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Beyond the Black River - Robert E. Howard · The Gods of Mars

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  Speaker 1: Chapter one of Conan Beyond the Black River. This is
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  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information nor to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Phil schinever. Conan Beyond the Black River by
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  Speaker 1: Robert E. Howard. This story was first published in Weird
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  Speaker 1: Tales nineteen thirty five. Chapter one, Conan loses his axe.
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  Speaker 1: The stillness of the forest trail was so primeval that
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  Speaker 1: the tread of a soft booted foot was a startling disturbance.
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  Speaker 1: At least it seemed so to the ears of the wayfarer,
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  Speaker 1: though he was moving along the path with the caution
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  Speaker 1: that must be practiced by any man who ventures beyond
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  Speaker 1: thunder River. He was a young man of medium height,
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  Speaker 1: with an open countenance and mop of tussil tawny hair,
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  Speaker 1: unconfined by cap or helmet. His garb was common enough
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  Speaker 1: for that country, a coarse tunic belted at the waist,
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  Speaker 1: short leather breeches beneath, and soft buckskin boots that came
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  Speaker 1: short of the knee. A knife heilt jutted from one
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  Speaker 1: boot top. The broad leather belt supported a short, heavy sword,
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  Speaker 1: and a buckskin pouch. There was no perturbation in the
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  Speaker 1: wide eyes that scanned the green walls which fringed the trail.
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  Speaker 1: Though not tall, he was well built, and the arms
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  Speaker 1: that the short, wide sleeves of the tunic left bare
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  Speaker 1: were thick with carded muscle. He tramped imperturbably along, although
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  Speaker 1: the last settler's cabin lay miles behind him, and each
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  Speaker 1: step was carrying him nearer the grim peril that hung
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  Speaker 1: like a brooding shadow over the ancient forest. He was
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  Speaker 1: not making as much noise as it seemed to him,
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  Speaker 1: though he well knew that the faint tread of his
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  Speaker 1: booted feet would be like a tuskin of alarm to
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  Speaker 1: the fierce ears that might be lurking in the treacherous
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  Speaker 1: green fastness. His careless attitude was not genuine. His eyes
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  Speaker 1: and ears were keenly alert, especially his ears, for no
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  Speaker 1: gaze could penetrate the leafy tangle for more than a
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  Speaker 1: few feet in either direction. But it was instinct, more
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  Speaker 1: than any warning by the external senses, which brought him
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  Speaker 1: up suddenly, his hand on his hilt, he stood stock
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  Speaker 1: still in the middle of the trail, unconsciously holding his
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  Speaker 1: breath wondering what he had heard, and wondering if indeed
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  Speaker 1: he had heard anything. The silence seemed absolute, not a
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  Speaker 1: squirrel chattered or bird chirped. Then his gaze fixed itself
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  Speaker 1: on a mass of bushes beside the trail, a few
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  Speaker 1: yards ahead of him. There was no breeze, yet he
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  Speaker 1: had seen a branch quiver. The short hairs on his
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  Speaker 1: scalp prickled, and he stood for an instant undecided, certain
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  Speaker 1: that a move in either direction would bring death. Streaking
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  Speaker 1: at him from the bushes, a heavy chopping crunch sounded
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  Speaker 1: behind the leaves. The bushes were shaken violently, and simultaneously
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  Speaker 1: with the sound. An arrow arched erratically from among them
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  Speaker 1: and vanished among the trees along the trail. The wayfarer
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  Speaker 1: glimpsed its flight as he sprang frantically to cover. Crouching
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  Speaker 1: behind a thick stem, his sword quivering at his fingers,
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  Speaker 1: he saw the bushes part, and a tall figure stepped
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  Speaker 1: leisurely into the trail. The traveler stared in surprise. The
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  Speaker 1: stranger was clad like himself in regard to boots and breets,
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  Speaker 1: though the latter were of silk instead of leather. But
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  Speaker 1: he wore a sleeveless huberk of dark mesh male in
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  Speaker 1: place of a tunic, and helmet perched on his black mane.
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  Speaker 1: That helmet held the other's gaze, as it was without
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  Speaker 1: a crest, but adorned by sharp bullhorns. No civilized hand
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  Speaker 1: ever forged that head piece, nor was the face below
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  Speaker 1: it that of a civilized man. Dark scared with smoldering
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  Speaker 1: blue eyes. It was a face untamed as the primordial
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  Speaker 1: forest which formed its background. The man held a broad
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  Speaker 1: sword in his right hand, and the edge was smeared
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  Speaker 1: with crimson. Come on out, he called, in an accent
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  Speaker 1: unfamiliar to the wayfarer. All safe now there was only
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  Speaker 1: one of the dogs, Come on out. The other emerged
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  Speaker 1: dubiously and stared at the stranger. He felt curiously helpless
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  Speaker 1: and futile as he gazed on the proportions of the
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  Speaker 1: forest man, the mass of ironclad breast and the arm
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  Speaker 1: that bore the reddened sword, burned dark by the sun,
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  Speaker 1: and ridged and corded with muscles. He moved with the
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  Speaker 1: dangerous ease of a panther. He was too fiercely supple
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  Speaker 1: to be a product of civilization, even of that fringe
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  Speaker 1: of civilization which composed the outer frontiers. Turning, he stepped
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  Speaker 1: back to the bushes and pulled them apart. Still not
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  Speaker 1: certain just what had happened, the wayfarer from the east
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  Speaker 1: advanced and stared down into the bushes. A man lay there,
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  Speaker 1: a short, dark, thickly muscled man, naked except for a
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  Speaker 1: loin cloth, a necklace of human teeth, and a brass armlet.
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  Speaker 1: A short sword was thrust into the girdle of the loincloth,
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  Speaker 1: and one hand still gripped a heavy black bow. The
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  Speaker 1: man had long black hair. That was about all that
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  Speaker 1: the wayfarer could tell about his head, for his features
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  Speaker 1: were a mask of blood and brains. His skull had
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  Speaker 1: been split to the teeth, a picked by the gods,
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  Speaker 1: exclaimed the wayfarer. The burning blue eyes turned upon him.
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  Speaker 1: Are you surprised? Why? Why? They told me at Valitrium
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  Speaker 1: and again at the settler's cabins along the road, that
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  Speaker 1: these devils sometimes sneaked across the border, but I didn't
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  Speaker 1: expect to meet one this far in the interior. You're
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  Speaker 1: only four miles east of Black River, the stranger informed him.
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  Speaker 1: They've been shot within a mile of Valitrium. No settler
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  Speaker 1: between Thunder River and Fort Tusclan is really safe. I
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  Speaker 1: picked up this dog's trail three miles south of the
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  Speaker 1: fort this morning, and I've been following him ever since.
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  Speaker 1: I came up behind him just as he was drawing
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  Speaker 1: an arrow on you. Another instant and there'd have been
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  Speaker 1: a stranger in hell, but I spoiled his aim for him.
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  Speaker 1: The way farer was staring wide eyed at the larger man,
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  Speaker 1: dumbfounded by the realization that the man had actually tracked
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  Speaker 1: down one of the forest devils and slain him. Unsuspected
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  Speaker 1: that implied woodsmanship of a quality undreamed even for Kunajahara.
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  Speaker 1: You are one of the fort's garrison, he asked. I'm
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  Speaker 1: no soldier. I draw the pay and rations of an
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  Speaker 1: officer of the line, but I do my work in
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  Speaker 1: the woods. Balanus knows I'm of more use ranging along
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  Speaker 1: the river than cooped up in the fort. Casually, the
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  Speaker 1: slayer shoved the body deeper into the thicket with his foot,
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  Speaker 1: pulled the bushes together, and turned away down the trail.
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  Speaker 1: The other followed him. My name is Balthus, he offered.
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  Speaker 1: I was at Velitrium last night. I haven't decided whether
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  Speaker 1: I'll take up a hide of land or inter fort service.
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  Speaker 1: The best land near Thunder River is already reread. He
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  Speaker 1: taken grunted the slayer. Plenty of good land between Scalp
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  Speaker 1: Creek you crossed it a few miles back and the fort.
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  Speaker 1: But that's getting too devilish. Close to the river, the
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  Speaker 1: picks steal over to burn and murder, as that one did.
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  Speaker 1: They don't always come singly. Some day they'll try to
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  Speaker 1: sweep the settlers out of Karnaijahara, and they may succeed,
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  Speaker 1: probably will succeed. This colonization business is mad anyway. There's
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  Speaker 1: plenty of good land east of the Bosonian Marshes. If
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  Speaker 1: the Aquallonians would cut up some of the big estates
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  Speaker 1: of their barns and plant wheat were now only deer
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  Speaker 1: or hunted, they wouldn't have to cross the border and
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  Speaker 1: take the land of the Picks away from them. That's
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  Speaker 1: queer talk from a man in the service of the
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  Speaker 1: governor of Kornaijahara, objected Baltas, it's nothing to me. The
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  Speaker 1: other retorted, I'm a mercenary. I sell my sword to
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  Speaker 1: the highest bitter. I never planted wheat, and never will
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  Speaker 1: so long as there are other harvests to be reaped
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  Speaker 1: with a sword. But you Hyborians have expanded as far
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  Speaker 1: as you'll be allowed to expand you've crossed the marshes,
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  Speaker 1: burned a few villages, exterminated a few clans, and pushed
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  Speaker 1: back the frontiers to Black River. But I doubt if
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  Speaker 1: you'll ever be able to hold what you've conquered, and
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  Speaker 1: you'll never push the frontier any further westward. Your idiotic
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  Speaker 1: king doesn't understand conditions here. He won't send you enough reinforcements,
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  Speaker 1: and there are not enough settlers to withstand the shock
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  Speaker 1: of a concerted attack from across the river. But the
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  Speaker 1: Picks are divided into small clans, persisted Balthus, they'll never unite.
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  Speaker 1: We can whip any single clan, or any three or
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  Speaker 1: four clans admitted the slayer. But someday a man will
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  Speaker 1: rise and unite thirty or forty clans, just as was
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  Speaker 1: done among the Samarians when the Gundermen tried to push
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  Speaker 1: the border northward years ago, they tried to colonize the
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  Speaker 1: southern marshes of Samaria, distarred a few small clans built
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  Speaker 1: a fort town Venarium. You heard the tale, so I have, indeed,
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  Speaker 1: replied Balthus, wincing. The memory of that red disaster was
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  Speaker 1: a black blot in the chronicles of a proud and
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  Speaker 1: warlike people. My uncle was at Venarium when the Samarians
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  Speaker 1: swarmed over the walls. He was one of the few
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  Speaker 1: who escaped that slaughter. I've heard him tell the tale
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  Speaker 1: many a time. The Barbarians swept out of the hills
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  Speaker 1: in a ravening horde without warning, and stormed Venarium with
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  Speaker 1: such fury none could stand before them. Men, women and
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  Speaker 1: children were butchered. Vanarium was reduced to a mass of
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  Speaker 1: charred ruins, as it is to this day. The Aquilonians
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  Speaker 1: were driven back across the marshes and have never since
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  Speaker 1: tried to colonize the Samerian country. But you speak of
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  Speaker 1: Venarium familiarly. Perhaps you were there. I was grunted the
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  Speaker 1: other I was one of the horde that swarmed over
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  Speaker 1: the hills. I hadn't yet seen fifteen snows, but already
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  Speaker 1: my name was repeated about the council fires. Balthus involuntary
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  Speaker 1: a recoiled staring. It seemed incredible that the man walking
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  Speaker 1: tranquility at his side should have been one of those screeching,
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  Speaker 1: blood mad devils that had poured over the walls of
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  Speaker 1: Venarium on that long gone day to make Chris Streets run. Crimson,
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  Speaker 1: Then you too are a barbarian, he exclaimed involuntarily. The
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  Speaker 1: other nodded without taking offense. I am Conan, a Samerian.
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  Speaker 1: I've heard of you. Fresh interest quickened Balthus's gaze. No
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  Speaker 1: wonder the pict had fallen victim to his own sort
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  Speaker 1: of subtlety. The Samarians were barbarians, as ferocious as the Picks,
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  Speaker 1: and much more intelligent. Evidently, Conan had spent much time
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  Speaker 1: among civilized men, though that contact had obviously not softened
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  Speaker 1: him nor weakened any of his primitive instincts. Balthus's apprehension
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  Speaker 1: turned to admiration as he marked the easy catlike stride,
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  Speaker 1: the effortless silence with which the Samarian moved along the trail.
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  Speaker 1: The oiled lynx of his armor did not clink, and
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  Speaker 1: Balthus knew Conan could glide through the deepest thicket or
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  Speaker 1: most tangle cops as noiselessly as any naked pict that
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  Speaker 1: ever lived. You're not a gunderman, it was more assertion
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  Speaker 1: than question. Balthas shook his head. I'm from the Tran.
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  Speaker 1: I've seen good woodsmen from the Torran, but the Bosonians
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  Speaker 1: have sheltered you Aquilonians from the outer wildernesses for too
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  Speaker 1: many centuries. You need hardening. That was true. The Bossonian marshes,
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  Speaker 1: with their fortified villages filled with determined bowmen, had long
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  Speaker 1: served Aquilonia as a buffer against the outlying barbarians. Now
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  Speaker 1: among the settlers beyond a thunder River there was growing
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  Speaker 1: up a breed of forest men capable of meeting the
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  Speaker 1: barbarians at their own game, but their numbers were still scanty.
