Part 13 (1/2)

”Before we cut off our last retreat,” hissed Taurus, ”go you to the ri in the gardens, or anything suspicious, return and tell me

I will await you within this chamber”

Conan saw scant reason in this, and a faint suspicion of his companion touched his wary soul, but he did as Taurus requested As he turned away, the Nemedian slipt inside the door and drew it shut behind hi to his starting-point without having seen any suspicioussea of leaves below He turned toward the door-suddenly froled cry

The Ci open and Taurus stood framed in the cold blaze behind him He swayed and his lips parted, but only a dry rattle burst froolden door for support, he lurched out upon the roof, then fell headlong, clutching at his throat The door swung to behind hi in the room behind the stricken Nemedian, in the brief instant the door was partly open unless it was not a trick of the light whichfloor Nothing followed Taurus out on the roof, and Conan bent above theeyes, that somehow held a terrible bewilderment

His hands clawed at his throat, his lips sobred and gurgled; then suddenly he stiffened, and the astounded Cimmerian knew that he was dead And he felt that Taurus had died without knohat lared bewilderedly at the cryptic golden door In that e jeweled walls, death had come to the prince78of thieves as swiftly and ardens below

Gingerly the barbarian ran his hands over thea wound But the only h up near the base of his bull-neck three small wounds, which looked as if three nails had been driven deep in the flesh and withdrawn The edges of these wounds were black, and a faint sht Conan but in that case the missiles should be still in the wounds

Cautiously he stole toward the golden door, pushed it open, and looked inside The chalow of thehe idly noted a curious design a black eight-sided pattern, in the center of which four gelittered with a red flame unlike the white blaze of the other jewels Across the room there was another door, like the one in which he stood, except that it was not carved in the scale pattern Was it fro struck down its victi the door behind him, the Cimmerian advanced into the chamber His bare feet made no sound on the crystal floor There were no chairs or tables in the chaold and worked in strange serpentine designs, and several silver-bound olden locks; others lay open, their carven lids thrown back, revealing heaps of jewels in a careless riot of splendor to the Cimmerian's astounded eyes Conan swore beneath his breath; already he had looked upon ht than he had ever drea of what ht

He was in the center of the roo stooped forward, head thrust out warily, sword advanced, when again death struck at hi floor was his only warning, and his instinctive sidelong leap all that saved his life He had a flashi+ng gli past hi splashed on his bare shoulder that burned like drops of liquid hell-fire

Springing back, sword high, he saw the horror strike the floor, wheel and scuttle toward hiantic black spider, such as e as a pig, and its eight thick hairy legs drove its ogreish body over the floor at headlong pace; its four evilly gleas dripped veno of his shoulder where only a few drops had splashed as the thing struck and missed, was laden with swift death This was the killer that had dropped fro on a strand of its web, on the neck of the Nemedian Fools that they were not to have suspected that the upper chauarded as well as the lower!

These thoughts flashed briefly through Conan's h, and it passed beneath hied back This time he evaded its rush with a sidewise leap, and struck back like a cat His sword severed one of the hairy legs, and again he barely saved hi fiendishly But the creature did not press the pursuit; turning, it scuttled across the crystal floor and ran up the wall to the ceiling, where it crouched for an instant, glaring down at hi it launched itself through space, trailing a strand of slirayish stuff

Conan stepped back to avoid the hurtling body then ducked frantically, just in ti web-rope He saw thetoward the door, but it was quicker, and a sticky strand cast across the door made him a prisoner He dared not try to cut it with his sword; he knew the stuff would cling to the blade, and before he could shake it loose, the fiend would be sinking its fangs into his back

Then began a desperate gaainst the fiendish craft and speed of the giant spider It no longer scuttled across the floor in a direct charge, or swung its body through the air at hi to snare hi with a devilish accuracy These strands were thick as ropes, and Conan knew that once they were coiled about hih to tear him free before the monster struck

All over the chamber went on that devil's dance, in utter silence except for the quick breathing of thefloor, the castanet rattle of the ray strands lay in coils on the floor; they were looped along the walls; they overlaid the jewel-chests and silken couches, and hung in dusky festoons fro Conan's steel-trap quickness of eye and h the sticky loops had passed him so close they rasped his naked hide He knew he could not always avoid the fro, but to keep his eye on the floor, lest he trip in the coils that lay there Sooner or later a gummy loop would writhe about him, python-like, and then, wrapped like a cocoon, he would lie at the monster's ray rope waving out behind it Conan leaped high, clearing a couch with a quick wheel the fiend ran up the wall, and the strand, leaping off the floor like a live thing, whipped about the Ciht hi frantically at the hich held him like a pliant vise, or the coil of a python The hairy devil was racing down the wall to coht up a jewel chest and hurled it with all his strength It was aFull in the s the ainst the ith a reenish slie the flasthe twinkling gelared about, but no other horror appeared, and he set hi tenaciously to his ankle and his hands, but at last he was free, and taking up his sword, he picked his way aray coils and loops to the inner door What horrors lay within he did not know The Cimmerian's blood was up, and since he had coo through to the griht be And he felt that the jewel he sought was not a cha off the loops that fouled the inner door, he found that it, like the other, was not locked He wondered if the soldiers beloere still unaware of his presence Well, he was high above their heads, and if tales were to be believed, they were used to strange noises in the tower above theony and horror

Yara was on his olden door

But he saw only a flight of silver steps leading down, dihted by what ripping his sword He heard no sound, and came presently to an ivory door, set with blood stones He listened, but no sound came from within; only thin wisps of s a curious exotic odor unfamiliar to the Cimmerian Below him the silver stair wound down to vanish in the dimness, and up that shadoell no sound floated; he had an eery feeling that he was alone in a tower occupied only by ghosts and phantoainst the ivory door and it swung silently inward On the shi+e surroundings, ready to fight or flee on the instant

He was looking into a large chareen jade, the floor of ivory, partly covered by thick rugs Smoke and exotic scent of incense floated up froolden tripod, and behind it sat an idol on a sort of e had the body of a hte for the human body, it had no attributes of hu ears, the curling proboscis, on either side of which stood white tusks tipped with round golden balls The eyes were closed, as if in sleep

This then, was the reason for the na was much like that of the beasts described by the Shemitish wanderer This was Yara's God; where then should the gem be, but concealed in the idol, since the stone was called the Elephant's Heart?81

As Conan came forward, his eyes fixed on theopened suddenly! The Ci thing, and he was trapped in its chamber!

That he did not instantly explode in a burst of murderous frenzy is a fact that measures his horror, which paralyzed him where he stood A civilized e in the conclusion that he was insane; it did not occur to the Cimmerian to doubt his senses He kneas face to face with a demon of the Elder World, and the realization robbed hiht

The trunk of the horror was lifted and quested about, the topaz eyes stared unseeingly, and Conan knew theof his frozen nerves, and he began to back silently toward the door But the creature heard The sensitive trunk stretched toward hi spoke, in a strange, staed its key or timbre The Cimmerian knew that those jaere never built or intended for huain, Yara? Will you never be done? Oh, Yagkosha, is there no end to agony?”