Part 26 (1/2)

'What are you hunting in the Zhaibar by night, Yar Afzal?' Conan dehoul

'Who knohat ht-hawks But what of you, Conan?'

'I have a prisoner,' answered the Ciirl Reaching a long ar forth

Her i of bearded faces that he arm that clasped her possessively The torch was thrust close to her, and there was a sucking intake of breath about the ring

'She ispointedly at the feet of the ht 'I was taking her to Afghulistan, but now you have slain my horse, and the Kshatriyas are close behind ested Yar Afzal 'We have horses hidden in the gorge They can never follow us in the darkness They are close behind you, you say?'

'So close that I hear now the clink of their hoofs on the flint,' answered Conan grimly

Instantly there was ed shapes melted like phantoms into the darkness Conan swept up the Devi in his arround hurt her slim feet in their soft slippers and she felt very s those colossal, nighted crags

Feeling her shi+ver in the wind that ed cloak from its owner's shoulders and wrapped it about her He also hissed a warning in her ear, ordering her to make no sound She did not hear the distant clink of shod hoofs on rock that warned the keen-eared hillhtened to disobey, in any event

She could see nothing but a few faint stars far above, but she knew by the deepening darkness when they entered the gorge mouth There was a stir about them, the uneasy movement of horses A few muttered words, and Conan irl up in front of him Like phantoms except for the click of their hoofs, the band swept away up the shadowy gorge Behind them on the trail they left the dead horse and the dead man, which were found less than half an hour later by the riders fronized the ly

Yasresy in spite of herself The h it was uneven, uphill and down, yet possessed a certain rhythm which combined eariness and emotional exhaustion to force sleep upon her She had lost all sense of time or direction They li up like black ra the stars; at ti depths beneath the cold about her Gradually these things faded into a dreamy unwake-fulness in which the clink of hoofs and the creak of saddles were like the irrelevant sounds in a dreauely ahen the motion ceased and she was lifted down and carried a few steps Then she was laid down on so - a folded coat perhaps - was thrust under her head, and the cloak in which she rapped was carefully tucked about her She heard Yar Afzal laugh

'A rare prize, Conan; fit hulis' 'Not forrumble 'This wench will buy the lives of my seven headmen, blast their souls'

That was the last she heard as she sank into dreah the dark hills, and the fate of kingdoes and defiles that night there rang the hoofs of galloping horses, and the starlight glihoulish shapes that haunt the crags stared into the darkness fros were afoot

A band of these sat gaunt horses in the black pit hoofs swept past Their leader, a well-built ilt-braided cloak, held up his hand warningly, until the riders had sped on Then he laughed softly 'They must have lost the trail! Or else they have found that Conan has already reached the Afghuli villages It will take many riders to s up the Zhaibar by dawn'

'If there is fighting in the hills there will be looting,' muttered a voice behind hi,' answered the man with the helmet 'But first it is our business to reach the valley of Gurashah and await the riders that will be galloping southward froht'

He lifted his reins and rode out of the defile, his ed phantoht

5 THE BLACK STALLION

The sun ell up when Yas where she was She aith full knowledge of all that had occurred Her supple li ride, and her firm flesh seemed to feel the contact of theon a sheepskin covering a pallet of leaves on a hard-beaten dirt floor A folded sheepskin coat was under her head, and she rapped in a ragged cloak She was in a large rooly built of uncut rocks, plastered with sun-baked mud Heavy beams supported a roof of the same kind, in which showed a trap-door up to which led a ladder There were no s in the thick walls, only loop-holes There was one door, a sturdy bronze affair that must have been looted fro in the wall, with no door, but several strong wooden bars in place Beyond the a pile of dried grass The building was fort, dwelling-place and stable in one

