Part 8 (1/2)

Battle and raid had thinned their crew; only so galley But Belit would not take the tidoerness for her latest venture; so the Tigress swung into the river ly as she breasted the broad current

They rounded the ht of the sea, and sunset found the sandbars where strange reptiles coiled Not even a crocodile did they see, nor any four-legged beast or winged bird coh the blackness that preceded moonrise they drove, between banks that were solid palisades of darkness, whence calearim eyes And once an inhuman voice was lifted in awfulthat the souls of evil men were imprisoned in these man-like animals as punishold-barred cage in an Hyrkanian city, he had seen an abysmal sad-eyed beast which ht of the dehter that echoed frole

Then the le awoke in horrific bedlareet it Roars and howls and yells set the black warriors to tre, but all this noise, Conan noted, cale, as if the beasts no less thanabove the black denseness of the trees and above the waving fronds, thescintillation of phosphorescent bubbles that widened like a shi+ning road of bursting jewels The oars dipped into the shi+ning water and came up sheathed in frosty silver The pluems on sword-hilts and harness sparkled frostily

The cold light struck icy fire from the jewels in Belit's clustered black locks as she stretched her lithe figure on a leopardskin thrown on the deck Supported on her elbows, her chin resting on her slied beside her, his blackin the faint breeze Belit's eyes were dark jewels burning in the ht

'Mystery and terror are about us, Conan, and we glide into the realm of horror and death,' she said 'Are you afraid?'

A shrug of his mailed shoulders was his only answer

'I am not afraid either,' she said meditatively 'I was never afraid I have looked into the naked fangs of Death too often Conan, do you fear the Gods?'

'I would not tread on their shadow,' answered the barbarian conservatively 'So to harm, others, to aid; at least so say their priests Mitra of the HyboriansGod, because his people have builded their cities over the world But even the Hyborians fear Set And Bel, God of thieves, is a good God When I was a thief in Zamora I learned of him'

'What of your own Gods? I have never heard you call on thereat mountain What use to call on him? Litde he cares if men live or die Better to be silent than to call his attention to you; he will send you doorim and loveless, but at birth he breathes power to strive and slay into a man's soul What else shall men ask of the Gods?'

'But what of the worlds beyond the river of death?' she persisted

'There is no hope here or hereafter in the cult of le and suffer vainly, finding pleasure only in the bright ray misty realhout eternity'

Belit shuddered 'Life, bad as it is, is better than such a destiny What do you believe, Conan?'

He shrugged his shoulders 'I have known many Gods He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply I seek not beyond death It may be the blackness averred by the Nemedian skeptics, or Crom's realm of ice and cloud, or the snowy plains and vaulted halls of the Nordheimer's Valhalla I know not, nor do I care Let me live deep while I live; letwine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion I know this: if life is illusion, then I a thus, the illusion is real to me I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content'

'But the Gods are real,' she said, pursuing her own line of thought 'And above all are the Gods of the Shemites - Ishtar and Ashtoreth and Derketo and Adonis Bel, too, is Sheo and went forth laughing, with curled beard and is of old times

'There is life beyond death, I know, and I know this, too, Conan of Ciht hier than any death! I have lain in your ar with the violence of our love; you have held and crushed and conqueredkisses My heart is welded to your heart, my soul is part of your soul! Were I still in death and you fighting for life, I would come back from the abyss to aid you - aye, whether my spirit floated with the purple sails on the crystal sea of paradise, or writhed in the molten flames of hell! I am yours, and all the Gods and all their eternities shall not sever us!'

A screa Belit aside, Conan bounded up, his sword a long silver glitter in theat what he saw The black warrior dangled above the deck, supported by what see over the rail Then he realized that it was a gigantic serpent which had writhed its glistening length up the side of the bow and gripped the luckless warrior in its jaws Its dripping scales shone leprously in the h above the deck, while the stricken s of a python Conan rushed into the bows, and swinging his great sword, hewed nearly through the giant trunk, which was thicker than aits victi the water to bloody foaether

Thereafter Conan kept the lookout watch hi up frole, he sighted the black fangs of towers jutting up a the trees He called Belit, who slept on the deck, wrapped in his scarlet cloak; and she sprang to his side, eyes blazing Her lips were parted to call orders to her warriors to take up bow and spears; then her lovely eyes widened

