Part 21 (1/2)

As soon as the clang of their sandals had receded up the street, Conan and the girl e-place and hurried on A few moht loo ahead of them

The temple of Hanuman stood alone in the midst of a broad square, which lay silent and deserted beneath the stars Adirectly before the portico This opening had no gate or any sort of barrier

'Why don't the blacks seek their prey here?'to keep the of Zabibi's body as she pressed close to him

'They fear Totrasir Khan and Nafertari Coe flows froirl's fear was evident, but she did not falter Conan drew his sword and strode ahead of her as they advanced through the open gateway He knew the hideous habits of the priests of the East, and are that an invader of Hanuhtood chance that neither he nor the girl would ever leave the shrine alive, but he had risked his life too ht to that consideration

They entered a court paved with ht of broad reat bronze doors stood wide open as they had stood for centuries But no worshi+ppers burnt incense within In the day ht cos to the ape-God on the black altar At night the people shunned the temple of Hanu censers bathed the interior in a soft weird glow that created an illusion of unreality Near the rear wall, behind the black stone altar, sat the God with his gaze fixed for ever on the open door, through which for centuries his victiroove ran from the sill to the altar, and when Conan's foot felt it, he stepped away as quickly as if he had trodden upon a snake That groove had been worn by the faltering feet of the riht Hanuman leered with his carven ed as a man would sit, but his aspect was no less simian for that reason He was carved frolowed red and lustful as the coals of hell's deepest pits His great hands lay upon his lap, palross emphasis of his attributes, in the leer of his satyr-countenance, was reflected the aboenerate cult which deified hi toward the back wall, and when her sleek flank brushed against a carven knee, she shrank aside and shuddered as if a reptile had touched her There was a space of several feet between the broad back of the idol and the old leaves On either hand, flanking the idol, an ivory door under a gold arch was set in the wall

'Those doors open into each end of a hair-pin shaped corridor,' she said hurriedly 'Once I was in the interior of the shrine - once!' She shi+vered and twitched her sli and obscene 'The corridor is bent like a horseshoe, with each horn opening into this room Totrasmek's chambers are enclosed within the curve of the corridor and open into it But there is a secret door in this hich opens directly into an inner chaan to run her hands over the smooth surface, where no crack or crevice showed Conan stood beside her, sword in hand, glancing warily about hiination picturing what ht lie behind that wall,a trap

'Ah!' The girl had found a hidden spring at last; a square opening gaped blackly in the wall 'Set!' she screareat misshapen hand had fastened itself in her hair She was snatched off her feet and jerked headfirst through the opening Conan, grabbing ineffectually at her, felt his fingers slip from a naked limb, and in an instant she had vanished and the wall showed blank as before Only frole, a screaeal in his veins

3 BLACK HANDS GRIPPING

With an oath the Cimmerian smote the wall a terrific bloith the pommel of his sword, and the ive way, and reason told him that doubtless it had been bolted on the other side of the wall Turning, he sprang across the chamber to one of the ivory doors

He lifted his sword to shatter the panels, but on a venture tried the door first with his left hand It swung open easily, and he glared into a long corridor that curved away into diht of censers siold bolt showed on the jaer tips The faint warmness of the metal could have been detected only by a man whose faculties were akin to those of a wolf That bolt had been touched - and therefore draithin the last few seconds The affair was taking on ht have known Totrasmek would knohen anyone entered the temple

To enter the corridor would undoubtedly be to walk into whatever trap the priest had set for him But Conan did not hesitate Somewhere in that dim-lit interior Zabibi was a captive, and, from what he knew of the characteristics of Hanuman's priests, he was sure that she needed help badly Conan stalked into the corridor with a pantherish tread, poised to strike right or left

On his left, ivory, arched doors opened into the corridor, and he tried each in turn All were locked He had gone perhaps seventy-five feet when the corridor bent sharply to the left, describing the curve the girl had ave under his hand

He was looking into a broad, square chahted than the corridor Its walls were of whiteof fretted silver He saw divans of rich satin, gold-worked footstools of ivory, a disk-shaped table of some massive, , looking toward the door He laughed as he lare

This h-strapped sandals He was brown-skinned, with close-cropped black hair and restless black eyes that set off a broad, arrogant face In girth and breadth he was enorreat htest est Conan had ever seen The assurance of gigantic physical strength colored his every action and inflection

'Why, not enter, barbarian?' he called esture of invitation

Conan's eyes began to smolder ominously, but he trod warily into the charowled

'I ao and in another land, I had another naave it to !' grunted Conan 'Well, curse your brown hide, Baal-pteor, where's the wench you jerked through the wall?'

'My hed Baal-pteor 'Listen!'

