Praetor

"Where are odds made on the Kaissa matches?" I asked a small fellow, in the garb of the leather workers. He wore the colors of Tabor on his cap.

"I would ask you that," he said.

"Do you favor Scormus of Ar?" I inquired.

"Assuredly," he said.

I nodded. I decided it would be best to search for a merchant who was on the fair's staff, or find one of their booths or praetor stations, where such information might be found.
Beasts of Gor     Book 12     Page 46

We stood in the vicinity of the high desk of the wharf praetor.

"There seemed no reason to ring it earlier," said the man. "It was thought she would be soon picked up, by guardsmen, or the crew of the Palms of Schendi."

"She was to be shipped on that craft?" I asked.

"Yes," said the man. "I suppose now her feet must be cut off."

"Is it her first attempt to escape?" asked another man.

"I do not know," said another.

"Why is there this bother about an escaped slave," demanded a man, his clothing torn and blood at his ear. "I have been robbed! What are you doing about this?"

"Be patient," said the wharf praetor. "We know the pair. We have been searching for them for weeks." The praetor handed a sheet of paper to one of his guardsmen. People were gathered around. Another guardsman stopped ringing the alarm bar. It hung from a projection on a pole, the pole fixed upright on the roof of a nearby warehouse.

"Be on the watch for an escaped female slave," called the guardsman. "She is blond-haired and blue-eyed. She is barbarian. When last seen she was naked."
. . .

"Return the girl to the praetor's station on this pier," said the guardsman.

"What of those who robbed me!" cried the fellow with the torn clothing and the blood behind his ear.
. . .

"We shall send two guardsmen to investigate," said the praetor. "Thank you, Citizen, for this information."

"They will be gone now," said the man with the blood behind his ear.

"Perhaps not," I said.

The praetor dispatched a pair of guardsmen, who moved swiftly toward the Rim canal.
. . .

There seemed to be something going on now at the post of the wharf praetor, so I returned to that area.
"It is she!" said the fellow in the torn tunic with the blood behind his ear, pointing at the small, dark-haired girl. She stood before the high desk of the praetor, her wrists tied behind her back. Beside her, his hands, too, bound behind him, stood the fellow who had been her accomplice. They were fastened together by the neck, by a guardsman's neck strap.
. . .

"What do you have in your mouth, Girl?" asked the praetor.

One of the guardsmen opened her mouth, not gently, and retrieved the coin, a rather large one, a tarsk bit. Ten such coins make a copper tarsk. A hundred copper tarsks make a silver tarsk.

The praetor placed the coin on his desk, the surface of which was some seven feet high, below the low, solid wooden bar The height of the praetor's desk, he on the high stool behind it, permits him to see a goodly way up and down the wharves. Also, of course, one standing before the desk must look up to see the praetor, which, psychologically, tends to induce a feeling of fear for the power of the law. The wooden bar before the desk's front edge makes it impossible to see what evidence or papers the praetor has at his disposal as he considers your case. Thus, you do not know for certain how much he knows. Similarly, you cannot tell what he writes on your papers.

"Give me back my coin!" said the girl.

"Be silent," said a guardsman.

"She is the one who cooperated in the attack upon you?" asked the praetor, indicating the bound girl.

"Yes," said the man with blood behind his ear.

"No!" cried the girl. "I have never seen him before in my life!"

"I see," said the praetor. He apparently was not unfamiliar with the girl.

"Ha!" snorted the man who had accused her.

"How did you come to be helpless and tied beside the canal?" inquired the praetor.

The girl looked about, wildly. "We were set upon by brigands, robbed, and left tied," she said.

There was laughter.

"You must believe me," she said. "I am a free woman!"

"Examine the pouch of the man," said the praetor.

It was opened by a guardsman, who sifted his hands through coins.

The girl looked, startled, at the pouch. She had apparently not understood that it had contained as much as it did. Her small hands pulled futilely, angrily, at the binding fiber which restrained them.

"It seems that the fellow who robbed you," smiled the praetor, "neglected to take your pouch."

The bound man said nothing. He glared sullenly downward.

"He also left you a tarsk bit," said the praetor, to the girl.

"It was all I could save," she said, lamely.

There was more laughter.

"I was not robbed," said the bound man. "But I was unaccountably, from behind, struck down. I was then tied to this little she-urt. Her guilt is well known, I gather, on the wharves. Clearly enemies have intended to unjustly link me to her guilt."

"Turgus!" she cried.

"I have never seen her before in my life," he said.

"Turgus!" she cried. "No, Turgus!"

"Did you see me strike you?" asked the fellow who had been addressed as Turgus.

"No," said the fellow who had been struck. "No, I did not."

"It was not I," said the bound man. "Unbind me," said he then to the praetor. "Set me free, for I am innocent. It is clear I am the victim of a plot."

"He told me what to do!" she said. "He told me what to do!"

"Who are you, you little slut?" asked the bound man. "It is obvious," he said, to the praetor, "that this she-urt, whoever she is, wishes to implicate me in her guilt, that it will go easier on her."

"I assure you," smiled the praetor, "it will not go easier on her."

"My thanks, Officer," said the man.