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  Speaker 1: Most of the frontiermen were, like Balthus, more of the
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  Speaker 1: settler than the woodsman type. The sun had not set,
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  Speaker 1: but it was no longer in sight, hidden as it
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  Speaker 1: was behind the dense forest wall. The shadows were lengthening,
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  Speaker 1: deepening back in the woods. As the companions strode on
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  Speaker 1: down the trail, it will be dark before we reach
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  Speaker 1: the fort, commented Knan casually. Then listen. He stopped short,
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  Speaker 1: half crouched, sword ready transformed into a savage figure of
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  Speaker 1: suspicion and menace, poised to spring and rend Baltus had
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  Speaker 1: heard it too, a wild scream that broke at its
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  Speaker 1: highest note. It was the cry of a man in
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  Speaker 1: dire fear or agony. Conan was off in an instant,
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  Speaker 1: racing down the trail, each stride widening the distance between
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  Speaker 1: him and his straining companion. Baltus puffed the curse. Among
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  Speaker 1: the settlements of the Torran, he was accounted a good runner,
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  Speaker 1: but Conan was leaving him behind with maddening ease. Then
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  Speaker 1: Baltus forgot his exasperation as his ears were outraged by
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  Speaker 1: the most frightful cry he had ever heard. It was
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  Speaker 1: not human, this one. It was a domaniacal cartawauling of
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  Speaker 1: hideous triumph that seemed to exult over fallen humanity and
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  Speaker 1: find echo in black gulfs beyond human kin. Balthus faltered
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  Speaker 1: in his stride and clammy sweat beaded his flesh, but
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  Speaker 1: Conan did not hesitate. He darted around a bend in
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  Speaker 1: the trail and disappeared, and Balthus, panicky at finding himself
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  Speaker 1: alone with that awful scream, still shuddering through the forest
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  Speaker 1: in grizzly echoes, put on an extra burst of speed
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  Speaker 1: and plunged after him. The Aquilonian slid to a stumbling halt,
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  Speaker 1: almost colliding with the Samaran, who stood in the trail
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  Speaker 1: over a crumpled body. But Conan was not looking at
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  Speaker 1: the corpse which lay there in the crimson soaked dirt.
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  Speaker 1: He was glaring into the deep woods on either side
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  Speaker 1: of the trail. Balthus muttered a horrified oath. It was
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  Speaker 1: the body of a man which lay there in the trail,
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  Speaker 1: A short, fat man clad in the gilt worked boots
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  Speaker 1: and despite the heat, the ermine trimmed tunic of a
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  Speaker 1: wealthy merchant. His fat, pale face was set in a
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  Speaker 1: stare of frozen horror. His thick throat had been slashed
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  Speaker 1: from ear to ear, as if by a razor sharp blade.
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  Speaker 1: The sharp's sword, still in its scabbard, seemed to indicate
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  Speaker 1: that he had been struck down without a chance to
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  Speaker 1: fight for his life. He picked Baltus whispered as he
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  Speaker 1: turned to peer into the deepening shadows of the forest.
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  Speaker 1: Conan shook his head and straightened to scowl down at
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  Speaker 1: the dead man, a forest devil. This is the fifth
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  Speaker 1: by Crum. What do you mean? Did you ever hear
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  Speaker 1: of a Pictish wizard called Zogar sag Baltus shook his
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  Speaker 1: head uneasily. He dwells in Guauela, the nearest village across
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  Speaker 1: the river. Three months ago he hid beside this road
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  Speaker 1: and stole a string of pack mules from a pack
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  Speaker 1: train bound for the fort, drugged their drivers. Somehow the
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  Speaker 1: mules belonged to this man Knan casually indicated the corpse
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  Speaker 1: with his foot Tiberius, a merchant of Villeitrium. They were
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  Speaker 1: loaded with ale kegs, and old Zogar stopped to guzzle.
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  Speaker 1: Before he got across the river, a woodsman named Soractus
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  Speaker 1: trailed him and led Valanus and three soldiers to where
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  Speaker 1: he lay dead, drunk in a thicket at the importunities
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  Speaker 1: of Tiberius. Valanus threw Zogar Sag into a cell, which
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  Speaker 1: is the worst insult you can give a pict He
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  Speaker 1: managed to kill his guard and escape, and sent back
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  Speaker 1: word that he meant to kill Tiberius and the five
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  Speaker 1: men who captured him in a way that would make
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  Speaker 1: Aquallonians shudder for centuries to come. Well, Soractus and the
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  Speaker 1: soldiers are dead. Soractus was killed on the river. The
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  Speaker 1: soldiers in the very shadow of the fort and now
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  Speaker 1: Tiberius is dead. No pict killed any of them, each
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  Speaker 1: victim except Tiberius, as you see, locked his head, which
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  Speaker 1: no doubt is now ornamenting the altar of Zogar SOG's
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  Speaker 1: particular god. How do you know they weren't killed by
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  Speaker 1: the picts, demanded Balthos. Conan pointed to the corpse of
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  Speaker 1: the merchant. You think that was done with a knife
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  Speaker 1: for a sword. Look closer and you'll see that only
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  Speaker 1: a talon could have made a gash like that. The
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  Speaker 1: flesh is ripped, not cut. Perhaps a panther began bothos
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  Speaker 1: without conviction. Conan shook his head impatiently. A man from
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  Speaker 1: the Trran couldn't mistake the mark of a panther's clause. No,
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  Speaker 1: it's a forest devil summoned by zogor Sog to carry
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  Speaker 1: out his revenge. Tiberius was a fool to start for
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  Speaker 1: Villitrium alone and so close to dusk. But each one
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  Speaker 1: of the victims seemed to be smitten with madness just
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  Speaker 1: before doom overtook them. Look here, the signs are plain enough.
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  Speaker 1: Tiberius came riding along the trail on his mule, maybe
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  Speaker 1: with a bundle of choice otter pelts behind his saddle
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  Speaker 1: to sell in valitrium, and the thing sprang on him
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  Speaker 1: from behind that bush. See where the branches are crushed down.
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  Speaker 1: Tiberius gave one scream, and then his throat was torn open,
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  Speaker 1: and he was selling his otter skins in hell. The
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  Speaker 1: mule ran away into the woods. Listen, even now you
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  Speaker 1: can hear him thrashing about under the trees. The demon
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  Speaker 1: didn't have time to take Tiberius's head. It took fright
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  Speaker 1: as we came up. As you came up, admitted Balthus.
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  Speaker 1: It was not be a very terrible creature if it
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  Speaker 1: flees from one armed man. But how do you know
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  Speaker 1: it was not a pick with some kind of a
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  Speaker 1: hook that rips instead of slicing. Did you see it?
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  Speaker 1: Tiberius was an armed man, grunted conan. If Zogar Sag
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  Speaker 1: can bring demons to aid him, he can tell them
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  Speaker 1: which men to kill and which so let alone. No,
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  Speaker 1: I didn't see it. I only saw the bushes shake
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  Speaker 1: as it left the trail. But if you want further proof,
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  Speaker 1: look here. The slayer had stepped into the pool of
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  Speaker 1: blood in which the dead man sprawled under the bushes.
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  Speaker 1: At the edge of the path, there was a footprint
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  Speaker 1: made in blood on the hard loam. Did a man
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  Speaker 1: make that? Demanded Conan Baltus felt his scalp prickle. Neither
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  Speaker 1: man nor any beast that he had ever seen could
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  Speaker 1: have left that strange, monstrous, three toed print that was
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  Speaker 1: curiously combined of the bird and the reptile, Yet a
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  Speaker 1: true mark of neither. He spread his fingers above the print,
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  Speaker 1: careful not to touch it, and grunted explosively. He could
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  Speaker 1: not span the mark. What is it, he whispered. I
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  Speaker 1: never saw a beast that left a sporel like that,
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  Speaker 1: nor any of a sane man, answered Conan grimly. It's
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  Speaker 1: a swamp demon. They're thickest bats in the swamps beyond
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  Speaker 1: Black River. You can hear them howling like damned souls
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  Speaker 1: when the wind blows strong from the south on hot nights.
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  Speaker 1: What shall we do? Asked the Aquilonian, peering uneasily into
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  Speaker 1: the deep blue shadows, The froze in fear on the
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: dead countenance haunted him. He wondered what hideous head the
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  Speaker 1: wretch had seen thrust grinning from among the leaves to
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: chill his blood with terror. No use trying to follow
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: a demon to Conan, drawing a short woodman's axe from
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: his girdle, I tried tracking him after he killed Serroctus.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: I lost his trail within a dozen steps. He might
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: have grown himself wings and flown away, or sucked down
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: through the earth to Hell. I don't know. I'm not
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: going after the mule either. It'll either wander back to
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: the fort or to some settler's cabin. As he spoke,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Conan was busy at the edge of the trail with
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: his axe. With a few strokes, he cut a pair
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: of saplings nine or ten feet long and denuded them
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: of their branches. Then he cut a length from a
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: serpent like vine that crawled among the bushes nearby, and
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: making one end fast to one of the poles a
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: couple of feet from the end, whipped the vine over
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: the other sapling and interlaced it back and forth. In
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: a few moments, he had a crude but strong litter.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: The demon is sent going to get Tiberius's head. If
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: I can help it, he growled. We'll carry the body
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: into the fort. It isn't more than three miles. I
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: never liked the fat fool, but we can't have pictish
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: devils making so cursed free with white men's heads. The
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: Picks were a white race, though swarthy, but the bordermen
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: never spoke of them as such. Balthus took the rear
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: end of the litter, on to which Conan unceremoniously dumped
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: the unfortunate merchant, and they moved on down the trail
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: as swiftly as possible. Conan made no more noise laden
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: with their grim burden than he had made when unencumbered.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: He had made a loop with the merchant's belt at
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: the end of the poles, and was carrying his share
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: of the load with one hand while the other gripped
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: his naked broadsword, and his restless gaze roved the sinister
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: walls about them. The shadows were thickening, A darkening blue
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: mist blurred the outlines of the foliage. The forest, deepened
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: in the twilight, became a blue haunt of mystery, sheltering
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: unguessed things. They had covered more than a mile, and
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: the mussels in Balthus's sturdy arms were beginning to ache
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: a little when a cry rang shuddering from the woods,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: whose blue shadows were deepening into purple Conan started convulsively,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: and Balthos almost let go the poles. A woman cried,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: the younger man, great Mitra, a woman cried out. Then
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: a settler's wife staying in the woods, snarled Conan, setting
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: down his end of the litter, looking for a cow
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: probably and stay here. He dived like a hunting wolf
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: into the leafy wall. Balthus's hair bristled. Stay here alone
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: with this corpse and a devil hiding in the woods.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: He yelped, I'm coming with you, and, suiting action to words,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: he plunged after the Samarian. Conan glanced back at him,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: but made no objection, though he did not moderate his
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: pace to accommodate the sharp legs of his companion. Baltus
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: wasted his wind and swearing as the Sumerian drew away
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: from him again like a phantom between the trees. And
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: then Conan burst into a dim glade and halted, crouching lips, snarling,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: sword lifted. What are we stopping for? Panted Baltus, dashing
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: the sweat out of his eyes and gripping his short sword.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: That scream came from this glade or nearby, answered Conan,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: I don't mistake the location of sounds, even in the woods,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: but where abruptly the sound rang out again behind them,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: in the direction of the trail they had just quitted.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: It rose piercingly and pitifully the cry of a woman
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: in frantic terror, and then shockingly it changed to a
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: yell of mock king laughter that might have burst from
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: the lips of a fiend of lower Hell. What in
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Mithra's name? Baltus's face was a pale blur in the gloom,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: with a scorching oath. Conan wheeled and dashed back the
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: way he had come, and the Aquilonian stumbled bewilderedly after him.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: He blundered into the Samarian as the latter stopped dead
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: and rebounded from his brawny shoulders as though from an
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: iron statue. Gasping from the impact. He heard Conan's breath
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: hiss through his teeth. The Samarian seemed frozen in his tracks.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Looking over his shoulder, Baltus felt his hair stand up stiffly.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: Something was moving through the deep bushes that fringed the trail,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: something that neither walked nor flew, but seemed to glide
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: like a serpent. But it was not a serpent. Its
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: out lines were indistinct, but it was taller than a man,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: and not very bulky. It gave off a glimmer of
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: weird light, like a faint blue flame. Indeed, the eerie
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: fire was the only tangible thing about it. It might
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: have been an embodied flame, moving with reason and purpose
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: through the blackening woods. Conan snarled a savage curse and
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: hurled his axe with ferocious will, but the thing glided
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: on without altering its course. Indeed, it was only a
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: few instants fleeting glimpse they had of it, a tall,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: shadowy thing of misty flame floating through the thickets. Then
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: it was gone, and the forest crouched in breathless stillness.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: With a snarl, Conan plunged through the intervening foliage and
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: into the trail. His profanity, as Baltus floundered after him,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: was lurid and impassioned. The Sumarian was standing over the
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: litter on which lay the body of Tiberius, and that body,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: no longer possessed a head, tricked us with this damnable catterwauling,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: raved Conan, swinging his great sword about his head in
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: his wrath, I might have known I might have guessed
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: a trick. Now there will be five heads to decorate
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Zogar's alter. But what thing is that that can cry
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: like a woman, and laugh like a devil, and shines
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: like witch fire as it glides through the trees, gasped Balthus,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: mopping the sweat from his pale face. A swamp devil,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: responded Conan, morosely, Grab those poles. We'll take in the
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: body anyway, at least our loads a bit lighter, with
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: which grim philosophy. He gripped the leathery loop and stalked
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: down the trail. End of chapter one, chapter two of
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Koonan Beyond the Black River by Robert E. Howard. This