From beyond a door opposite the one by which Conan had entered there sounded a woman's scream, faint and muffled in the distance

'Blast your soul!' Conan took a stride toward the door, then wheeled with his skin tingling Baal-pteor was laughing at hied with menace that made the hackles rise on Conan's neck and sent a red wave ofacross his vision

He started toward Baal-pteor, the knuckles on his sword-hand shohite With a swiftcrystal sphere that glistened in the weird light

Conan dodged instinctively, but, lobe stopped short in midair, a few feet fro suspended, as if by invisible filalared in a speed And as it revolved it grew, expanded, became nebulous It filled the chamber It enveloped hi countenance of Baal-pteor He was lost in thespeed Terrific winds screa to wrench hi him into the vortex that spuncry Conan lurched backward, reeled, felt the solid wall against his back At the contact the illusion ceased to be The whirling, titanic sphere vanished like a bursting bubble Conan reeled upright in the silver-ceilinged roo about his feet, and saw Baal-pteor lolling on the divan, shaking with silent laughter

'Son of a slut!' Conan lunged at hiiant brown for cloud that blinded hi sensation of dislocation - and then roo alone a at hi sci, through ribs and heart And then it was not a buffalo dying there in the mud, but the brown-skinned Baal-pteor With a curse Conan struck off his head; and the head soared froround and snapped beast-like tusks into his throat For all his- strangling; then there was a rush and roar through space, the dislocating shock of an immeasurable impact, and he was back in the chamber with Baal-pteor, whose head was once hed silently at hi and digging his toes hard against thewith hi sport of him! But this ht, it could not harm him He had but to leap and strike and the brown acolyte would be a led corpse under his heel This rime he would not be fooled by shadows of illusion - but he was

A blood-curdling snarl sounded behind him, and he wheeled and struck in a flash at the panther crouching to spring on him from the metal-colored table Even as he struck, the apparition vanished and his blade clashed deafeningly on the ada abnorely It did not give This was no ripped the hilt with both hands, when a voice at his shoulder brought him about, to face the brown htly taller than Conan, and e of , and his great hands opened and closed, twitching convulsively Conan released the hilt of his ih slitted lids

'Your head, Cimmerian!' taunted Baal-pteor 'I shall take it withit from your shoulders as the head of a fowl is twisted! Thus the sons of Kosala offer sacrifice to Yajur Barbarian, you look upon a strangler of Yota-pong I was chosen by the priests of Yajur in hout childhood, boyhood and youth I trained in the art of slaying with the naked hands - for only thus are the sacrifices enacted Yajur loves blood, and aste not a drop froave irls; as a youth, wo boys Not until I reached

'For years I offered the sacrifices to Yajur Hundreds of necks have snapped between these fingers-' he worked thery eyes 'Why I fled fro to become Totrasmek's servant is no concern of yours In a moment you will be beyond curiosity The priests of Kosala, the stranglers of Yajur, are strong beyond the belief of er than any With my hands, barbarian, I shall break your neck!'

And like the stroke of twin cobras, the great hands closed on Conan's throat The Cie or fend them away, but his own hands darted to the Kosalan's bull-neck Baal-pteor's black eyes widened as he felt the thick cords of muscles that protected the barbarian's throat With a snarl he exerted his inhuth, and knots and lu his asp burst froers locked on his throat For an instant they stood there like statues, their facesto stand out purply on their terinning snarl Baal-pteor's eyes were distended; in thelies, except for the expanding of their th beyond coht have uprooted trees and crushed the skulls of bullocks

The histled suddenly fro purple Fear flooded his eyes His thews seemed ready to burst from his arms and shoulders, yet the ive; they felt like ers But his own flesh was giving way under the iron fingers of the Ci throat-ular and windpipe

The statuesque iave way to sudden, frenziedto throw hirasped his wrists, trying to tear away those inexorable fingers

With a sudden lunge Conan bore hiainst the table And still farther over its edge Conan bent him, back and back, until his spine was ready to snap

Conan's low laugh wasof steel

'You fool!' he all but whispered 'I think you never saw a , because you were able to twist the heads off civilized folk, poor weaklings with ? hell! Break the neck of a wild Ci I did that, before I was a full-grown e wrench he twisted Baal-pteor's head around until the ghastly face leered over the left shoulder, and the vertebrae snapped like a rotten branch

Conan hurled the flopping corpse to the floor, turned to the sword again and gripped the hilt with both hands, bracing his feet against the floor Blood trickled down his broad breast froer nails had torn in the skin of his neck His black hair was damp, sweat ran down his face, and his chest heaved For all his vocal scorn of Baal-pteor's strength, he had al to catch his breath, he exerted all his strength in a net where it clung