The girl, crying out with rage, tried to kick at the man tied beside her. A guardsman struck her on the right thigh with the butt of his spear and she cried out in pain.

"If you should attempt to do that again, my dear," said the praetor, "your ankles will be tied, and you will hear the rest of the proceedings while lying on your belly before the tribunal."

"Yes, Officer," she said.

"What is your name?" asked the praetor of the girl.

"Sasi," she said.

"Lady Sasi?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, "I am free!"

There was laughter. She looked about, angrily, bound. I did not think she would need be worried much longer about her freedom.

"Usually," smiled the praetor, "a free woman wears more than binding fiber and a neck strap."

"My gown was taken, when I was tied," she said. "It was torn from me."

"Who took it," asked the praetor, "a casual male, curious to see your body?"

"A girl took it," she cried, angrily, "a blond girl. She was naked. Then she took my garment. Then I was naked! Find her, if you wish to be busy with matters of the law! I was the victim of theft! It was stolen from me, my garment! You should be hunting her, the little thief, not holding me here. I am an honest citizen!"

There was more laughter.

"May I be freed, my officer?" asked the bound man. "A mistake has been made."

The praetor turned to two guardsmen. "Go to where you found these two tied," he said. "I think our missing slave will be found in the garment of the she-urt."

Two guardsmen left immediately. I thought the praetor's conjecture was a sound one. On the other hand, obviously, the girl would not be likely to linger in the place where she had stolen the she-urt's brief, miserable rag. Still, perhaps her trail could be found in that area.

"I demand justice," said the girl.

"You will receive it, Lady Sasi," said the praetor.

She turned white.

"At least she will not have to be stripped for the iron," said a fellow near me, grinning.

The girl moaned.

The praetor then addressed himself to the fellow who had the dried blood caked behind his left ear. It was dried in his hair, too, on the left side of his head.

"Is this female, identified as the Lady Sasi, she who detained you, when you were attacked?" asked the praetor.

"It is she," he said.

"I never saw him before," she wept.

"It is she," he repeated.

"I only wanted to beg a tarsk bit," she said. "I did not know he was going to strike you."

"Why did you not warn him of the man's approach behind him?" asked the praetor.

"I didn't see the man approaching," she said, desperately.

"But you said you didn't know he was going to strike him," said the praetor. "Therefore, you must have seen him."

"Please let me go," she said.

"I was not seen to strike the man," said the fellow whom the girl had identified as Turgus. "I claim innocence. There is no evidence against me. Do what you will with the little slut. But set me free."

The girl put down her head, miserably. "Please let me go," she begged.

"I was robbed of a golden tarn," said the fellow with the blood at the side of his head.

"There is a golden tarn in the pouch," said a guardsman. "On the golden tarn taken from me," said the man,"I had scratched my initials, Ba-Ta Shu, Bem Shandar, and, on the reverse of the coin, the drum of Tabor."

The guardsman lifted the coin to the praetor. "It is so," said the praetor.

The bound man, suddenly, irrationally, struggled. He tried to throw off his bonds. The girl cried out in misery, jerked choking from her feet. Then two guardsmen held the fellow by the arms. "He is strong," said one of the guardsmen. The girl, gasping, regained her feet. Then she stood again neck-linked to him, beside him, his fellow prisoner.

"The coin was planted in my pouch," he said. "It is a plot!"

"You are an urt, Turgus," she said to him, "an urt!"

"It is you who are the she-urt!" he snarled.

"You have both been caught," said the praetor, beginning to fill out some papers. "We have been looking for you both for a long time."

"I am innocent," said the bound man.

"How do you refer to yourself?" asked the praetor. "Turgus," he said.

The praetor entered that name in the papers. He then signed the papers.

He looked down at Turgus. "How did you come to be tied?" he asked.

"Several men set upon me," he said. "I was struck from behind. I was subdued."

"It does not appear that you were struck from behind," smiled the praetor.

The face of Turgus was not a pretty sight, as I had dashed it into the stones, and had then struck the side of his head against the nearby wall.

"Is the binding fiber on their wrists from their original bonds, as you found them?" asked the praetor of one of the guardsmen.

"It is," he said.

"Examine the knots," said the praetor.

"They are capture knots," said the guardsman, smiling.

"You made a poor choice of one to detain, my friends," said the praetor.

They looked at one another, miserably. Their paths had crossed that of a warrior.

They now stood bound before the praetor.

"Turgus, of Port Kar," said the praetor, "in virtue of what we have here today established, and in virtue of the general warrant outstanding upon you, you are sentenced to banishment. If you are found within the limits of the city after sunset this day you will be impaled."

The face of Turgus was impassive.

"Free him," he said.

Turgus was cut free, and turned about, moving through the crowd. He thrust men aside.

Suddenly he saw me. His face turned white, and he spun about, and fled.

I saw one of the black seamen, the one who had passed me on the north walkway of the Rim canal, when I had been descending toward the pier, looking at me, curiously.

The girl looked up at the praetor. The neck strap, now that Turgus was freed of it, looped gracefully up to her throat, held in the hand of a guardsman. Her small wrists were still bound behind her back.