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter two, The
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Wizard of Gualela. Fort Tusslon stood on the eastern bank
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: of Black River, the tides of which washed the foot
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: of the Stockades. The latter was of logs, as were
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: all the buildings within, including the Donjon, to dignify it
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: by that appellation, in which were the governor's quarters, overlooking
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: the stockade and the Sullen River. Beyond that river lay
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: a huge forest which approached jungle like density along the
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: spongy shores. Men paced the runways along the log parapet
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: day and night, watching the dense green walls. Seldom a
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: menacing figure appeared, but the sentries knew that they too
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: were watched fiercely, hungrily, with the mercilessness of ancient hate.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: The forest beyond the river might seem desolate and vacant
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: of life to the ignorant eye. But life teemed there,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: not alone of bird and beasts and reptile, but also
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: of men, the fiercest of all the hunting beasts. There
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: at the fort, civilization ended. Fort Tuslon was the last
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: outpost of a civilized world. It represented the westernmost thrust
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: of the dominant Hiberian races. Beyond the river, the primitive
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: still reigned in shadowy forests. Bush thatched huts were hung
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: the grinning skulls of men, and mud walled enclosures, where
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: fires flickered and drums, rumbold and spears were wetted in
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: the hands of dark, silent men with tangled black hair
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: and the eyes of serpents. Those eyes often glared through
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: the bushes at the fort. Across the river, once dark
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: skinned men had built their huts where that fort stood yes,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: and their huts had risen, where now stood the fields
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: and log cabins of fair haired settlers. Back beyond Valetrium,
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: that raw, turbulent frontier town on the banks of Thunder River,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: to the shores of that other river that bounds the
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Bosonian Marshes. Traders had come, and priests of Mithra, who
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: walked with bare feet and empty hands, and died horribly
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: most of them. But soldiers had followed, and men with
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: axes in their hands, and women and children in ox
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: drawn wains back to Thunder River, and still back beyond
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: Black River. The aber Riegines had been pushed with slaughter
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: and massacre, but the dark skinned people did not forget
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: that once kolan Jahara had been theirs. The guard inside
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: the eastern gate bawled a challenge through a barred aperture.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: Torchlight flickered glinting on a steel head piece, and suspicious
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: eyes beneath it. Open the gate, snorted Conan, You see
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: its eye, don't you? Military discipline put his teeth on edge.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: The gate swung inward, and Conan and his companion passed through.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Balthus noted that the gate was flanked by a tower
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: on each side, the summits of which rose above the stockade.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: He saw loopholes for arrows. The guard's men grunted as
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: they saw the burden born Between the men, their pikes
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: jangled against each other as they thrust shut the gate.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: Chin on shoulder, and Conan asked, testily, have you never
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: seen a headless body before? The face of the souldiers
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: were pallid in the tarch light. That's Tiberius, flirted one.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: I recognize that fer trand tunic. Valerius here owes me
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: five loomas I told him Tiberius had heard the loon
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: call when he rode through the gate on his mule
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: with his glassy stare, I wagered he come back without
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: his head. Conan grunted enigmatically motioned Balthus to ease the
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: litter to the ground, and then strode off toward the
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: governor's quarters with the Aquilonian at his heels. The toussl
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: headed youth stared about him eagerly and curiously, noting the
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: rows of barracks along the walls, the stables, the tiny
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: merchant's stalls, the towering block house, and the other buildings
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: with the open square in the middle where the soldiers
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: drilled and were now fires danced, and men off duty lounged.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: These were now hurrying to join the morbid crowd gathered
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: around the litter at the gate, the rangy figures of
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: Aquilonian pikemen and forest runners mingled with the sharpest, stockier
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: forms of Basonian archers. He was not greatly surprised that
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: the governor received them himself. Autocratic society, with its rigid
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: caste laws, lay east of the marches. Bollanis was still
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: a young man, well knit, with a finely chiseled countenance
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: already carved into sober casts by toil and responsibility. You
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: left the fort before daybreak, I was told, He said
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: to Conan, I had begun to fear that the picks
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: had caught you. At last. When they smoke my head,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: the whole river will know it, grunted Conan. They'll hear
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: Pictish women willing there dead as far as Valetrium. I
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: was on a lone scout. I couldn't sleep. I kept
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: hearing drums talking across the river. They talk each night,
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: reminded the governor. His fine eyes shadowed as he stared
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: closely at Conan. He had learned the unwisdom of discounting
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: while men's instincts. There was a difference last night, growled Conan.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: There has been ever since Zogar Sog got back across
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: the river. We should either have given him presents and
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: sent him home, or else hanged him, sighed the governor.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: You advise that, but but it's hard for you Hyborians
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: to learn the ways of the outlands, said Conan. Well,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: it can't be helped now, but there'll be no peace
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: on the border so long as Zogar lives and remembers
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: the cell he sweated in. I was following a warrior
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: who slipped over to put a few white notches on
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: his bow. After I split his head, I fell in
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: with this lad whose name is Balthos, and who's come
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: from the Tarran to help hold the frontier. Valanas approvingly,
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: I the young man's frank countenance and strongly knit frame.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: I am glad to welcome you, young sir. I wish more
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: of your people would come. We need men used to
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: forest life. Many of our soldiers and some of our
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: settlers are from the eastern provinces and know nothing of
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: woodcraft or even of agricultural life. Not many of that
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: breed this side of Vealitrium, grunted Conan. That town's full
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: of them, though, But listen, Bolonius. We found Tiberius dead
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: on the trail, and in a few words he related
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: the grisly affair. Vallanus paled I did not know he
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: had left the fort. He must have been mad, he
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: was answered Conan, Like the other four, each one, when
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: his time came, went mad and rushed into the woods
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: to meet his death, like a hare running down the
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: throat of a python. Something called to them from the
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: deeps of the forest, something the men call a loon
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: for lack of a better name. But only the doomed
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: ones could hear. Zogar sog has made a magic that
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: Aqualonian civilization can't overcome. To this thrust, Vaalanus made no reply.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: He wiped his brow with a shaky hand. Do the
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: soldiers know of this? We left the body by the
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: eastern gate. You should have concealed the fact, hidden the
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: corpse somewhere in the woods. The soldiers are nervous enough already,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: they'd have found it out some way. If I'd hidden
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: the body, it would have been returned to the fort,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: as the corpse of Soractus was tied up outside the
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: gate for the men to find in the morning, Vaalanus shuddered. Turning,
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: he walked to a casement and stared silently out over
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: the river, black and shiny under the glint of the stars.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: Beyond the river, the jungle rose like an ebb and wall.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: The distant screech of a panther broke the stillness. The
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: knight pressed in, blurring the sounds of the soldiers outside
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: the block house, dimming the fires. A wind whispered through
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: the black branches, rippling the dusky water. On its wings.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: Came a low, rhythmic, pulsing, sinister as the pad of
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: a leopard's foot. After all, said Villanus, as if speaking
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: his thoughts aloud, what do we know? What does anyone
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: know of the things that jungle may hide? We have
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: dim rumors of great swamps and rivers, and a forest
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: that stretches on and on over everlasting plains and hills,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: to end at last on the shores of the western Ocean.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: But what things lie between the river and that ocean,
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: we dare not even guess. No white man has ever
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: plunged deep into that fastness, and returned alive to tell
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: us what he found. We are wise in our civilized knowledge,
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: but our knowledge extends just so far to the western
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: bank of that ancient river. Who knows what shapes earthly
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: and unearthly may lurk beyond the dim circle of light
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: our knowledge has cast. Who knows what gods are worshiped
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: under the shadows of that heathen forest? Are what devils
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: crawl out of the black ooze of the swamps? Who
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: can be sure that all the inhabitants of that black
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: country are natural? Zogor Sog, a sage of the Eastern Cities,
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: would sneer at his primitive magic making as the mummery
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: of a fakir. Yet he has driven mad and killed
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: five men in a manner no man can explain. I
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: wonder if he himself is wholly human. If I can
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: get with the next throwing distance of him, I'll settle
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: that question, growled Konan, helping himself to the governor's wine
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: and pushing a glass toward Balphus, who took it hesitatingly
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: and with an uncertain glance toward Balamas. The governor turned
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: toward Conan and stared at him thoughtfully. The soldiers who
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: do not believe in ghosts or devils, he said, are
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: almost in a panic of fear. You, who believe in ghosts, ghouls, goblins,
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: in all manner of uncanny things, do not seem to
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: fear any of the things in which you believe. There
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: is nothing in the universe. Cold steel won't cut, answered Conan.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: I threw my axe at the demon, and he took
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: no hurt. But I might have missed in the dusk,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: or a branch deflected its flight. I'm not going out
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: of my way looking for devils, but I wouldn't step
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: out of my path to let one go by. Volanus
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: lifted his head and met Conan's gaze squarely. Conan, more
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: depends on you than you realize. You know the weakness
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: of this province, a slender wedge thrust into the untamed wilderness.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: You know that the lives of all the people west
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: of the marches depend on this fort. Were it to fall,
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: red axes would be splintering the gates of Evelitrium before
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: a horseman could cross the marches. His majesty or his
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: Majesty's advisers have ignored my plea that more troops be
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: sent to hold the frontier. They know nothing of border
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: conditions and are adverse to expending any more money in
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: this direction. The fate of the frontier depends upon the
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: men who now hold it. You know that most of
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: the army which conquered Kunajihara has been withdrawn. You know
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: the force left me is inadequate, especially since that devil
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: Zogar Sag managed to poison our water supply, and forty
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: men died in one day. Many of the others are
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: sick or have been bitten by serpents or mauled by
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: wild beasts which seem to swarm in increasing numbers in
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: the vicinity of the fort. The soldiers believe Zogar's boast
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: that he could summon the forest beasts to slay his enemies.
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: I have three hundred pikemen, four hundred Bosonian archers, and
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: perhaps fifty men who, like yourself, are skilled in woodcraft.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: They are worth ten times their number of soldiers, but
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: there are so few of them. Frankly, Conan, my situation
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: is becoming precarious. The soldiers whisper of desertion. They are
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: low spirited, believing Zogar's sog has loosed devils on us.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: They fear the black plague with which he threatened us,
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: the terrible black death of the swamplands. When I see
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: a sick soldier, I sweat with fear of seeing him
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: turn black and shrivel and die before my eyes. Conan,
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: if the plague is loosed upon us, the soldiers will
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: desert in a body. The border will be left unguarded,
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: and nothing will check the sweep of the dark skinned
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: hordes to the very gates of Alytrium, maybe beyond. If
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: we cannot hold the fort, how can they hold the town?
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: Konan Zogar Sag must die if we are to hold Konnajahara.
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: You have penetrated the unknown deeper than any other man
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: in the fort. You know where Guawela stands, and something
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: of the forest trails across the river. Will you take
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: a band of men tonight and endeavor to kill or
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: capture him? Oh? I know it's mad. There isn't more
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: than one chance in the thousand that any of you
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: will come back alive. But if we don't get him,
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: it's death for us. All. You can take as many
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: men as you wish. A dozen men are better for
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: a job like that than a regiment, answered Koone. Five
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: hundred men couldn't fight their way to Guawila and back,
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: but a dozen might slip in and out again. Let
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: me pick my men. I don't want any soldiers. Let
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: me go, eagerly, exclaimed Balthas. I've hunted deer all my
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: life on the torn All right, Villanus, we'll eat at
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: the stall where the foresters gather, and I'll pick my men.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: We'll start within an hour, drop down the river in
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: a boat to a point below the village, and then
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: steal upon it through the woods. If we live, we
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: should be back by daybreak. End of chapter two, chapter
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: three of Conan Beyond the Black River by Robert E. Howard.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter three,
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: the Crawlers in the dark. The river was a vague
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: trace between walls of ebony. The paddles that propelled the
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: long boat creeping along in the dense shadow of the
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: eastern bank, dipped softly into the water, making no more
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: noise than the beak of a heron. The broad shoulders
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: of the man in front of Balthus were a blur
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: in the dense gloom. He knew that not even the
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: keen eyes of the man who knelt in the prow
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: would discern anything more than a few feet ahead of them.
