Part 22 (1/2)

'Conan has returned!'

'Conan?' The gaunt ers

'The corsair?'

'Aye!'

The gaunt man went livid 'Is hea man who shelters or trades with a corsair as quickly as they'll hang the corsair hiovernor should learn of our past connections with hirimly 'Send your men into the aran, is in Messantia Conan said he had a gem, which he will probably seek to dispose of The jewel merchants should know of him, if any do And here is another task for you: pick up a dozen or so desperate villains who can be trusted to do aith a ues afterward

You understand me?'

'I understand' The other nodded slowly and soht host out of my past,' muttered Publio, and the sinister darkness of his countenance at that moment would have surprised the wealthy nobles and ladies who bought their silks and pearls from his many stalls But when he returned to Conan a short ti in his own hands a platter of fruit and uest

Conan still stood at the case down into the harbor at the purple and crialleons and caracks and galleys and droalley, if I', low, sli apart from the others, anchored off the low broad sandy beach that curved round to the distant headland 'Is there peace, then, between Stygia and Argos?'

'The sa the platter on the table with a sigh of relief, for it was heavily laden; he knew his guest of old 'Stygian ports are temporarily open to our shi+ps, as ours to theirs But ht of land! That galley crept into the bay last night What its ht nor sold I distrust those dark-skinned devils Treachery had its birth in that dusky land'

'I'vefroalley manned by black corsairs I crept to the very bastions of the sea-washed castles of black-walled Khealleons anchored there And speaking of treachery, mine host, suppose you taste these viands and sip a bit of this wine, just to show ht side'

Publio complied so readily that Conan's suspicions were lulled, and without further hesitation he sat down and devoured enough for three h the aran who had a jewel to sell or who sought for a shi+p to carry hiaunt man with a scar on his temple sat with his elbows on a wine-stained table in a squalid cellar with a brass lantern hanging from a smoke-blackened beaues whose sinister countenances and ragged garments proclaimed their profession

And as the first stars blinked out, they shone on a strange band spurring theirthe white road that led to Messantia froaunt, clad in black, hooded robes, and they did not speak They forced their steeds aunt as the travel and far wandering

14

The Black Hand of Set

Conan woke from a sound sleep as quickly and instantly as a cat And like a cat he was on his feet with his sword out before the man who had touched him could so much as draw back

'What word, Publio?' deold lalow over the thick tapestries and the rich coverings of the couch whereon he had been reposing

Publio, recovering frouest, replied: 'The Zingaran has been located He arrived yesterday, at dawn Only a few hours ago he sought to sell a huge, strange jewel to a Sheht to do with it Men say he turned pale beneath his black beard at the sight of it, and closing his stall, fled as fro accursed'

'Itthe pulse in his teerness 'Where is he now?'