"No, Mistress," said Bloketu.
"You seem to suggest by your remark that I am perhaps insufficiently kind," said Iwoso.
"No, Mistress!" said Bloketu.
"Your answer, then, is 'Yes'?" inquired Iwoso.
"Yes, yes!" said Bloketu.
"Yes, what?" asked Iwoso.
"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu.
"Yes, Mistress, what?" asked Iwoso.
"Yes, Mistress, you are too kind!" said Bloketu.
"You dare criticize me again!" said Iwoso.
"No, Mistress," wept Bloketu.
"But you are perhaps right," said Iwoso. "After all, a slave must tell the truth."
Bloketu sobbed.
"I have been much too lenient with you," said Iwoso. "I now see that, upon reflection. Thank you, Bloketu. I shall attempt to mend my ways. I must try in the future to treat you more as you deserve, with much greater harshness."
"Please, no, Mistress," begged Bloketu.
"After all, you are only a slave."
"Yes, Mistress."
"Are you crying?" asked Iwoso.
"You tricked me!" said Bloketu.
"It is not difficult to trick a stupid slave," said Iwoso.
"No, Mistress," sobbed Bloketu.
"How offensive that I was once your maiden," said Iwoso. "How appropriate that you are now mine."
"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu.
"Do you know one of the great pleasures of owning a slave?" asked Iwoso.
"What, Mistress?" asked Bloketu.
"Knowing," said Iwoso, "that one may do with her whatever one pleases, fully."
"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu, frightened.
"Continue combing," said Iwoso.
"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu.
"Do you know that some men have been known to find the bodies of female slaves of interest?" asked Iwoso.
"I have heard that," said Bloketu.
"Only low men, of course," said Iwoso.
"Of course, Mistress," said Bloketu.
"What do they see in such luscious, obedient sluts who must please or die?" asked Iwoso.
"I do not know, Mistress," said Bloketu.
"You are a female slave," said Iwoso.
"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu.
"What do you think of men?" she asked.
"I fear them terribly," she said, "particularly since I became a slave."
"Interesting," said Iwoso.
Bloketu trembled.
"I have seen men looking at you," said Iwoso. "Do you know that sometimes they are looking at you?"
"Sometimes, Mistress," she said.
"Your body is nicely curved," said Iwoso. "Doubtless some of these men, doubtless low men, might find you of interest."
"Of interest, Mistress?" asked Bloketu, frightened.
"Yes," said Iwoso, "—sexually."
"Perhaps, Mistress," said Bloketu, frightened.
"Are you afraid?"
"Yes, Mistress."
"Do not be afraid," said Iwoso. "It is common for slaves to be of sexual interest."
"Yes, Mistress."
"That is one of the most obvious, and common, things about them, that they are of sexual interest—of considerable sexual interest."
"Yes, Mistress."
"That is perhaps why men capture women, and make them slaves, and buy them, and sell them back and forth, and trade for them, and such."
"Yes, Mistress," moaned Bloketu.
"Perhaps I shall have you thrown to them," she said.
"Please, no, Mistress," begged Bloketu.
"Naked, and tied," mused Iwoso.
"Please, no, no, Mistress!" begged Bloketu.
"I own you," she said. "I will do with you whatever I want."
"Yes, Mistress," sobbed Bloketu.
"Your father was a traitor," said Iwoso. "And you, too, were a traitor. Sometimes I think that the best thing to do with you would be to bind you and have you turned over to the remnants of your people, for their judgment. Doubtless they have ways of dealing with traitors."
"Do not give me for judgment to my people," begged Bloketu.
"Do you beg, rather, to remain my maiden?" asked Iwoso, amused.
"Yes! Yes!" said Bloketu.
"Beg properly," said Iwoso.
"Bloketu, your maiden, begs mercy of her Mistress," said Bloketu. "She begs to be permitted to remain the maiden of her mistress."
"Perhaps," said Iwoso. "We shall see."
"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu.
"Continue combing," said Iwoso.
"Yes, Mistress," said Bloketu.
