Part 65 (2/2)

The plot: A commander of the Gallah warriors, a black man, having incurred the displeasure of Tananda, was cast into prison, in the upper room of a tall tower. He awoke in the night, to be murdered by a pig-like monster which had scaled the tower-wall and torn the bars from the window. This monster was a survival of a forgotten age, controlled by a dusky adventurer from Kordafan. An hour later the body of the commander was discovered, and a man ran to Tuthmes, to tell him of it. From the marks and prints, it was evident that no human being had killed the commander. Tuthmes told the man that the time was ripe to stir up the Gallahs against the king and his sister, and told him to find Agara, the black witch-finder, and hint to him that Tananda had had the commander murdered. Tuthmes then went upon his roof, to brood over the walled city and the myriad mud huts of the Gallahs spreading into the plains beyond the wall. He, himself, had sent the monster to murder the commander in order to throw suspicion on Tananda, who was the real ruler of Kush. He plotted the overthrow of the ruling dynasty and the making of himself king, with the aid of the Gallahs. But it was a risky task, for the Gallahs had been murmuring, feeling that a pure black king should sit on the throne of Kush. Tuthmes sent for a white woman to present to the king, plotting to effect his ruin through her. His emissary bought a Nemedian girl, Diana, from a Shemitish slave-trader, who had captured her from an Argossean trading vessel.

Shortly thereafter Tananda were riding through the city outside the walls, which was known as Punt, when Agara appeared and stirred up the people against her. Her escort were murdered, and she was dragged from her saddle and stripped naked by the mob, who were about to tear her to pieces when she was rescued by Conan, who had just arrived in Shumballa, a wandering adventurer who had recently been a corsair. She had the captain of the guard speared by his own men, and made Conan captain. Shortly thereafter he put down a rising of the blacks, and

374.was greatly esteemed by the king.

Diana was brought to Tuthmes, who gave her her orders and sent her to the king; but Tananda had her kidnaped, and Conan, seeing her, became vastly interested in her.

Agara, by his magic had discovered Tuthmes' part in the murder of the black commander, and accusing Tuthmes, was by him seized and tortured to death or so Tuthmes thought. Tuthmes, seeing that he could not overthrow the king as long as Conan lived, sent his Kordafan monster to murder Conan.

Tananda ordered Diana to tell her the details of Tuthmes' plot, but the girl refused, for Tuthmes had frightened her almost into insanity. Tananda whipped her, and Conan entered and put a stop to it. Tanada in a fury threatened him, and he laughed at her, and taking the girl, went to his house.

In the great square of the inner city, a sorcerer was being tortured, while a great mob looked on and jeered. Conan, attacked at his house by the monster, wounded it mortally and pursued it into the square, where it rushed to its master, the Kordafan, and fell dead. The frenzied mob tore the Kordafan to pieces, and then appeared Ageera, who denounced Tuthmes. He was likewise slain by the mob, and then the blacks rose and destroyed Shumballa, and Conan and Diana escaped.

375.

Unt.i.tled Draft

Amboola awakened slowly, his senses still sluggish from the wine he had guzzled the night before. For a muddled moment he could not remember where he was; the moonlight, streaming through the barred window, shone on unfamiliar surroundings. Then he remembered that he was lying in the upper cell of the prison tower where the anger of Tanada, sister to the king of Kush, had consigned him. It was no ordinary cell, for even Tanada had not dared to go too far in her punishment of the commander of the black spearmen which were the strength of Kush's army. There were carpets and tapestries and silk-covered couches, and jugs of wine he remembered that he had been awakened and wondered why.

His gaze wandered to the square of barred moonlight that was the window, and he saw something that partially sobered him, and straightened his blurred gaze. The bars of that window were bent and buckled, and twisted back. It must have been the noise of their rending that had awakened him. But what could have bent them? And where was whatever had so bent them? Suddenly he was completely sober, and an icy sensation wandered up his spine.

Something had entered through that window; something was in the room with him.

With a low cry he started up on his couch and stared about him; and he froze at the sight of the motionless, statue-like figure that stood at the head of his couch. An icy hand clutched the heart of Amboola which had never known fear. That silent, greyish shape did not move nor speak; it stood there in the shadowy moonlight, misshapen, deformed, its outline outside the bounds of sanity. Staring wildly Amboola made out a pig-like head, snouted, covered with coa.r.s.e bristles -but the thing stood upright and its thick, hair-covered arms ended in rudimentary hands

Amboola shrieked and sprang up and then the motionless thing moved, with the paralyzing speed of a monster in a nightmare. The black man had one frenzied vision of champing, foaming jaws, of great chisel-like tusks flas.h.i.+ng in the moonlight. . . . . . presently the moonlight fell on a black shape sprawled amidst the dabbled coverings of the couch on the floor; a greyish, shambling form moved silently across the chamber toward the window whose broken bars leaned out against the stars.

.2.

”Tuthmes!” The voice was urgent; urgent as the fist that hammered on the teak door of the chamber where slept Shumballa's most ambitious n.o.bleman. ”Tuthmes! Let me in! The devil is loose in Shumballa!”

The door was opened, and the speaker burst into the room a lean, wiry man in a white djebbeh, dark skinned, the whites of his eyes gleaming. He was met by Tuthmes, tall, slender,

376.dusky, with the straight features of his caste.

”What are you saying, Afari?”

Afari closed the door before he answered; he was panting as if from a long run. He was shorter than Tuthmes, and the negroid was more predominant in his features.

”Amboola! He is dead! In the Red Tower!”

”What?” exclaimed Tuthmes. ”Tananda dared execute him?”

”No! No, no! She would not be such a fool, surely. He was not executed, but murdered.

Something broke through the bars of his cell, and tore his throat out, and stamped in his ribs, and broke his skull Set, I have seen many dead men, but never one less lovely in his death than Amboola! Tuthmes, it is the work of some demon! His throat was bitten out, and the prints of the teeth were not like those of a lion or an ape. It was as if they had been made by chisels, sharp as razors!”

”When was this done?”

”Sometime about midnight. Guards in the lower part of the tower, watching the stair that leads up to the cell in which he was imprisoned, heard him cry out, and rus.h.i.+ng up the stairs, burst into the cell and found him lying as I have said. I was sleeping in the lower part of the tower as you bade me, and having seen, I came straight here, bidding the guards say naught to anyone.”

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