She seemed very small and helpless before the high desk.

"Please let me go," she said. "I will be good."

"The Lady Sasi, of Port Kar," said the praetor, "in virtue of what we have here today established, and in virtue of the general warrant outstanding upon her, must come under sentence."

"Please, my officer," she begged.

"I am now going to sentence you," he said.

"Please," she cried. "Sentence me only to a penal brothel!"

"The penal brothel is too good for you," said the praetor.

"Show me mercy," she begged.

"You will be shown no mercy," he said.

She looked up at him, with horror.

"You are sentenced to slavery," he said.

"No, no!" she screamed.

One of the guards cuffed her across the mouth, snapping her head back.

There were tears in her eyes and blood at her lip.

"Were you given permission to speak?" asked the praetor.

"No, no," she wept, stammering. "Forgive me - Master."

"Let her be taken to the nearest metal shop and branded," said the praetor. "Then let her be placed on sale outside the shop for five Ehn, to be sold to the first buyer for the cost of her branding. If she is not sold in five Ehn then take her to the public market shelves and chain her there, taking the best offer which equals or exceeds the cost of her branding."

The girl looked up at the praetor. The strap, in the hand of the guardsman, grew taut at her throat.

"This tarsk bit," said the praetor, lifting the coin which had been taken from her mouth earlier, "is now confiscated, and becomes the property of the port." This was appropriate. Slaves own nothing. It is, rather, they who are owned.

The girl, the new slave, was then dragged stumbling away from the tribunal.
. . .

The praetor was now conversing with the fellow, Bem Shandar, from Tabor. Papers were being filled in; these had to do with the claims Bem Shandar was making to recover his stolen money.
Explorers of Gor     Book 13     Pages 50 - 59

"Are her thighs marked?" asked the praetor.

"No," said a guardsman. He had already made this determination.

The girl stood, her hands bound behind her, in the brief rag of the she-urt, before the tribunal of the praetor. The neck strap of a guardsman was on her throat.

"Is this your slave?" asked the praetor of Ulafi of Schendi.

"Yes," said he.

"How do I know she is a slave?" asked the praetor. "Her body, her movements, do not suggest that she is a slave. She seems too tight, too cold, too rigid, to he a slave."

"She was free, captured by Bejar, in his seizure of the Blossoms of Telnus," said Ulafi. "She is new to her condition."

"Is Bejar present?" asked the praetor.

"No," said a man. Bejar had left the port yesterday, to again try his luck upon gleaming Thassa, the sea.

"Her measurements, exactly, fit those of the slave," said a guardsman. He lifted the tape measure, marked in horts, which had been applied, but moments before, to the girl's body.

The praetor nodded. This was excellent evidence. The girl's height, ankles, wrists, throat, hips, waist and bust had been measured. She had even been thrown on a grain scale and weighed.

The praetor looked down at the girl. He pointed to her. "Kajira?" he asked. "Kajira?"

She shook her head vigorously. That much Gorean she at least understood. She denied being a slave girl.

The praetor made a small sign to one of the guardsmen.

"Leash!" said the fellow, suddenly, harshly, behind the girl, in Gorean.

She jumped, startled, and cried out, frightened, but she did not, as a reflex, lift her head, turning it to the left, nor did the muscles in her upper arms suddenly move as though thrusting her wrists behind her, to await the two snaps of the slave bracelets.

"Nadu!" snapped the guard. But the girl had not, involuntarily, begun to kneel.

"I have her slave papers here," said Ulafi, "delivered with her this morning by Vart's man."

He handed them to the praetor.

"She does not respond as a slave because she has not yet learned her slavery," said Ulafi. "She has not yet learned the collar and the whip."

The praetor examined the papers. In Ar slaves are often fingerprinted. The prints are contained in the papers.

"Does anyone know if this is Ulafi's slave?" asked the praetor.

I did not wish to speak, for I would, then, have revealed myself as having been at the sale. I preferred for this to be unknown.

The four she-urts, with which the blond-haired barbarian had fished for garbage in the canal, stood about.

"She should have been marked," said the praetor. "She should have been collared."

"I have a collar here," said Ulafi, lifting a steel slave collar. It was a shipping collar. It had five palms on it, and the sign of Schendi, the shackle and scimitar. The girl who wore it would be clearly identified as a portion of Ulafi's cargo.

"I wish to sail with the tide," said Ulafi "In less than half an Ahn it will be full."

"I am sorry," said the praetor.

"Has not Vart been sent for," asked Ulafi, "to confirm my words?"

"He has been sent for," said the praetor.

From some eighty or so yards away, from the tiny shop of a metal worker, I heard a girl scream. I knew the sound. A girl had been marked. She who had been the Lady Sasi, the little she-urt who had been the accomplice of Turgus of Port Kar, had been branded.

"I am afraid we must release this woman," said the praetor, looking down at the girl. "It is unfortunate, as she is attractive."

"Test her for slave heat," suggested a man.

"That is not appropriate," said the praetor, "if she is free."

"Make her squirm," said the man. "See if she is slave hot."

"No," said the praetor.

The praetor looked at the girl. He looked at Ulafi. "I am afraid I must order her release," he said.