With one long, even, swift stroke of the knife I opened the back of the lodge. Cuwignaka and Hci, swiftly, before the girls could react, had pressed into the lodge and seized them, throwing them to their backs and holding their mouths shut.
I followed them into the lodge. I handed each a rolled ball of hide and fur. These were thrust, loosening and opening, into the mouths of the girls, expanding immediately to fill their oral cavities. I then handed Cuwignaka and Hci two, long, flat strips of leather. With these, looped about and then drawn back tightly between the teeth, and then looped about again, and again drawn back tightly between the teeth, and then tied behind the neck, the packing of hide and fur was inflexibly, unexpellably, fixed in place. The girls looked up at us, terrified, gagged.
We then, with thongs, Cuwignaka working with Bloketu and Hci with Iwoso, tied each girl's hands together before her body. Cuwignaka then removed the pieces of hide, tied on with strings, which had served Bloketu as a substitute for moccasins, from her feet. Hci removed Iwoso's moccasins. He then, too, drew from her legs the soft, almost white, tabukhide knee-length leggings which she had worn. Cuwignaka then, with another thong, tied together Bloketu's ankles and Hci, working swiftly, served Iwoso in the same fashion. Quickly then, with knives, their clothing was cut from them. Only the collar was left on Bloketu's neck, Iwoso's collar.
We looked down upon our handiwork. We were pleased.
I then produced two long, specially prepared leather sacks. Iwoso shook her head wildly.
We then slipped each girl, feet first, into a sack. These sacks, by design, are a relatively close fit for a girl. In them she can do little more than squirm. Each sack, further, has two sturdy leather handles which come up, high, quite high, one on either side of the occupant's head; if these handles are held together, or tied together, the closure between them will usually be twelve to eighteen inches over the girl's head. By means of these handles, of course, the sack may be provided with a variety of means of transport.
We then, by means of eyelets at the top of the sack, and thongs, and looping the thongs about the necks of the girls and tying them through the eyelets, fastened each girl in her sack. It was now impossible for them to inch or squirm their way free. Hci, with evident pleasure, tied the thongs under Iwoso's chin. There is also an interior edge, some twelve to eighteen inches in height, on each sack. This edge, however, we had left folded in. By means of this edge, and its own eyelets, which are aligned with the lower eyelets, to make lacing in the lower position convenient, the sack may be, if one wishes, brought out to its full length and closed completely over the head of the girl. This, too, of course, makes it impossible for the occupant, then totally enclosed, to free herself.
Iwoso made angry noises, almost inaudible, muffled in her gagging.
"Would you like to tell us that we will not be able to get away with this?" asked Hci.
Iwoso nodded vigorously, and Hci smiled. She then, in fury, in frustration, was silent, her words having been so easily anticipated.
"You look well tied in a slave sack," said Hci to Iwoso.
Iwoso's fury was but inadequately expressed because of her bonds, the sack and the gag.
"I am sorry, Lady Iwoso," I said, "but we did not have any sacks on hand which were appropriate for free women, sacks compatible with their dignity. We had to make do with what we had."
Iwoso regarded me with f
ury, and then looked away.
Bloketu made piteous, tiny noises, trying to attract the attention of Cuwignaka.
At last he looked at her.
She whimpered piteously.
"Be silent, slave and traitress," he said to her.
She put her head back, moaning. Tears ran from her eyes. She trembled. She had hoped to trade on the affection which she knew he had once held for her. Surely he would let her go! Surely he would show her mercy! But her pleas had gone unheeded. She shuddered, helpless in the confining leather. Her eyes were wild. Her worst fears, it seemed, might now be realized, that she be returned to the Kaiila nation, there to face the stern justice of her people.
"Go to your stations," I said to Cuwignaka and Hci. "Leave the kaiila hobbled outside. I will meet you at the prearranged rendezvous."
"The Kaiila will rise again," said Hci.
"Our plans proceed apace," said Cuwignaka.
"Yes," I said. "The council of all the bands of the Kaiila, of the Isbu, the Casmu, the Isanna, the Napoktan and the Wismahi, of all the remnants of the Kaiila people, will take place at Council Rock at the end of Canwapegiwi."
