Players of Gor by John Norman Page A

that the stateres in the fellow's wallet were from Brundisuim did not mean that he himself was from that city. Anyone might have paid him in the staters of Brundisium. What enemies did I have? Perhaps, after all, robbery was the fellow's motivation.
    I shuddered. I did not understand what had happened. I did not like what had happened.
    I looked to the slave. I turned her to her belly on the cushion, putting her head to the side. I was disturbed, shaken and tense. I untied her ankles. Too, I had made a kill. I must calm myself. It is one of the things women are for. She whimpered, pounded, her small hands twisting in the tight leather thongs. I then tied her ankles together again, and then, this time, fastened her wrists to her ankles. I then tied the wallet, filled with the golden staters of Brundisium, about her collar. That would give Vart some consolation, I suspected, for the scandal he would find in his booth.
    "Tarl," I heard, a voice speaking softly, outside the curtain. It was the voice of Samos.
    "Enter," I said.
    "I have been looking all over for you," he said. "I saw Henrius. He suggested you might be here." Samos' eyes opened widely. "What is going on here?" he asked. "Who is that?"
    "Do you know him?" I asked.
    "No," said Samos, examining the body.
    "He tried to kill me," I said.
    "Why?" he asked. "The slave?"
    "No," I said. "I think perhaps robbery."
    "His robes seem rich," said Samos.
    "In his wallet were several staters, of gold, from Brundisium," I said.
    "That is a valuable stater," said Samos. "It has good weight."
    "He knew I was carrying gold," I said. "I had given evidence of this in rewarding a magician in the carnival."
    "Even so," said Samos, "it would seem, from what you say, that he stood in no need of money."
    "I do not think so," I said. "Yet robbery seems the only likely explanation."
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    "I do not know," said Samos. "Perhaps you are right."
    "You sound doubtful," I observed.
    "Thieves, my friend," said Samos, "seldom carry gold on their persons."
    "Perhaps he had stolen it this evening," I said.
    "No soncdierable therft has been reported this evening," said Samos, "as far as I know. It was not in the recent reports of the guards."
    "Perhaps he slew the individual from whom he stole the coins and then thrust the body into a canal," I suggested.
    "Perhaps," said Samos. "But his mode of garb does not suggest that of the elusive, quick-moving thief."
    "It might make it easier to approach a victim," I suggested.
    "Perhaps," said Samos.
    "Too, robes would make it easier to get a knife through the check points at carnival," I said.
    "Perhaps," said Samos.
    "You do not seem convinced," I said.
    "I am not," said Samos.
    "This booth is closed," I said. "I gather that you did not rent it and close it."
    "No," said Samos.
    "Henrius," I said, "told me that someone wished to see me here."
    "Was that before this fellow saw you throw gold to the magician?" asked Samos.
    "No," I said. "Afterwards."
    "Perhaps that is the explanation, then," said Samos.
    "I do not think so," I said. "It was really not very long after I left the magician's platform that I saw Henrius. I do not think it likely that the arrangement could have been made that quickly. Too, Henrius, as I recall, did not speak as though he had just been contacted."
    "He did not deny it, either, di he?" asked Samos.
    "No," I said. "But if the fellow was a stranger, a common thief, how would he be likley to know my name, or of any connection between myself and Henrius, or others?"
    "That is true," said Samos.
    "The booth, too, presumably would have to be rented, and the slave drugged," I said.
    "I see," said Samos. "It seems likely then, if he is a common thief, that he would have merely followed you here, and is not the fellow who spoke to Henrius, or who would be connected with the booth in some way."
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    "Yes," I said. "but then who would have rented the booth, who would have wanted to see me here?"
    "What have we there?" asked Samos,