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: Conan was feeling his way by instinct and an internal
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: familiarity with the river. No one spoke. Balthos had had
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: a good look at his companions in the fort before
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: they slipped out of the stockade and down the bank
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: into the waiting canoe. They were of a new breed,
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: growing up in the world on the raw edge of
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: the frontier, men whom grim necessity had taught woodcraft. Aquilonians
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: of the western provinces. To a man, they had many
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: points in common. They dressed alike in buckskin boots, leathern breecks,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: and deerskin shirts, with broad girdles that held axes and
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: short swords. And they were all gaunt and scarred and
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: hard eyed, sinewy and taciturn. They were wild men of
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: a sort, yet there was still a wide gulf between
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: them and the Samerian. They were sons of civilization reverted
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: to a semi barbarism. He was a barbarian of a
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: thousand generations of barbarians. They had acquired stealth and craft,
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: but he had been born to these things. He excelled
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: them even in life economy of motion. They were wolves,
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: but he was a tiger. Balthus admired them and their leader,
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: and felt a pulse of pride that he was admitted
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: into their company. He was proud that his paddle made
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: no more noise than did theirs. In that respect, at
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: least he was their equal, though woodcraft learned in hunts
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: on the Turin could never equal that ground into the
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: souls of men on the savage border. Below the fort,
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: the river made a wide bend. The lights of the
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: outpost were quickly lost, but the canoe held on its
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: way for nearly a mile, avoiding snags and floating logs
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: with almost uncanny precision. Then a low grunt from their leader,
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: and they swung its head about and glided toward the
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: opposite shore. Emerging from the black shadows of the brush
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: that fringed the bank and coming into the open of
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: the mid stream created a peculiar illusion of rash exposure.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: But the stars gave little light, and Balthus knew that
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: unless one were watching for it, it would be all
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: but impossible for the keenest eye to make out the
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: shadowy shape of the canoe crossing the river. They swung
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: in under the overhanging bushes of the western shore, and
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: Balthus groped for and found a projecting root, which he grasped.
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: No word was spoken. All instructions had been given before
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: the scouting party left the fort as silently as a
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: great panther. Conan slid over the side and vanished in
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: the bushes, equally noiseless. Nine men followed him to Balthus,
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: grasping the root with his paddle across his knee. It
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: seemed incredible that ten men should thus fade into the
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: tangled forest without a sound. He settled himself to wait.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: No word passed between him and the other man who
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: had been left with him. Somewhere a mile or so
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: to the northeast, Zogar SOG's village stood girdled with thick woods.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: Balthus understood his orders. He and his companion were to
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: wait for the return of the raiding party. If Conan
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: and his men had not returned by the first tinge
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: of dawn, they were to race back up the river
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: to the fort and report that the forest had again
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: taken its immemorial toll of the invading race. The silence
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: was oppressive. No sound came from the black woods, invisible
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: beyond the ebbon masses that were the overhanging bushes, and
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: Balthus no longer heard the drums. They had been silent
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: for hours. He kept blinking unconsciously, trying to see through
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: the deep gloom. The dank night smells of the river
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: and the damp forest oppressed him. Somewhere near by, there
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: was a sound as if a big fish had flopped
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: and splashed the water. Baltus thought it must have leaped
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: so close to the canoe that it had struck the side.
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: For a slight quiver vibrated the craft. The boats stern
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: began to swing slightly away from the shore. The man
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: behind him must have let go of the projection he
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: was gripping both Us twisted his head to hiss a warning,
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: and could just make out the figure of his companion,
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: a slightly blacker bulk in the blackness. The man did
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: not reply. Wondering if he had fallen asleep, Balthus reached
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: out and grasped his shoulder. To his amazement, the man
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: crumbled under his touch and slumped down in the canoe,
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: twisting his body half about. Balthus groped for him, his
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: heart shooting into his throat. His fumbling fingers slid over
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: the man's throat. Only the youth's convulsive clenching of his
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: jaws choked back the cry that rose to his lips.
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: His fingers encountered a gaping, oozing wound. His companion's throat
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: had been cut from ear to ear. In that instant
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: of horror and panic, Balthus started up, and then a
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: muscular arm out of the darkness, locked fiercely about his throat,
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: strangling his yell. The canoe rocked wildly. Balthus's knife was
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: in his hand, though he did not remember jerking it
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: out of his boot, and he stabbed fiercely and blindly.
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: He felt the blade sink deep, and a fiendish yell
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: rang in his ear, a yell that was horribly answered.
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: The darkness seemed to come to life about him. A
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: beef steel clamor rose on all sides, and other arms
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: grappled him barn under a mass of hurtling bodies. The
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: canoe rolled sideways, but before he went under with it,
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: something cracked against Balthus's head, and the night was briefly
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: illuminated by a blinding burst of fire, before he gave
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: way to a blackness where not even stars shone. End
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: of chapter three, chapter four of Conan Beyond the Black
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: River by Robert E. Howard. This Liebrivox recording is in
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Chapter four, The beasts of Zogar Zog
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: fires dazzled Balthus again. As he slowly recovered his senses.
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: He blinked, shook his head. There glare hurt his eyes.
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: A confused medley of sound rose about him, growing more distinct.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: As his senses cleared, he lifted his head and stared
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: stupidly about him. Black figures hemmed him in etched against
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: crimson tongues of flame. Memory and understanding came in a rush.
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: He was bound upright to a post in an open space,
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: ringed by fierce and terrible figures. Beyond that ring fires burned,
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: tended by naked, dark skinned women. Beyond the fires, he
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: saw huts of mud and wattle thatched with brush. Beyond
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: the huts there was a stockade with a broad gait.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: But he saw these things only incidentally. Even the cryptic
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: dark women, with their curious coiffures were noted by him
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: only absently. His full attention was fixed in awful fascination
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: on the men who stood glaring at him. Short men,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: broad shouldered, deep chested, lean hipped. They were naked except
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: for scanty loinclothes. The firelight brought out the play of
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: their swelling muscles in bold relief. Their dark faces were immobile,
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: but their narrow eyes glittered with the fire that burns
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: in the eyes of a stalking tiger. Their tangled manes
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: were bound back with bands of copper. Swords and axes
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: were in their hands. Crude bandages banded the limbs of some,
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: and smears of blood were dried on their dark skins.
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: There had been fighting, recent and deadly. His eyes wavered
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: away from the steady glare of his captors and repressed
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: a cry of horror. A few feet away there rose
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: a low, hideous pyramid. It was built of gory human heads.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: Dead eyes glared glassily up at the black sky. Numbly,
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: he recognized the countenances which were turned toward him. They
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: were the heads of the men who had followed Conan
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: into the forest. He could not tell if the Samerian's
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: head were among them. Only a few faces were visible
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: to him. It looked to him as if there must
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: be ten or eleven heads. At least. A deadly sickness
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: assailed him. He fought a desire to wretch. Beyond the
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: heads lay the bodies of half a dozen picks, and
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: he was aware of a fierce exultation at the sight
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: the forest runners had taken toll at least. Twisting his
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: head away from the ghastly spectacle, he became aware that
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: another post stood near him, a stap painted black, as
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: was the one to which he was bound. Amen sagged
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: in his bonds, there, naked except for his leathern Breeks,
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: whom Baltus recognized as one of Conan's woodsmen. Blood trickled
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: from his mouth, oozed sluggishly from a gash in his side.
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: Lifting his head as he licked his livid lips, he muttered,
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: making himself heard with difficulty above the fiendish clamor of
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: the picks. So they got you too, sneaked up in
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: the water and cut the other fellow's throat, groaned Balthus.
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: We never heard them till they were on us. Mither,
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: how can anything move so silently? They're devils? Mumbled the frontiersman.
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: They must have been watching us from the time we
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: left midstream. We walked into a trap. Arrows from all
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: sides were ripping into us before we knew it. Most
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: of us dropped at the first fire. Three or four
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: broke through the bushes and came to handgriffs, but there
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: were too many. Conan might have gotten away. I haven't
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: seen his head. Been better for you and me if
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: they'd killed us out right. I can't blame Conan. Ordinarily
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: we'd have gotten to the village without being discovered. They
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: don't keep spies on the river bank. As far down
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: as we landed. We must have stumbled into a big
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: party coming up the river from the south. Some devilment
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: is up too many picks here. These aren't all Waweli
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: men from the western tribes here and from up and
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: down the river. Bolpha stared at the ferocious shapes. Little
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: as he knew of Pictish ways, he was aware that
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: the number of men clustered about them was out of
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: proportion to the size of the village. There were not
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: enough huts to have accommodated them all. Then he noticed
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: that there was a difference in the barbaric tribal designs
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: painted on their faces and breasts. Some kind of devilment,
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: muttered the forest runner. They might have gathered here to
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: watch Cigar's magic making. He'll make some rare magic with
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: our carcases. Well, a border man doesn't expect to die
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: in bed, but I wish we'd gone out along with
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: the rest. The wolfish howling of the picks rose in
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: volume and exultation, and from a movement in their ranks,
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: an eager surging and crowding, Balthus deduced that some one
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: of importance was coming. Twisting his head about, he saw
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: that the stakes were set before a long building, larger
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: than the other huts, decorated by human skulls. Dangling from
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: the eaves. Through the door of that structure now danced
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: a fantastic figure, so God, muttered the woodsman, his bloody
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: countenance set in wolfish lines. As he unconsciously strained at
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: his cords, Balthus saw a lean figure of middle height,
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: almost hidden in ostrich plumes, set on a harness of
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: leather and copper. From amid the plumes peered a hideous
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: and malevolent face. The plumes puzzled bothos. He knew their
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: source lay half the width of a world to the south.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: They fluttered and rustled evilly as the Shamon leaped and
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: coverted with fantastic bounds and prancings. He entered the ring
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: and whirled before his bound and silent captives. With another man,
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: it would have seemed ridiculous, a foolish savage prancing meaninglessly
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: in a whirl of feathers. But that ferocious face glaring
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: out from that billowing mass gave the scene a grim significance.
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: No man with a face like that could seem ridiculous
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: or like anything except the devil he was. Suddenly he
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: froze to statuesque stillness. The plumes rippled once and sank
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: about him. The howling warriors fell silent. Zogar Sog stood
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: erect and motionless, and he seemed to increase in height,
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: to grow and expand. Balthus experienced the illusion that the
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: pict was towering above him, staring contemptuously down from a
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: great height. Though he knew the Shamin was not as
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: tall as himself. He shook off the illusion with difficulty.
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: The shaman was talking now, a harsh, guttural intonation that
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: yet carried the hiss of a cobra He thrust his
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: head on his long neck toward the wounded man on
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: the snake. His eyes shone red as blood in the firelight.
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: The frontier's man spat full in his face with a
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: fiendish howl. Zogar bounded convulsively into the air, and the
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: warriors gave tongue to a yell that shuddered up to
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: the stars. They rushed toward the man on the stake,
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: but the shaman beat them back. A snarled command sent
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: men running to the gate. They hurled it open, turned
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: and raced back to the circle. The ring of men split,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: divided with desperate haste to right and left. Both us
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: saw the women and naked children scurrying to the huts.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: They peeked out of doors and windows. A broad lane
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: was left to the open gate, beyond which loomed the
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: black forest, crowding suddenly, and upon the clearing, unlighted by
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: the fires, a tense silence reigned as Zogar sag turned
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: toward the forest, raised on his tiptoes, and sent a
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: weird inhuman call, shuddering out into the night. Somewhere far
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: out in the black forest, a deeper cry answered him.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: Uphus shuddered. From the timbour of that cry, he knew
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: it never came from a human throat. He remembered what
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: Vallanus had said that Zogar boasted that he could summon
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: wild beasts to do his bidding. The woodsman was livid
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: beneath his mask of blood. He licked his lips spasmodically.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: The village held its breath. Zogar Sag stood still as
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: a statue, his plumes trembling faintly about him. But suddenly
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: the gait was no longer empty. A shuddering gasp swept
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: over the village, and men crowded hastily back, jamming one
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: another between the huts. Baltus felt the sharp hair stir
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: on his scalp. The creature that stood in the gate
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: was like the embodiment of Nightmare legend. Its collar was
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: of a curious pale quality, which made it seem ghostly
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: and unreal in the dim light. But there was nothing
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: unreal about the low hung savage head and the great
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: curved fangs that glistened in the firelight on noiseless, padded feet.
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: It approached like a phantom out of the past. It
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: was a survival of an older grimmer age the ogre
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: of many an ancient legend a saber toothed tiger. No
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: Hyborian hunter had looked upon one of those primordial brutes
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: for its centuries. Immemorial myths lent the creatures a supernatural quality,
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: induced by their ghostly color and their fiendish ferocity. The
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: beast that glided toward the men on the stakes was
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: longer and heavier than a common striped tiger, almost as
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 1: bulky as a bear. Its shoulders and forelegs were so
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: massive and mightily muscled as to give it a a
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: curiously top heavy look, though its hind quarters were more
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: powerful than that of a lion. Its jaws were massive,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: but its head was brutally shaped. Its brain capacity was small.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: It had room for no instincts except those of destruction.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: It was a freak of carnivorous development, evolution run amok,
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: in a horror of fangs and talons. This was the
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: monstrosity Zogar Sog had summoned out of the forest. Balthus
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 1: no longer doubted the actuality of the shaman's magic. Only
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 1: the black arts could establish a dominion over that tiny, brained,
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: mighty feud monster. Like a whisper. At the back of
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: his consciousness rose the vague memory of the name of
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: an ancient god of darkness and primordial fear, to whom
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: once both men and beasts bowed, and whose children men whispered,
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: still lurked in dark corners of the world. New horror
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: tinged the glare he fixed on Zogar's sog, the monster
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: moved past the heap of bodies and the pile of
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: gory heads, without appearing to notice them. He was no scavenger.
