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was
    moved by eight tunicked, collared slave girls, two to each wheel, pushing at the
    wheels. It was guided by a man walking behind it, by means of a lever extending
    back, under the wagon, from the front axle. Flanking the wagon, on both sides,
    were musicians, with their drums and flutes. Behind the wagon, in the white
    robes, trimmed with gold and purple, of merchant magistrates, came five men. I
    recognized them as judges.
    A pole extended from the front of the wagon, some eight or nine feet. There was,
    at its termination, a semicircular leather cushion, with a short chain. The
    girl’s neck had been forced back against the cushion, and then the chain had
    been fastened, securing her, standing, in place. As the wagon moved forward, she
    was, thus, forced to walk before it. The pole, projecting out from the wagon,
    isolated her, keeping her from other human beings.
    The music became louder.
    I suddenly recognized the girl. It was she who had cut my purse earlier in the
    day, the sensuous little wench, whose ear had been notched. I gather that she
    had not had such good fortune later in the day. I well knew what the punishment
    was for a Gorean female, following her second conviction for theft.
    On the flat-topped wagon, fastened to one side on a metal plate, already white
    with heat, was a brazier, from which protruded the handles of two irons. Also
    mounted on the wagon was a branding rack, of the sort popular in Tyros. It was,
    I conjectured, another instance of the cultural minglings which characterized
    the port of Lydius.
    The wagon stopped on the broad street, before the wharves, where the crown could
    gather about.
    A judge climbed, on wooden stairs at the back of the wagon, to its surface. The
    other judges stood below him, on the street.
    The girl pulled at the leather binding fiber fastening her wrists behind her
    back. She moved her neck and head in the confinement of the chain and leather,
    at the end of the pole.
    “Will the Lady Tina of Lydius deign to face me?” asked the judge, using the
    courteous tones and terminology with which Gorean free women, often inordinately
    honored, are addressed.
    I looked quickly at Rim ND Thurnock. “Tina!” I said.
    They grinned. “It must be she,” said Rim, “who drugged Arn, and took his gold.”
    Thurnock grinned.
    I, too, smiled. It must indeed be she. Arn, I supposed, would have much relished
    being here.
    I suspected that little Tina would cut few purses in the future.
    “Will the Lady Tina of Lydius please deign to face me?” asked the judge, with
    the same courtesy as before.
    The girl turned in the chain and leather to face her judge, standing removed
    from her and above her, in his white robes, trimmed with two borders, one of
    gold, the other of purple.
    “You have been tried, and convicted, of the crime of theft,” intoned the judge.
    “She stole two gold pieces from me!” cried a man standing in the crowd. “And I
    had witnesses!”
    “It took an Ahn to catch her,” said another man, laughing.
    The judge paid no attention to these speakings.
    “You have been tried and convicted of the crime of theft,” said the judge, “for
    the second time.”
    The girl’s eyes were terrified.
    “It is now my duty, Lady Tina,” said the judge, “to pass sentence on you.”
    She looked up at him.
    “Do you understand?” he asked.
    “Yes,” she said, “my judge.”
    “Are you prepared now, Lady Tina of Lydius,” said the judge, “to hear your
    sentence?”
    “Yes,” she said, regarding him, “my judge.”
    “I herewith sentence you, Lady Tina of Lydius,” said the judge, “to slavery.”
    There was a shout of pleasure from the crowd. The girl’s head was down. She had
    been sentenced.
    “Bring her to the rack,” said the judge.
    The man who had guided the wagon from the rear, and had now locked the brake on
    the front wheel, went to the bound girl. He unfastened the chain that bound her
    against the curved leather at the end of the pole,