Cuwignaka, Hci and I clasped hands. Then Cuwignaka and Hci, as silent as shadows, moving through the cut I had made in the back, left the lodge.
I looked at the fair captives, helpless in their sacks, and then built up the fire a bit. I must wait for a time.
Iwoso uttered tiny, desperate, entreating noises. "Please be silent, Lady Iwoso," I said to her, putting my finger gently across my lips.
She was then silent.
The fire, then, after a time, suitably subsided.
It had served as a clock. Factors such as impatience can occasionally distort one's subjective estimations of the length of various temporal intervals. These confusions and distortions, of course, are eliminated, at least to a large extent, by having recourse to various stages in some presumably continuous, objective process. Is this not the sort of thing which is involved in the ringed candles, in the tiny stream of water in the clepsydra, in the falling sand in the Ahn glass, in the alternation of day and night, and in the calendar of the stars? I stirred up the fire again, so that I might better see what I was doing. By now Cuwignaka and Hci should be in place.
I stood up.
The girls looked at me in fear.
Their fears were not allayed in the least when I, having fetched a stout rawhide rope, crouched down next to them and tied one end of this rope about the handles of Bloketu's sack and the other end about the handles of Iwoso's sack.
Iwoso began to utter desperate noises, moving her head, the gag packed in her mouth.
"You would like to speak, would you not, Lady Iwoso?" I asked.
She moved her head affirmatively, desperately.
"If I removed your gag," I asked, "would you promise to be quiet?"
She nodded her head affirmatively, vigorously.
"Could I depend on your word in such a situation?" I inquired.
She nodded, vigorously.
"I could, of course, hold a knife point at your throat," I said, "and at the slightest sign of trickery or refractoriness plunge it into your throat."
She turned pale.
"Under such conditions would you still care to speak?" I asked.
She nodded.
My hands moved toward the gag. Then I stopped. "I dare not remove the gag," I said. "You are an extremely intelligent and clever woman. You would doubtless trick me somehow."
She shook her head negatively, reassuringly.
"Perhaps I should remove your gag," I mused.
She nodded.
"No," I said. "I must not do so. Indeed, I have been warned, even before we left our camp, against doing so. Masters fear I would be tricked. Thus you must, at least for a time, continue to wear it."
Iwoso looked at me for a moment in fury, and then put her head back in helpless frustration.
"I am sorry," I said.
Iwoso looked at me, puzzled.
"I can understand your feelings," I told her. "How offensive it is that you, a lofty free woman, are tied naked in a sack, as though you might be a mere slave, as though there might be no difference between you and the Kaiila slave girl who lies beside you."
Iwoso's mind, I had little doubt, that quick, clever mind, was working feverishly.
Then she looked at me with soft, mild reproach. She nodded her head, pathetically.
"I am sorry, Lady Iwoso," I said. Then I began to loop the rope carefully, from its center, that the ends of which were attached to the handles of the girls' sacks.
Iwoso, then, began to whimper timidly, piteously, trying to attract my attention.
I looked down at her.
Her eyes were soft, and pleading, and seemingly submissive and humble. She moved her head, lifting her mouth, with its heavy, sodden packing and its tight straps, toward me.
"Do you wish to speak to me?" I asked.
She shook her head negatively.
"That is good," I said.
She whimpered, piteously, again lifting her head toward me, the gag bound so tightly, so effectively, in her mouth.
"Do you want me to remove the gag?" I asked.
She shook her head again, small, piteous movements, negatively.
"What, then?" I asked.
She whimpered, lifting her head again to me.
"It is uncomfortable, is it not?" I asked.
She nodded vigorously.
"Red savages," I said, "sometimes treat women too fiercely, do they not?"
Iwoso nodded her agreement.
"I suppose," I said, "that it would do no harm if I loosened it a little."
Iwoso whimpered, gratefully.
Bloketu then lifted her head, piteously, whimpering pleadingly. "Be silent, slave slut," I said to her. "You are not a free woman. You will continue to wear your gag in its full effectiveness, as a slave."
