Part 9 (2/2)

”I'd say it represents a crown of some sort,” he grunted.

”No!” exclaimed Promero. ”I warned Kallian, but he would not believe me! It is a scaled serpent coiled with its tail in its mouth. It is the sign of Set, the Old Serpent, the G.o.d of the Stygians! This Bowl is too old for a human world it is a relic of the time when Set walked the earth in the form of a man! The race which sprang from his loins laid the bones of their kings away in such cases as these, perhaps!”

”And you'll say that those moldering bones rose up and strangled Kallian Publico and then walked away, perhaps,” derided Demetrio.

”It was no man who was laid to rest in that bowl,” whispered the clerk, his eyes wide and staring. ”What human could lie in it?”

Demetrio swore disgustedly.

”If Conan is not the murderer,” he snapped, ”the slayer is still somewhere in this building.

Dionus, and Arus, remain here with me, and you three prisoners stay here too. The rest of you search the house. The murderer could only have escaped if he got away before Arus found the body by the way Conan used in entering, and in that case the barbarian would have seen him, if he's telling the truth.”

”I saw no one but this dog,” growled Conan, indicating Arus.59.

”Of course not, because you're the murderer,” said Dionus. ”We're wasting time, but we'll search the house as a formality. And if we find no one, I promise you shall burn! Remember the law, my black-haired savage you go to the mines for killing a commoner, you hang for killing a tradesman, and for murdering a rich man, you burn!”

Conan answered with a wicked lift of his lip, baring his teeth, and the men began their search.

The listeners in the chamber heard them stamping upstairs and down, moving objects, opening doors and bellowing to one another through the rooms.

”Conan,” said Demetrio, ”you know what it means if they find no one?”

”I didn't kill him,” snarled the Cimmerian. ”If he had sought to hinder me I'd have split his skull. But I did not see him until I saw his corpse.”

”I know that some one sent you here tonight, to steal at least,” said Demetrio. ”By your silence you incriminate yourself in this murder as well. You had best speak. The mere fact of your being here is sufficient to send you to the mines for ten years, anyhow, whether you admit your guilt or not. But if you tell the whole tale, you may save yourself from the stake.”

”Well,” answered the barbarian grudgingly, ”I came here to steal the Zamorian diamond goblet. A man gave me a diagram of the Temple and told me where to look for it. It is kept in that room,” Conan pointed, ”in a niche in the floor under a copper Shemitish G.o.d.”

”He speaks truth there,” said Promero. ”I'd thought that not half a dozen men in the world knew the secret of that hiding place.”

”And if you had secured it,” asked Dionus sneeringly, ”would you really have taken it to the man who hired you? Or would you have kept it for yourself?”

Again the smoldering eyes flashed resentment.

”I am no dog,” the barbarian muttered. ”I keep my word.”

”Who sent you here?” Demetrio demanded, but Conan kept a sullen silence.

The guardsmen were straggling back from their search.

”There's no man hiding in this house,” they growled. ”We've ransacked the place. We found the trap-door in the roof through which the barbarian entered, and the bolt he cut in half. A man escaping that way would have been seen by the guards we posted about the building, unless he60.fled before we came. Then, besides, he would have had to stack tables or chairs or cases upon each other to reach it from below, and that has not been done. Why couldn't he have gone out the front door just before Arus came around the building?”

”Because the door was bolted on the inside, and the only keys which will work that bolt are the one belonging to Arus and the one which still hangs on the girdle of Kallian Publico.”

”I've found the cable the murderer used,” one of them announced. ”A black cable, thicker than a man's arm, and curiously splotched.”

”Then where is it, fool?” exclaimed Dionus.

”In the chamber adjoining this one,” answered the guard. ”It's wrapped about a marble pillar, where no doubt the murderer thought it would be safe from detection. I couldn't reach it. But it must be the right one.”

<script>