"No!" said Ulafi.

"Wait," said a man. "It is Vart!"

The girl shrank back, miserably, her hands tied behind her back, the neck strap on her throat, before Vart, who had pushed through the crowd.

"Do you know this girl?" asked the praetor of Vart.

"Of course," said Vart. "She is a slave, sold last night to this captain." He indicated Ulafi of Schendi. "I got a silver tarsk for her."

The praetor nodded to a guardsman. He thrust the girl down to her knees. She was in the presence of free men. With the neck strap he pulled her head down and tied it down, fastening it to her ankles by means of the neck strap; the leather between her neck and ankles, which were flow crossed and bound, was short and taut. Her rag, the brown, torn tunic of the she-urt, stolen from she who had been Sasi, was then cut from her. She knelt bound then, and naked, in one of several Gorean submission positions.

"The slave is awarded to Ulafi of Schendi," ruled the praetor.

There were cheers from the men present, and Gorean applause, the striking of the left shoulder with the right hand.

"My thanks, Praetor," said Ulafi, receiving back the slave papers from the magistrate.
. . .

"Captain Ulafi," said the praetor.

"Yes, Praetor," said Ulafi.

"Have her marked before you leave port," he said.

"Yes, Praetor,' said Ulafi. He turned to his first officer.
Explorers of Gor     Book 13     Pages 65 - 68


Ulafi pointed to the high desk of the praetor.
Explorers of Gor     Book 13     Page 69


"Before the general alarm was permitted to sound in Port Kar, in the matter of apprising the wharves of the news of an escaped slave," said Ulafi, "we, naturally, conducted a search for her ourselves. We expected to pick her up without difficulty in a few minutes, you understand."
. . .
"We did not wish to annoy the praetor," said Ulafi.
Explorers of Gor     Book 13     Page 84


I had not realized that Schendi was as large or busy a port as it was.
. . .
We passed the high desks of two wharf praetors.
. . .
Two men from the desk of the nearest wharf praetor, he handling wharves six through ten, a scribe and a physician, boarded the ship. The scribe carried a folder with him. He would check the papers of Ulafi, the registration of the ship, the arrangements for wharfage and the nature of the cargo. The physician would check the health of the crew and slaves.
Explorers of Gor     Book 13     Pages 114 - 117


What did she do?" asked Peggy.
I then grew again bitter. "She sold a slave of mine," I said, "unknown to me, and without right."
"For a man," said Peggy, "such an offense is punishable by exile. For a woman, remanded to a praetor, the penalty is commonly that she herself will then wear the collar."
Rouge of Gor     Book 15     Page 146

The merchant then looked at the thief. "I will have him taken to Port Cos," he said, "where there are praetors."

"Please, Master," said the thief, "do not deliver me to praetors!"

"Are you so fond of your hands?" asked the merchant. I noted that the thief's left ear had already been notched. That had doubtless been done elsewhere than in Victoria.

"Please, Master, have mercy on me," begged the thief.
Rouge of Gor     Book 15     Page 155


These she-urts have their gangs and territories. I had little doubt but what they might set upon me and bind me, and turn me over to guardsmen, hoping for some small reward. I, being a slave, could hope for no mercy from them. They would hate and despise me. As low as they might be they were a thousand times higher than I. They were free women. Once or twice a year, particularly when there are complaints, or they are becoming nuisances, many of them will be rounded up and taken before a praetor. Their sentence is almost invariably slavery.
Kajira of Gor     Book 19     Page 316


"It is a simple matter of bargaining in good faith," said Boots.
"Sleen!" she cried.
"Perhaps we could get a ruling on the matter from a praetor," suggested Boots.
"Sleen! Sleen!" she cried.
Players of Gor     Book 20     Page 140


I had no intention of letting him out of my sight. Although I had no proof of the sort which might convince a praetor I was confident that it was Ephialtes of Torcadino who had stolen the letters.
Mercenaries of Gor     Book 21     Page 244


The dosage she had imbibed, assuming there might have been one in the drink, would doubtless have been one fit for a male. Accordingly, her own period of unconsciousness, given this possibility, might possibly last several Ahn, more than enough time to be carried to a cell in a praetor's holding area.
Mercenaries of Gor     Book 21     Page 364

"I bought her properly," said my master.

"You have papers on her?" asked the man.

"No," said my master.

"You received stolen goods," said the man.

"Not to my knowledge," said my master.

"An investigation might nonetheless prove you have no legal hold on her."

"Are you a magistrate, or a praetor's agent?" inquired my master, narrowly.

"No," said the fellow.

My master relaxed, visibly.

"But I could always lodge a citizen's inquiry, and have the matter looked into," he said.

"What do you want?" asked my master.

"She is a hot slave, and is curvy, and beautiful," he said.

"So?" asked my master.

"Too, she dances well, and her ears are pierced," said the man.

"So?" inquired my master.

"What did you pay for her?" he asked.

"That is my business," said my master.

"Not much, I would suppose," said the man. "Stolen slaves seldom bring high prices, unless delivered to private dealers on contract, or to slavers, who know what to do with them, and where to sell them."

