"Or next week," he said.
"No!" she cried.
"Yes," said the Chino. "I am sure it is she. Let us hurry. We can have our ropes in her in a moment!" They then, apparently, began to hurry. To be sure, their new haste was largely a matter of marking time in place. Yet one had the distinct impression, in the lovely conventions involved, that they were getting closer and closer.
"Do you think you can be pleasing?" asked Boots. Free companions, after all, can be anything. But slaves must be pleasing.
"Yes," she cried, "yes!"
"Good," said Boots. "I shall let you know in the morning or in a few days."
"No!" she cried.
"Why not?" asked Boots.
"Then you would miss a night's pleasure," she said, desperately, wildly, "or perhaps even my use, at your slightest whim, for a few days!"
"That is true," mused Boots.
"Yes! There she is!" cried Chino to Lecchio. "Let us rush upon her! In an instant we will have her helpless in our bonds!"
"Oh, collar me, Master!" she cried. "Please, please, Master!"
"What did you call me?" asked Boots.
"Master, Master!" she cried.
"Oh, very well," said Boots.
Swiftly she thrust her neck forward, lifting her chin. Boots stood between her and the audience and seemed to reach into his pack. He seemed then to withdraw something from the pack and, in a moment, to fasten it on her neck. In this instant, of course, he had removed the scarf from about her neck, that concealing h er collar. He then stepped back. Lo, there was steel on her neck! There was a cheer from the men in the audience.
"We have you now!" cried Chino, he and Lecchio arriving on the scene, ropes in hand.
"Who are you fellows?" called Boots. "What do you want?"
The Brigella, now collared, trembling, cowered beside Boots, clinging to one of his legs.
"Do not question us," said the Chino. "Our profession is a dark one. I dare not mention it lest you faint in fear."
"Assassins!" cried Boots.
"Far worse," said the Chino.
"Feed hunters!" cried Boots, aghast.
"The same," said Chino.
"The very same," said the Lecchio, grimly.
"I am surprised, actually," said the Chino, "that you have heard of our profession, as it is not well known."
"I, myself," said the Lecchio, "heard of it but moments ago."
"I heard that two such rascals as yourselves were about," said Boots. "What do you want here?"
"Her!" said the Chino, pointing dramatically, menacingly, at the Brigella. She shrank back in fear.
"Her?" inquired Boots.
"Yes!" said the Chino. "Now if you will be so kind as to step aside, we will get our ropes on her."
"Hold, rogues!" said Boots.
"What is wrong, sir?" inquired Chino.
"You cannot have her," said Boots.
"WE have been hunting her for some time," said Chino. "She is our legitimate prey. It is all quite legal. We are honest fellows. We are entitled to her. Now please do not interfere. Come no, little vulo, put your head in this noose."
"Desist!" cried Boots.
"What is wrong now?" asked Chino.
"Apparently," said Boots, "you are under the delusion that this is a free woman, one that my simply be picked up, like a larma in a field, for whatever purposes you might please."
"Of course," said Chino.
"She is not a free woman," said Boots.
"What!" cried Chino.
"Observe her pretty neck," said Boots.
"It is collared!" cried Chino.
"Yes!" said Boots.
"She is a slave!" said Chino.
"Yes," said Boots.
"Ah, well, an unclaimed slave is almost as good as a free woman," said Chino, reaching forth again with the noose.
"Stop!" cried Boots.
"What now?" inquired Chino.
"Yes, what now?" inquired Lecchio.
"This woman is both claimed and collared," said Boots.
"What!" cried Chino.
"What?" asked Lecchio.
"Are you thieves?" asked Boots.
"No!" cried Chino.
"No?" asked Lecchio.
"No!" cried Chino.
"No!" said Lecchio, righteously.
"Then desist, scoundrels," said Boots, "for this woman is my property!"
"Is it true?" asked Chino.
"Yes, Masters," she said, "it is true. I am his property. He is my master. He owns me. I belong to him, legally and completely, in all ways, fully!"
"There are, of course, two of us," said Chino, menacingly.
"I do not fear you!" said Boots. "Be off, you scurvy scamps, lest I feed you to your own sleen!"
"I did not know we had any sleen," said Lecchio to Chino.
"Be gone, scamps, scoundrels, rogues!" cried Boots, with a vast, wild threatening gesture. Immediately Chino and Lecchio, in apparent terror, scampered away.
"You have saved me!" cried the Brigella.
"Yes," said Boots.
"I wear your collar," she said. "I am now yours, truly, you know."
"Why, yes," said Boots, interested. "That is true, isn't it?"
"Yes, Master," she said.
"And then anything may be commanded of you," mused Boots, "absolutely anything, anything whatsoever, and you must obey, instantly and perfectly."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Assume," said he, "standing, partly crouching, the position of a free woman, zealous to conceal her beauty."
"Yes, Master," she said. There was much laughter as she, the already-so-much-exposed slave, assumed this coy, silly position, one often associated with timid, scandalized, shocked, surprised free women. Indeed, it was the same as that which she had often assumed earlier in the farce, when she had supposedly been such a free female.
"Now, for the merest instant," said Boots, "move your hands away, and then replace them, instantly, immediately, as they were."
She complied. If one had not been watching closely, one might have missed the action.
"Yes, yes!" cried Boots ecstatically. "Oh, bliss! Bliss! That is it! That is it!"
"What?" she asked.
"A peep!" cried Boots. "A marvelous peep!"
"That is all?" she asked.
"Yes!" he cried, joyfully.
"Give me then," she cried, suddenly, "the wondrous magic veil!"
"Alas," cried Boots. "I cannot. It would be incorrect to do so."
"How so?" she asked.
"What I negotiated for, as you may recall," said Boots, "was a peep at the beauty of a free woman, not a peep at the beauty of a mere slave."
"Oh, oh!" she said, in misery.
"If that were all one wished," said Boots, "one could go to the nearest market, to see girls naked in their chains." That was true, I supposed. That is how girls are normally displayed in such markets, incidentally, that and in cages.
"But I am the same woman!" she protested.
"That is not really true," said Boots, "for you are now a slave." That sort of thing, incidentally, in its way, is true. A woman collared is quite different from a woman uncollared. The collar works a wondrous transformation in a woman, psychologically, sexually and humanly. She is then vulnerable; she must then obey. She is no longer the same. She has then no choice but to be a total female. She becomes a thousand times more interesting, exciting and desirable.
"Even though I am a slave, Master," she said, "yet do I strongly desire it. I have been through so much! Please let me have it!"
"My benevolence may perhaps yet prove my undoing," said Boots, reaching into his pack.
"I begin already," said the Brigella to the audience, "to sense that slaves may have ways and wiles wherewith to achieve their ends which are denied to free women."
"I have it here," said Boots, supposedly withdrawing it from his pack, "but you, of course, now that you are a slave, will not be able to see it."