A rush of fresh, clean air tumbled through my ragged lips as the rough burlap was lifted from my face. I blinked hard, disoriented, as blinding sun filtered in. In double-vision, I saw a bored crowd.

“Fine German male, strong, young, ready for any estate work you could conceive of!” The words gradually became meaningful. “Do I hear twenty thousand?”

A hand was lifted in the crowd. I looked down instead of acknowledging them – but then I only saw the handcuffs around my wrists.

“Twenty thousand – ah, fifty thousand from the gentleman in black! Fifty thousand, fifty, oh! There’s seventy, seventy thousand dollars…”

My muscles felt weak and trembling, as torn as my dignity.

“Two hundred – my goodness! – two hundred thousand dollars from the man in black! Going once, twice… sold to the gentleman in black!”

I coughed as a hand shoved me off the stage, down the stairs and onto the hard floor. A tall figure’s shadow came over me.

“Get up; you’re disgraceful,” he said in an arrogant American accent.