The Virgin of Zesh & the Tower of Zanid by L. Sprague de Camp Read Free Book Online

much overrated commodity,” said Kirwan. “Of negotiable value only in patriarchal societies.”
    Althea shook her head. “Earth was never like this!”

V
    Next morning Althea lay on her pallet, too sore and miserable to move, when a change in the motion of the ship aroused her. She came out to see the Labághti hove to captain, passengers, and crew gathered around the mainmast. The captain gave an order, and a couple of sailors untied the prisoner. Gottfried Bahr said in a low voice, “The captain told them to—ah—I don’t know how you would sat it; zu kielholen ihn.”
    “Keelhaul him!” said Kirwan.
    “What’s that?” asked Althea. “I’ve heard the word—”
    “Sh!” said Kirwan. “You’ll see.”
    While the Terrans were speaking, grinning sailors tied four long ropes to the limbs of the accused. Three of them hustled him to the bow, while a fourth walked aft along the rail, paying out one of the ropes over the side as he went.
    The sailors holding the remaining three ropes then seized the culprit and threw him off the bow. His shriek was cut off by the splash.
    The sailor who had walked to the stern, standing braced, began hauling in his rope so that the victim was drawn underwater and back along the ship’s keel. Two of the rope-holders walked slowly aft, each leaning over the rail, one on each side and holding his rope, so that the sailor was kept centered under the keel. Meanwhile, the remaining rope man remained at the bow, paying out his rope as the sailor was pulled away from him.
    Bahr said, “There is an easier way to haul him from one side of the ship to the other, but the captain means to make an example of him.”
    “But he’ll drown!” cried Althea unhappily.
    “Hush, girl,” said Kirwan. “ ’Twill be a small loss.”
    Bahr said dryly, “I think that the punishment is timed so that the victim can just survive if he keeps his head and takes a long breath before being drawn under. But I doubt if this one so much presence of mind had.”
    “If he’d been that smart,” said Kirwan, “he’d not have got into trouble in the first place. At least, darling, you can’t complain you don’t attract the men. First Gorchakov, now this felly.”
    In time, the sailor appeared at the stern of the ship. Two Krishnans hauled the body up over the stern. It lay still on the poop deck, with water running off its greasy skin. Althea approached it fearfully. She had never before seen a man or a humanoid who had died by violence. She said, “He might have a little life in him. We ought to try artificial respiration.”
    “It is best not to interfere,” said Bahr.
    “Besides,” said Kirwan, “what d’you want to bring the bastard back for? Good riddance, I’d say.”
    “No, that’s against my principles,” said Althea.
    She bent over the body, from which the sailors were untying the ropes. If the Earthmen would not help, she would have to do her duty.
    She tugged and heaved the bulky body into prone position, straddled it, and began pumping air into its lungs. Captain Memzadá burst into questions. Bahr answered these and explained to Althea, “I have told him that it is a religious rite. He says that now he knows all Terrans are mad, but he will not interfere.”
    Althea continued pumping until she got tired. Then the other Terrans, shamed into action, relieved her. Bahr had just taken over from Kirwan when the body began to stir, groan, and cough. The rest of the ship’s company cast startled glances at the Terrans and edged away from them.
    Althea and her companions left the sailor huddled in a corner of the poop deck, collapsed but alive. The captain looked at them with an unreadable expression as they walked past him at the tiller. The Labághti had long since been under way again.
    Later that day, Althea, sitting in the bow in a reverie, was approached by her companions and the revived sailor. Bahr said, “This man is very perplexed. He would like to ask you some