Part 20 (1/2)

Bronze lanterns, carved with leering dragons, had been lighted in the streets before Conan reached the house of Aram Baksh The tavern was the last occupied house on the street, which ran west A wide garden, enclosed by a wall, where date-palrew thick, separated it from the houses farther east To the west of the inn stood another grove of palh which the street, now become a road, wound out into the desert Across the road froling palm trees, and occupied only by bats and jackals As Conan caars, so plentiful in Za quarters The lights ceased some distance behind hi before the tavern gate: only the stars, the soft dust of the road underfoot, and the rustle of the palate did not open upon the road, but upon the alley which ran between the tavern and the garden of the date-palms Conan jerked lustily at the rope which depended fro its claate with the hilt of his sword A wicket opened in the gate and a black face peered through

'Open, blast you,' requested Conan 'I'uest I've paid Aram for a room, and a room I'll have, by Crom!'

The black craned his neck to stare into the starlit road behind Conan; but he opened the gate without co and bolting it The as unusually high; but there were e of the desert ainst a nocturnal noreat pale blossoht, and entered the tap-rooian with the shaven head of a student sat at a table brooding over naa softly, a portlyhook-nose, and small black eyes which were never still

'You wish food?' he asked 'Drink?'

'I ate a joint of beef and a loaf of bread in the suk,' grunted Conan 'Bring h left to pay for it' He tossed a copper coin on the wine-splashed board

'You did not win at the ga-tables?'

'How could I, with only a handful of silver to begin with? I paid you for the roo, because I knew I'd probably lose I wanted to be sure I had a roof over ht I notice nobody sleeps in the streets in Zaars hunt a niche they can barricade before dark The city must be full of a particularly bloodthirsty brand of thieves'

He gulped the cheap ith relish, and then followed Araame to stare after hi, but the Stygian laughed, a ghastly laugh of inhuman cynicism andone another's glance The arts studied by a Stygian scholar are not calculated to

Conan followed Arahted by copper lamps, and it did not please him to note his host's noiseless tread Aram's feet were clad in soft slippers and the hallas carpeted with thick Turanian rugs; but there was an unpleasant suggestion of stealthiness about the Za corridor Aram halted at a door, across which a heavy iron bar rested in powerful metal brackets This Aram lifted and showed the Cimmerian into a well-appointed chamber, the s of which, Conan instantly noted, were silded There were rugs on the floor, a couch, after the Eastern fashi+on, and ornately carved stools It was a much more elaborate chamber than Conan could have procured for the price nearer the center of the city - a fact that had first attracted hi, he discovered how slis for the past few days had left him He had ridden into Zahted a bronze lamp, and he now called Conan's attention to the two doors Both were provided with heavy bolts

'Youover his bushy beard frorunted and tossed his naked broadsword on the couch

'Your bolts and bars are strong; but I always sleep with steel byhis thick beard for a ri the door behind him Conan shot the bolt into place, crossed the room, opened the opposite door and looked out The roo west from the city The door opened into a small court that was enclosed by a wall of its own The end-walls, which shut it off froh and without entrances; but the wall that flanked the road was low, and there was no lock on the gate

Conan stood for a low of the bronze la down the road to where it vanished aether in the faint breeze; beyond them lay the naked desert Far up the street, in the other direction, lights gleamed and the noises of the city ca of the palm leaves, and beyond that loall, the dust of the road and the deserted huts thrusting their flat roofs against the low stars Soarbled warnings of the Zuagir returned to hi somehow less fantastic than they had seeain at the riddle of those ears shun them? He turned back into the chaan to flicker, and he investigated, swearing when he found the palm oil in the lamp was aled his shoulders and blew out the light In the soft darkness he stretched himself fully clad on the couch, his sinewy hand by instinct searching for and closing on the hilt of his broadsword Glancing idly at the stars framed in the barred ith the h the palue consciousness of thedrum, out on the desert - the low rumble and mutter of a leather-covered drum, beaten with soft, rhythmic strokes of an open black hand

2 THE NIGHT SKULKERS

It was the stealthy opening of a door which awakened the Ciged and stupid He awoke instantly, with a clearthe sound that had interrupted his sleep Lying there tensely in the dark he saw the outer door slowly open In a widening crack of starlit sky he saw fra shoulders and a ainst the stars

Conan felt the skin crawl between his shoulders He had bolted that door securely How could it be opening now, save by supernatural agency? And how could a huainst the stars? All the tales he had heard in the Zuagir tents of devils and goblins came back to bead his flesh with clammy sweat Now theposture and a shaait; and a familiar scent assailed the Ciir legendry represented de like that

