Part 4 (1/2)

'Of course not, because you're theti as a formality And if we find no one, I proe - you go to thea trades a rich man, you burn!'

Conan answered with a wicked lift of his lip, baring his teeth, and the an their search The listeners in the cha objects, opening doors and bellowing to one another through the rooms

'Conan,' said Demetrio, 'you knohat it means if they find no one?'

'I didn't kill hiht to hinder me I'd have split his skull But I did not see him until I saw his corpse'

'I know that soht, to steal at least,' said Demetrio 'By your silence you incriminate yourself in this murder as well You had best speak Thehere is sufficient to send you to the uilt or not But if you tell the whole tale, you may save yourself froly, 'I caave ram of the Temple and told me where to look for it It is kept in that room -' Conan pointed - 'in a niche in the floor under a copper Shemitish God'

'He speaks truth there,' said Proht that not half a dozenplace'

'And if you had secured it,' asked Dionus sneeringly, 'would you really have taken it to the man who hired you? Or would you have kept it for yourself?'

Again the s,' the barbarian muttered 'I keep my word'

'Who sent you here?' Deuards back fro,' they growled 'We've ransacked the place We found the trap-door in the roof through which the barbarian entered, and the bolt he cut in half A uards we posted about the building, unless he fled before we came Then, besides, he would have had to stack tables or chairs or cases upon each other to reach it froone out the front door just before Arus ca?'

'Because the door was bolted on the inside, and the only keys which ork that bolt are the one belonging to Arus and the one which still hangs on the girdle of Kallian Publico'

'I've found the cable the murderer used,' one of them announced 'A black cable, thicker than a man's arm, and curiously splotched'

'Then where is it, fool?' exclai this one,' answered the guard 'It's wrapped about a ht it would be safe froht one'

He led the way into a room filled with marble statuary, and pointed to a tall column, one of several which served a purpose more of ornament to set off the statues, than of utility And then he halted and stared

'It's gone!' he cried

'It never was there!' snorted Dionus

'By Mitra, it was!' swore the guardsman 'Coiled about the pillar just above those carven leaves It's so shadowy up there near the ceiling I couldn't tell much about it - but it was there'

'You're drunk,' snapped Deh for abut a snake could climb that smooth pillar'

'A Cimmerian could,' muttered one of the led Kallian, tied the cable about the pillar, crossed the corridor and hid in the room where the stair is How then, could he have re us ever since Arus found the body No, I tell you Conan didn't commit the murder I believe the real murderer killed Kallian to secure whatever was in the Bowl, and is hiding now in some secret nook in the Temple If we can't find him, we'll have to put the blame on the barbarian to satisfy Justice, but - where is Promero?'

They had returned to the silent body in the corridor Dionus bellowed threateningly for Promero, and the clerk came suddenly fro and his face hite

'What now, man?' exclaimed Demetrio irritably

'I found a symbol on the bottolyphic, but a syian sorcerer, Kalanthes's deadly foe! He found it in sorisly cavern below the haunted pyramids! The Gods of old ti sleeps and their worshi+ppers locked theht break their slureed caused hi so upon us-'

'You gibbering fool!' roared Dionus disgustedly, striking him heavily across the mouth Dionus was a materialist, with scant patience for eery speculations

'Well, De else to do other than to arrest this barbarian-'

The Ci toward the door of a chamber that adjoined the roothat crossed the floor like a long dark shadow!'

'Bah!' snorted Posthu!' Promero's voice shrilled and cracked with hysterical excite caus and killed Kallian Publico! It hid from you where no human could hide, and now it is in that room! Mitra defend us from the powers of Darkness! I tell you it was one of Set's children in that grisly Bowl!' He caught Dionus's sleeve with claw-like fingers 'You ain!'

The prefect shook hiht of hurasping Pro wretch forcibly toward the door, outside of which he paused and hurled him into the room so violently the clerk fell and lay half stunned

'Enough of this,' growled Dionus, eyeing the silent Cian to burn bluely, and a tension crackled in the air, when an interruption ca a slender, richly dressed figure

'I saw hiuard, looking for commendation Instead he received curses that lifted his hair

'Release that gentle fool!' swore the prefect 'Don't you know Aztrias Petanius, the nephew of the city's governor?'

The abashed guard fell away and the foppish young nobleman brushed his eood Dionus,' he lisped affectedly 'All in line of duty, I knoas returning fro to rid my brain of the wine fumes What have we here? By Mitra, is it murder?'

'Murder it is, h Deo to the stake for it'

'A vicious looking brute,' uilt? I have never seen such a villainous countenance before'

'Yes, you have, you scented dog,' snarled the Cioblet for you Revels, eh? Bah! You aiting in the shadows for oblet I would not have revealed your nas that you saw me climb the wall after the watchman made the last round, so that they'll know I didn't have time to kill this fat swine before Arus entered and found the body'

Dee color

'If what he says is true, my lord,' said the Inquisitor, 'it clears him of the murder, and we can easily hush up the matter of attempted theft He is due ten years at hard labor for house-breaking, but if you say the word, we'll arrange for hi about it I understand - you wouldn't be the first young noble debts and the like You can rely on our discretion'

Conan looked at the young nobleed his slender shoulders and covered a yaith a delicate white hand

'I know him not,' he answered 'He is mad to say I hired hi back and the toil in the mines will be well for hi; the guards tensed, grasping their bills, then relaxed as he dropped his head suddenly, as if in sullen resignation, and not even De them from under his heavy black broith eyes that were slits of blue bale-fire

He struck with nocobra; his sword flashed in the candlelight Aztrias shrieked and his head flew from his shoulders in a shower of blood, the features frozen in a white mask of horror Cat-like, Conan wheeled and thrust roin The Inquisitor's instinctive recoil barely deflected the point which sank into his thigh, glanced fro Deroan, unnerved and nauseated with agony

Conan had not paused The bill which Dionus flung up saved the prefect's skull froh the shaft, and sheared his ear cleanly fro speed of the barbarian paralyzed the senses of the police and ht flat-footed and dazed by his quickness and ferocity, half of theht back, except that Posthumo, more by luck than skill, threw his ar his sword-aruard's head, and Posthuaping red socket where an eye had been

Conan bounded back fro of his foes, to where Arus stood fue kick in the belly dropped hi, and Conan's sandalled heel crunched square in the watchh a ruin of splintered teeth, blowing bloody froth froled lips

Then all were frozen in their tracks by the soul-shaking horror of a scream which rose from the chamber into which Posthu door the clerk careat silent sobs, tears running down his pasty face and dripping off his loose sagging lips, like an idiot-babe weeping