Bloketu lay back, tears running out of her eyes.
I then unknotted the gag behind the back of Iwoso's neck. I loosened the straps with my finger and then, putting my finger in her mouth, loosened the packing as well. Then, as though fearing I had been too lenient, I retightened the straps, closely, but not as tightly as they had been earlier. I then fastened the straps together behind her neck with a simple over-and-under knot. This would hold for a time because of the tightness of it and the strap friction. It would not hold, however, for very long, particularly if tested. I then pretended to secure that knot with a second knot, to prevent slippage. I did not, of course, actually do so. The stressing and jerking of the straps, which Iwoso could feel through the back of her neck, was the result, merely, of my looping part of one strap about the other and then jerking against it, the second strap end, of course, falling free as soon as I released it, leaving only the first knot in place, the simple over-and-under, or overhand knot. The security knot, as far as Iwoso could tell, was in place.
Bloketu lay on her back, sobbing.
"Is that better?" I asked Iwoso.
She whimpered, pleadingly.
"I dare not make it any looser," I said.
She whimpered, more pleadingly.
"I can always," I said, "make it tighter."
She shook her head, negatively.
"It is better, is it not?" I asked.
She nodded her head.
"Perhaps I should make it tight again, as it was," I said.
She shook her head negatively, pleadingly.
"Are you grateful?" I asked.
She nodded her head.
I then looked away from her and returned my attention to the coiling of the rope. Inwardly I smiled. Did she really think that a woman such as she, luscious slave meat, would be truly accorded any consideration whatsoever?
I then, taking the rope with me, exited through the cut in the back of the lodge. I unhobbled the kaiila waiting there. It had a high-pommeled saddle on its back. It was to be ridden neither in the hunt nor to war. I looped the rope about the pommel of
the saddle, dropping a few coils of it to either side, it then, on either side, descending to the ground and trailing back into the lodge. I threw a robe over my head and shoulders. I then mounted. Then, not hurrying, the robe muchly about me, I moved the kaiila away from the lodge, drawing from the lodge, through the cut in its back, by means of the rawhide ropes attached to their handles, the two sacks.
I heard Iwoso making tiny, desperate noises. I think, then, she was truly frightened. I think then she fully realized, perhaps for the first time, that it might actually be possible for us to take her, with all the consequences which might then accrue to her in virtue of this, from the Yellow-Knife camp.
But I was, as yet, in no hurry to leave.
Without haste, muchly concealed in the robe, I moved the kaiila out into the broad, empty lane between the Yellow-Knife lodges, almost a busy, triumphal way. In such a lane sometimes young swains, on kaiilaback, in their paint and finery, parade before damsels; in such a lane sometimes are kaiila races held; and in such a lane, sometimes, slave girls, for humiliation or punishment, or sport, are dragged back and forth in sacks.
I felt the tension in the ropes, on either side of the kaiila, as I entered into the long lane, some two hundred yards in length, the sacks, their weight negligible for the strength of the kaiila, being drawn lightly behind.
As I rode slowly along I looked back. The heads of the girls were off the ground, held off the ground, when we were in motion, by the construction of the sack with its handles, and the draw of the rope. Iwoso was uttering tiny, desperate noises. They were muffled and almost inaudible. They reminded me of the squeakings of an urt in terror. I did not think they could be heard more than a few feet away. Surely not in the lodges on each side of that broad thoroughfare. A domestic sleen did emerge from between the lodges, its ears pricked up, but when it saw what was ensuing, it turned away, paying us no more attention. Such sights and sounds were not unfamiliar to it.
I looked back again. Iwoso was squirming madly in the sack. Did the well-tied little thing really think she could free herself? Did she not know she had been tied by a warrior, Hci, of the Kaiila? But there is a simple way to stop such squirming. One increases the speed of the kaiila. I did so.
When I came to the end of the thoroughfare I turned the kaiila in a broad circle, not to foul the lines to the sacks, and began to retrace its length, even more quickly.
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