Gart had then had her crawl back to her tub.
Ellen did not want to be beaten.
She feared that if she fainted she might be beaten.
Surreptitiously Ellen viewed the garment of the free woman. She hoped she had not been too rough with it, in her fear of Gart. It must, above all, not be rent. Even a tiny tear at a seam, she knew, could earn her a beating, but a real beating, not just the two or three strokes that might awaken a girl from a faint.
She heard a girl crying out, a few tubs from her, and, looking over, she saw blond, blue-eyed Nelsa flung on her belly over the water, she gripping the sides of the tub, desperately, to keep from falling into the water. Behind her, Gart had lifted and spread her legs. Ellen shuddered, and looked away.
Ellen was thankful for the device she wore, though sometimes she felt like crying out in misery, because of discomfort, its weight and heat.
She had seen her master only once since the evening in the special room, that so like a room on Earth, in which she had suitably, properly served a lovely supper, stripped.
It had been the morning following that supper, when he had come to her cage, released her, and had her stand, bent forward, gripping the roof of the cage, her back to him, her legs widely spread.
He had been carrying an object whose nature was not immediately clear to her.
Facing away from him, her legs widely spread, she had become aware of him reaching in front of her, and then of two circular, hinged, straplike bands being put about her waist, and then being brought together, front to back, behind her. Another piece of the apparatus dangled before her, but it was, in a moment, on its hinge, drawn up between her legs. She felt the object being jerked about, and, with two hands, being adjusted on her. These three parts of the apparatus were then fitted together, the two side straps over a staple welded to the central portion of the device which had been lifted up between her legs and was now at the small of her back. She then felt the bolt of a heavy padlock thrust through the staple and snapped shut, this holding the pieces of the apparatus together, at the small of her back. When she moved she was conscious of the padlock, its weight, and how it moved, against the three parts it secured in place. Again the object was moved about, and adjusted, with two hands, on her body.
“A good fit,” said a guard.
“Yes,” had said her master.
“Master?” she had asked.
“You have not been given permission to speak,” he said.
“Forgive me, Master,” she had said.
Because of the narrowness of her waist, and the natural flare of her hips, she could not hope to elude the device.
She wore the iron belt.
“Send her to the laundry,” had said her master.
****
When she had been presented to Gart, and performed obeisance before him, had kissed his feet and had begged to be permitted to serve in the laundry, he had growled in rage, regarding her. He had thrown her to her side and examined, in detail, the device she wore.
“What is this?” he had snarled.
The guard had merely shrugged.
Ellen, lying frightened on her side, locked in the device, at his feet, had no delusions with respect to the work-master’s displeasure.
A glance at the room, as soon as she had entered, she almost suddenly overcome, almost suddenly fainting, from the heat and the steam, had shown her, almost as through a hot fog, that there were several girls in the room, that they were naked, that many were apparently lovely, and that all were kneeling, sweating, their hair streaming down, limp, working at tubs.
Ellen had been struck with horror at this environment. Then she had knelt down, performing obeisance.
“How am I to tub this one?” asked the work-master.
“Tub the others,” suggested the guard.
“A virgin?” asked the work-master, incredulously.
“I think so,” said the guard. “As you can see, she is quite young, little more than a girl.”
“Kneel up,” ordered the work-master.
Ellen assumed position.
“I do not like virgins,” the work-master informed her.
Then Ellen cried out, cuffed, struck to the side. She could not maintain her balance, but fell to her right side. She could taste blood in her mouth, from her lip.
“To my feet,” said the work-master. “Beg my forgiveness for being a virgin.”
Ellen went to her belly before him, her lips over his feet. “Forgive me for being a virgin, Master,” she said. “Please forgive me for being a virgin!” Then, fearfully, terrified before this man, she kissed his feet.
He stepped back then, angry, but mollified.
“We will get her a mat and put her to a tub,” he said.
****
Ellen drew back, suddenly, crying out, for a stream of hot water, poured from a ewer, streamed into her tub, almost scalding her.
“Please, Mistress!” protested Ellen. She was the least in the laundry, because of the youth of her body, and that she was newest at the tubs. Accordingly, she must address her sister laundresses with such respect, though they, too, were but slaves.
“Why did you look when Gart put me to his pleasure?” demanded Nelsa.
“I looked away, Mistress!” cried Ellen.
“Not soon enough!” said Nelsa. “Do you think I like being put to the pleasure of such a brute?”
“Perhaps, Mistress,” said Ellen. “Surely I have seen you wriggle well, lifted at the tub, his arms about your legs.” Nelsa was certainly one of Gart’s favorites.
“I hate him!” said Nelsa.
“Is that why you whimper, moan and cry out as you do?” asked Ellen.
“I cannot help it if he masters me,” said Nelsa, angrily.
“Then you must be a slave,” said Ellen. “No!” cried Ellen.
Nelsa had lifted the ewer of boiling water.
“Stay on your mat!” said Nelsa.
“Please, no, Mistress!” cried Ellen.
“You will not be so pretty when you are a mass of scar tissue!” snarled Nelsa. “Stay on your mat!”
“Please, no, Mistress!” cried Ellen.
“Do not be stupid, Nelsa,” said a shapely redhead, kneeling at a nearby tub. “Let the child alone!”
“Do your work,” snapped Nelsa.
“If you damage her you will be boiled alive,” said the redhead.
“Look,” said Nelsa. “She has moved part way from her mat. Gart must hear of this!”
Ellen scrambled back, that she might be on her mat, fully. For once she wished that Gart was in the room. She looked upward, apprehensively, at the poised ewer.
Then Nelsa lowered the ewer.
“You think you are so special, little she-urt,” said Nelsa to Ellen, “because you are belted! Well, there are many ways in which a slave can give pleasure to a man. And you are not in lock-gag!”
Ellen did not know what an urt was.
There are several varieties of lock-gags. One common variety consists of a short, leather-sheathed metal chain which, at its center, passes through a heavy ball-like packing. The packing is thrust back in the slave’s mouth, over the tongue, filling the oral orifice, making it impossible for her to do more than moan or whimper. The two ends of the short chain are then drawn back, tightly, back between the teeth, this holding the packing in place. The ends of the chain are then taken back about the sides of the neck and brought together behind the back of the neck where they are fastened together with a small padlock. The gag’s dislodgment must then, since it is locked on the slave, await the master’s pleasure. Another common variety of lock-gag involves a pair of narrow, rounded, curved, hinged rods, the hinge embedded in a heavy, leather, ball-like packing. This packing, as before, is inserted into the slave’s mouth and thrust back, over the tongue, denying her any capacity to speak. The rods, which are back, between the teeth, holding the packing in place, curve back about the sides of the face and meet behind the back of the neck, where the ends may lock together, or, if a padlock is used, be locked together. An advantage of a lock-gag is, of course, that the slave, while totally unable to speak, may yet attend to whatever other duties her master may set her. To be sure, a simple tie gag, which the slave is forbidden to remove, has the same effect. Too, of course, her mouth may be simply taped shut. Similarly, more mercifully, and at greater convenience to the master, she may be “gagged by the master’s will.” In that case she is simply forbidden to speak, save perhaps for moans and whimpers. She may, of course, speak later, once she has received permission to do so. If the slave is in lock-gag, one understands, there are certain pleasures she is unable to give the master. Doubtless it was with respect to these pleasures that the remark of Nelsa had reference.