"John Norman - Gor 23 - Renegades of Gor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norman John)

тАЬStrip,тАЭ I ordered them.
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I then tied their hands behind their backs. Ropes were found in the wagon and we
tied them by the necks to the back of the wagon. Verr, too, and female slaves, and
such, are often tethered to the back of wagons.
тАЬIn the south,тАЭ said the driver, from the wagon box, тАЬthere are work gangs. We
can probably get something for them there.тАЭ
тАЬStay the traffic on the road, as you can, for an Ehn,тАЭ I said to the fellow of the
driver. тАЬWe will get the wagon back on the road.
тАЬI doubt two tharlarion can pull this grade from the ditch, with this weight, with
the footing,тАЭ said the driver.
тАЬHurry to it,тАЭ I said to the fellow of the driver. тАЬWe shall try it.тАЭ
He scrambled up the embankment, the lantern in one hand, clutching at knots of
wet grass with the other, slipping, sliding back, then regaining his feet, then
reaching the surface. (pg.12) In the ditch we were ankle deep in water. The rain
continued to pour down in torrents. It ran from the pitched surface of the road
downward, in tiny rivers; it struck into the swirling ditch water, lashing it into
foam, dashing it upwards, its impact registered in thousands of overlapping circles
and leaping crowns of water. We saw the lantern, in the fellowтАЩs hand, at the
surface, swinging. тАЬHold! Hold!тАЭ he cried in the storm. I think he then literally
seized the harness of the next tharlarion. тАЬHold!тАЭ he cried.
тАЬWe will never make it,тАЭ said the driver.
тАЬTry,тАЭ I said. тАЬBesides we have three stout fellows here who can turn about and
put their backs into it.тАЭ
тАЬIf the wagon slips,тАЭ said the leader of the brigands, тАЬwe could be crushed,
mangled beneath the wheels!тАЭ
тАЬSee it does not slip,тАЭ I said.
There were angry shouts now from the delayed line, moving south.
тАЬHurry!тАЭ I said to the driver.
He moved about the wagon and climbed to the wagon box. I heard, in a moment,
his shouting to the lead beast, and the crack of the tharlarion whip. The whip,
incidentally, seldom falls on the beast. Its proximity, and noise, are usually more
than sufficient. Too, it often functions as an attention-garnering device, a signal,
so to speak, preparing the beast for the sequent issuance of verbal commands, to
which it is trained to respond. Too, of course, like a staff of office, a rod, a baton,
or scepter, it is an authority device. To be sure, the device has its authority largely
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in virtue of what it genuinely stands for, and what it can do. Much the same,
incidentally, can be said for the whip in the master/slave relationship. There, too,
normally, it seldom falls on the woman. it is not necessary that it do so. She sees
it, and knows what it can do. That is usually more than sufficient. She will have
felt it at some time, of course, so that her understanding in the matter will be more
than theatrical. She knows, of course, that if she is in the least bit displeasing or
recalcitrant, it will be used upon her. Indeed, she knows that she might be, from