Noiselessly Conan coiled his long legs under hiht hand, and when he struck it was as suddenly andout of the dark Not even a dee His swordwent heavily to the floor with a strangling cry Conan crouched in the dark above it, sword dripping in his hand Devil or beast orwas dead there on the floor He sensed death as any wild thing senses it He glared through the half-open door into the starlit court beyond The gate stood open, but the court was e in the darkness he found the lah oil in it to burn for a ure that sprawled on the floor in a pool of blood

It was a gigantic black rasped a knotty-headed bludgeon The fellow's kinky as built up into horn-Like spindles with twigs and dried iven the head its ht Provided with a clue to the riddle, Conan pushed back the thick red lips, and grunted as he stared down at teeth filed to points

He understood now the ers who had disappeared from the house of Ara out there beyond the palroves, and of that pit of charred bones - that pit where strange ht be roasted under the stars, while black beasts squatted about to glut a hideous hunger The man on the floor was a cannibal slave from Darfar

There were many of his kind in the city Cannibalism was not tolerated openly in Zamboula But Conan knehy people locked thears shunned the open alleys and doorless ruins He grunted in disgust as he visualized brutish black shadows skulking up and down the nighted streets, seeking human prey - and such men as Aram Baksh to open the doors to them The innkeeper was not a demon; he orse The slaves from Darfar were notorious thieves; there was no doubt that some of their pilfered loot found its way into the hands of Aram Baksh And in return he sold theht, stepped to the door and opened it, and ran his hand over the ornaments on the outer side One of them was movable and worked the bolt inside The room was a trap to catch human prey like rabbits But this tier

Conan returned to the other door, lifted the bolt and pressed against it It was immovable and he re no chances either with his victi on his sword-belt, the Ci the door behind hi the settle with Araeoned in their sleep and dragged out of that rooroves to the roasting-pit

He halted in the court The druht the reflection of a leaping red glare through the groves Cannibalism was more than a perverted appetite with the black hastly cult The black vultures were already in conclave But whatever flesh filled their bellies that night, it would not be his

To reach Aram Baksh he must climb one of the walls which separated the sh, meant to keep out the man-eaters; but Conan was no swamp-bred black man; his thews had been steeled in boyhood on the sheer cliffs of his native hills He was standing at the foot of the nearer hen a cry echoed under the trees

In an instant Conan was crouching at the gate, glaring down the road The sound had come from the shadows of the huts across the road He heard a frantic choking and gurgling such as ht result from a desperate attempt to shriek, with a black hand fastened over the victied from the shadows beyond the huts, and started down the road - three huge black ure between the in the starlight, even as, with a convulsive wrench, the captive slipped fro up the road, a supple young woman, naked as the day she was born Conan saw her plainly before she ran out of the road and into the shadows between the huts The blacks were at her heels, and back in the shadows the figuresout

Stirred to red rage by the ghoulishness of the episode, Conan raced across the road

Neither victim nor abductors were aware of his presence until the soft swish of the dust about his feet brought theusty fury of a hill wind Two of the blacks turned to eons But they failed to esti One of the cat-like, Conan evaded the stroke of the other's cudgel and lashed in a whistling counter-cut The black's head flew into the air; the headless body took three staggering steps, spurting blood and clawing horribly at the air with groping hands, and then sluave back with a strangled yell, hurling his captive from him She tripped and rolled in the dust, and the black fled in blind panic toward the city Conan was at his heels Fear winged the black feet, but before they reached the easternmost hut, he sensed death at his back, and bellowed like an ox in the slaughter-yards

'Black dog of hell!' Conan drove his sword between the dusky shoulders with such vengeful fury that the broad blade stood out half its length fro cry the black stued out his sword as his victim fell

Only the breeze disturbed the leaves Conan shook his head as a lion shakes its rowled his unsatiated blood-lust But no more shapes slunk from the shadows, and before the huts the starlit road stretched empty He whirled at the quick patter of feet behind hi to throw herself on hirasp, frantic from terror of the aborunted 'You're all right How did they catch you?'

She sobbed soot all about Araht of the stars She hite, though a very definite brunette, obviously one of Zamboula's many mixed breeds She was tall, with a slender, supple forood position to observe Admiration burned in his fierce eyes as he looked down on her splendid bosoht and exertion He passed an arly: 'Stop shaking, wench; you're safe enough'

His touch seelossy locks and cast a fearful glance over her shoulder, while she pressed closer to the Ci security in the contact

'They caughtin wait, beneath a dark arch - blackapes! Set haveout on the streets this tiht?' he inquired, fascinated by the satiny feel of her sleek skin under his questing fingers

She raked back her hair and stared blankly up into his face She did not seem aware of his caresses

'My lover,' she said 'My lover drove me into the streets He went mad and tried to kill me As I fled from hiht drive a ers experilossy tresses

She shook her head, like one eer trembled, and her voice was steady

'It was the spite of a priest - of Totrash priest of Hanu!'

'No need to curse hirinned Conan 'The old hyena has better taste than I thought'