Part 9 (1/2)

”There was something in the Temple he wished to examine.”

”But why should he come here alone, and in so much secrecy?”

”Because it was not his property. It arrived in a caravan from the south, at dawn. The men of the caravan knew nothing of it, except that it had been placed with them by the men of a caravan from Stygia, and was meant for Kalanthes of Hanumar, priest of Ibis. The master of the caravan had been paid by these other men to deliver it directly to Kalanthes, but he's a rascal by nature, and wished to proceed directly to Aquilonia, on the road to which Hanumar does not lie. So he asked if he might leave it in the Temple until Kalanthes could send for it.

”Kallian agreed, and told him he himself would send a runner to inform Kalanthes. But after the men had gone, and I spoke of the runner, Kallian forbade me to send him. He sat brooding over what the men had left.”

”And what was that?”

”A sort of sarcophagus, such as is found in ancient Stygian tombs, but this one was round, like a covered metal bowl. Its composition was something like copper, but much harder, and it was carved with hieroglyphics, like those found on the more ancient menhirs in southern Stygia.

The lid was made fast to the body by carven copper-like bands.”

”What was in it?”

”The men of the caravan did not know. They only said that the men who gave it to them told them that it was a priceless relic, found among the tombs far beneath the pyramids and sent to Kalanthes, 'because of the love the sender bore the priest of Ibis.' Kallian Publico believed that it contained the diadem of the giant-kings, of the people who dwelt in that dark land before the ancestors of the Stygians came there. He showed me a design carved on the lid, which he swore was the shape of the diadem which legend tells us the monster-kings wore.

”He determined to open the Bowl and see what it contained. He was like a madman when he thought of the fabled diadem, which myths say was set with the strange jewels known only to that ancient race, a single one of which is worth more than all the jewels of the modern world.

”I warned him against it. But he stayed at my house as I have said, and a short time before57.midnight, he came alone to the Temple, hiding in the shadows until the watchman had pa.s.sed to the other side of the building, then letting himself in with his belt-key. I watched him from the shadows of the silk shop, saw him enter the Temple, and then returned to my own house. If the diadem was in the Bowl, or anything else of great value, he intended hiding it somewhere in the Temple and slipping out again. Then on the morrow he would raise a great hue and cry, saying that thieves had broken into his house and stolen Kalanthes' property. None would know of his prowlings but the charioteer and I, and neither of us would betray him.”

”But the watchman?” objected Demetrio.

”Kallian did not intend being seen by him; he planned to have him crucified as an accomplice of the thieves,” answered Promero. Arus gulped and turned pale as this duplicity of his employer came home to him.

”Where is this sarcophagus?” asked Demetrio. Promero pointed, and the Inquisitor grunted.

”So! The very room in which Kallian must have been attacked.”

Promero turned pale and twisted his thin hands.

”Why should a man in Stygia send Kalanthes a gift? Ancient G.o.ds and queer mummies have come up the caravan roads before, but who loves the priest of Ibis so well in Stygia, where they still wors.h.i.+p the arch-demon Set who coils among the tombs in the darkness? The G.o.d Ibis has fought Set since the first dawn of the earth, and Kalanthes has fought Set's priests all his life.

There is something dark and hidden here.”

”Show us this sarcophagus,” commanded Demetrio, and Promero hesitantly led the way. All followed, including Conan, who was apparently heedless of the wary eye the guardsmen kept on him, and seemed merely curious. They pa.s.sed through the torn hangings and entered the room, which was rather more dimly lighted than the corridor. Doors on each side gave into other chambers, and the walls were lined with fantastic images, G.o.ds of strange lands and far peoples. And Promero cried out sharply.

”Look! The Bowl! It's open and empty!”

In the center of the room stood a strange black cylinder, nearly four feet in height, and perhaps three feet in diameter at its widest circ.u.mference, which was half-way between the top and bottom. The heavy carven lid lay on the floor, and beside it a hammer and a chisel. Demetrio looked inside, puzzled an instant over the dim hieroglyphs, and turned to Conan.

”Is this what you came to steal?”58.

The barbarian shook his head.

”How could I bear it away? It is too big for one man to carry.”

”The bands were cut with this chisel,” mused Demetrio, ”and in haste. There are marks where misstrokes of the hammer dinted the metal. We may a.s.sume that Kallian opened the Bowl.

Some one was hiding nearby possibly in the hangings in the doorway. When Kallian had the Bowl open, the murderer sprang on him or he might have killed Kallian and opened the Bowl himself.”

”This is a grisly thing,” shuddered the clerk. ”It's too ancient to be holy. Who ever saw metal like it in a sane world? It seems less destructible than Aquilonian steel, yet see how it is corroded and eaten away in spots. Look at the bits of black mold clinging in the grooves of the hieroglyphics; they smell as earth smells from far below the surface. And look here on the lid!” The clerk pointed with a shaky finger. ”What would you say it is?”

Demetrio bent closer to the carven design.