Read Hunters of Gor for Free Online Page B

like the spines of tabuk in
    the jaws of frenzied larls. In changing a sail, the yard is lowered, and then
    raised again. In the usual Gorean galley, lateen rigged, there is no practical
    way to take in, or shorten, sail, as with many types of square-rigged craft. In
    consequence, the different sails. The brail ropes serve little more, in the
    lateen-rigged galley, with its triangular sail on the long, sloping yard, has
    marvelous maneuvering capabilities, and can sail incredibly close to the wind.
    Its efficiency in tacking more than compensates for the convenience of a single,
    multipurposed sail. And, too, perhaps it should be mentioned, the lateen rigging
    is very beautiful.
    The two girls were brought up from the first hold. Their faces were red, and
    broken out. Their hair was soaked with perspiration. It is not pleasant to wear
    a Gorean slave hood. They gasped for air. A seaman, a hand in the hair of each,
    holding them bent over, pulled them past me.
    The brail ropes loosened, the tarn sail dropped, opening into the wind.
    It was very beautiful.
    In the stern quarter, behind the open kitchen, the girls were chained by the
    neck to the deck, to iron rings set in the heavy sanded wood. Each was given a
    yard of chain.
    I smelled roast bosk cooking and fried vulo. It would be delicious. I thought no
    more of the girls.
    I must attend to matters of the ship.
    I held the leg of fried vulo toward one of the girls.
    I sat before them, on a stool, between them and the open kitchen. They knelt.
    There were still chained by the neck to the iron rings. But now, too, I had had
    their hands tied behind then, with binding fiber.
    Some men stood about, Rim and Thurnock among them. There was still a good wind,
    tight and sweet in the tarn sail. The three Gorean moons gleamed in the black,
    starlit sky. The two girls were beautiful in the shifting yellow light of the
    ship’s lantern, illuminating them.
    I had not had then fed all day.
    Indeed, I had not had them fed since their acquisition, the morning of the
    preceding day, though I had seen that they had had enough water. Further, I
    expected that Arn, and his men, had not been overly generous in feeding their
    fair enemies. Both girls must be half starved.
    One of the girls, she toward whom I held the leg of fried vulo, reached her head
    toward me, opening her delicate, white teeth to bite at it.
    I drew it away.
    She straightened herself again, proudly. I rather admired them.
    “I would know,” I said to them, “the whereabouts of the camp of an outlaw girl,
    and its dancing circle.”
    “We know nothing,” said one of the girls.
    “The name of the outlaw girl,” I said, “is Verna.”
    I saw recognition leap into their eyes, briefly, before they could conceal their
    response.
    “We know nothing,” said the second girl.
    “You know, or know well enough,” I said, “the location or approximate location,
    of her camp and dancing circle.”
    “We know nothing,” said the first girl again.
    “You will tell me,” I informed them.
    “We are panther girls,” said the first girl.” “We will tell you nothing.”
    I held the leg of fried vulo again toward the first girl. For a time, she
    ignored it, her head to one side. Then, looking at me with hatred, unable to
    restrain herself, she bent forward again. Her teeth, closed on the meat and she
    cried out in her throat, a gasp, a tiny cry, glad, inarticulate, uncontrollable,
    and began to bite at the leg, swiftly, tearing at it, her head to one side, the
    blond hair falling over my wrist. With my eyes I indicated that Rim should,
    similarly, feed the other.
    He did so.
    In moments the girls had torn the meat from the bones, and Rim and I threw the
    bones into the sea.
    They were sill half starving, of course. They had had but a taste of meat.
    I could see the anxiety in their eyes, lest they not be fed more.
    “Feed us!” cried the first girl. “We will tell you what you wish to know.”
    “Agreed,” said I to