Part 31 (1/2)

'Soo This couch is still warm from contact with a human body That silk cushi+on bears the imprint of so in the air'

A weird unreal at this dim silent palace was like an opiuhted, and these they avoided Others were bathed in a soft weird light that seens Suddenly, as they passed into one of these illumined chambers, Natala cried out and clutched her co for an enemy, bewildered because he saw none

'What's the ain, I'll skin you Do you wantabout?'

'Look there,' she quavered, pointing

Conan grunted On a table of polished ebony stood golden vessels, apparently containing food and drink The room was unoccupied

'Well, whoever this feast is prepared for,' he growled, 'he'll have to look elsewhere tonight'

'Dare we eat it, Conan?' ventured the girl nervously 'The people ht corabbing her by the nape of her neck and thrusting her into a gilded chair at the end of the table with no great ceremony 'We starve and you make objections! Eat!'

He took the chair at the other end, and seizing a jade goblet, eulp It contained a cri, unfaullet His thirst allayed, he attacked the food before hie to him: exotic fruits and unknown meats The vessels were of exquisite workolden knives and forks as well These Conan ignored, grasping theteeth The Cimmerian's table manners were rather wolfish at any time His civilized companion ate more daintily, but just as ravenously It occurred to Conan that the food ht did not lessen his appetite; he preferred to die of poisoning rather than starvation

His hunger satisfied, he leaned back with a deep sigh of relief That there were humans in that silent city was evidenced by the fresh food, and perhaps every dark corner concealed a lurking enee confidence in his own fighting ability He began to feel sleepy, and considered the idea of stretching himself on a near-by couch for a nap

Not so Natala She was no longer hungry and thirsty, but she felt no desire to sleep Her lovely eyes were very wide indeed as she tilanced at the doorways, boundaries of the unknown The silence and e place preyed on her The chaer than she had first noticed, and she realized that she was farther fro quickly, she went around the table and seated herself on his knee, glancing nervously at the arched doorways Sohted ones she gazed longest

'We have eaten, drunk and rested,' she urged 'Let us leave this place, Conan It's evil I can feel it'

'Well, we haven't been harht hiirl off his knee he rose with the quick ease of a panther, drawing his saber, facing the doorway from which the sound had seemed to come It was not repeated, and he stole forward noiselessly, Natala folloith her heart in her moudi She knew he suspected peril His outthrust head was sunk between his giant shoulders, he glided forward in a half crouch, like a stalking tiger He er would havefearfully froht in the room, but it was partially illuminated by the radiance behind them, which streamed across it into yet another chamber And in this chaht bathed him, and they saas a counterpart of the arments were richer, and ornaht Was he dead, or ain came that faint sinister sound, as if so the clinging Natala with him He clapped his hand over her mouth just in time to check her shriek

Froer see the dais, but they could see the shadow it cast on the wall behind it And now another shadow e shapeless black blot Conan felt his hair prickle curiously as he watched Distorted though it ht be, he felt that he had never seen a man or beast which cast such a shadow He was consumed with curiosity, but some instinct held hiasps as she stared with dilated eyes No other sound disturbed the tense stillness The great shadow engulfed that of the dais For a long instant only its black bulk was dirown on the smooth wall Then slowly it receded, and once ainst the wall But the sleeper was no longer upon it

An hysterical gurgle rose in Natala's throat, and Conan gave her an admonitory shake He are of an iciness in his own veins Hurisly, caused no tremors in his broad breast But diis was beyond his ken

After a while, however, his curiosity conquered his uneasiness, and heLooking into the other room, he saas empty The dais stood as he had first seen it, except that no bejeweled hule drop of blood, like a great cri cry, for which Conan did not punish her Again he felt the icy hand of fear On that dais ahad crept into the cha was, Conan had no idea, but an aura of unnatural horror hung over those di Natala's hand, he turned back, dien hesitated So the chambers they had traversed, he heard the sound of a footfall A human foot, bare or softly shod, had made that sound, and Conan, with the wariness of a wolf, turned quickly aside He believed he could coain into the outer court, and yet avoid the room from which the sound had appeared to come

But they had not crossed the first cha brought the them intently

He was exactly like the others they had encountered: tall, well irdle There was neither surprize nor hostility in his amber eyes They were dreamy as a lotus-eater's He did not draw the short sword at his side After a tense e his hearers did not understand

On a venture Conan replied in Stygian, and the stranger answered in the saue: 'Who are you?'

'I am Conan, a Cimmerian,' answered the barbarian 'This is Natala, of Brythunia What city is this?'

The aze rested on Natala, and he drawled, 'Of all olden locks, from what far dreamland do you coirdle?'

'What rowled the Ci the man's words or manner

The other did not heed hieous beauties,' he ht, and dark eyes of unfathomed mystery But your skin is white as milk, your eyes as clear as dawn, and there is about you a freshness and daintiness alluring as honey Coirl!'

He advanced and reached for her, and Conan struck aside his hand with a force thatthe nuhosts is this?' he one! Fade! Dissipate! Fade! Vanish!+'

'I'll vanish your head from your shoulders!' snarled the infuriated Ci in his hand 'Is this the welcos in blood!'

The dreaminess had faded from the other's eyes, to be replaced by a look of bewilder!' he ejaculated 'You are real! Whence come you? Who are you? What do you in Xuthal?'

'We carowled 'We wandered into the city at dusk, fa We found a feast set for some one, and we ate it I have noman is denied food, but you civilized people must have your recompense - if you are like all I everBy Cro men vanish into the bellies of shadows!'

The man started violently at the last co ashy

'What do you say? Shadows? Into the bellies of shadows?'

'Well,' answered the Cimmerian cautiously, 'whatever it is that takes a -dais and leaves only a spot of blood'

'You have seen? You have seen? The h-pitched note

'Only a ulfed him,' answered Conan

The effect of his words on the other was horrifying With an awful scream the man turned and rushed from the chamber In his blind haste he carohted hi cha at the top of his voice A as she clutched the giant's arure, but they still heard his frightful screa as from vaulted roofs Suddenly one cry, louder than the others, rose and broke short, followed by blank silence

'Crom!'

Conan wiped the perspiration from his forehead with a hand that was not entirely steady

'Surely this is a city of the et out of here, before we htmare!' whimpered Natala 'We are dead and damned! We died out on the desert and are in hell! We are dise spank from Conan's open hand

'You're no spirit when a pat rim humor which frequently h we may not be if we loiter in this devil-haunted pile Coain they stopped short So They faced the doorhence the sounds ca for they knew not what Conan's nostrils widened, and his eyes narrowed He caught the faint scent of the perfuure framed itself in the doorway Conan swore under his breath; Natala's red lips opened wide

It was a wo at them in wonder She was tall, lithe, shaped like a Goddess; clad in a narrow girdle crusted with jewels A burnished ht-black hair set off the whiteness of her ivory body Her dark eyes, shaded by long dusky lashes, were deep with sensuous ht his breath at her beauty, and Natala stared with dilated eyes The Cimmerian had never seen such a woian, but she was not dusky-skinned like the Stygian women he had known; her limbs were like alabaster

But when she spoke, in a deep rich ue