Part 48 (1/2)

Reaching the spot he sought, Conan halted, gripping the ith his free hand Inside the building rose a sudden cla that the body had at last been discovered His captive whilanced down into the muck and slime of the alleys below; he listened briefly to the clamor inside and the pleas of the wench; then he dropped her with great accuracy into a cesspool He enjoyed her kickings and flounderings and the concentrated venom of her profanity for a few seconds, and even allowed hihter Then he lifted his head, listened to the growing tu, and decided it was ti clang of led dazedly to a sitting posture About him all was silence and darkness, and for an instant he was sickened with the fear that he was blind Then he reone before, and his flesh crawled

By the sense of touch he found that he was lying on a floor of evenly joined stone slabs

Further groping discovered a wall of the sa in vain to orient himself That he was in so he was unable to guess He re noise, and wondered if it had been the iron door of his dungeon closing on him, or if it betokened the entrance of an executioner

At this thought he shuddered profoundly and began to feel his way along the wall

268

Momentarily he expected to encounter the limits of his prison, but after awhile he ca down a corridor He kept to the wall, fearful of pits or other traps, and was presently aware of so, but either his ears had caught a stealthy sound, or some subconscious sense warned hi on end; as surely as he lived, he felt the presence of so in the darkness in front of hiht his heart would stop when a voice hissed in a barbaric accent: ”Murilo! Is it you?”

”Conan!” Liroped in the darkness and his hands encountered a pair of great naked shoulders

”A good thing I recognized you,” grunted the barbarian ”I was about to stick you like a

fattened pig

”Where are we, in Mitra's name?

”In the pits under the Red Priest's house; but why ”

”What is the tiht

Murilo shook his head, trying to asse here?” demanded the Cimmerian

”I cauard at your prison ”

”They did,” growled Conan ”I broke the new jailer's head and walked out I would have beenhere hours agone, but I had some personal business to attend to Well, shall we hunt forNabonidus?

Murilo shuddered ”Conan, we are in the house of the archfiend! I ca a human enerunted uncertainly; fearless as a wounded tiger as far as human foes were concerned,he had all the superstitious dreads of the priained access to the house,” whispered Murilo, as if the darkness were full of listening ears

”In the outer gardens I found Nabonidus' dog mauled to death Within the house I came upon269

Joka, the servant His neck had been broken Then I saw Nabonidus hiarb At first I thought he too was dead I stole up to stab him He rose and facednobleman momentarily speechless as he re-lived that awful instant

”Conan,” he whispered, ”it was no man that stood before me! In body and posture it was not unlike a rinned a face of htmare!

It was covered with black hair, frolared redly; its nose was flat, with great flaring nostrils; its loose lips writhed back, disclosing huge yellow fangs, like the teeth of a dog The hands that hung from the scarlet sleeves were misshapen and likewise covered with black hair All this I saw in one glance, and then I was overcome with horror; my senses left me and I swooned”

”What then?” muttered the Cimmerian uneasily

”I recovered consciousness only a short tio; the monster must have thrown me into these pits Conan, I have suspected that Nabonidus was not wholly hu huht he takes on his true aspect”