Part 8 (1/2)

Again ca sound Conan leaped frantically to one side; again the jet of liquid flashed past hi all the way to the city wall, the next shot would probably hit its ed around a corner to put obstacles between hi street, then around another corner

He was lost in thewas to keep turning corners so as not to give his pursuer another clear shot at hi sounds and the stench indicated that it was following his trail Once, when he paused to catch his breath, he looked back to see the slug pouring around the last corner he had turned

On and on he went, dodging this way and that through the , perhaps he could tire it A -distance run But the slug sees he was passing struck him as familiar

Then he realized that he was co to the half-ruined telance showed hi could be reached by an active climber

Conan bounded up a pile of rubbish to the top of the broken wall

Leaping froed profile of the wall to an unruined section facing the street He found hioyles He approached the softly lest the half-ruined roof collapse beneath hih which a man could fall into the cha ca that it had lost his track and uncertain as to which way to turn, the creature had evidently stopped in front of the te could see hiht-Conan peered past one of the statues and down into the street

There lay the great, grayish mass, on which the moon shonethe creature's prey

Beneath theround, as if s for the Ci would soon pick up his trail He had no doubt that it could slither up the sides of the building quite as readily as he had clihts, and a reptilian head- and pushed The statue rocked a trifle with a faint crunching noise

At the sound, the horns of the slug whipped upward toward the roof of the te its body into a sharp curve The head approached the front of the tee pillars, directly below the place where Conan crouched with bared teeth

A sword, Conan thought, would be of little use against such a monstrosity Like other lowly fore that would instantly destroy a higher creature

Up the pillar ca back and forth At the present rate, the e of the roof while most of its body still lay in the street below

Then Conan sahat he hty heave, he sent it tue of the roof Instead of the crash that such athe pavement, there floated up the sound of a moist, squashy impact, followed by a heavy thud as the forward part of the slug's body fell back to earth

When Conan risked a glance over the parapet, he saw that the statue had sunk into the slug's body until it was alray mass writhed and lashed like a worm on a fisherman's hook A blow of the tail made the front of the temple tremble; so Conan wondered if the whole structure were about to collapse beneath hi him in the debris

”Sothe row of gargoyles until he found another that was loose and directly over part of the slug's body Down it ith another squashi+ng impact A third missed and shattered on the pavement

A fourth and s with the strain, hurled outward so that it fell on the writhing head

As the beast's convulsions slowly subsided, Conan pushed over two er writhed, he claall his courage, he slashed into the rubbery flesh Dark ichor oozed out, and rippling h partsas a whole was dead

Conan was still slashi+ng furiously when a voice ot you this ti sword in hand, with a bloodstained bandage around his head in place of his hel ”Mitra! What is this?”

”It's the spook of Larsha,” said Conan, speaking Zamorian with a barbarous accent ”It chased me over half the city before I slew it” As Nestor stared incredulously, the Cimmerian continued: ”What do you here? How many times must I kill you before you stay dead?”

”You shall see how dead I auard

”What happened to your soldiers?”

”Dead in that rock slide you rigged, as you soon shall be-”