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now understood why Grunt had been scanning the plains. I now understood why he
had wished to remain at the trading point. He had, doubtless, been waiting for
this Fleer. This was also, doubtless, the reason he had encouraged me to take
my time with the new girl, which I had, that they not be disturbed. Although
the Fleer speak a language clearly akin to Kaiila and Dust Leg there bad often
been strife among them. Thusly the Fleer had waited before coming to the camp.
If the Dust
Legs knew of his presence in their country they had not chosen to do anything
about it, perhaps in deference to Grunt.
Grunt and the Fleer spoke largely in sign, this being easier for them than the
attempt to communicate verbally.
I sat back from the fire, watching them closely.
It was now late at night. Grunt had shortened the coffle by two collars and
chain lengths. I had put the new girl in Margaret's place, after Priscilla and
before the Hobarts. This was the position of
"Last Girl," which, fittingly, not counting the
Hobarts, she would occupy, being the newest girl on the coffle. Coffle
arrangements, incidentally, are seldom arbitrary. One common principle of
arrangements is in order of height, with the tallest girls coming first; this
makes a lovely coffle. Sometimes, too, coffles are arranged in order of beauty
or preference, the most beautiful or the most preferred girls coming first.
Coloring and body type can also be important. It is for such reasons, perhaps,
that the coffle is sometimes spoken of as the slaver's necklace. Sales
strategies, too, can enter into the formation of a coffle, as, for example,
when a girl is put between two plainer girls to accentuate her beauty, or a
superb girl is saved for last, and many other considerations, as well, can
enter into the formation of a coffle. When one sees a chain of beauties,
fastened together, say, by the neck, or the left wrist or left ankle, it is
well to remember that their locations on that sturdy, metallic bond, keeping
them precisely where the master wishes, are seldom likely to be merely
fortuitous. After I had carried the new girl to the chain and put her on the
grass, locking the collar on her, I went to the red-haired girl and, as I had
earlier promised her, bound her hand and foot. She had asked a stupid
question, one pertaining to respect. She would spend the night tied.
"Is the new girl pleasing?" she had asked me, reproachfully.
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"Yes," I said.
"More pleasing than I?" she asked, lying at my feet, her hands tied behind
her, her ankles crossed and bound, her neck in the coffle collar.
"Yes," I said. "She is an experienced slave. You are only a new slave. You
have much to learn."
"Yes, Master," she said.
I then, for good measure, gagged her. She must learn that she was a slave.
Corn Stalks, after a time, took his leave. Before he left Grunt gave him some
hard candy and a fine steel knife.
"You seem moody," I said to Grunt. He had returned to the fire, and sat before
it, not speaking.
"It is nothing," he said.
"I should like to learn some Dust Leg," I said.
"I will teach you some, as we ride," he said.
"If I learn some Dust Leg, I should be able, to some extent, to communicate
with Kaiila," I said.
"Very easily," said Grunt, "for they are much the same, and, too, you would be
able to make yourself understood to the Kailiauk, and, to some extent, to the
Fleer."
"I have heard little of the Kailiauk," I said.
"They are not well known west of the perimeter,"
he said. 'Their country lies to the south and east of that of the Kaiila."
"Mostly," I said, "you spoke to Corn Stalks in sign."
"Yes," he said. "It is easier for us." He looked at me. "To learn sign," he
said, "would probably be more useful to you, all things considered, than
learning a smattering of Dust Leg."
"Teach me sign," I asked.
"To be sure," he said, "it would be wise for you to learn some Dust Leg or
Kaiila. There is no substitute for being able to converse with these people in
their own language. Sign, as far as I
know, is common to all the tribes of the Barrens."
"Why are they called Dust Legs?" I asked.
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