Part 32 (1/2)

But noithout warning, a gray fleecythe slopes, spreading out through the valleys It blotted out the sun; the world becaray void in which visibility was liroping er see the peaks that had served hiuide The golden serpent drooped in the windless air

Presently Tiberias seemed himself confused; he halted, stared about uncertainly

'Are you lost, dog?' demanded Valerius harshly

'Listen!'

Soan, the rhythmic rumble of a drum

'Conan's druh to hear the drum,' said Valerius, 'why do we not hear the shouts and the clang of ares and the winds play strange tricks,' answered Tiberias, his teeth chattering with the ague that is frequently the lot of eons

'Listen!'

Faintly to their ears ca down in the valley!' cried Tiberias 'The druhts Let us hasten!'

He rode straight on toward the sound of the distant druround at last Valerius followed, cursing the fog Then it occurred to him that it wouldHe would be at the Cimmerian's back before the noonday sun dispelled the mists

Just now he could not tell what lay on either hand, whether cliffs, thickets or gorges The dru louder as they advanced, but they heard no more of the battle Valerius had no idea tohat point of the coray rock walls looh the s through a narrow defile But the guide showed no sign of nervousness, and Valerius hove a sigh of relief when the walls widened out and becah the defile; if an ambush had been planned, it would have been ain The dru louder, and Valerius could not deter

Now it seemed ahead of hilared about hi on his war-horse isps ofon his ar lines of steel-clad riders faded away and away like phanto?' he dehostly druhtened in his saddle, turned his head and faced Valerius, and the s is thinning, Valerius,' he said in a new voice, pointing a bony finger 'Look!'

The dru away First the crests of cliffs caray clouds, tall and spectral Lower and lower crawled theValerius started up in his stirrups with a cry that the horsemen echoed behind him On all sides of them the cliffs towered They were not in a wide, open valley as he had supposed They were in a blind gorge walled by sheer cliffs hundreds of feet high The only entrance or exit was that narrow defile through which they had ridden

'Dog!' Valerius struck Tiberias full in the mouth with his clenched mailed hand 'What devil's trick is this?'

Tiberias spat out a hter

'A trick that shall rid the world of a beast! Look, dog!'

Again Valerius cried out, more in fury than in fear

The defile was blocked by a wild and terrible band of ed, shock-headed men with spears in their hands--hundreds of them And up on the cliffs appeared other faces--thousands of faces--wild, gaunt, ferocious faces, marked by fire and steel and starvation

'A trick of Conan's!' raged Valerius

'Conan knows nothing of it,' laughed Tiberias 'It was the plot of broken ht