Part 35 (1/2)

'Askia pranced and made incantations, and announced that Sakumbe was the chosen of Ajujo, the Dark One, and all the black people of Tombalku shouted, and Zehbeh backed down

'The blacks in Too, the Aphaki, a Shemitish race, pushed into the southern desert and established the kingdom of Tombalku They mixed with the desert blacks and the result was a brown, straight-haired race They are the dominant caste in Tombalku, but they are in the minority, and Sakumbe is the real ruler of Tombalku The Aphaki worshi+p Jhil, but the blacks worshi+p Ajujo the Dark One, and his kin Askia came to Tombalku with Saku because of the Aphaki priests Askia ic which defeated the wizardry of the Aphaki, and the blacks hailed him as a prophet sent by the dark Gods Sakumbe and Askia wax as Zehbeh and Daura wane

'Well, as I am Sakumbe's friend, and Askia spoke for reat applause Sakueneral of the horsehted the blacks and exasperated the Aphaki

'You will like Tombalku! It was made for men like us to loot! There are half a dozen powerful factions plotting and intriguing against each other - there are continual brawls in the taverns and streets, secret old, wine - all that a mercenary wants! By Croh in favor and power! Why, what's the matter? You do not see once been in such ized Amalric 'I do not lack interest, but weariness and want of sleep overcoue that the Aquilonian was thinking, but of the girl who slu her into such a welter of intrigue and blood as Conan had described A subtle change had coe

THE POOL OF THE BLACK ONE

Into the west, unknown of an Read, if you dare, what Shelos wrote, With dead bands fuh the wind-blorack- Follow the shi+ps that come not back

Sancha, once of Kordava, yawned daintily, stretched her supple limbs luxuriously, and coed silk spread on the carack's poop-deck That the creatched her with burning interest from waist and forecastle she was lazily aware, just as she was also aware that her short silk kirtle veiled little of her voluptuous contours froer eyes Wherefore she smiled insolently and prepared to snatch a few olden disk above the ocean, should dazzle her eyes

But at that instant a sound reached her ears unlike the creaking of tiaze fixed on the rail, over which, to her aure clambered Her dark eyes opened wide, her red lips parted in an O of surprize The intruder was a stranger to her Water ran in rivulets froar wet, as was his broad gold-buckled girdle and the sheathed sword it supported As he stood at the rail, the rising sun etched hih his streairl

'Who are you?' she deesture toward the sea that took in a whole quarter of the coure

'Are you a merman, that you rise up out of the sea?' she asked, confused by the candor of his gaze, though she was accustomed to admiration

Before he could reply, a quick step sounded on the boards, and the ers twitching at sword-hilt

'Who the devil are you, sirrah?' this one demanded in no friendly tone

'I am Conan,' the other answered imperturbably Sancha pricked up her ears anew; she had never heard Zingaran spoken with such an accent as the stranger spoke it

'And how did you get aboard rated with suspicion

'I swa, would you jest with ht of land Whence do you come?'

Conan pointed with a old by the lifting sun

'I caarded hi eyes, and the thin lip lifted unpleasantly

'So you are one of diose dogs of the Barachans'

A faint smile touched Conan's lips

'And do you knoho I am?' his questioner demanded

'This shi+p is the Wastrel; so you rim vanity that the h of leaner build Framed in his steel morion his face was dark, saturnine and hawk-like, wherefore araran grandee His hand was never far froaze he bent on Conan Little love was lost between Zingaran renegades and the outlahc infested the Baracha Islands off the southern coast of Zinea Theseof other nationalities They raided the shi+pping, and harried the Zingaran coast towns, just as the Zingaran buccaneers did but these dignified their profession by calling themselves Freebooters, while they dubbed the Barachans pirates They were neither the first nor the last to gild the nah Zaporavo's mind as he toyed with his sword-hilt and scowled at his uninvited guest Conan gave no hint of what his own dioughts ht be He stood with folded arms as placidly as if upon his own deck; his lips s here?' the Freebooter demanded abrupdy

'I found it necessary to leave the rendezvous at Tortage before ht,' answered Conan 'I departed in a leaky boat, and rowed and bailed all night Just at dawn I saw your topsails, and left the miserable tub to sink, while I made better speed in the water'

'There are sharks in these waters,' growled Zaporavo, and was vaguely irritated by the answering shrug of the lance toward the waist showed a screen of eager faces staring upward A ould send the up on the poop in a stor-er looked to be

'Why should I burden abond that the sea casts up?' snarled Zaporavo, his look anddian his words

'A shi+p can always use another good sailor,' answered the other widiout resent the trudi of that assertion He hesitated, and doing so, lost his shi+p, his coirl, and his life But of course he could not see into the future, and to him Conan was only another wastrel, cast up, as he put it, by the sea He did not like the iven hih rather more confident than Zaporavo liked to see

'You'll work for your keep,' snarled the Hawk 'Get off the poop And remember, the only law here is my will'

The smile seemed to broaden on Conan's thin lips Without hesitation but without haste he turned and descended into the waist He did not look again at Sancha, who, during the brief conversation, had watched eagerly, all eyes and ears

As he caarans, all of thearer-hilts They were eager for the tier Here he would be tested, and his future status in the crew decided Up on the poop Zaporavo had apparendy already forgotten the stranger's existence, but Sancha watched, tense with interest She had beco would be brutal and probably bloody

But her familiarity with such matters was scanty compared to that of Conan He s figures pressing truculently about hi inscrutably, his cos If he had attacked the captain, the whole creould have been at his throat, but they would give hiainst the one selected to push the brawl

The man chosen for this duty thrust himself forward - a wiry brute, with a crimson sash knotted about his head like a turban His lean chin jutted out, his scarred face was evil beyond belief Every glance, each swaggeringwas as primitive, raw and crude as himself

'Baracha, eh?' he sneered 'That's where they raise dogs for men We of the Fellowshi+p spit on 'em - like this!' He spat in Conan's face and snatched at his oord

The Barachan's e-like fist crunched with a terrible iaran catapulted through the air and fell in a crumpled heap by the rail

Conan turned towards the others But for a slued But the baiting was over as suddenly as it had begun The sea slack, his head lolled unnaturally

'By Mitra, his neck's broken!' swore a black-bearded sea-rogue

'You Freebooters are a weak-boned race,' laughed the pirate 'On the Barachas we take no account of such taps as that Will you play at sword-strokes, now, any of you? No? Then all's well, and we're friends, eh?'

There were plenty of tongues to assure hi the dead man over the rail, and a dozen fins cut the water as he sank Conan laughed and spread his aze sought the deck above Sancha leaned over the rail, red lips parted, dark eyes agloith interest The sun behind her outlined her lithe figure through the light kittle which its glowshadow and a heavy hand fell possessively on her slilare he bent on the rinned back, as if at a jest none knew but himself

Zaporavo randeur on the poop, he underestimated the man below him He had his opportunity to kill Conan, and he let it pass, engrossed in his own gloomy rus beneath his feet constituted a , and had ground so many foes underfoot, that he unconsciously assumed himself to be above the ave him no provocation He mixed with the crew, lived and made merry as they did He proved hiest man any of them had seen He did the work of three erous task His an to rely upon him He did not quarrel with theairdle and sheath for a stake, won their h The crew instinctively looked toward him as the leader of the forecastle He vouchsafed no information as to what had caused hie that he was capable of a deed bloody enough to have exiled him from that wild band increased the respect felt toward him by the fierce Freebooters Toward Zaporavo and the mates he was imperturbably courteous, never insolent or servile