Part 8 (2/2)
”Only a few minutes. Then he left.”
”Did he come from your house to the Temple?”
”I don't know!” the clerk's voice was shrill with taut nerves.
”Why did he come to your house?”
”To-to talk matters of business with me.”
”You're lying,” snapped Demetrio. ”Why did he come to your house?”
”I don't know! I don't know anything!” Promero was growing hysterical. ”I had nothing to do
with it ”
”Make him talk, Dionus,” snapped Demetrio, and Dionus grunted and nodded to one of his men who, grinning savagely, moved toward the two captives.
”Do you know who I am?” he growled, thrusting his head forward and staring domineeringly at
his shrinking prey.55.
”You're Posthumo,” answered the charioteer sullenly. ”You gouged out a girl's eye in theCourt of Justice because she wouldn't give you information incriminating her lover.
”I always get what I go after!” bellowed the guardsman, the veins in his thick neck swelling, and his face growing purple, as he seized the wretched clerk by the collar of his tunic, twisting it so the man was half strangled.”Speak up, you rat!” he growled. ”Answer the Inquisitor.
”Oh Mitra, mercy!” screamed the wretch. ”I swear ”.
Posthumo slapped him terrifically first on one side of the face and then on the other, andcontinued the interrogation by flinging him to the floor and kicking him with vicious accuracy.
”Mercy!” moaned the victim. ”I'll tell I'll tell anything ”.
”Then get up, you cur!” roared Posthumo, swelling with self-importance. ”Don't lie therewhining.
Dionus cast a quick glance at Conan to see if he were properly impressed.
”You see what happens to those who cross the police,” he said.
The Cimmerian spat with a sneer of cruel contempt for the moaning clerk.
”He's a weakling and a fool,” he growled. ”Let one of you touch me and I'll spill his guts onthe floor.
”.”Are you ready to talk?” asked Demetrio tiredly. He found these scenes wearingly monotonous.
”All I know,” sobbed the clerk, dragging himself to his feet and whimpering like a beaten dog
in his pain, ”is that Kallian came to my house shortly after I arrived I left the Temple at the same time he did and sent his chariot away. He threatened me with discharge if I ever spoke of it. I am a poor man, without friends or favor. Without my position with him, I would starve.”
”What's that to me?” snapped Demetrio. ”How long did he remain at your house?”
”Until perhaps half an hour before midnight. Then he left, saying that he was going to the Temple, and would return after he had done what he wished to do there.”56.
”What was he going to do there?”
Promero hesitated at revealing the secrets of his dreaded employer, then a shuddering glance at Posthumo, who was grinning evilly as he doubled his huge fist, opened his lips quickly.
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