My hands were manaculed behind my back. The shackles on my ankles were then removed, and I was dragged to my feet.Policrates was talking to Kliomenes.
"You received pleasure from what you did, did you not?" asked the red-haired girl. "The only pleasure I received," said Beverly, "was in being obedient to my master's command." "You received pleasure beyond that," said Bikkie. "I saw."No!" said Beverly.
"You swallowed did you not?" asked the red-haired girl. "I had to," said Beverly, "I am a slave girl."You are so low," laughed the red-haired girl," that you could receive pleasure from even a man of Earth."No!" said Beverly."We saw!" laughed Bikkie."No!" said Beverly. "Even if he is from Earth," said the red-haired girl, "he is handsome and strong."I think," said Bikkie, "tto that there might be a master in him."Not in him," sneered Beverly. "If he owned you, the first thing he would do would be to free you."
"Free us?" laughed the red-hair girl. "Free us?" asked another of the girls, amused, touching her collar.
"What man does not want a beautiflu slave?" asked Tala. "He must indeed be stuipd, or a total fool," said another."Men are the masters, and we are the slaves," said another girl, "does he now know that?
"He knows nothing," said Beverly, tossing her head. "I do not believe you," said Bikkie. "He once freed me," said Beverly.
"If he owned me," said Bikkie, "he would not free me. He might give me away or sell me, but he would not free me."Why?" asked Beverly, angrily. "I am too desirable to free," said Bikkie.
Beverly, with a cry of anger, drew back her hand to slap at Bikkie, but another girl seized her hand, that she would not do so. "Do not fight, Slave Girls," said one of the men about. "Yes, Master," said several of the girls.
"Master," said Bikki, approaching me. "If you owned me, would you free me?" "No," I said. "May I ask why not, Master?" she inquired. I looked at Beverly, but spoke to Bikki. "Because you are too desirable to free," I told her.
Beverly looked at me in fury, and Bikkie turned to her in triumph. "See?" asked Bikki."There are slaves and slaves it seems!"
"So it seems," said Beverly. I smiled inwardly. Should she come again into my power, let her try to break the chains in which I would put her.
"Have you ever been mastered, Beverly?" asked the red-haired girl. "Of course, Many men have mastered me." said Beverly. "I am a slave girl."
"To me," said Bikki, "you seemed a true slave girl, fully, only when you had emerged from the chambers of the courier of Ragnar Voskjard."Beverly smiled, "It was he who first fully mastered me," she said. "He was fully dominant over me.
He was overwhelming, and I nothing, only an amourous, compliant, frightened slave in his arms. I had not known such a man could exist. He made me weep myself his, it seemd a hundred times in his arms. That night I was devastated and taught my collar. It was in that night that i first truly learned my womanhood and my slavery."
"I see that you have never forgotten him," said one of the girls. "No," she said. "Do you love him?" asked the red-haired girl. "Yes," sahe said. I was pleased that she had said this. To be sure, I had made her yield as the salve she was.
"Perhaps sometime you will be his," said one of the girls softly. "He did not try to buy me, nor did he ask Policrates to give me to him," said Beverly. "To him I am only another female slave, a meaningless slut, doubtless already forgotten with whom he pleasured himself one night in a strange holding."
"It is sometimes hard to be a slave," said one of the girls. "We are all slaves," said another girl. "The masters are all, and we are nothing," said another. "Yes," said another.
"I will take our fleet east on the river," said Policarates to Kilomenes. "That will discourage interference from towns east on the river." "Yes Captain," said Kliomenes.
Policrates then turned about and regarded me. "Do not look for pretty slaves in the chamber of the windlass," he said. I was silent. "Oh, Beverly," said Policrates. "Yes, Master," said the girl, hurrying forward and falling to her knees before him. «Earlier,» said he, "you hesitated, if only briefly, in carrying out a command. "Forgive me Master," she begged, turning white.
"Leading position," he said. Sobbing, she rose to her feet and put her had down at what would be the height of a man's waist, her legs flexed. A guard walked over and fastened his hand in her hair. "Have her whipped," said Policrates. "Yes Captain," said the man.
He then left the chamber, pulling the girl sobbing at his side. I was pleased to see that Policrates was a strict master. The girl was of course, guilty, she had clearly hesitated in carrying out a comman. How can a girl expect such laxities to go unnoticed or unpunished?
Policrates then, nodded to the men who held me. "Take him away," he said.I was then dragged from the room.
31. The Chamber of the Windlass I Begin to Put my Plan into Effect
"Cease your lying!" cried the pirate."Put your back into it." "Yes Captain," I said to him, though surely he was not a captain. The whip cracked across my back.
I, sweating, chained, pressed my bare feet against the flot wooden slats nailed on the large, raised wooden deck, the treading platforme, some five feet above the floor, encircling the windlass. I could hear the chain turning on its winding axle below the level of the platform. The gate is raised by muscle power, abetted by two heavy, drumlike weights which partically balance its weight, transmitted to the windlass by means of metal windlass poles or bars, these being used to rotate the windlass. The gate, which is heavier than the drum-like weights has a gravity descent. In lowering the gate, the windlass, under the control of the workers, serves primarily as a brake, sufficing to regulate the speed of its descent. The principles and gearing of the winlass, which is an upright windlass, are analogous, of course to those of the capstan.
I pressed against the heavy metal pole, or bar, almost five inches in diameter, fixed now, like a spoke in the shaft of the windlass. My neck, in its collar, by a chain, was fastened in this pole. It was thus that I was kept in my place. My wrists and ankles were also chained. I had some 18 inches of play for my feet.
I had some 24 inches of play for my hands. These arrangements represent what is theoretically an optimum compromise between prisoner secuity and the degress of freedom essential to efficiently operate the windlass.
"Push!" cried the pirate. Again the whip struck across my back, I thurst again against the bar. The chip, then, struck elsewhere, too, and thre were cries of pain and the sounds of men moving in chains. There were five large poles, or bars, set in the windlass. At each, five men, chained as I was, labored. There poles may be inserted into the windlass and if one wishes, removed from it. The collars and neck chains keep men fastened to the pole, whether it is inserved within the windlass or not. When moving about, the pin-and-lock device opened, the men will carry the pole with them. When the pole is on the ground, and not lifted, one can rise no higher of course, then on one's knees with one's hands deferentially lowered.
"Push, push! Move!" called the pirate. The last struck amongst us. As the windlass turned slowly, creaking, we heard, too, overhead and to the side, the movement and swining of the great drumlike sounterweights on their chains. Without these counterweights, we could not have moved the sea gate.
I again felt the lash, as did the others, too. The pirate walked about us. It is dim and musty in the chamber of the windlass. It can be hot during the day. My hands slipped on the bar. Then I had it gain. Too, at night, it can be extremely cold. There was a smell of wastes in the chamber. Perhaps it would have been less unplesasant if our captors had permitted us clothing.