It was but the ghost of a city on which they looked when they cleared a jutting jungle-clad point and swung in toward the incurving shore Weeds and rank river grass greeen the stones of broken piers and shattered paves that had once been streets and spacious plazas and broad courts Frole crept in, reen Here and there buckling towers reeled drunkenly against thewalls In the center space a marble pyramid was spired by a sli that Conan supposed to be an ireat bird,' said one of the warriors, standing in the bows

'It is a monster bat,' insisted another

'It is an ape,' said Belit

Just then the creature spread broad wings and flapped off into the jungle

'A winged ape,' said old N'Yaga uneasily 'Better we had cut our throats than come to this place It is haunted'

Belit alley run inshore and tied to the cru ashore, closely followed by Conan, and after the in thedubiously at the surrounding jungle

Over all brooded a silence as sinister as that of a sleeping serpent Belit posed picturesquely aure contrasting strangely with the desolation and decay about her The sun fla the toith a dull gold that left shadows lurking beneath the tottering walls Belit pointed to a sli base A broad expanse of cracked, grass-grown slabs led up to it, flanked by fallen columns, and before it stood athe ancient floor and stood before it

'This was the temple of the old ones,' she said 'Look - you can see the channels for the blood along the sides of the altar, and the rains of ten thousand years have not washed the dark stains from them The walls have all fallen away, but this stone block defies time and the elements'

'But ere these old ones?' demanded Conan

She spread her sliendary is this city mentioned But look at the handholes at either end of the altar! Priests often conceal their treasures beneath their altars Four of you lay hold and see if you can lift it'

She stepped back toup at the tohich looripped the handholes cut into the stone -curiously unsuited to hu back with a sharp cry They froze in their places, and Conan, bending to aid therass,' she said, backing away 'Come and slay it; the rest of you bend your backs to the stone'

Conan ca his place As he iiant blacks braced their feet, grunted and heaved with their hugeunder their ebon skin The altar did not coround, but it revolved suddenly on its side And si ru the four black men with broken masonry

A cry of horror rose fro into Conan's arm-muscles 'There was no serpent,' she whispered 'It was but a ruse to call you away I feared; the old ones guarded their treasure well Let us clear away the stones'

With herculean labor they did so, and lifted out the led bodies of the four men And under them, stained with their blood, the pirates found a crypt carved in the solid stone The altar, hinged curiously with stone rods and sockets on one side, had served as its lid And at first glance the crypt seeht with afacets Undrea pirates; diamonds, rubies, bloodstones, sapphires, turquoises, ems that shone like the eyes of evil woht stones that thesun struck into la the bloodstained rubble on the brink and thrust her white arms shoulder-deep into that pool of splendor She withdrew theht another cry to her lips - a long string of cri on a thick gold wire In their glow the golden sunlight changed to bloody haze

Belit's eyes were like a woht drunkenness in riches and ht have shaken the soul of a sated es!' her voice was shrill with her emotions

'Look!' a ress, and Belit wheeled, her crimson lips a-snarl, as if she expected to see a rival corsair sweeping in to despoil her of her plunder But fro away over the jungle

'The devil-ape has been investigating the shi+p,' muttered the blacks uneasily

'Whatback a rebellious lock with an impatient hand 'Make a litter of spears and ?'

'To look to the galley,' grunted Conan 'That bat-thing ht have knocked a hole in the bottom, for all we know'

He ran swiftly down the cracked wharf and sprang aboard A moment's swift exa a clouded glance in the direction the bat-being had vanished He returned hastily to Belit, superintending the plundering of the crypt She had looped the necklace about her neck, and on her naked white bosoe naked black stood crotch-deep in the jewel-brireat handfuls of splendor to pass the between his dusky fingers; drops of red fire dripped froht and rainbow It was as if a black titan stood straddle-legged in the bright pits of hell, his lifted hands full of stars

'That flying devil has staved in the water-casks,' said Conan 'If we hadn't been so dazed by these stones we'd have heard the noise We were fools not to have left a uard We can't drink this river water I'll take twenty le'