"She is mine," said my master. "I have held her in my collar for a sufficient time."

"I am prepared to accept that she is now yours," said the fellow. "For example, she seems clearly accommodated to your collar. The official recovery period is doubtless now passed."

"Then our conversation is at an end," said my master, angrily.

"Nonetheless it seems you might still count, officially, as a fellow who had received stolen goods," said the man.

"Not to my knowledge, if at all," said my master.

"Ignorance of the origin of the goods," said the man, "might indeed exonerate you from personal guilt in the matter."

My master shrugged.

"Still," said the man, "it might be of some interest to a praetor to hear you protest your innocence in the matter. He would be likely to be interested, too, in whom you bought the slave from, and such, and perhaps even where they obtained her."
Dancer of Gor     Book 22     Pages 287 - 288


The "free" chain, on the other hand, consists usually, I had been told, of condemned criminals. Rather than bother with housing these fellows, many of whom are supposedly dangerous, putting them up at public expense, and so on, many cities, for a nominal fee, turn them over to a work master who accepts charge of them, theoretically for the duration of time remaining in their sentences. For example, if a fellow has been sentenced, say, to two years of hard labor by a praetor, he might be turned over, for a small fee, to the master of a work gang who will see to it, theoretically that he performs these two years of hard labor.
Dancer of Gor     Book 22     Pages 304 - 305


Some may have been as innocent as those I had lured; others might have been murderers and brigands, suitably enchained for the expiation of sentences, their custody having been legally transferred to Ionicus, my master; at the payment of a prisoner's fee, by the writ of a praetor or, in more desperate cases, by the order of a quaestor.
Dancer of Gor     Book 22     Page 332

"Then," said Aulus, "if you are recruiting one hundred and seventy-seven, and releasing five, from Brundisium, who may, or may not take service with you, then we are talking about less than seventy men."

"Sixty-eight, to be exact," said the fellow.

"Yes," said Aulus. "You have been very zealous in your recruiting, it seems. Can we not do a little better than that?"

"The one hundred and seventy-seven have already taken the campaign oath," he said.

"Then that is that," said Aulus. "What about the five from Brundisium."

"They are from Brundisium," he said.

"Of course," said Aulus.

"A silver tarsk apiece," skid the fellow.

"That seems high," said Aulus.

"It is an average praetor's price," he said. To be sure, some, serving shorter sentences, would presumably go for less, and some, more dangerous fellows, perhaps, serving longer sentences, might go for more. "Too," he said, "I expect you pay that much, or more, for the fellows you get from illicit suppliers."
Dancer of Gor     Book 22     Page 356


Would she not now cringe before them, and be unable to meet their eyes, like a runaway slave, thence to be seized by them and remanded to a praetor?
. . .
Would they not simply take off her clothes and punish her, and then hand her over to a praetor, for her proper disposition?
Dancer of Gor     Book 22     Pages 366 - 367


And who was making such inquiries? I thought that perhaps it might have been a praetor's agent, or agents, or perhaps fellows suspected of being such agents, that might have been making such inquiries in Argentum.
Dancer of Gor     Book 22     Page 368

"But we were speaking of the former Lady Publia," I said. "She now knows herself a slave, having said the words. Too, she knows that she, a slave, can be freed only by a master. What will she make of these things? That, I take it, is your question?"

"Doubtless she would pretend she had never said the words," she said.

"That she would, in one way or another, attempt to conceal her true condition?"

"Yes," she said.

"Perhaps," I said. "But, of course, she would still, in her heart, know the truth, that she was a slave."

"Yes," she said.

"And that only a master could free her?"

"Yes," she said.

"Surely it might be difficult to live with such a hidden truth," I said. Perhaps it, irrepressible, insistent within her, might finally require some resolution. She must then take action. She might turn herself over to a praetor, hoping for mercy, as she had surrendered herself.
Renegades of Gor     Book 23     Pages 274 - 275


In a moment or two, I stopped a few yards from a registration desk. There one of Ina's pursuers, I recognized him from earlier, was making inquiries of one of the five camp prefects, fellows under the camp praetor. The perfects are identified by five slash marks, alternately blue and yellow, the slavers' colors, on their left sleeve, the praetor himself by nine such stripes, and lesser officials by three. Turning about, apparently alerted by the prefect's notice, the fellow with one hand suddenly turned the prefect's desk to its side so that it stood walllike between us, and hurried behind it.
"Be gone!" he cried. "It is no longer a concern of yours! Be gone!"
I advanced on him and he turned and fled.
The prefect, not much pleased, looked after him. Then he turned to face me. "No," he said, "I know nothing about a runaway blond slave."
Vagabonds of Gor     Book 24     Pages 453 - 454


"Your ransom has been paid," I said. "The agreed-upon amounts have been lodged with the business council, the entire matter attested to by the commercial praetor. I saw the orders, and the seals."
Witness of Gor     Book 26     Page 503


"Bring her forward," he said. He was, as I understood it, an officer in the business court, that under the jurisdiction of the commercial praetor, subject, ultimately, to the high council.
Witness of Gor     Book 26     Page 507

To the left of the praetor's officer, to our right, as we faced him, below him, on the floor level, on a bench, behind a table, was a court's clerk.

