"You do not avert your eyes from me," she said.
"It would be difficult to do so," I admitted. I could no longer, then, pursue mybusiness in haste, as I had intended. Her loveliness, simply, did not permit it.
She was stunning. I stood before her, savoring her beauty.
"Please," she protested, tears in her eyes.
I walked slowly about her.
She tossed, her head, to throw her hair forward, over her breasts.
I took her hair on, and lifted it, with the quirt, and threw it again behind hershoulders. She shuddered as the leather touched her body.
Again I regarded her.
"How dare you look at me in that fashion?" she asked.
"You are beautiful," I explained.
"You struck me," she chided.
"Indeed," I said, "your beauty might be adequate even for that of a slave."
"Oh?" she said.
"Yes," I said. This was a high compliment, which I had paid to her.
"You struck me," she said.
I slapped the kaiila quirt in my palm. "Yes," I said.
"You struck me as though I might have been a kaiila, or an animal," she said.
"Yes," I sad…
"I am free!" she said.
"You do not appear to be free," I said. She knelt before me, stark, naked. Shewore an improvised girl-yoke. This consisted of a stout branch, about two inchesthick, and some five feet in length, drilled at the center and near theextremities. It fits behind the back of the girl's neck. A long, single thong ofrawhide fastens the girl in place. Her left wrist is thonged and then the thongis passed through the drilled aperture in the left end of the yoke. Her wrist ispulled tight to the yoke. The same thong is then taken behind the yoke andpassed through the center hole, whence, after having been knotted, to preventslippage to the left, and having been looped about the girl's neck, usually somefive times, and having been knotted again, to prevent slippage to the right, itis returned through the same hole, whence it is taken behind the yoke to thehole drilled at the right-hand extremity of the apparatus. It is passed throughthat hole and then, of course, is used to fasten the girl's right wrist inplace, tightly against the yoke. When this action is completed then, as you cansee, whole package is neatly tied. The knots near the throat in preventingslippage, serve two functions; they hold the girl's wrists against the yoke and,at the same time, prevent vent any undue stress from being placed on the throatbands. The function of the throat bands is to hold the girl's throat in theyoke, securely and perfectly, not to cause her discomfort, nor to strangle her.
Gorean men are not fools in tying women. Longer yokes, such as this,incidentally, are commonly used for marches.
Confined as she is, with her arms extended, a girl can exert almost no leverageto free herself. Smaller yokes, some two to two and a half feet in length,similarly constructed, can be used for other purposes, such as enjoying a girlin the furs. Afterwards she can always be kenneled or chained. A soft, braidedleather rope, a trade rope, cored with wire, some fifteen or twenty feet inlength, was looped some five times about the girl's left ankle, and tied, thencebeing run to the axle of the nearby wagon to which she was tethered. This is auseful sanitary provision as the girl, then, need not sit or lie too near to herown wastes. The wire coring in the rope, of course, tends to discourage theattempt to chew through the bond. Light chains, sheathed in silk, or satin orvelvet, incidentally, have this utility as well, as well as their intrinsicstrength, more than adequate for the securing of a female.
Three separate thongs, incidentally, two short and one long, are sometimes usedfor this type of securing of the female. In this way of doing things each wristis tied in the center of one of the short thongs. The two free ends of the shortthong are then taken back through the hole and, once through the hole, aresimply knotted, heavily. This knot cannot, of course, be drawn back through thesmall-drilled hole by the girl. Her wrists are thus held in place. One end ofthe longer thong is taken through the center aperture and is that thong is thenlooped about the girl's throat, usually, again, some five times, and thenreturned through the center aperture. Once through the aperture it is knottedtogether, heavily, with the other end of the thong. Again, of course, this knot,a heavy one, prevents the thongs from slipping back through the narrow aperture.
The girl's neck is thus held closely to the yoke. This, too, of course, is aneffective way of securing a girl. Indeed, there is, in my opinion, normallylittle to choose from between these two yoke ties. Which is preferred may welldepend on matters so trivial as the nature and lengths of the binding materialavailable, for example, ropes, cordage, binding fiber, twisted silk, thongs or,straps. If there is a preference, perhaps it would be for the single-bond tie.
It is stout, and, in its unity, aesthetically attractive. Second only to theabsolute helplessness of the female in her ties, in the Gorean mind, is theattractiveness of her bonds. They should be used to enhance her beauty as wellas to imprison it with absolute perfection.
These yoke ties, incidentally, are not to be confused with a stock tie, or astock yoke. This is normally a pair of hinged planks, with matched, semicircularopenings in the planks. The girl's wrists and neck are placed appropriatelybetween the planks, aligned with the semicircular openings. The planks are thenclosed and-tied or locked shut. Her neck and wrists, then, of course,helplessly, are fixed in place. They find themselves enclosed in effective andperfect constraints. is yoke is sometimes placed on a girl while she is on herback. If the planks are sufficiently wide the girl cannot see at the man isdoing to her. She can only feel it. Similar sensations may be induced in a womanby putting her in a slave hood. She may then either be bound or not, as themaster pleases.
"Nonetheless," she said, "I am free!"
"How do you know?" I asked.
"I am not branded," she said uncertainly.
"You do not need to be branded to be a slave," I said. "Surely you know that"
"Rescue me," she said. "Free met I will pay you much!"
I smiled. Did this lovely agent of Kurii really think that I might even considerfreeing her?
"Free me!" she said. "I will pay you much!" "Did you enjoy being struck?" Iasked.
"No!" she said.
"You will then answer my questions truthfully, directly and early," I told her.
"What do you wish to know?" she asked. "You are beautiful in the yoke," I said.
"Thank you," she said, uncertainly.
"It becomes you," I said.
"Thank you," she whispered.
"You might have been born a slave," I said. She looked at me. "thank you," shesaid…"Describe to me, in brief compass, the course of the battle," I said.
I turned about for I had heard a small noise behind me. Several of the Waniyanpihad now come to the vicinity of the wagon.
"I see you have found her'," said' Pumpkin.
"Yes," 1 said. I noted that neither he, nor the other Waniyanpi, lookedobviously and directly on the woman, though she was beautiful and bound. "Was ityou," I asked, tripped this beauty?"
"No, no," said Pumpkin, hastily. "That was done by the masters."
"It must have been you, then," I said, "who yoked her, and prettily and well."
"No, not" said Pumpkin, hastily. "That, too, was done by the red masters."
"I see," I said. I had surmised, Of course, that it would not have been theWaniyanpi who had removed the woman's clothing, or who had secured her, sosimply, yet so efficiently and brilliantly.
"We did, however," said Pumpkin, "tether her behind the wagon, looking away fromher as much as possible, that we would not have to look at her."
"The red masters permitted this?" I asked.
"Yes," said Pumpkin. "In amusement, they acceded to our pleas."