Part 21 (2/2)

The tall Khitan lifted his head and gazed at Publio, so that the merchant broke into a profuse sweat

'What do you wish of me?' he stuttered

'A shi+p,' answered the Khitan 'A shi+p well e?' sta

'To the ends of the world, perhaps,' answered the Khitan, 'or to the molten seas of hell that lie beyond the sunrise'

15 The Return of the Corsair

Conan's first sensation of returning consciousness was that ofand plunging Then he heard wind huh cords and spars, and kneas aboard a shi+p even before his blurred sight cleared He heard ahim sharply into fall anis and glared about hiuffaws in his ears and the reek of unwashed bodies in his nostrils

He was standing on the poopdeck of along galley which was running before the wind that whipped down froainst the taut sheets The sun was just rising, in a dazzling blaze of gold and blue and green To the left of the shoreline was a diht stretched the open ocean This lance that likewise included the shi+p itself

It was long and narrow, a typical trading-shi+p of the southern coasts, high of poop and stern, with cabins at either extremity Conan looked down into the open waist, whence wafted that sickening abominable odor He knew it of old It was the bodyscent of the oarsroes, forty men to each side, each confined by a chain locked about his waist, with the other end welded to a heavy ring set deep in the solid runway beam that ran between the benches froalley was a hell unfathomable Most of these were Kushi+tes, but some thirty of the blacks who now rested on their idle oars and stared up at the stranger with dull curiosity were from the far southern isles, the hohter features and hair, their rangier, cleaner-li them men who had followed hinized in one swift, all-elance as he rose, before he turned his attention to the figures about his, his fists clenched wrathfully, he glared at the figures clustered about hi, the empty bucket still poised in his hand, and Conan cursed hi for his hilt Then he discovered that he eaponless and naked except for his short leather breeks

'What lousy tub is this?' he roared 'How did I coly - stocky, bearded Argosseans to a man - and one, whose richer dress and air of command proclaily: 'We found you lying on the sands Somebody had rapped you on the pate and taken your clothes Needing an extra ht you aboard'

'What shi+p is this?' Conan deo of ilded helold ore I am Demetrio, captain of this vessel and your master henceforward'

'Then I'o, after all,'southeastward, following the long curve of the Argossean coast These trading-shi+ps never ventured far from the shoreline Soalley was speeding southward

'Have you sighted a Stygian galley-' began Conan, but the beard of the burly, brutal-faced captain bristled He was not in the least interested in any question his prisoner h time he reduced this independent wastrel to his proper place

'Get for'ard!' he roared 'I've wasted ti you brought to the poop to be revived, and answered enough of your infernal questions Get off this poop! You'll work your way aboard this galley-'

'I'll buy your shi+p-' began Conan, before he remeh reeted these words, and the captain turned purple, thinking he sensed ridicule

'Youstep forward, while his hand closed on the knife at his belt 'Get for'ard before I have you flogged! You'll keep a civil tongue in your jaws, or by Mitra, I'll have you chained a an oar!'

Conan's volcanic te at best, burst into explosion Not in years, even before he was king, had a man spoken to him thus and lived

'Don't lift your voice to usty as the sea-wind, while the sailors gaped dumfounded 'Draw that toy and I'll feed you to the fishes!'

'Who do you think you are?' gasped the captain

'I'll show you!' roared the maddened Cimmerian, and he wheeled and bounded toward the rail, where weapons hung in their brackets