Part 3 (1/2)

darkness as he drew further away fro heavy with the odor he had scented in the court of the gong

Now in utter blackness he heard a sound ahead of hiainst stone, he could not tell which But an instant later his outstretched hand encountered a barrier which he identified as a ainst it fruitlessly, and his sword point sought vainly for a crack It fitted into the sill and jath, his feet straining against the floor, the veins knotting in his tee of elephants would scarcely have shaken that titanic portal

As he leaned there he caught a sound on the other side that his ears instantly identified it was the creak of rusty iron, like a lever scraping in its slot Instinctive action followed recognition so spontaneously that sound, impulse and action were practically siious bound carried hireat bulk from above, and a thunderous crash filled the tunnel with deafening vibrations Bits of flying splinters struck hie block of stone, he knew from the sound, dropped on the spot he had just quitted An instant's slower thought or action and it would have crushed him like an ant

Conan fell back Somewhere on the other side of that metal door Muriela was a captive, if she still lived But he could not pass that door and if he reht not be so lucky It would do the girl no good for him to be crushed into a purple pulp He could not continue his search in that direction He round and look for some other avenue of approach

He turned and hurried toward the stair, sighing as he eed into comparative radiance And as he set foot on the first step, the light was blotted out, and above hi reverberation

So like panic seized the Cimmerian then, trapped in that black tunnel, and he wheeled on the stair, lifting his sword and glaringa rush of ghoulish assailants But there was no sound or movement down the tunnel Did the men beyond the door if they were men believe that he had been disposed of by the fall of the stone from the roof, which had undoubtedly been released by some sort of machinery?

Then why had the door been shut above hiroped his way up the steps, his skin crawling in anticipation of a knife in his back at every stride, yearning to drown his se

He thrust against the door at the top, and cursed soulfully to find that it did not give to his efforts Then as he lifted his sith his right hand to hew at theleft encountered aof the door In an 35

instant he had drawn this bolt, and then the door gave to his shove He bounded into the cha incarnation of fury, ferociously desirous to co hione from the floor The chaain vanished

”By Crom!” muttered the Cimmerian ”Is she alive, after all?”

He strode out into the throne-rooht, stepped behind the throne and peered into the alcove There was blood on the smooth a that was all The black man had vanished as completely as Yelaya

IV

THE DOME OF THE TEETH OF GWAHLUR

Baffled wrath confused the brain of Conan the Ci for Muriela than he had kno to go about searching for the Teeth of Gwahlur

Only one thought occurred to hi place of the treasure some clue would be revealed to hi about aireat shadowy hall that led to the portico he half expected the lurking shades to cos and talons But only the beat of his own rapid heart acco marble

At the foot of the wide steps he cast about in the bright o And he found it petals scattered on the sward told where an arainst a blossom-laden branch Grass had been pressed down under heavy feet Conan, who had tracked wolves in his native hills, found no insur the trail of the Keshani priests

It led away froh reat pale blossoled bushes that showered blooreat mass of rock that jutted like a titan's castle out from the cliffs at a point closest to the palace, which, however, was almost hidden fro priest in Keshi+a had been mistaken when he said the Teeth were hidden in the palace This trail had led him away frorowing in Conan that each part of the valley was 36

connected with that palace by subterranean passages

Crouching in the deep velvet-black shadows of the bushes, he scrutinized the great jut of rock which stood out in bold relief in the s, depicting ht have been Gods or devils The style of art differed so strikingly from that of the rest of the valley, that Conan wondered if it did not represent a different era and race, and was itself a relic of an age lost and forgotten at whatever immeasurably distant date the people of Alkreat door stood open in the sheer curtain of the cliff, and a gigantic dragon head was carved about it so that the open door was like the dragon's gaping h several tons There was no lock that he could see, but a series of bolts showing along the edge of the massive portal, as it stood open, told hi a system doubtless known only to the priests of Keshan

The trail showed that Gorulga and his henchh that door But Conan hesitated To wait until they eed would probably ht not be able to solve theOn the other hand, if he followed thee and lock hilided through the great portal Somewhere in the cavern were the priests, the Teeth of Gwahlur, and perhaps a clue to the fate of Muriela Personal risks had never yet deterred hiht illumined, for a few yards, the wide tunnel in which he found hilow and heard the echo of a weird chanting The priests were not so far ahead of hiht The tunnel debouched into a wide rooreat di with a phosphorescent encrustation, which, as Conan kneas a cohostly half-light, in which he was able to see a bestial i on a shrine, and the blackoff from the chamber Down the widest one of these the one directly behind the squat ilealoas fixed, and heard the chanting increased in volume

Down it he went recklessly, and was presently peering into a larger cavern than the one he had just left There was no phosphorus here, but the light of the torches fell on a larger altar and atoad-like upon it Before this repugnant deity Gorulga and his ten acolytes knelt and beat their heads upon the ground, while chanting ress had been so slow Evidently approaching the 37

secret crypt of the Teeth was a co in nervous i were over, but presently they rose and passed into the tunnel which opened behind the idol Their torches bobbed away into the nighted vault, and he folloiftly Notthe shadows like a creature of the night, and the black priests were corossed in their ceremonial mummery Apparently they had not even noticed the absence of Gwarunga

Ee proportions, about whose upward curving walls gallery-like ledges an their worshi+p anew before an altar which was larger, and a God which wasthan any encountered thus far

Conan crouched in the blackthe lurid glow of the torches He saw a carven stone stair winding up froalleries; the roof was lost in darkness

He started violently and the chanting broke off as the kneeling blacks flung up their heads An inhuh above them They froze on their knees, their faces turned upward and a ghastly blue hue in the sudden glare of a weird light that burst blindingly up near the lofty roof, and then burned with a throbbing glow That glare lighted a gallery and a cry went up froly by his acolytes In the flash there had been briefly disclosed to theht in a sheen of silk and a glint of jewel-crusted gold Then the blaze s was distinct, and that sli blur of ivory

”Yelaya!” screaa, his brown features ashen ”Why have you followed us? What is your pleasure?”

That weird unhu under that arching vault that nition

”Woe to the unbelievers! Woe to the false children of Keshi+a! Doom to them which deny their deity!”

A cry of horror went up frolare of the torches

”I do not understand!” he stammered ”We are faithful In the chamber of the oracle you told us ”

38

”Do not heed what you heard in the chamber of the oracle!” rolled that terrible voice, h a

”Beware of false prophets and false Gods! A de false prophecy Now harken and obey, for only I aive you one chance to save yourselves from doom!

”Take the Teeth of Gwahlur froo Alker holy, because it has been desecrated by blasphemers Give the Teeth of Gwahlur into the hands of Thuton and Derketo Only this can save Keshan froht have plotted Take the Teeth of Gwahlur and go; return instantly to Keshi+a; there give the jewels to Thutn devil Conan and flay hireat square”

There was no hesitation in obeying Chattering with fear the priests scrambled up and ran for the door that opened behind the bestial God Gorulga led the flight They ja torches touched squirh and the patter of their speeding feet dwindled down the tunnel

Conan did not follow He was consumed with a furious desire to learn the truth of this fantastic affair Was that indeed Yelaya, as the cold sweat on the backs of his hands told him, or was it that little hussy Muriela, turned traitress after all? If it was Before the last torch had vanished down the black tunnel he was bounding vengefully up the stone stair The blue gloas dying down, but he could still allery His blood ran cold as he approached it, but he did not hesitate

He came on with his sword lifted, and towered like a threat of death over the inscrutable shape