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: He hunted only the living, in a life dedicated solely
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: to slaughter. An awful hunger burned greedily in the wide,
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: unwinking eyes, the hunger not alone of belly emptiness, but
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: the lust of death. Dealing his gaping jaws slavered the
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: Shamans stepped back, his hand waved toward the woodsman. The
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: great cat sank into a crouch, and Balthus numbly remembered
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: tales of its appalling ferocity, of how it could spring
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: upon an elephant and drive its sword like fangs so
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: deeply into the titan's skull that they could never be withdrawn,
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: but would keep it nailed to its victim to die
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: of starvation. The shaman cried out shrilly, and with an
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: ear shattering roar, the monster sprang. Balthus had never dreamed
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: of such a spring, such a hurtling of incarnated destruction,
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: embodied in that giant bulk of iron, enthus and ripping
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: talons full on the woodsman's breast, It struck, and the
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: stake splintered and snapped at the base, crashing to the
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: earth under the impact. Then the saber tooth was gliding
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: toward the gate, half dragging, half carrying a hideous crimson
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: hulk that only faintly resembled a man. Balthus glared, almost paralyzed,
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: his brain, refusing to credit what his eyes had seen.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: In that leap. The great beast had not only broken
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: off the stake, it had ripped the mangled body of
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: its victim from the post to which it was bound.
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: The huge talons in that instant of contact had disemboweled
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: and partially dismembered the man, and the giant fangs had
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: torn away the whole top of his head, shearing through
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: the skull as easily as through flesh. Stout raw hide
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: thongs had given way like paper. Where the thongs had
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: held flesh and bone had not Baltus wretched suddenly. He
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: had haunted bears and panthers, but he had never dreamed
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: the beast's lived which could make such a red ruin
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: of a human frame. In the flicker of an instant,
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: the sabretooth vanished through the gate, and a few moments
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: later a deep roar sounded through the forest, receding in
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: the distance. But the Picks still shrank back against the huts,
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: and the shammons still stood facing the gate that was
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: like a black opening to let in the night. Cold
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: sweat burst suddenly out of Balthus's skin. What knew horror
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: would come through that gate to make carrion meat of
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: his body. Sick panic assailed him, and he strained futilely
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: at his thongs. The night pressed in, very black and horrible.
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: Outside the firelight, the fires themselves glowed lurid as the
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: fires of hell. He felt the eyes of the Picks
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: upon him, hundreds of hungry, cruel eyes that reflected the
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: lust of souls, utterly without humanity as he knew it.
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: They no longer seemed men. They were devils of this
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: black jungle, as inhuman as the creatures to which the
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: fiend in the nodding plumes screamed through the darkness. Zogar
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: sent another call, shuddering through the night, and it was
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: utterly unlike the first cry. There was a hideous sibilance
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 1: in it. Balthus turned cold at the implication. If a
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: serpent could hiss that loud, it would make just such
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: a sound. This time there was no answer, only a
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: period of breathless silence, in which the pound of Balthus's
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: heart strangled him. And then there sounded a swishing outside
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 1: the gate, a dry rustling that sent chills down Balthus's spine. Again,
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: the firelight gate held a hideous occupant. Again, Balthus recognized
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: the monster from ancient legends. He saw and knew, the
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: ancient and evil serpent which swayed there, its wedge shaped
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: head huge as that of a horse, as high as
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: a tall man's head, and its palely gleaming barrel rippling
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: out behind it. A forked tongue darted in and out,
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: and the firelike glittered on bared fangs. Balthus became incapable
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: of emotion. The horror of his fate paralyzed him. This
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: was the reptile that the ancients called ghost snake, the pale,
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: abominable terror that of old, glided into huts by night
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: to devour whole families. Like the python, it crushed its victim,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: but unlike other constrictors, its fangs bore venom that carried
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: madness and death. It too had long been considered extinct.
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: But Vallanus had spoken Truly, no white man knew what
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: shapes haunted the great forest beyond Black River. It came
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: on silently, rippling over the ground, its hideous head on
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: the same level, its neck curving back slightly for the stroke.
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: Balthus gazed with glazed, hypnotized stare into that loathsome gullet
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: down which he would soon be engulfed, and he was
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: aware of no sensation except a vague nausea. And then
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: something that glinted in the firelight streaked from the shadows
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: of the huts, and the great reptile whipped about and
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: went into instant convulsions as in a dream. Balthas saw
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: a short throwing spear transfixing the mighty neck just below
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: the gaping jaws, the shaft protruding from one side, and
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: the steel head from the other, nodding and looping hideously.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: The maddened reptile rolled into the circle of men, who
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: strove back from him. The spear had not severed its spine,
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: but merely transfixed its great neck muscles. Its curiously lashing
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 1: tail mowed down a dozen men, and its jaws snapped convulsively,
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: splashing others with a venom that burned like liquid fire. Howling, cursing, screaming, frantic,
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: they scattered before it, knocking each other down in their flight,
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: trampling the fallen. Bursting through the huts, the giant snake
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: rolled into a fire, scattering sparks and brands, and the
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: pain lashed into more frenzied efforts. A hut wall buckled
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: under the ram like impact of its flailing tail, disgorging
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 1: howling people. Men stampeded through the fires, knocking the logs
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: right and left. The flames sprang up, then sank. A
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: reddish dim glow was all that lighted that nightmare scene
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: where the giant reptile whipped and rolled and men clawed
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: and shrieked in frantic flight. Balthus felt something jerk at
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: his wrists, and then miraculously he was free and a
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: strong hand dragged him behind the post. Dazedly, he saw
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: Conan felt the forest man's iron grip on his arm.
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: There was blood on the samerian's mail, dried blood on
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: the sword in his right hand. He loomed, dim and
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: gigantic in the shadowy light. Come on before they get
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: over their panic. Balthus felt the half of an axe
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: shoved into his hand. Zogar's sog had disappeared. Conan dragged
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: Baltus after him until the youth's numbrain awoke and his
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: legs began to move of their own accord. Then Conan
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: released him and ran into the building where the skulls hung.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: Balthus followed him. He got a glimpse of a grim
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: stone altar, faintly lighted by the glow outside. Five human
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: heads grinned on that altar, and there was a grizzly
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 1: familiarity about the features of the freshest. It was the
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: head of the merchant Tiberius. Behind the altar was an
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: idol dim, indistinct, beasteel, yet vaguely manlike in outline. Then
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: fresh horror choked Balthus as the shape heaved up suddenly
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: with a rattle of chains, lifting long, misshapen arms. In
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: the gloom, Conan's sword flailed down, crunching through flesh and bone,
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: and then the Samarian was dragging Balthos around the altar,
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: past a huddled, shaggy bulk on the floor, to a
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: door at the back of the long hut. Through this
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: they burst out into the enclosure again, but a few
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 1: yards beyond them loomed the stockade. It was dark behind
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: the altar hut. The mad stampede of the picks had
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: not carried them in that direction. At the wall, Conan halted,
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: gripped Balthus, and heaved him at arm's length into the air,
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: as he might have lifted a child. Balthus grass the
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: points of the upright logs set in the sun dried mud,
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: and scrambled up on them, Ignoring the havoc done his skin.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: He lowered a hand to the Samarian. When around a
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: corner of the altar hut sprang a fleeing pict he
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: halted short, glimpsing the man on the wall in the
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 1: faint glow of the fires, Conan hurled his axe with
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 1: deadly aim, but the warrior's mouth was already open for
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: a yell of warning, and it rang loud above the
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: din cut short as he dropped with a shattered skull.
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: Blinding terror had not submerged all ingrained instincts. As that
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: wild yell rose above the clamor. There was an instant's lull,
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: and then a hundred throats bade ferocious answer, and warriors
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: came leaping to repel the attack presaged by the warning.
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: Conan leaped high, caught not Baltus's hand but his arm
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: near the shoulder, and swung himself up. Balthus set his
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: teeth against the strain, and then the Samarian was on
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: the wall beside him, and the fugitives dropped down on
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: the other side. End of chapter four chapter five of
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: Conan Beyond the Black River by Robert E. Howard. This
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter five. The
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: children of Jibbal sog which way is the river? Balthus
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: was confused. We don't dare try for the river. Now,
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: grunted Conan. The woods between the village and the river
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: are swarming with warriors. Come on, we'll head in the
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: last direction. They'll expect us to go west. Looking back,
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: as they entered the thick growth Balthus beheld the wall
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: dotted with black heads. As the savages peered over. The
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 1: picts were bewildered. They had not gained the wall in
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: time to see the fugitives take cover. They had rushed
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: to the wall expecting to repel an attack in force.
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: They had seen the body of the dead warrior, but
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: no enemy was in sight. Balthus realized that they did
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: not yet know their prisoner had escaped. From other sounds,
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: he believed that the warriors, directed by the shrill voice
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: of Zogar Sag, were destroying the wounded serpent with arrows.
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: The monster was out of the shaman's control. A moment later,
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: the quality of the yells was altered. Screeches of rage
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: rose in the night. Conan laughed grimly. He was leading
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: Balthus along a narrow trail that ran west under the
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: black branches, stepping as swiftly and surely as if he
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: trod a well lighted thoroughfare. Balthas stumbled after him, guiding
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: himself by feeling the dense wall on either hand. They'll
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: be after us now. Zogar's discovered you're gone, and he
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: knows my head wasn't in the pile before the altar
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: hut the dog. If I'd had another spear, I'd have
• 1:17:18
  Speaker 1: thrown it through him before I struck the snake. Keep
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: to the trail. They can't track us by tarchlight, and
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: there are scores of paths leading for the village. They'll
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: follow those leading to the river first, throw a cordon
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: of warriors for miles along the bank, expecting us to
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 1: try to break through. We won't take to the woods
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: until we have to. We can make better time on
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: this trail. Now buckle down to it and run as
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: you never ran before. They got over their panic, cursed quick,
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: panted Balthus, complying with the fresh burst of speed. They're
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: not afraid of anything. Very long, grunted Conan. For a space,
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: nothing was said between them. The fugitives devoted all their
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: attention to covering distance. They were plunging deeper and deeper
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: into the wilderness and getting further away from civilization at
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: every step, But Balthus did not question Conan's wisdom. The
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: Sumerian presently took time to grunt. When we're far enough
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 1: away from the village, we'll swing back to the river
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: in a big circle. No other village within miles of Guawila.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: All the picks are gathered in that vicinity. We'll circle
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: wide around them. They can't track us until daylight. They'll
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: pick up our path then, but before dawn, we'll leave
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: the trail and take to the woods. They plunged on
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: the ells died out behind them. Baldus's breath was whistling
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: through his teeth. He felt a pain in his side,
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: and running became torture. He blundered against bushes on e
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: side of the trail. Conan pulled up, suddenly turned and
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: stared back down the dim path. Somewhere the moon was rising,
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: a dim white glow amid a tangle of branches. Shall
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: we take you the woods, panted Balthos. Give me your axe,
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: murmured Conan softly. Something is close behind us. Then we'd
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: better leave the trail, exclaimed Balthos. Conan shook his head
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: and drew his companion into a dense thicket. The moon
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: rose higher, making a dim light in the path. We
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: can't fight the whole tribe, whispered Balthos. No human being
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: could have found our trails so quickly. I followed us
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: so swiftly, muttered Conan. Keep silent. There followed a tense
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: silence in which Balthus felt that his heart could be
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: heard pounding for miles away. Then, abruptly, without a sound
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: to announce it coming, a savage head appeared in the
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: dim path. Balthus's heart jumped into his throat. At first glance,
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: he feared to look upon the awful head of the sabertooth.
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: But this head was smaller, more narrow. It was a leopard,
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: which stood there, snarling silently and glaring down the trail.
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: What wind there was was blowing toward the hiding men,
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: concealing their scent. The beast lowered his head and snuffled
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: the trail, then moved forward uncertainly. A chill played down
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: Balthus's spine. The brute was undoubtedly trilling them, and it
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: was suspicious. It lifted its head, its eyes glowing like
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: balls of fire, and growled low in his throat, And
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: at that instant Conan hurled the axe. All the weight
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: of arm and shoulder was behind the throat, and the
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: axe was streak of silver in the dim moon. Almost
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: before he realized what had happened, Balthas saw the leopard
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: rolling on the ground in its death throes, the handle
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: of the axe standing up from its head. The head
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 1: of the weapon had split its narrow skull. Knan bounded
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: from the bushes, wrenched his axe free, and dragged the
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: limp body in among the trees, concealing it from the
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: casual glance. Now let's go and go fast, he grunted,
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: leading the way southward, away from the trail. There'll be
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: warriors coming after that cat. As soon as he got
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: his wits back, Zogar sent him after us. The picks
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: would follow him, and he'd leave them far behind. He'd
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: circle the village until he hit our trail, then come
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: after us like a streak. They couldn't keep up with him,
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: but they'll have an idea as to our general direction.
