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old world. If you cross this threshold now, you will be in that world. Do you
understand?" "Yes, Jason," she said. "And in that world," I
told her, "you will be, legally and completely a slave." "Yes, Jason," she
said. I then opened the door. Beyond that door lay not the bricks, the
gutters, the dingy air, the hurrying of traffic, the triviality and misery,
which had previously lain outside it, but now, as the door opened, we, saw
open fields, vast and green, and a sky that was gloriously blue, studded with
scudding clouds. The air was gloriously fresh, pure and clean. She stepped
across the dark, stained, flat board that marked the threshold of the
restaurant, out onto the grass, into the sunlight and wind. "You have crossed
the threshold into the world of Gor," I told her. She turned to face me. "Yes,
Master," she said. I turned and closed the door, the dark, heavy door, with
the rectangular panes of glass set in it, with the curtains behind the glass.
As the door closed, it, and the restaurant, and its world vanished. I turned
to face the girl. We were alone in the field, in the sunlight. "It is time to
begin to accustom you to your slavery," I told her. "Yes, Master," she said.
"On your back, Slave," I told her. "Yes, my Master," she said.
"Do not slack, you Sleen," said the pirate, snapping his whip. "Work! Work!"
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We had, in the last few days, many times raised and lowered the sea gate. I
speculated that these activities were largely connected with the coming and
going of scout ships, and supply ships and fitting vessels. Then, yesterday,
the gate had been open for some four Ahn. I
speculated that the fleet of Policrates was now abroad. In his own hall, when
his girls had finished with me, making me yield in his presence, his enemy,
for the amusement of himself and his men, I had heard him, as he had spoken to
Kliomenes, declare an intention to move his fleet east. Now, I gathered, he
had done so. Doubtless this was to discourage the formation of an alliance
among the eastern towns, and to prevent ships being sent to stop or delay
Ragnar Voskjard at the chain west of Port Cos.
"Keep moving," called the pirate. Again the whip cracked.
As I made my way about the windlass, treading the slatted, circular platform,
with my fellow prisoners, thrusting against the metal pole, I saw, chained to
the wall, and at one side, behind the water trough cut in the stone, their
necks still fastened to their own poles, two other sets of prisoners. There
are thus, in reserve, additional chained crews for the work of the windlass.
Too, as was clear, no one at the windlass was indispensable. This
comprehension doubtless played its role in keeping order amongst us. We knew
that any one of us could be cut from his chains at the merest whim of our
jailer.
"Hold!" called the pirate. We stopped, the gate lifted. He engaged the holding
pawl.
The gate would not now slip. The weights, overhead and to one side, swung on
their chains.
We reversed our position at the poles, stepping under them and then standing,
turning the chain swivels, to which the chains on our collars were attached.
We were now in position to brake the gate, in its lowering. I, then, like
several of the others, the holding pawl now engaged, put my head down on the
bar, resting. It is not easy to raise the gate. Outside I
supposed that one or more ships, river galleys, might be gracefully entering
or leaving the
lakelike courtyard of the holding of Policrates. The signal to raise or lower
the gate is given by a guard on the wall, at the west gate tower, one of two
towers flanking the sea gate. It is a voice signal. Accordingly its
authenticity is seldom in doubt. Anyone, of course, might strike on a bar or
blow on a trumpet. The windlass apparatus was within the west gate tower.
It felt good to rest.
Yesterday the gate had been open for some four Ahn. I conjectured the fleet
had left.
Too, it seemed likely to me that Policrates would have accompanied the fleet.
Indeed, in his hall, I bad gathered, from what I had heard, that the fleet was
to set forth under his personal command. The work afoot, thus, was doubtless
too serious to be left now to subordinates.
Kliomenes, I suspected, would then have been left in charge of the holding.
That, at any rate, was my hope.
"The gate is soon to be close," said the pirate. "Be ready." It takes less
time to close the gate than open it, but that, too, because of the weights
involved, the windlass stress and the need to control the windlass, requires a
considerable effort. To make the gate fall with extreme swiftness,
incidentally, as was done when my galley was shattered, it is necessary only
to disengage one of the counterweights. The pole-like spokes, of course, by
which the windlass is normally turned, or managed, should be freed of the
windlass before this is done, a disengagement which is effected by loosing the
pin-and-lock devices and withdrawing the poles from the windlass. If this were
not done the poles would spin wickedly, turning with the rotating windlass.
This eventuality would be extremely dangerous, of course, to anyone within the
compass of the poles' movement or who might be, as we were, chained to the
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poles themselves. There are two counterweights, as I have mentioned, which
partially balance the weight of the gate. The disengagement of one is quite
sufficient to permit the gate to rattle viciously downward. If both were
disengaged the gate itself might be severely damaged, "Be ready!" called the
pirate.
I looked upward, the collar slipping on my neck. A golden shaft of light
filtered downward, falling gently into the chamber. In it there danced a
myriad specks of golden dust.
It was very beautiful. I also noted that the window was too narrow to admit
the egress of a man.
"I fooled Policrates himself," I mentioned to the fellow next to me, "when I
brought the topaz to him. He did not know me for an imposter any more than the
dolt, Kliomenes."
The fellow looked at me, blankly.
"Liar!" screamed the pirate. "I have warned you about your lies!
The whip fell again and again on me. "Persist in these lies," cried the
pirate, "and I will bring the matter to the attention of Kliomenes himself!"
"Forgive me, Captain," I said, as though frightened. But I had also gathered
from his remark that my conjecture that Policrates was not now in the holding
was correct. Surely if
Policrates had been in the holding he would have threatened me with his name
and not that of
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