"You are the Lady Constanzia, of the city of Besnit?" inquired the praetor's officer.

"I am," she said.

"You have been the object of ransom capture," said the praetor's officer.

"Yes your honor," she said.

He then addressed himself to the court's clerk. "There is no difficulty as to the matter of her identity?" he asked.

"No, your honor," said the clerk. "Her fingerprints tally with those taken shortly after her delivery to Treve by the abductors."

"Have the agents of the redemptor accepted her as the Lady Constanzia?" inquired the praetor's officer.

"They have, your honor," said the clerk.

"In virtue of interrogations and such?"

"Yes, your honor."

"There is the matter of the slipper."

"It is here," said the clerk. He produced a tiny, jeweled, muchly embroidered slipper. It might have cost more than many slaves.

The praetor's officer nodded to the clerk and carried the slipper to the Lady Constanzia, who took it in her hands, and looked upon it.

"Do you recognize it?" asked the praetor's officer.

"Yes, your honor," she said. "It is mine."

"It matches with that brought by the agent of the redemptor?" asked the praetor's officer.

"Yes, your honor," said the clerk. He then took it back from the Lady Constanzia and returned to his desk.

"The court of the commercial praetor of the high city of Treve," said the praetor's officer," accepts the prisoner as the Lady Constanzia of Besnit."

The clerk made a notation on his records.

"You are now within the custody of the court of the commercial praetor of Treve," said the officer.

"I understand, your honor," she said.

"There is also the matter of the necklace," said the praetor's officer.

The clerk then produced, holding it out, a large, impressive necklace, with many strands, containing many stones. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

"Do you recognize the necklace?" asked the praetor's officer.

"It seems to be that which I selected in the shop of the jeweler in Besnit, before my abduction," she said.

"It is," he said.

"Yes, your honor," she said.

"And was it not to obtain such a thing that you went to the jeweler's shop?"

"It was, your honor," she said.

"Were you not careless of your safety?" he asked.

"Yes, your honor," she said.

"It was not wise, was it?" he asked.

"No, your honor."

"And then you were captured?"

"Yes, your honor."

"Why did you enter the shop?" he asked.

"To obtain such a thing, or things," she said. "I wanted such things."

"But you were rich."

"I wanted more," she said.

"Such greed," he said, "is unbecoming in a free woman."

"Yes, your honor."

"It would be more appropriate," he said, "in a slave girl."

"Yes, your honor," she said.

"Destroy the necklace," said the praetor's officer to the clerk.

"Your honor!" cried the Lady Constanzia.

"It is paste," said the praetor's officer.

We watched as the clerk struck a fire-maker, one used to melt wax for seals, and set the flame to the necklace. The flames sped from paste stone to paste stone, and the whole was then dropped to the side, flickering and smoldering.

"Such things are seldom used in ransom captures," said the praetor's officer. "They are usually used in luring of free women by slavers."

We watched smoke curl upward from the necklace.

"It was kept on me until I came to this city, which I now learn, by your words, is Treve," she said. "I thought it a joke, that I should be made to wear it, that all might see me in it, and realize how it had been used in my abduction, and that I wore it, such a rich thing, but, captive, could not profit from it."

"The joke," said the praetor's officer, "was richer then you understood."

"Yes, your honor," she whispered.

"Do you know the identity of your redemptor?" asked the praetor's officer.

"Yes, your honor," she said. "They are my brothers."

"Do you recall," he asked, "when you were first in your house, and mistress of your enterprises, a certain matter of business, from more than three years ago, conducted with the house of William, in Harfax?"

"Your honor?" she asked.

"There was the cashing of letters of credit in Besnit, from the house of William, in Harfax, letters the House of William had drawn on the street of coins in Brundisium, to be used in the purchase of ingots in Esalinus, these to be melted down in Besnit and there, in Besnit, to be formed into the wares for which she is famous, thence to be sent to the house of William, for resale though the house of William to the shops of Harfax and elsewhere, even as far away as the Market of Semris, Corcyrus, Argentum, Torcadino, and Ar."

The Lady Constanzia put down her head.

"The gold was fairly purchased at competitive prices," said the praetor's officer. "And the wares were made under the supervision of your house, and according to your specifications. But the wares were mismarked. Their gold content was not that agreed upon. The wares were muchly debased from the original agreements. Your house made an excellent profit on the matter, retaining the extra gold for your own coffers. Testimony from a metal worker, one traveling from Besnit to Brundisium, one who had been engaged in the manufacture of the wares in Besnit, seeing such articles in Harfax, and noting them marked as they were, in a way he knew false, alerted the house of William. They had not hitherto conducted tests, as the reputation of your house, prior to your accession as mistress of its enterprises, had been faultless. The wares were recalled and remarked. Much did the reputation of the house of William suffer. In time the street of coins in Brundisium demand repayment of its loans. The house of William was in jeopardy. Only two years later did it manage to recoup its losses, and to rebuild its fortunes. You may suspect that much bad blood then existed between your house and that of William, in Harfax."

"Yes, your honor," she said.

"Do you know now," asked the praetor's officer, "who your redemptor is?"

