Part 15 (1/2)
He grinned in huge enjoyment of the sensation his words had caused
”Yes! I found it before I got the map That's why I burned the map I don't need it And now nobody will ever find it, unless I show him where it is”
They stared at hi,” said Zarono without conviction ”You've told us one lie already You said you ca with the Picts All es The nearest outposts of civilization are the Aquilonian settlements on Thunder River, hundreds of miles to eastward”
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”That's where I came from,” replied Conan imperturbably ”I believe I'm the first white man to cross the Pictish Wilderness I crossed Thunder River to follow a raiding party that had been harrying the frontier I followed them deep into the wilderness, and killed their chief, but was knocked senseless by a stone fros captured me alive
They were Wolfle clan in return for a chief of theirs the Eagles had captured The Eagles carried me nearly a hundred e, but I killed their war-chief and three or four others one night, and broke away
”I couldn't turn back They were behind o I shook thee turned out to be the treasure trove of old Tranicos! I found it all: chests of garot these clothes and this blade heaps of coins and geold ornaleaht! And old Tranicos and his eleven captains sitting about an ebon table and staring at the hoard, as they've stared for a hundred years!”
”What?”
”Aye!” he laughed ”Tranicos died in the midst of his treasure, and all with him! Their bodies have not rotted nor shrivelled They sit there in their high boots and skirted coats and lacquered hats, with their wine glasses in their stiff hands, just as they have sat for a century!”
”That's an unchancy thing!” muttered Strom uneasily, but Zarono snarled: ”What boots it? It's the treasure ant Go on, Conan”
Conan seated hioblet and quaffed it before he answered
”The first wine I've drunk since I left Conawaga, by Croh the forest I had hardly tiht frogs and ate theht a fire”
His impatient hearers informed him profanely that they were not interested in his adventures prior to finding the treasure
He grinned hardly and resumed: ”Well, after I stumbled onto the trove I lay up and rested a few days, and made snares to catch rabbits, and let ht it soe on the beach I lay close, but as it happens, the loot's hidden in a place the Picts shun If any spied on ht I started ard, intending to strike the beach some miles north of the spot where 136
I'd seen the smoke I wasn't far from the shore when that storm hit I took shelter under the lee of a rock and waited until it had blown itself out Then I climbed a tree to look for Picts, and fro in to shore I wasmy way toward your cah him because there was an old feud between us I wouldn't have known he had a map, if he hadn't tried to eat it before he died
”I recognized it for what it was, of course, and was considering what use I could s ca in a thicket not a dozen yards fro with your ed the tihed at the rage and chagrin displayed in Stro to your talk, I got a drift of the situation, and learned, fros you let fall, that Zarono and Valenso were a few miles south on the beach So when I heard you say that Zaronoand taken thean opportunity to !” snarled Zarono Strohed mirthlessly
”Do you think I'd play fairly with a treacherous dog like you? Go on, Conan”
The Cirinned It was evident that he was deliberately fanning the fires of hate between the two h the woods while you tacked along the coast, and raised the fort before you did Your guess that the storood one but then, you knew the configuration of this bay
”Well, there's the story I have the treasure, Strom has a shi+p, Valenso has supplies By Crom, Zarono, I don't see where you fit into the scheme, but to avoid strife I'll include you My proposal is sih
”We'll split the treasure four ways Strom and I will sail aith our shares aboard The Red Hand You and Valenso take yours and remain lords of the wilderness, or build a shi+p out of tree trunks, as you wish”
Valenso blenched and Zarono swore, while Stroo aboard The Red Hand alone with Strom?” snarled Zarono ”He'll 137
cut your throat before you're out of sight of land!”
Conan laughed with genuine enjoyment
”This is like the problee,” he adet the each other!”
”And that appeals to your Cimmerian sense of humor,” complained Zarono
”I will not stay here!” cried Valenso, a wild gleao!”
Conan gave hilance of speculation
”Well, then,” said he, ”how about this plan: we divide the loot as I suggested Then Strom sails aith Zarono, Valenso, and suchme in command of the fort and the rest of Valenso's men, and all of Zarono's I'll build htly sick
”I have the choice of re alone on The Red Hand to have h the hall, and he s the black lare
”That's it, Zarono!” quoth he ”Stay here while Stro your men with me”
”I'd rather have Zarono,” said Stroainst me, Conan, and cut my throat before I raised the Barachans”
Sweat dripped from Zarono's livid face
”Neither I, the Count, nor his niece will ever reach the land alive if we shi+p with that devil,”
said he ”You are both in my power in this hall Myyou both down?”
”Not a thing,” Conan admitted cheerfully ”Except the fact that if you do Strom's men will sail away and leave you stranded on this coast where the Picts will presently cut all your throats; 138
and the fact that with me dead you'd never find the treasure; and the fact that I'll split your skull down to your chin if you try to suhed as he spoke, as if at some whimsical situation, but even Belesa sensed that he meant what he said His naked cutlass lay across his knees, and Zarono's sas under the table, out of the buccaneer's reach Galbro was not a fighting man, and Valenso seemed incapable of decision or action
”Aye!” said Stroreeable to Conan's proposal What do you say, Valenso?”
”Iblankly ”I o far quickly!”
Stroewickedly: ”And you, Zarono?”
”What can I say?” snarled Zarono ”Let me take my three officers and forty ain's made”
”The officers and thirty men!”
”Very well”
”Done!”