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: They listening for his cry, Well, they won't hear that,
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: but they'll find the blood on the trail and look
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: around and find the body in the brush. They'll pick
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: up our spoor here if they can walk with care.
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: He avoided clinging briars and low hanging branches, effortlessly gliding
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: between trees without touching the stems, and always planting his
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: feet in the places calculated to show least evidence of
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: his passing. But with Balthus it was slower, more laborious work.
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: No sound came from behind them. They had covered more
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: than a mile when Baltus said, the sgor sug catch
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: leopard cubs and train them for bloodhounds. Conan shook his head.
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 1: That was a leopard, he called out of the woods.
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: But Baltus persisted, if he can arder the beasts to
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 1: do his bidding, why doesn't he rouse them all and
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: have them after us. The forest is full of leopards,
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 1: why send only one after us. Conan did not reply
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 1: for a space, and when he did it was with
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: a curious reticence. He can't command all the animals, only
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 1: such as remember jebal sog gebal Sog. Baltus repeated the
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: ancient name hesitantly. He had never heard it spoken more
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: than three or four times in his whole life. Once
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: all living creatures worshiped him, that was long ago, when
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: beasts and men spoke one language. Men have forgotten him.
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: Even the beasts forget. Only a few remember. The men
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: who remember jebal Sog, and the beasts who remember are
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: brothers and speak the same tongue. Balthus did not reply.
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: He had strained at a pictish steak, and seen the
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: knighted jungle give up its fanged horrors at a shaman's
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: Callized men laugh, said Conan, But not one can tell
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: me how Zogar Sag can call pythons and tigers and
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 1: leopards out of the wilderness and make them do his bidding.
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: They would say it is a lie if they dared.
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: That's the way with civilized men. When they can't explain
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: something by their half baked science, they refuse to believe it.
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: The people on the Taran were closer to the primitive
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: than most Aquilonians. Superstitions persisted whose sources were lost in antiquity,
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: and Balthus had seen that which still prickled his flesh.
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: He could not refute the monstrous thing which Conan's words implied.
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: I've heard that there's an ancient grove sacred to Jabal
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: Sog somewhere in this forest, said Conan. I don't know,
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: I've never seen it, But more beasts remember in this
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: country than any I've scene. Then others will be on
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: our trail. There are now, was Conan's disquitening answer. Zogar
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: would never leave our tracking to one beast alone. What
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: are we to do, then, asked Balthus, uneasily grasping his
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: axe as he stared at the gloomy arches above him.
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: His flesh crawled with the momentary expectation of ripping talons
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: and fangs leaping from the shadows. Wait. Conan turned, squatted
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: and with his knife began scratching a curious symbol in
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: the mold. Stooping to look at it over his shoulder,
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: Balthus felt a crawling of flesh along his spine. He
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: knew not why. He felt no wind against his face,
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: but there was a rustling of leaves above them, and
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: a weird moaning swept ghostly through the branches. Conan glanced
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: up inscrutably, then rose and stood, staring sombrely down at
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: the symbol he had drawn. What is it? Whispered bothos.
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: It looked archaic and meaningless to him. He supposed that
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: it was his ignorance of artistry which prevented his identifying
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: it as one of the conventional designs of some prevailing culture.
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: But had he been the most erudite artist in the world,
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: he would have been no nearer the solution. I saw
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: it carved in the rock of a cave no human
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: had visited for a million years, muttered Conan. In the
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: uninhabited mountains beyond the Sea of Vilayet, half a world
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 1: away from this spot. Later, I saw a black witch
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: finder of cush scratch it in the sand of a
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: nameless river. He told me part of its meaning, its
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 1: sacred to Jebal Sog and the creatures which worship him. Watch.
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: They drew back among the dense foliage some yards away,
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: and waited in tense silence. To the east, drums muttered,
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: and somewhere to north and west, other drums answered. Bothos shivered,
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: though he knew long miles of black forest separated him
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 1: from the grim beaters of those drums, whose dull pulsing
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: was a sinister overture that set the dark stage for
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 1: bloody drama. Bothos found himself holding his breath. Then, with
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: a slight shaking of the leaves, the bushes parted, and
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: a magnificent panther came into view. The moonlight, dappling through
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 1: the leaves, shone on its glossy coat, rippling with the
• 1:27:45
  Speaker 1: play of the great mussels beneath it. With its head
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: held low, it glided toward them, it was smelling out
• 1:27:53
  Speaker 1: their trail. Then it halted, as if frozen, its muzzle
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: almost toucheding the symbol cut in the mold. For a
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 1: long space he crouched motionless. It flattened its long body
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: and laid its head on the ground before the mark,
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: and Balthus felt the short hair stir on his scalp,
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: for the attitude of the great carnivore was one of
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 1: awe and adoration. Then the panther rose and backed away, carefully,
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 1: bellied almost to the ground with his hind quarters among
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: the bushes. He wheeled as if in sudden panic, and
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: was gone like a flash of dappled light. Balthus smopped
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: his brow with a trembling hand and glanced at Conan.
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: The barbarian's eyes were smoldering with fires that never lit
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: the eyes of men bread to the ideas of civilization.
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: In that instant he was all wild, and had forgotten
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: the man at his side. In his burning gaze, Balthus
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: glimpsed and vaguely recognized pristine images and half embodied memories,
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: shadows from life's done, forgotten and repudiated by sophisticated races.
• 1:29:11
  Speaker 1: Ancient primeval phanfasms, unnamed and nameless. Then the deeper fires
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: were masked, and Conan was silently leading the way deeper
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: into the forest. We've no more to fear from the beasts,
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: he said after a while, But we've left a sign
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: for men to read. They won't follow our trail very easily,
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: and until they find that symbol, they won't know for
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 1: sure we've turned south. Even then, it won't be easy
• 1:29:42
  Speaker 1: to smell us out without the beasts to aid them.
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: But the woods south of the trail will be full
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: of warriors looking for us. If we keep moving after daylight,
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: we'll be sure to run into some of them. As
• 1:29:56
  Speaker 1: soon as we can find a good place, we'll hide
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: and wait until another night to swing back and make
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: the river. We've got to warn Valanus, but it won't
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 1: help him any if we get ourselves killed. Warn Valanus,
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: how the woods along the river are swarming with picks.
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: That's why they got us. Zogar's brewing war magic. No
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 1: mere raid. This time. He's done something no pict has
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: done in my memory. United as many as fifteen or
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: sixteen clans. His magic did it. They'll follow a wizard
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: farther than they will a war chief. You saw the
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: mob in the village, and there were hundreds hiding along
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: the river bank that you didn't see. More coming from
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: the farther villages. He'll have at least three thousand fighting men.
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: I lay in the bushes and heard their talk as
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: they went past. They mean to attack the fort when
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: I don't know. But Zogar doesn't dare to lay long.
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 1: He gather them and whipped them into a frenzy. If
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: he doesn't lead them into battle quickly, they'll fall to
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: quarreling with one another. They're like blood mad tigers. I
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: don't know whether they can take the fort or not. Anyway,
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 1: we've got to get back across the river and give
• 1:31:17
  Speaker 1: the warning. These settlers on the Valetrium road must either
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 1: get into the fort or back to Valetrium while the
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: Picks are besieging the fort, or parties will range the
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 1: road far to the east, might even cross Thunder River
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: and raid the thickly settled country behind Elytrium. As he talked,
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 1: he was leading the way deeper and deeper into the
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: ancient wilderness. Presently, he grunted with satisfaction. They had reached
• 1:31:44
  Speaker 1: a spot where the underbrush was more scattered, and an
• 1:31:48
  Speaker 1: outcropping of stone was visible. Wandering off southward. Balthas felt
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: more secure as they followed it, not even a pick
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: to coltrail them over naked rock. How did you get away,
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: he asked presently, Koonan tapped his mail shirt and helmet.
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: If more borderers would wear harnesses, they'd be fewer skulls
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: hanging on the ultra huts. But most men make noise
• 1:32:14
  Speaker 1: if they wear armor. They were waiting on each side
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: of the path without moving, and when a pick stands motionless,
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: the very beasts of the forest pass him without seeing him.
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: They'd seen us crossing the river and got in their places.
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 1: If they'd gone into ambush after we left the bank,
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: i'd have had some hint of it. But they were waiting,
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: and not even a leaf trembled. The devil himself couldn't
• 1:32:42
  Speaker 1: have suspected anything. The first suspicion I had was when
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: I heard a shaft rasp against a bow as it
• 1:32:48
  Speaker 1: was pulled back. I dropped and yelled for the men
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: behind me to drop, but they were too slow. Taken
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: by surprise like that, most of them fell at the
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 1: first folly that raked us from both sides wides. Some
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 1: of the arrows crossed the trail and struck picks on
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 1: the other side. I heard them howl. He grinned with
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: vicious satisfaction. Such of us as were left plunged into
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: the woods enclosed with him. When I saw the others
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: were all down or taken, I broke through and outfooted
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: the painted devils through the darkness. They were all around me.
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: I ran and crawled and sneaked, and sometimes I lay
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: on my belly under the bushes while they passed me
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 1: on all sides. I tried for the shore and found
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: it lined with them waiting for just such a move.
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 1: But I'd have cut my way through and taken a
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: chance on swimming. Only I heard the drums pounding in
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: the village and knew they'd taken somebody alive. They were
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 1: all so engrossed in Cigar's magic that I was able
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 1: to climb the wall behind the altar hood. There was
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 1: a warrior supposed to be watching at that point, but
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: he was squatting behind the hut and peering around the
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: corner at the ceremony. I came up behind him and
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: broke his neck with my hands. Before he knew what
• 1:34:06
  Speaker 1: was happening. It was his spear I threw into the snake,
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: and that's his axe you're carrying. But what was that
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 1: that thing you killed at the altar hut, asked Balthus,
• 1:34:18
  Speaker 1: with a shiver at the memory of the dim scene horror.
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: One of Zogar's gods, one of Jabal's children that didn't
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 1: remember and had to be kept chained to the altar.
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: A bull ape. The picks think their sacred to the
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: hairy one who lives on the moon, the gorilla god
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 1: of Gula. It's getting light. Here's a good place to
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: hide until we see how close they're on our trail.
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 1: Probably have to wait until night to break back to
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: the river. A low hill pitched upward, girdled and covered
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: with fig trees and bushes. Near the crest, Koonan slid
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: into a tangle of jutting rocks crowned by dense bushes
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: lying among them. They could see the jungle below without
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: being seen. It was a good place to hide or defend.
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: Balthos did not believe that even a pict could have
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: trailed them over the rocky ground for the past four
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: or five miles, but he was afraid of the beasts
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: that obeyed Zogar Sog. His faith in the curious symbol
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 1: wavered a little now, but Knan had dismissed the possibility
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: of beasts tracking them. A ghostly whiteness spread through the
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: dense branches. The patches of sky visible altered in hue,
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: grew from pink to blue. Balthos felt the gnawing of hunger.
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: Though he had slaked his thirst at a stream they
• 1:35:44
  Speaker 1: had skirted. There was complete silence, except for an occasional
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: chirp of a bird. The drums were no longer to
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: be heard. Balthus's thoughts reverted to the grim scene before
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: the altar hut. Those were ostrich plumes, sogorsagwar, He said,
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: I've seen them on the helmets of knights who rode
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: from the east to visit the barrens of the marches.
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 1: There are no ostriches in this forest, are there? They
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: came from kush answered Konan west of here. Many marches
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: lies to seashore. Ships from Zingara occasionally come in trade
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: weapons and ornaments and wine to the coastal tribes for
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: skins and copper ore and gold dust. Sometimes they trade
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: ostrich plumes. They got from the Stygians, who in turn
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 1: got them from the black tribes of Kush, which lies
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: south of Stygia. The Pictish Shamans place great store by them,
• 1:36:43
  Speaker 1: but there's much risk in such trade. The picks are
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: too likely to try to seize the ship, and the
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 1: coast is dangerous to ships. I've sailed along it when
• 1:36:53
  Speaker 1: I was with the pirates of the Barachan Isles, which
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: lie southwest of Zingara. Bothos looked at his companion with admiration.
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: I knew you hadn't spent your life on this frontier.
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: You've mentioned several four places. You've traveled widely. I've roamed
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: far farther than any other man of my race ever wondered.
