," she said.
"Oh," said Boots.
"I am at your feet, a naked supplicant," she said. "I entreat you, implore you, to show me mercy! Deign, in your graciousness, to consider my humble petition!"
"What was it again," asked Boots. "I fear it may have slipped my mind."
"Make me your slave!" she cried. "I beg to be made your slave!"
"Oh, yes," said Boots. "That is it. Have you had any experience?"
"That is her, up ahead, I think," called out Chino to Lecchio.
"No!" she wept.
"Then perhaps you should apply to another master," said Boots.
"Train me!" she said. "We must all start somewhere! I will be zealous and obedient!"
"I think you are right," said Lecchio to Chino, looking in the direction of Boots and the Brigella.
"Put your collar on me, please!" cried the Brigella. "There is little time!"
"I will give you my answer in the morning," said Boots.
"No," she cried. "No, please, no!"