F Campbell - Margo

Three naked women in a cage! The hands of two of them were handcuffed in front. The hands of Norma Boulter were cuffed behind her back. Henry Ross had given no explanation of this discrepancy. Margo supposed it was without significance. Obviously, Norma was to be reduced to a mere nothing. She had signed away control of her empire, and Henry Ross had announced his departure for the city where the documents would become effective. In the meantime, Miss Norma Boulter would be caged with those of a lower social status than herself. She made no demur. She appeared stunned with all she had suffered and her ignominious defeat. She now treated Margo as an equal and even conferred some measure of deference upon Mildred. But despite their acceptance of a common condition, the three females, regardless of status, were helpless captives, each bearing the stigma of handcuffs and seeing the world as a very small, limited plate for them – from behind iron bars. As an added indignity, it was Emaline who tended to them.

"The master says I must not let you loose," the youngster informed cheerfully. "He says he'll be back sometime tomorrow and you have to stay the way you are until then. And you needn't think I'm going to open that door. I'll feed and water you through the bars. Isn't this the cutest situation!"

"Emaline, let us out of her." The voice of Mildred Harridance was heavy with authority.

"I'm sorry, but I can't." Emaline was obviously happy to impart this negative assurance. "You have to stay in that case with the naughty girls." She giggled happily. "But I expect the master will let you loose when he comes back tomorrow. Please promise not to be mean to me when you are headmistress again and I'm just one of the girls. If you won't promise that, I'm going to think up some way to be real mean to you in there."

"Of course, I'll give you that assurance, Emaline." Mildred was warmly assuring. "I realize you're only doing what you're told."

She placed her joined hands between two bars and suggested, as though it was the most natural thing to be expected, "Dear Emaline, there is just one thing you can do. You can unlock these handcuffs. I could, but I'm not going to," Emaline said cheerfully. "He told me not to."

The three nude females accepted the water and the bread offered through the bars. Margo ate and drank her portions. She was accustomed to captivity and its depravations. The other two disdained. They still had far to go.

"The man is out of his senses," Norma declared with conviction.

"I can understand you're being locked in this cage, Margo. It's part of your acceptance of Rossland. But for Miss Harridance and myself!"

She allowed the enormity of the thought to hover in the caged air. "As I said, the man is obviously insane. We must be prepared to act."

"What do you propose?" Mildred dryly asked. "We can't very well send a gun boat, and we don't have the key to either our handcuffs or our cage."

"But Emaline has them. Surely you can impose some authority on the child."

"I could if I were outside this cage and my hands were not locked together," Miss Harridance rejoined acidly. "You've got all the money in the world. Why don't you try? Offer the child a million dollars. Who knows?"

There was more to Emaline than met the eye. When next she made an appearance, she carried a cane and explained cheerfully, "I'm going to let you out of the cage one at a time. I'll cane your bottoms, and then you go back in. Just so you can't give me any static, two of you will stand at the far side while I let the third one out. We'll repeat this as we go around. If all three of you choose to try and fight me, I'll get the hose and turn a jet of cold water on you all until you decide to do what I tell you. It won't be a bit of fun, being wet and cold, having to sleep in water. It will be much easier for you to do what I want."

Three pairs of captive eyes exchanged questioning hooks and shared a bitter reflection of total helplessness. To ease the situation, Margo chose to be first and stood again the door, then told the others to stand back. The child watched warily as the lock clicked and Margo stepped into relative freedom.

"Don't worry, Emaline," she said. "I know you can defeat us. I'll do what you want. Shall I bend over for the cane now?"

"I'm a little bitch, aren't I?" Emaline's arms were suddenly warn around the captive's neck. Her voice was a hot whisper in a female ear. "Darling, I'd let you go if I dared. But you know what that would get me into. It was sweet of you to come to the door first, and I know why you did it. But I don't want to cane your bottom or do anything bad to you at all. I'm going to open the door, and I want you to go back in and tell the others whatever you like, so long as you tell one of them to take your place." Then came a very tiny feminine giggle.

"I'm not going to give up the pleasure of caning the other two. It must be simply yummy to cane a real hive woman's bottom, especially if one of them's caned you often enough."

There was little that Margo could do but mutter thanks and assure the nymphet of total obedience. She was deeply thankful, but knew suspicion must inevitably surface between her two companions and herself. Hopelessly, she stepped back within the cage and gave Emaline's instructions.

"Emaline does not want to cane me now. She wants to cane you two. She asks if you, Miss Boulter, will go to the door and she will tell you what to do. Miss Harridance and I will stand back here."

It was impossible not to feel sympathy for the woman about to receive a humiliating infliction. Whatever Norma Boulter had done or whatever she was, she did not deserve what was about to happen. Margo watched the play of emotions across the artistic features before the handcuffed woman went to the door to await her turn. The youthful Emaline inserted the key and turned the lock. A moment later the head of Boulter Enterprises stood beyond the bars and bent forward without even asking for instructions. Woodenly, she said, "You wish to cane me Emaline, so go ahead. I invite you to."

The youngster took her time. The blows were as vigorous as her youthful arm could contrive. They were hard enough to inflict a bitter pain that was not only an agony of the flesh but of the spirit. For a multimillionaire to be caned by a mere child, and upon her naked flesh not yet recovered from her previous punishment, was a cruelty Henry Ross had most assuredly assessed before her left. Norma accepted the six strokes and then stepped back into the cage without complaint. The watching Margo gave her points for both fortitude and courage. In female discernment, she saw the tears welling, but blinked back from her eyes.

Mildred was next. She knew herself condemned, knew there was no escape. She knew also the bitter humiliation of someone possessed of authority but now finding it stripped from her and bestowed upon a child. Emotionally, she cautioned, "Emaline, you shouldn't do this. You should set us free. I will bend over for your cane, if you insist, but I want you to think a moment of possible consequences." Mildred's glorious nakedness stood quivering in anticipation of the answer of a girl still in her puberty.

"You know I'm – going to cane you, Miss Harridance, so don't beef about it. You've caned my bottom often enough and put main a cage and all sorts of things. You don't imagine I'm going to give up this chance to get even, do you?"

"You will release me, Emaline, if you know what's good for you. I most earnestly implore you to be sensible."

"And I implore you also to be sensible," Emaline responded, "Bend over!"

Margo watched through the bars. She and Norma had once more approached to get the best possible view. Margo realized Miss Harridance had been whipped on another occasion. She was no stranger to the scorch and scald of impacts on female flesh. What would hurt her now was the immaturity of Emaline wielding the cane. Margo found it surprising the youngster would run the risk of future reprisals by indulging in her present power. But Emaline evidently considered the present privilege worth the risk of future strips on her skin. The young girl had no doubt been caned and whipped often enough to make her feel one more or less infliction mattered little. She rapped the twin mounds unwittingly turned her way.