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: I've seen all the great cities of the Hyborians, the Semites,
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: the Stygians, and the Hyrcanians. I've roamed in the unknown
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 1: country south of the Black kingdoms of Cush and east
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 1: of the Sea of Blayet. I've been a mercenary, captain,
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: a corsair, a Kozakh, a penniless vagabond, a general. Hell,
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 1: I've been everything except a king, and I may be
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 1: that before I die. The fancy pleased him, and he
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 1: grinned hardly. Then he shrugged his shoulders and stretched his
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: mighty figure on the rocks. This is as good life
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: as any I don't know how long I'll stay on
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: the frontier. A week, a month, a year. I have
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: a roving foot, but it's as well on the border
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: as anywhere. Balthus set himself to watch the forest below them. Momentarily,
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: he expected to see fierce painted faces thrust through the leaves,
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: but as the hours passed, no stealthy footfall disturbed the
• 1:38:15
  Speaker 1: brooding quiet. Balthus believed the Picks had missed their trail
• 1:38:19
  Speaker 1: and given up the chase. Conan grew restless. We should
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 1: have sighted parties scouring the woods for us. If they've
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 1: quit the chase, it's because they're after bigger game. They
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: may be gathering to cross the river and storm the fort.
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: Would they come this far south if they lost the trail.
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 1: They've lost the trail all right. Otherwise they'd have been
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: on our necks before now. Under ordinary circumstances, they'd scour
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: the woods for miles in every direction. Some of them
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: should have passed within sight of this hill. They must
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 1: be preparing to cross the river. We've got to take
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: a chance and make for the river. Creeping down the rocks,
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: Balthus felt his flesh crawl between his shoulders as he
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: momentarily expected a withering blast of arrows from the green
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: masses about them. He feared that the Picks had discovered
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 1: them and were lying about an ambush. But Conan was
• 1:39:16
  Speaker 1: convinced no enemies were near, and the Sumerian was right.
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 1: We're miles to the south of the village, grunted Conan.
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 1: We'll hit straight through for the river. I don't know
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 1: how far down the river they've spread. We'll hope to
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 1: hit it below them. With haste that seemed reckless to
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: both us, they hurried eastward. The woods seemed empty of life.
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: Conan believed that all the Picks were gathered in the
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: vicinity of Guawila. If indeed they had not already crossed
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: the river, he did not believe they would cross in
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: the daytime. However, some woodsmen would be sure to see
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: them and give the alarm. They'll cross above and below
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 1: the fort, out of sight of the sentries. Then other
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: will getting canoes and make straight across for the river wall.
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 1: As soon as they attack those hidden in the woods
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: on the east shore will assail the fort from the
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: other sides. They've tried that before and got the guts
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: shot and hacked out of them. But this time they've
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: got enough men to make a real onslaught of it.
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: They pushed on without pausing, though Balthus gazed longingly at
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: the squirrels flitting among the branches, which he would have
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 1: brought down with a cast of his axe. With a sigh,
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: he drew up his broad belt. The everlasting silence and
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: gloom of the primitive forest was beginning to depress him.
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: He found himself thinking of the open groves and sun
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 1: dappled meadows, of the turin, of the bluff cheer of
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 1: his father's steep, thatched diamond pained house, of the fat
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: cows browsing through the deep lush grass, and the hardy
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: fellowship of the brawny, bare armed plowmen and herdsman. He
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 1: felt lonely in spite of his companion. Conan was as
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: much a part of this wilderness as baldas was alien
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: to it. The Sumerian might have spent years among the
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: great cities of the world. He might have walked with
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: the rulers of civilization. He might even achieve his wild
• 1:41:18
  Speaker 1: whim some day and rule as king of a civilized nation.
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 1: Stranger things had happened, but he was no less a barbarian.
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: He was concerned only with the naked fundamentals of life,
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: the warm intimacies of small, kindly things. These sentiments and
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: delicious trivialities that make up so much of civilized men's
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: lives were meaningless to him. A wolf was no less
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: a wolf because a whim of chance caused him to
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: run with the watch dogs. Bloodshed and violence and savagery
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: were the natural elements of the life. Conan knew he
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: could not and would never understand the little things that
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: are so dear to civilized men and women. The shadows
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: were lengthening. When they reached the river and peered through
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 1: the masking bushes, they could see up and down the
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: river for about a mile each way. The sullen stream
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: lay bare and empty. Conan scowled across at the other shore.
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: We've got to take another chance here. We've got to
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: swim the river. We don't know whether they've crossed or not.
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: The woods over there may be alive with them. We've
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: got to risk it. We're about six miles south of Guawela.
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 1: He wheeled and ducked as a bowstring twanged, Something like
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 1: a white flash of light streaked through the bushes. Balthas
• 1:42:46
  Speaker 1: knew it was an arrow. Then, with the tigers bound,
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: Conan was through the bushes. Balthus caught the gleam of
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: steel as he whirled his sword and heard a death scream.
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: The next instant he had broken through the book bushes.
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: After the samarian A picked with a shattered skull, lay
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: face down on the ground, his fingers spasmodically clawing at
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: the grass. Half a dozen others were swarming about Conan,
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: swords and axes lifted. They had cast away their bows
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 1: useless at such deadly close quarters. Their lower jaws were
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: painted white, contrasting vividly with their dark faces, and the
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: designs on their muscular breasts differed from any Balthus had
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: ever seen. One of them hurled his axe at Balthus
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: and rushed after it with lifted knife. Balthus stuck and
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: then caught the wrist that drove the knife licking at
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 1: his throat. They went to the ground together, rolling over
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: and over. The pict was like a wild beast, his
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 1: muscles hard as steel, strings. Balthas was striving to maintain
• 1:43:53
  Speaker 1: his hold on the wild man's wrists and bring his
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: own axe into play, But so fast and furious was
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: the struggle that each attempt to strike was blocked. The
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: pict was wrenching furiously to free his knife hand, was
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 1: clutching at Balthus's axe and driving his knees at the
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 1: youth's groin. Suddenly he attempted to shift his knife to
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: his free hand, and in that instant Balthus, struggling up
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 1: on one knee, split the painted head with a desperate
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 1: blow of his axe. He sprang up and glared wildly
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 1: about for his companion, expecting to see him overwhelmed by numbers.
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 1: Then he realized that the full strength and ferocity of
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: the Samaran Conan bestrode two of his attackers, shorn half
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 1: asunder by that terrible broad sword. As Balthus looked, he
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: saw the Samarian beat down a thrusting short sword avoy
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: the stroke of an axe with a catlike sidewise spring,
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: which brought him with an arm's length of a squat
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 1: savage stooping for a bow. Before the picked could straighten,
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: the red sword flail down and clove him from shoulder
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 1: to mid breastbone, where the blade stuck. The remaining warriors
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: rushed in one from either side. Baltus hurled his axe
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: with an accuracy that reduced the attackers to one, and Conan,
• 1:45:20
  Speaker 1: abandoning his efforts to free his sword, wheeled and met
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: the remaining Picked with his bare hands. The stocky warrior,
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: a head shorter than his tall enemy, leaped in, striking
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: with his axe at the same time stabbing murderously with
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: his knife. The knife broke on the Samarian's mail, and
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: the axe checked in mid air. As Conan's fingers locked
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: like iron on the descending arm. A bone snapped loudly,
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 1: and Baltus saw the picked whence and falter. The next instant,
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 1: he was swept off his feet, lifted high above the
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: Samarian's head. He writhed in midair for an instant, kicking
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: and thrashing, and then was dashed headlong to the earth
• 1:46:07
  Speaker 1: with such force that he rebounded and then lay still,
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: his limp posture telling of splintered limbs and a broken spine.
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: Come on. Conan wrenched his sword free and snatched up
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: an axe, grab a bow and a handful of arrows,
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 1: and hurry. We've got the trust to our heels again.
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: That yell was heard. They'll be here in no time.
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: If we tried to swim now, they'd feather us with
• 1:46:34
  Speaker 1: arrows before we reached bitstream. End of chapter five chapter
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 1: six of Conan Beyond the Black River by Robert E. Howard.
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 1: This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter six
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 1: red axes of the border. Conan did not plunge deeply
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 1: into the forest. A few hundred yards from the river.
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  Speaker 1: He altered his slanting course and ran parallel with it.
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  Speaker 1: Balthus recognized a grim determination not to be hunted away
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  Speaker 1: from the river, which they must cross if they were
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  Speaker 1: to warn the men in the fort behind them. Rose
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  Speaker 1: more loudly the yells of the forest men. Balthus believed
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 1: the picks had reached the glade where the bodies of
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  Speaker 1: the slain men lay. Then further yells seemed to indicate
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  Speaker 1: that the savages were streaming into the woods in pursuit.
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  Speaker 1: They had left a trail any pict could follow. Conan
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  Speaker 1: increased his speed, and Balthus grimly set his teeth and
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  Speaker 1: kept on his heels, though he felt he might collapse
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  Speaker 1: any time. It seemed centuries since he had eaten last.
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  Speaker 1: He kept on going, more by an effort of will
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  Speaker 1: than anything else. His blood was pounding so furiously in
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  Speaker 1: his ear drums that he was not aware when the
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  Speaker 1: yells died out behind them. Conan halted suddenly. Balthus leaned
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  Speaker 1: against a tree and panted. They've quit, grunted the Samerian,
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  Speaker 1: scowling sneaking up on us, gasped Balthus. Conan shook his head.
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  Speaker 1: A short chase like this, they'd yell every step of
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  Speaker 1: the way. No, they've gone back. I thought I heard
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  Speaker 1: somebody yelling behind them a few seconds before the noise
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  Speaker 1: began to get dimmer. They've been recalled, and that's good
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  Speaker 1: for us, but damned bad for the men in the fort.
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  Speaker 1: It means the warriors are being summoned out of the
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  Speaker 1: woods for the attack. These men we ran into were
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  Speaker 1: warriors from a tribe down the river. They were undoubtedly
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  Speaker 1: headed for a Guawela to join in the assault on
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  Speaker 1: the fort. Damn it, we're four farther away than ever.
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  Speaker 1: Now we've got to get across the river. Turning east,
• 1:49:05
  Speaker 1: he hurried through the thickets with no attempt at concealment.
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  Speaker 1: Baltus followed him for the first time, feeling the sting
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  Speaker 1: of lacerations on his breast and shoulder where the pick's
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  Speaker 1: savage teeth had scored him. He was pushing through the
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  Speaker 1: thick bushes that fringed the bank when Conan pulled him back.
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  Speaker 1: Then he heard a rhythmic splashing, and peering through the leaves,
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  Speaker 1: saw a dugout canoe coming up the river, its single
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  Speaker 1: occupant paddling hard against the current. He was a strongly
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  Speaker 1: built pict with a white heron feather thrust in a
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  Speaker 1: copper band that confined his square cut maine. That's Aguarwilaman, muttered,
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  Speaker 1: conan emissary from zugar. White plume shows that he's carried
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  Speaker 1: a piece talk to the tribes down the river, and
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  Speaker 1: now he's trying to get back and take a hand
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  Speaker 1: in the slaughter. The lone ambassador was now almost even
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  Speaker 1: with their hiding place, And suddenly Balthus almost jumped out
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  Speaker 1: of his skin at his very ear had sounded the
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  Speaker 1: harsh gutturals of a pict. Then he realized that Conan
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  Speaker 1: had called to the paddler in his own tongue. The
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  Speaker 1: man started scanned the bushes and call back something. Then
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  Speaker 1: cast a startled glance across the river, bent low, and
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  Speaker 1: sent the canoe scooting in toward the western bank. Not understanding,
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  Speaker 1: Balthus saw Conan take from his hand the bow he
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  Speaker 1: had picked up in the glade and notch an arrow.
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  Speaker 1: The pick had run his canoe in close to the shore, and,
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  Speaker 1: staring up into the bushes, called out something. His answer
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  Speaker 1: came in the twang of the bowstring, the streaking flight
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  Speaker 1: of the arrow that sank to the feathers in his
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  Speaker 1: broad breast. With a choking gasp, he slumped sidewise and
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  Speaker 1: rolled into the shallow water. In an instant, Conan was
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  Speaker 1: down the bank and wading into the water to grasp
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  Speaker 1: the drifting canoe. Balthus stumbled after him, and somewhat dazedly,
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  Speaker 1: crawled into the canoe. Conan scrambled in, seized the paddle,
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  Speaker 1: and sent the craft shooting toward the eastern shore. Balthus
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  Speaker 1: noted with envious admiration the play of the great muscles
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  Speaker 1: beneath the sun burnt skin. The Sumerians seemed an iron
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  Speaker 1: man who never knew fatigue. What did you say to
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  Speaker 1: the pict asked Balthos told him to pull into shore,
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  Speaker 1: said there was a white forest run around the bank
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  Speaker 1: who was trying to get a shot at him. That
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  Speaker 1: doesn't seem fair, Balthus objected, he thought a friend was
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  Speaker 1: speaking to him. You mimicked. They picked perfectly. We needed
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  Speaker 1: his boat, grunted Conan, not pausing in his exertions. Only
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  Speaker 1: way to lure him to the bank. Which is worse
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  Speaker 1: to betray a pict who'd enjoy skinning us both alive,
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  Speaker 1: or betray the men across the river whose lives depend
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  Speaker 1: on our getting over. Balthus mulled over this delicate ethical
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  Speaker 1: question for a moment, then shrugged his shoulder and asked,
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  Speaker 1: how far are we from the fort? Conan pointed to
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  Speaker 1: a creek which flowed into Black River from the east,
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  Speaker 1: a few hundred yards below them. That's South Creek. It's
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  Speaker 1: ten miles from its mouth to the fort. It's the
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  Speaker 1: southern boundary of kolan Jahara, marshes miles wide south of it.
