Part 22 (1/2)
She stepped back toup at the tohich looripped the handholds cut into the stone curiously unsuited to hu back with a sharp cry They froze in their places, and Conan, bending to aid therass,” she said, backing away ”Come and slay it; the rest of you bend your backs to the stone”
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Conan ca his place As he iiant blacks braced their feet, grunted and heaved with their hugeunder their ebon skin The altar did not coround, but it revolved suddenly on its side And si ru the four black men with broken masonry
A cry of horror rose fro into Conan's arm-muscles
”There was no serpent,” she whispered ”It was but a ruse to call you away I feared; the old ones guarded their treasure well Let us clear away the stones”
With herculean labor they did so, and lifted out the led bodies of the four men And under them, stained with their blood, the pirates found a crypt carved in the solid stone The altar, hinged curiously with stone rods and sockets on one side, had served as its lid And at first glance the crypt seeht with afacets Undrea pirates: diamonds, rubies, bloodstones, sapphires, turquoises, ems that shone like the eyes of evil woht stones that thesun struck into la the blood-stained rubble on the brink and thrust her white arms shoulder-deep into that pool of splendor She withdrew theht another cry to her lips a long string of cri on a thick gold wire In their glow the golden sunlight changed to bloody haze
Belit's eyes were like a woht drunkenness in riches and ht have shaken the soul of a sated es!” her voice was shrill with her emotions
”Look!” A ress, and Belit wheeled, her crimson lips a-snarl, as if she expected to see a rival corsair sweeping in to despoil her of her plunder But fro away over the jungle
”The devil-ape has been investigating the shi+p,” muttered the blacks uneasily
”Whatback a rebellious lock with an impatient hand
”Make a litter of spears and ?”
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”To look to the galley,” grunted Conan ”That bat-thing ht have knocked a hole in the bottom, for all we know”
He ran swiftly down the cracked wharf and sprang aboard A moment's swift exa a clouded glance in the direction the bat-being had vanished He returned hastily to Belit, superintending the plundering of the crypt She had looped the necklace about her neck, and on her naked white bosoe naked black stood crotch-deep in the jewel-brireat handfuls of splendor to pass the between his dusky fingers; drops of red fire dripped froht and rainbow It was as if a black titan stood straddle-legged in the bright pits of hell, his lifted hands full of stars
”That flying devil has staved in the water-casks,” said Conan ”If we hadn't been so dazed by these stones we'd have heard the noise We were fools not to have left a uard We can't drink this river water I'll take twenty le”
She looked at hie passion, her fingers working at the gems on her breast
”Very well,” she said absently, hardly heeding hile closed quickly about thereen branches creepers dangled like pythons The warriors fell into single file, creeping through the prihost
Underbrush was not so thick as Conan had anticipated The ground was spongy but not slushy
Away froradually upward Deeper and deeper they plunged into the green waving depths, and still there was no sign of water, either running streanant pool Conan halted suddenly, his warriors freezing into basaltic statues In the tense silence that followed, the Cirunted to a sub-chief, N'Gora ”March straight on until you can no longer seefollowed I heard so”
The blacks shuffled their feet uneasily, but did as they were told As they swung onward, Conan stepped quickly behind a great tree, glaring back along the way they had co occurred; the faint sounds of thespearmen faded in the distance Conan suddenly realized that the air was inated with an
135alien and exotic scent Soently brushed his tereen, curiously leafed stalks, great black blossoms nodded at him One of these had touched him They seemed to beckon him, to arch their pliant steh no wind blew
He recoiled, recognizing the black lotus, whose juice was death, and whose scent brought dreay stealing over hiht to lift his sword, to hen the serpentine stalks, but his ar lifeless at his side He opened his mouth to shout to his warriors, but only a faint rattle issued The next instant, with appalling suddenness, the jungle waved and dimmed out before his eyes; he did not hear the screams that burst out awfully not far away, as his knees collapsed, letting hireat black blossoms nodded in the windless air
THE HORROR IN THE JUNGLE