"Surely," she said. "My brothers."

"No," he said.

"I do not understand," she said, puzzled.

"It was naturally intended that your brothers, your won house, should be your redemptor," said the praetor's officer. "Naturally it was with such a redemption in mind that you were abducted for ransom."

"They are not the redemptor?" she asked.

"Surely you were aware of delays in the matter of your ransom," said the praetor's officer.

"Yes, your honor," she said.

"Your brothers refused to pay," said the praetor's officer. "Indeed, from their point of view, why should they? They were now first in their house, and master of its fortunes. If you were to return they would be reduced, again, to second."

Lady Constanzia looked up at him.

"Their sense of honor seems to be equivalent to your own," he said. "They would seem to be the fit brothers of such a sister, and you the fit sister of such brothers."

"Why, then," she asked, "is my redemptor?"

"Kneel," said he, "prisoner."

The Lady Constanzia knelt in the center of the scarlet circle.

"Your redemptor," said he, "is the house of William, in Harfax."

She looked up at him, started.

"An oath, it seems, was sworn," said the praetor's officer. "This oath was sworn upon the honor of the house of William, in Harfax. It was in this oath sworn that you were to be brought to the house of William as a slave, and put naked and in chains at the feet of the master of the house. Your disposition will be in accord with the provisions of this oath."

She trembled, kneeling on the scarlet circle.

"Do you not wish to leap up, and try to escape?" asked the praetor's officer. "Do you not wish to protest, to cry out, to beg for mercy? Do you not wish to bemoan your fate, to tear your clothing?"

"No, your honor," she said.

"What have you to say?" he asked, puzzled.

"I will attempt to serve my master to the best of my abilities," she said.

"I can guarantee it," said the praetor's officer. Then he lifted certain papers on his desk. "It is to be done in this fashion," he said to the clerk. "She is to be stripped and branded, and put in a holding collar. She is also to be gagged, for her words, her please, her remonstrations or such, will be of no avail, nor will they be of interest to those of the house of William, in Harfax. Let them not then be disturbed by them. She is then to be placed in an outer robe of concealment, the outer robe only, but also hooded and veiled. Then, hands bound behind her, on a rope, at the tenth Ahn, she is to be brought to this place. Here she will be delivered into the hands not of an agent of the house of William but into the hands of one of that house itself, the youngest and least of that house, who has come to Treve for this purpose, to acquire her, to whom she is to be given as a slave."
Witness of Gor     Book 26     Pages 508 - 512


I knelt to one side and back, in the shadows, inconspicuously by the wall, in the circular chamber of the court of the commercial praetor. Shafts of sunlight, like golden spears, fell through the high, narrow windows, illuminating the scarlet circle before the high desk.
I heard two of the time bars, far off, across the city, beginning to sound.
The pit master, two guards, and I, I heeling the second guard, had returned to the court but a few moments ago. The guards waited within the chamber, near the entrance.
The high desk stood untenanted before the scarlet circle. There was no need, now, for the presence of the praetor's officer. What business was now to be done could be handled by the clerk, and diverse minions, of the court.
. . .
The tenth sounding of the bar still lingered over the city when a side door in the chamber opened and the court's clerk, with a folder and papers, entered. He spread those upon the table, that which was, as we were situated, to the right of the currently unoccupied desk of the praetor's officer. He had the fellow who had
entered but shortly before conferred briefly over these papers. There wee, it seemed, two sets of such papers. They were, it seemed, in order. I did not doubt but what one set was papers of the court, stamped with the sign of the court, and certified with the signature of a praetor's officer, if not the praetor himself. On copies of these papers the fellow who had but recently entered scribbled his signature. He put one copy within his robes. The other set of papers, which had been examined, and in places compared with the first set, was different. It was left open now on the table. In its original form it had been folded and narrow, and tied with a ribbon. The ribbon was blue and yellow.
Witness of Gor     Book 26     Pages 513 - 514


My knees were slightly spread, enough to show that I was a pleasure slave, but were closely enough placed to accord with the decorum of the praetor's court.
Witness of Gor     Book 26     Page 516

"Her disposition will be decided by higher authority," said the officer. "I may ask for her myself. I think she will be lovely, curled in the furs at my feet."

"We shall see about that," said Tersius Major.

"It is not impossible that a praetor may speak for her, even a stratigos or a polemarkos."
Prize of Gor     Book 27     Page 608

"Does the proscription list not mean death?" she asked.

"Strictly," I said, "it means apprehension, but it is true, that it is commonly a warrant for death, certainly for males, and often for women, free women."

"They wanted our blood," she said.