At the other end of the rooy trousers of a hill-wo strips of rid laid over blocks of stone There was a sooty cleft in the wall a few feet from the floor, and some of the smoke found its way out there The rest Boated in blue wisps about the roolanced at Yas a bold, handso Voices boomed outside; then the door was kicked open, and Conan strode in He looked ht behind hiht before Tfis garirdle that supported his knife in its ornamented scabbard would have lint of fine Turanian mail under his shi+rt

'Your captive is awake, Conan,' said the Wazuli girl, and he grunted, strode up to the fire and swept the strips of hed up at hi a toe under her haunches, tu onto the floor She seeh horse-play, but Conan paid no reat hunk of bread fro of wine, he carried the lot to Yas hiirl, but our best,' he grunted 'It will fill your belly, at least'

He set the platter on the floor, and she was suddenly aware of a ravenous hunger Making no coed on the floor, and taking the dish in her lap, she began to eat, using her fingers, which were all she had in the way of table utensils After all, adaptability is one of the tests of true aristocracy Conan stood looking down at her, his thued, after the Eastern fashi+on

'Where am I?' she asked abruptly

'In the hut of Yar Afzal, the chief of the Khuruood many miles farther on to the west We'll hide here awhile The Kshatriyas are beating up the hills for you - several of their squads have been cut up by the tribes already'

'What are you going to do?' she asked

'Keep you until Chunder Shan is willing to trade back runted 'Wo ink out of shoki leaves, and after a while you can write a letter to the governor'

A touch of her old ily her plans had gone awry, leaving her captive of the verydown the dish, with the reer

'I will not write a letter! If you do not takeyour seven hed ly, Conan scowled, and then the door opened and Yar Afzal ca in The Wazuli chief was as tall as Conan, and of greater girth, but he looked fat and slow beside the hard compactness of the Cily at the Wazuli girl, and that wench rose and scurried out without delay Then Yar Afzal turned to his guest

'The damnable people murmur, Conan,' quoth he 'They wish irl to hold for ransoarhuli dogs profit by her, when it is the people who take the risk of guarding her?'

'Lend o'

'Pish!+' boomed Yar Afzal 'Do you think I can't handlein their shi+rts if they cross me! They don't love you - or any other outlander - but you saved h, Conan; a scout has returned'

Conan hitched at his girdle and followed the chief outside They closed the door after theh a loop-hole She looked out on a level space before the hut At the farther end of that space there was a cluster ofthe boulders, and the sli about their tasks

Directly before the chiefs hut a circle of hairy, raggedthe door Conan and Yar Afzal stood a few paces before the door, and between theed This one was addressing his chief in the harsh accents of the Wazuli which Yash as panof her royal education she had been taught the languages of Iranistan and the kindred tongues of Ghulistan

'I talked with a Dagozai who saw the riders last night,' said the scout 'He was lurking near when they came to the spot where we ambushed the lord Conan He overheard their speech Chunder Shan ith thenized it as Conan's Then they found the man Conan slew, and knew him for a Waruli It seeirl taken by the Wazuli; so they turned aside frohulistan But they did not know froe the dead man was come, and we had left no trail a Kshatriya could follow 'So they rode to the nearest Wazuli village, which was the village of Jugra, and burnt it and slew many of the people But the men of Khojur came upon theovernor So the survivors retired down the Zhaibar in the darkness before dawn, but they returned with reinforce and fighting in the hills allraised to sweep the hills about the Zhaibar The tribes are whetting their knives and laying ambushes in every pass from here to Gurashah valley Moreover, Kerirunt went around the circle, and Yasun to ozai did not knoith hies They rode into the hills and disappeared' 'These Irakzai are jackals that follow a lion for cru up the coins Keri the border tribes to buy men like horses I like him not, for all he is our kinsman from Iranistan'

'He's not even that,' said Conan 'I know hierd's If I catch hi his hide to a tamarisk'

'But the Kshatriyas!' clamored the men in the semicircle 'Are we to squat on our haunches until they se the wench is held We are not loved by the Zhaibari; they will help the Kshatriyas hunt us out'

'Let theainst a host'