Part 19 (2/2)

'There is the box' Viciously Valbroso kicked a small but heavy iron chest that stood on the floor near by It was intricately carved, with tiny skulls and writhing dragons curiously intertwined, but Conan saw no catch or hasp that ht serve to unlock the lid The e and chisel showed on it but as scratches

'This is the dog's treasure box,' said Valbroso angrily 'All men of the south know of Zorathus and his iron chest Mitra knohat is in it

But he will not give up its secret'

Zorathus! It was true, then; the ly as he leaned over the writhing forerness

'Ease those ropes, knave!' he ordered the torturer harshly, and Valbroso and his captain stared In the forgetfulness of the moment Conan had used his imperial tone, and the brute in leather instinctively obeyed the knife-edge of coradually, for else the slackening of the ropes had been as great a tor up a vessel of wine that stood near by, Conan placed the riulped spas breast

Into the bloodshot eyes canition, and the froth-s whiue

'Is this death, then? Is the long agony ended? For this is King Conan who died at Valkia, and I a the dead'

'You're not dead,' said Conan 'But you're dying You'll be tortured no more I'll see to that But I can't help you further Yet before you die, tell me how to open your iron box!'

'My iron box,' mumbled Zorathus in delirious disjointed phrases 'The chest forged in unholy fires a mountains of Khrosha; the metal no chisel can cut How many treasures has it borne, across the width and the breadth of the world! But no such treasure as it now holds'

'Tell ood, and it may aid me'

'Aye, you are Conan,'on your throne in the great public hall of Tarantia, with your crown on your head and the scepter in your hand But you are dead; you died at Valkia And so I knowsay?' de Kothic 'Will he tell us how to open the box?'

As if the voice roused a spark of life in the twisted breast Zorathus rolled his bloodshot eyes toward the speaker

'Only Valbroso will I tell,' he gasped in Zingaran 'Death is upon me

Lean close to me, Valbroso!'

The count did so, his dark face lit with avarice; behind him his saturnine captain, Beloso, crowded closer

'Press the seven skulls on the riasped Zorathus

'Press then the head of the dragon that writhes across the lid Then press the sphere in the dragon's claws That will release the secret catch'

'Quick, the box!' cried Valbroso with an oath

Conan lifted it and set it on a dais, and Valbroso shouldered him aside