Part 3 (2/2)

'How long did he stay?'

'Only a few minutes Then he left'

'Did he come from your house to the Temple?'

'I don't know!' The clerk's voice was shrill with taut nerves

'Why did he come to your house?'

'To - to talk ,' snapped Demetrio 'Why did he co!' Pro to do with it-'

'Make hirunted and nodded to one of his ely, moved toward the two captives

'Do you knoho I a do prey

'You're Posthuirl's eye in the Court of Justice because she wouldn't give you inforo after!' bellowed the guardsrowing purple, as he seized the wretched clerk by the collar of his tunic, twisting it so the rowled 'Answer the Inquisitor'

'Oh Mitra, mercy!' screamed the wretch 'I swear that-'

Posthumo slapped him terrifically first on one side of the face and then on the other, and continued the interrogation by flinging hi him with vicious accuracy

'Mercy!' -'

'Then get up, you cur!' roared Posthu'

Dionus cast a quick glance at Conan to see if he were properly impressed

'You see what happens to those who cross the police,' he said

The Ci clerk

'He's a weakling and a fool,' he growled 'Let one of you touch uts on the floor'

'Are you ready to talk?' asked Delyhi in his pain, 'is that Kallian came to my house shortly after I arrived - I left the Temple at the same time he did - and sent his chariot away He threatened e if I ever spoke of it I am a poor man, without friends or favor Without my position with him, I would starve'

'What's that todid he remain at your house?'

'Until perhaps half an hour beforeto the Temple, and would return after he had done what he wished to do there'

'What was he going to do there?'

Pro the secrets of his dreaded erinning evilly as he doubled his huge fist, opened his lips quickly

'There was so in the Temple he wished to examine'

'But why should he come here alone in so much secrecy?'

'Because it was not his property It arrived in a caravan fro of it, except that it had been placed with theia, and was meant for Kalanthes of Hanumar, priest of Ibis The master of the caravan had been paid by these other men to deliver it directly to Kalanthes, but he's a rascal by nature, and wished to proceed directly to Aquilonia, on the road to which Hanuht leave it in the Tereed, and told him he himself would send a runner to inforone, and I spoke of the runner, Kallian forbadeover what the men had left'

'And as that?'

'A sort of sarcophagus, such as is found in ancient Stygian tombs, but this one was round, like a coveredlike copper, but lyphics, like those found on the ia The lid was made fast to the body by carven copper-like bands'

'What was in it?'

'The men of the caravan did not know They only said that the ave it to the the tombs far beneath the pyramids and sent to Kalanthes ”because of the love the sender bore the priest of Ibis” Kallian Publico believed that it contained the diades, of the people elt in that dark land before the ancestors of the Stygians can carved on the lid, which he sas the shape of the diades wore

'He determined to open the Bowl and see what it contained

He was like a ht of the fabled diadee jewels known only to that ancient race, a single one of which is worth more than all the jewels of the ainst it But he stayed at ht, he ca in the shadows until the watch, then letting himself in with his belt key I watched him from the shadows of the silk shop, saw him enter the Temple, and then returned toelse of great value, he intended hiding it soain Then on thethat thieves had broken into his house and stolen Kalanthes's property None would know of his prowlings but the charioteer and I, and neither of us would betray him'

'But the watch seen by him; he planned to have him crucified as an accoulped and turned pale as this duplicity of his eus?' asked Derunted 'So! The very room in which Kallian must have been attacked'

Promero turned pale and twisted his thin hands

'Why should a ift? Ancient Gods and queer mummies have come up the caravan roads before, but who loves the priest of Ibis so well in Stygia, where they still worshi+p the arch-de the toht Set since the first dawn of the earth, and Kalanthes has fought Set's priests all his life There is sous,' commanded Demetrio, and Pro Conan, as apparently heedless of the wary eye the guardsmen kept on hih the torn hangings and entered the roohted than the corridor Doors on each side gave into other chaes, Gods of strange lands and far peoples And Promero cried out sharply 'Look! The Bowl! It's open - and ee black cylinder, nearly four feet in height, and perhaps three feet in diameter at its widest circumference, which was halfway between the top and bottom The heavy carven lid lay on the floor, and beside it a hammer and a chisel Delyphs, and turned to Conan 'Is this what you came to steal?' The barbarian shook his head

'How could I bear it away? It is too big for one man to carry' 'The bands were cut with this chisel,' mused Demetrio, 'and in haste There are marks where misstrokes of the hammer dented the metal Wenearby - possibly in the hangings in the doorway When Kallian had the Bowl open, the ht have killed Kallian and opened the Bowl hi,' shuddered the clerk 'It's too ancient to be holy Who ever saw metal like it in a sane world? It seems less destructible than Aquilonian steel, yet see how it is corroded and eaten away in spots Look at the bits of black lyphics; they smell as earth smells from far below the surface And look - here on the lid!' The clerk pointed with a shaky finger 'What would you say it is?' Den 'I'd say it represents a crown of sorunted 'No!' exclaimed Promero 'I warned Kallian, but he would not believe me! It is a scaled serpent coiled with its tail in its n of Set, the Old Serpent, the God of the Stygians! This Bowl is too old for a human world - it is a relic of the time when Set walked the earth in the for fros away in such cases as these, perhaps!'

'And you'll say that those led Kallian Publico and then walked away, perhaps,' derided Demetrio

'It was no man as laid to rest in that bohispered the clerk, his eyes wide and staring 'What huustedly

'If Conan is not the murderer,' he snapped, 'the slayer is still so Dionus and Arus, remain here with me, and you three prisoners stay here too The rest of you search the building The ot away before Arus found the body - by the way Conan used in entering, and in that case the barbarian would have seen hi the truth'

'I saw no one but this dog,' growled Conan, indicating Arus