"At the time, in the rage of the crowd, I do not doubt it," I said. "But, now, you might rather be brought before a praetor, for the iron and the collar."
Swordsmen of Gor     Book 29     Page 269


Possession, particularly after a lengthy interval, is often regarded as decisive, by praetors, archons, magistrates, scribes of the law, and such. What is of most importance to the law is not so much that a particular individual owns a slave as that she is owned by someone, that she is absolutely and perfectly owned.
Swordsmen of Gor     Book 29     Page 452


In a couple of places on a platform, there was a harbor praetor, now indoors, in the warehouse, on his curule chair, as opposed to on the docks themselves, their usual station, who might clarify the Merchant Law, interpret it, adjudicate disputes, and make rulings.
Mariners of Gor     Book 30     Page 503


"It is the twentieth Ahn," I said.
"I think we must leave," she said.
That was very clear, as goods were being covered, lamps were being extinguished, the praetors had left their platforms, and attendants were marshalling folks out.
Mariners of Gor     Book 30     Page 549


Apparently he had realized she would be sold in this market on this day. I supposed that was not common knowledge. It seemed probable to me that this matter had been arranged, perhaps even with the collusion of a praetor, if not the Ubar himself.
Conspirators of Gor     Book 31     Page 134


Praetors preside in the markets, dispensing justice,
Conspirators of Gor     Book 31     Page 166


Normally, when there is doubt as to the status or condition of a woman she is given to free women, who may then, with respect to her modesty should she be free, examine her body, for a possible collar, or brand. This one, however, was simply disrobed, bound hand and foot, and put in a wagon, for delivery to a market praetor, who would see to her return to her master, or, that failing, to her lashing, fugitive branding, and resale.
Conspirators of Gor     Book 31     Page 183


"Why do they think the sewers?" I asked.
"Where else?" she said. "Too, some thieves, some well known, in broad daylight, even within view of the praetor's platform, pushing aside a grating, rushed from a sewer, to be shortly apprehended by rings of spear-bearing guardsmen. Shortly were the thieves manacled and neck-chained."
Conspirators of Gor     Book 31     Page 254


There were two market praetors in the market of Cestias. One was near the coin stalls, and Sul Market, the other, rather across the plaza, not far from the Paga and Ka-la-na Markets.
The coin stalls were, in effect, exchanges, as, in a market of the size of that of Cestias, in a city such as Ar, buyers and sellers from diverse cities might mingle and carry diverse currencies. As would be expected, the most common denominations in the market were those of Ar, her tarn disks, and her tarsks, of copper, and silver and gold. But coins of many cities circulated. Occasionally one encountered a disk from far-off Turia. Some prized coins were the silver tarns of Jad and, on the continent, the golden staters of Brundisium. Many of the transactions were conducted by means of scales. One often encounters, for example, clipped or shaved coins. The professional in shaving keeps the roundness of the subject coin as perfect as possible. Sometimes it is hard to tell, by eye, that a coin has been shaved. Clipped coins are easy to identify but then, of course, one must bring forth the scales, and, not unoften, as well, rough silver or gold, unminted, is presented, perhaps melted droplets, or pieces cut from silver or golden vessels and goblets, which items will also require judicious determinations. Negotiations and bargainings, over the scales, often grow heated. The advantage of courses, lies with the stallsman. Complaints may be lodged with either of the two praetors, who, interestingly, though magistrates of Ar, apparently strive to adjudicate matters to the best of their lights. Their efforts not only redound to the honor of Ar, but, too, one supposes, tend to preserve the value and integrity of the market, which, in the long view, is doubtless in the best interest of the city's commerce. To be sure, major transactions often take place near the walls, and outside them, in the wholesale markets.
Conspirators of Gor     Book 31     Pages 273 - 274


I saw, some fifty or so paces to my left, the platform of one of the two market praetors. It bore a single curule chair. The platform is reached by a set of wooden steps. Sometimes an awning is stretched over the platform.
Conspirators of Gor     Book 31     Page 283


I then became afraid, even though it was the middle of the night, that I might be apprehended in the market, in the morning, when guardsmen, at the praetor's signal, opened the market to the stallsmen, merchants, and dealers.
Conspirators of Gor     Book 31     Page 286


Shortly after dawn the lantern on its pole at the edge of the market of Cestias would be extinguished, and, a bit later, the market pennon would be hoisted to the height of the pole above the lantern arm, after which, at the praetor's signal, guardsmen would open the market.
Conspirators of Gor     Book 31     Page 295


Aside from raids, warfare, and such, the exchange of kajirae normally takes place in a civilized manner, with negotiation, and buying and selling, and such. But, occasionally, I knew exchanges took place by means of the negotiation of blades, particularly on the open road or in the fields, outside walls, beyond the jurisdiction of archons and praetors.
Smugglers of Gor     Book 32     Page 469


"If one were interested," he said, "there are many ways in which one might intervene, or attempt to do so. One might claim capture rights; one might index a recovery fee to conditions as to the slave's punishment, and so on, a high fee, even a prohibitive or exorbitant one if a severe punishment was in prospect, which an owner would be unwilling or unable to pay, a low fee if some lenience were granted. Such agreements are put in writing, of course, before a praetor's man. One could even keep the slave, or hide her and then sell her privately. If one were a warrior, one might even issue a challenge, a challenge in virtue of sword right, the right of beauty to be claimed by means of the sword. If worse came to worse, one might even consider buying the slave."
Plunder of Gor     Book 34     Pages 663 - 664


"I can have you manumitted," he said. "We can see a praetor tomorrow. I can buy you slippers, veils, robes, suitable raiment."
Plunder of Gor     Book 34     Page 667