I glanced again about the floor, and at the booths in the distance, under the roof, various sorts of booths, for the sales of whips, leashes, collars, chains, jewelry, cosmetics, perfumes, slave garb and such. I saw two or three of the fellows who had been pursuing Ina about, too, on the floor, turning things over, pushing them to one side, and such. I looked from the top tier toward the booths again, and, for some reason, the booth where slave garb was sold. There, on pegs, and ropes, were hanging numerous slave garments, camisks, tunics, silks, and such. I then descended from the tiers. I glanced into some of the overturned cages, lying on their sides. In each, now lying on the side of the cage, was a chained girl. These, frightened, wide-eyed, huddled back in the cages, away from the barred gates. The ankles of each were joined by about a foot of chain, and their wrists by about six inches of chain. The ankle chaining, by its center, and the wrist chaining, by its center, were joined with a short length of chain, about two feet in length. One of the girls was moaning and holding her left arm tightly against her body. It must have been severely bruised, if not broken. If it were broken it could be set, and she could then be returned to the cage. I did not know if the injury would be likely to delay her sale in the camp or not. I did not think it would if she were an item in a lot due to be wholesaled, for then she would not be likely to be retailed for weeks, but it might if she was intended for an immediate retail sale. Doubtless in such a case haggling might occur, as to whether or not she should be discounted, or marked down. It seemed to me that I was trying to think of something, something which had nearly occurred to me on the height of the tiers. I moved away from the moaning girl. I was restless. What I wanted to think of seemed on the point of revealing itself. I walked a bit back, down the aisle, before the tiered cages, and among some which had been tumbled down. I looked into another cage. This one, however, farther down the line, was on its back, so that its gate was up, like a lid. As I glanced in, a girl, lying on the back of the cage, now its bottom, as it was turned, averted her eyes and drew her limbs closely together. I moved a bit further on. I suddenly sensed the nearness of the thought again. Suddenly, near me, another female, perhaps seeing my feet and legs before the gate of her tipped cage, began to scream and thrash in her cage. The thought fled. I looked angrily into the cage. The girl continued to scream and kick in the chains. I lost my anger almost instantly seeing how beautiful she was in her chains. I picked up an iron rod fallen to the dust, which had become unhooked from the side of one of the cages. It is used usually for poking through the bars. The girl was terrified seeing it in my hand. Even though she was, I think, a free female, she already well knew its powers. I used the rod, however, only for striking twice on the bars. "Be silent," I warned her. "Yes, Master!" she said. "Are you a slave?" I asked. "No, Master," she said. "But you have already learned to call men "Master"," I said. "Yes, Master!" she said. "Good," I said. I then discarded the rod in the dust of the aisle. I heard her whimper in relief inside the tiny cage. At that moment I suddenly hurried toward the booths which I had seen from the upper tier.
48 A Slave Whip
The same thought must have occurred to one of Ina's pursuers at about the same time for I could see him now heading for the booth where slave garb was displayed.
In such areas there are usually, at the rear of the sales area, some small, curtained dressing areas. These are not provided to protect the modesty of the slave for, strictly, the slave girl is not permitted modesty but rather to permit her to change unseen and then emerge to be beheld, fully changed, all at once, by her master. The moving aside of the curtain and the stepping forth of the slave in the new ensemble, then, is primarily for the purpose of achieving this effect, that of presenting herself dramatically before the master. She may then turn and move before him, modeling the new ensemble, assuming poses, being put through slave paces in it, whatever he chooses, as he is master. He may then send her back into the curtained area again and again, to try out new outfits. I would suppose that this business of the sudden presentation of the slave before the master, as he may never have seen her before, and the suspense and revelation, and delight, involved, tends to increase sales. The fellow was ahead of me tearing garments from pegs and dragging down ropes of clothes, trampling them underfoot, much to the consternation of the merchant. I saw a girl flee out from behind the counter but she was a brunet and presumably the merchant's, probably used as a model, useful for fellows who did not have their own slave along, or perhaps wished to surprise her by flinging her a new outfit when he returned home, one which she must then wear before him.
I was a few yards from him when he strode to the back of the sales area and, one by one, began to fling back the curtains there. In the fourth place, out of five such places, there was a terrified, crouching girl.
"I have her!" be cried elatedly.
She cowered.
He raised his blade to strike.
"Hold!" I cried.
He turned about, the blade lifted. Ina screamed. She was naked, as she had discarded her slave tunic. This was intelligent on her part, as it would make it easier for her to blend in with most of the other slaves in the camp, such for the most part being kept stripped. He assessed my distance and made his judgment. He turned back to Ina, to cut down at her. But she, taking advantage of this moment of distraction, had crawled behind the side curtain of the next booth. He tore that curtain away. She was gone! He then advanced, slashing, through the curtains, after her. Then he fell, tangled in the curtains. "No!" he cried, looking up at me. There had been nothing wrong with his assessment of my distance, my speed and the time he had. He had miscounted on Ina, however, who had sped from him. Too, he had not counted on losing time moving between the booths. Too, he had not counted on falling. I drove the blade into him.
"Here! Over here!" I heard a man cry.
"Hurry!" I heard another, farther off, cry.
"What of my curtains? What of my shop!" wailed the merchant.
I ducked under a rope of tiny rep-cloth slave tunics, of various solid colors, and was again outside in the main aisles. I then, and two or three other fellows, they keeping their distance, all of us moving purposefully, and as rapidly as was practical, began to examine the cages, the kennels, the fair prisoners of the numerous stakes and posts, of the slave bars, and the chains in our immediate vicinity. Ina must surely be within a few yards of us.
I looked at one woman after another, and some looked out at me, frightened, from behind the bars of their cages and kennels, others shrinking back against their posts and stakes, or cowering with their sisters on their neck chains. I then strode quickly to a slave bar, a rounded, metal bar, about six inches above the surface of the dirt, inserted through, supported by and locked within, at each end, two low, trunklike posts. Girls may be attached to this sort of bar, often anchored in concrete or bolted to a wooden floor, in various fashions. Most of its current prisoners lay close to it, their wrists shackled about it. I reached a given female there before two other fellows. I kicked her in the side with the side of my foot. "Stay with me," I told her.