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  Speaker 1: No danger of a raid from across them. Nine miles
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  Speaker 1: above the fort, North Creek forms the other boundary, marshes
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  Speaker 1: beyond that too. That's whine attack must come from the
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  Speaker 1: west across Black river. Kolan Jahara's just like a spear
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  Speaker 1: with a point nineteen miles wide thrust into the Pictish wilderness.
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  Speaker 1: Why don't we keep to the canoe and make the
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  Speaker 1: trip by water, because considering the current we've got to
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  Speaker 1: brace and the bins in the river, we can go
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  Speaker 1: faster afoot. Besides, remember gua Wela is south of the fort.
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  Speaker 1: If the Picks are crossing the river, we'd run right
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  Speaker 1: into them. Dusk was gathering as they stepped upon the
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  Speaker 1: eastern bank. Without pause, Knan pushed on northward at a
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  Speaker 1: pace that made Baltus's sturdy legs. Ache Valanas wanted a
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  Speaker 1: fort built at the mouths of North and South creeks.
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  Speaker 1: Wanted the Samerian. Then the river could be patrolled constantly,
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  Speaker 1: but the government wouldn't do it. Soft bellied fools sitting
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  Speaker 1: on velvet cushions with naked girls offering them iced wine
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  Speaker 1: on their knees. I know the breed. They can't see
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  Speaker 1: any farther than their palace wall. Diplomacy, hell, they'd fight
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  Speaker 1: picks with theories of territorial expansion. Lallaanas and men like
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  Speaker 1: him have to obey the orders of a set of
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  Speaker 1: damned fools never grab any more pictus land, any more
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  Speaker 1: than they'll ever rebuild a venarium. The time may come
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  Speaker 1: when they'll see the barbarians swarming over the walls of
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  Speaker 1: the eastern cities. A week before, Balthus would have laughed
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  Speaker 1: at any such preposterous suggestion. Now he made no reply.
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  Speaker 1: He had seen the unconquerable ferocity of the men who
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  Speaker 1: dwelt beyond the frontiers. He shivered, casting glances at the
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  Speaker 1: Sullen River, just visible through the bushes, at the arches
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  Speaker 1: of the trees which crowded close to its banks. He
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  Speaker 1: kept remembering that the Picks might have crossed the river
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  Speaker 1: and belying an ambush between them and the fort. It
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  Speaker 1: was fast growing dark. A slight sound ahead of them
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  Speaker 1: jumped his heart into his throat, and Conan's sword gleamed
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  Speaker 1: in the air. He lowered it when a dog, a great, gaunt,
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  Speaker 1: scarred beast, slunk out of the bushes and stood staring
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  Speaker 1: at them. That dog belonged to a settler who tried
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  Speaker 1: to build his cabin on the bank of the river
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  Speaker 1: a few miles south of the fort. Grunted Conan. The
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  Speaker 1: Picks slipt over and killed him of course and burned
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  Speaker 1: his cabin. We found him dead among the embers, and
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  Speaker 1: the dog lying senseless among three picks he killed. He
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  Speaker 1: was almost cut to pieces. We took him to the
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  Speaker 1: fort and dressed his wounds. But after he recovered, he
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  Speaker 1: took to the woods and turned wild. What now, slasher,
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  Speaker 1: are you hunting the men who killed your master? The
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  Speaker 1: massive head swung from side to side, and the eyes
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  Speaker 1: glowed greenly. He did not growl or bark silently as
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  Speaker 1: a phantom. He slid in between them. Let him come, muttered, Conan,
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  Speaker 1: he can smell the devils before we can see them.
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  Speaker 1: Balthus smiled and laid his hand caressingly on the dog's head.
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  Speaker 1: The lips involuntarily writhed back to display the gleaming fangs.
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  Speaker 1: Then the great beast bent his head sheepishly, and his
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  Speaker 1: tail moved with jerky uncertainty, as if the owner had
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  Speaker 1: almost forgotten the emotions of friendliness. Baltus meant. They compared
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  Speaker 1: the great, gaunt, hard body with the fat, sleek hounds
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  Speaker 1: tumbling vociferously over one another in his father's kenny yard.
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  Speaker 1: He sighed, The frontier was no less hard for beasts
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  Speaker 1: than for men. This dog had almost forgotten the meaning
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  Speaker 1: of kindness and friendliness. Slasher glided ahead, and Conan let
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  Speaker 1: him take the lead. The last tinge of dusk faded
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  Speaker 1: into stark darkness. The miles fell away under their steady feet.
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  Speaker 1: Slasher seemed voiceless. Suddenly he halted tints earsily lifted. An
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  Speaker 1: instant later, the men heard it, a demoniac yelling up
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  Speaker 1: the river ahead of them, faint as a whisper. Conan swore,
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  Speaker 1: like a madman, and they've attacked the fort. We're too late.
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  Speaker 1: Come on. He increased his pace, trusting to the dog
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  Speaker 1: to smell out ambushes ahead. In a flood of tense excitement,
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  Speaker 1: Baldos forgot his hunger and weariness. The yells grew louder
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  Speaker 1: as they advanced, and above the devilish screaming, they could
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  Speaker 1: hear the deep shouts of the soldiers. Just as Baldos
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  Speaker 1: began to fear that they would run into the savages,
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  Speaker 1: who seemed to be howling just ahead of them, Conan
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  Speaker 1: swung away from the river in a wide semicircle that
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  Speaker 1: carried them to a low rise from which they could
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  Speaker 1: look over the forest. They saw the fort lighted with tarches,
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  Speaker 1: thrust over the parapet on long poles. These cast a flickering,
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  Speaker 1: uncertain light over the clearing, and in that light they
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  Speaker 1: saw throngs of naked painted figures along the fringe of
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  Speaker 1: the clearing. The rivers swarmed with canoes. The picks had
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  Speaker 1: the fort completely surrounded. An incessant hail of arrows reigned
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  Speaker 1: against the stockade from the woods and the river. The
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  Speaker 1: deep twanging of the bow strings rose above the howling,
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  Speaker 1: yelling like wolves. Several hundred naked warriors with axes in
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  Speaker 1: their hands, ran from under the trees and raced toward
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  Speaker 1: the eastern gate. They were within one hundred and fifty
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  Speaker 1: yards of their objective when a withering blast of arrows
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  Speaker 1: from the wall littered the ground with corpses and sent
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  Speaker 1: the survivors fleeing back to the trees. The men in
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  Speaker 1: the canoes rushed their boats toward the river wall and
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  Speaker 1: were met by another shower of clothyard shafts and a
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  Speaker 1: volley from the small ballistas mounted on towers on that
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  Speaker 1: side of the stockade. Stones and logs whirled through the
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  Speaker 1: air and splinter dir and sank half a dozen canoes,
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  Speaker 1: killing their occupants and the other boats drew back out
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  Speaker 1: of range. A deep roar of triumph rose from the
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  Speaker 1: walls of the fort, answered by best steel howling from
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  Speaker 1: all quarters. Shall we try to break through, asked Balthus,
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  Speaker 1: trembling with eagerness. Conan shook his head. He stood with
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  Speaker 1: his arms folded, his head slightly bent, a somber and
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  Speaker 1: brooding figure. The fort's doomed. The Picks are blood mad
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  Speaker 1: and won't stop until they're all killed. And there were
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  Speaker 1: too many of them for the men in the fort
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  Speaker 1: to kill. We couldn't break through, and if we did,
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  Speaker 1: we could do nothing but die with Avlanus. There's nothing
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  Speaker 1: we can do but save our own hides. Then, yes,
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  Speaker 1: we've got to warn the settlers. Do you know why
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  Speaker 1: the Picks are not trying to burn the fort with
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  Speaker 1: fire arrows? Because they don't want a flame that might
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  Speaker 1: warn the people to the east. They plan to stamp
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  Speaker 1: out the fort and then sweep east before anyone knows
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  Speaker 1: of its fall. They may cross thunder River and take
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  Speaker 1: Valtrium before the people know what's happening. At least they'll
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  Speaker 1: destroy every living thing between the fort and thunder River.
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  Speaker 1: We failed to warn the fort, and I see now
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  Speaker 1: it would have done no good if we had succeeded.
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  Speaker 1: The fort's too poorly manned. A few more charges and
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  Speaker 1: the picks will be over the walls and breaking down
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  Speaker 1: the gates. But we can start the settlers toward Waletrium.
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  Speaker 1: Come on, we're outside the circle. The picks have thrown
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  Speaker 1: around the fort. We'll keep clear of it. They swung
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  Speaker 1: out in a wide arc, hearing the rising and falling
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 1: of the volume of the yells marking each charge and repulse.
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  Speaker 1: The men in the fort were holding their own, but
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 1: the shrieks of the picks did not diminish in savagery.
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  Speaker 1: They vibrated with a tambour that held assurance of ultimate victory.
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  Speaker 1: Before Balthus realized they were close to it, they broke
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  Speaker 1: into the road leading east. Now run grunted conan, Balthus
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  Speaker 1: set his teeth. It was nineteen miles to Volletrium, a
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  Speaker 1: good five to Scalp Creek, beyond which began the settlements.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed to the Aquilonian that they had been fighting
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  Speaker 1: and running for centuries, but the nervous excitement that rioted
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  Speaker 1: through his blood stimulated him to herculean efforts. Slasher ran
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  Speaker 1: ahead of them his head to the ground, snarling low,
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  Speaker 1: the first sound they had heard from him. Picks ahead
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  Speaker 1: of us, snarled Conan, dropping to one knee and scanning
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  Speaker 1: the ground in the starlight. He shook his head, baffled.
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  Speaker 1: I can't tell how many, probably only a small party,
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  Speaker 1: some that couldn't wait to take the fort. They've gone
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  Speaker 1: ahead to butcher the settlers in their beds come on
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  Speaker 1: ahead of them. Presently they saw a small blaze through
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  Speaker 1: the trees, and heard a wild and ferocious chanting. The
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  Speaker 1: trail bent there, and leaving it, they cut across the
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  Speaker 1: bend through the thickets. A few moments later they were
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  Speaker 1: looking on a hideous sight. An oxwain stood in the road,
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  Speaker 1: piled with meager household furnishings. It was burning. The oxen
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  Speaker 1: lay near with their throats cut. A man and a
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  Speaker 1: woman lay in the road, stripped and mutilated. Five picks
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  Speaker 1: were dancing about them with fantastic leaps and bounds, waving
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  Speaker 1: bloody axes. One of them brandished the woman's red smeared gown.
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  Speaker 1: At the sight, a red haze swam before Balthus. Lifting
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  Speaker 1: his bow, he lined the prancing figure black against the fire,
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  Speaker 1: and loosed the slayer leaped convulsively and fell dead with
• 2:02:54
  Speaker 1: the arrow through his heart. Then the two white men
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  Speaker 1: and the dog were upon the startled survivors. Conan was
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  Speaker 1: animated merely by his fighting spirit and an old, old
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 1: racial hate, but Balthus was a fire with wrath. He
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 1: met the first pickt to oppose him with a ferocious
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 1: swipe that split the painted skull and sprang over his
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 1: falling body to grapple with the others. But Conan had
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 1: already killed one of the two he had chosen, and
• 2:03:25
  Speaker 1: the leap of the Aquilonian was a second late. The
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: warrior was down with a long sword through him. Even
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 1: as Balthus's axe was lifted. Turning toward the remaining pict
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  Speaker 1: Balthus saw slash a rise from his victim, his great
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 1: jaws dripping blood. Balthus said nothing as he looked down
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 1: at the pitiful forms in the road beside the burning wain.
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 1: Both were young, the woman little more than a girl.
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  Speaker 1: By some whim of chance, the picks had left her
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  Speaker 1: face unmarred, and even in the agonies of an awful death,
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  Speaker 1: it was beautiful. But her soft young body had been
• 2:04:06
  Speaker 1: hideously slashed with many knives, A mist clouded Balthus's eyes,
• 2:04:11
  Speaker 1: and he swallowed chokingly. The tragedy momentarily overcame him. He
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 1: felt like falling upon the ground and weeping and biting
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 1: the earth. Some young couple just hitting out on their own,
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 1: Conan was saying as he wiped his sword unemotionally on
• 2:04:29
  Speaker 1: their way to the fort when the Picks met them,
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: maybe the boy was going to enter the service, maybe
• 2:04:34
  Speaker 1: take up land on the river. Well, that's what will
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 1: happen to every man, woman and child this side of
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 1: Thunder River if we don't get them into Valetrium in
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 1: a hurry. Balthus's knees trembled as he followed Conan, but
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 1: there was no hint of weakness in the long, easy
• 2:04:54
  Speaker 1: stride of the Samerian. There was a kinship between him
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: and the great gaunt brid that glided beside him. Slasher
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 1: no longer growled with his head to the trail. The
• 2:05:06
  Speaker 1: way was clear before them. The yelling on the river
• 2:05:09
  Speaker 1: came faintly to them, but Balthus believed the fort was
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 1: still holding. Conan halted suddenly with an oath. He showed
• 2:05:18
  Speaker 1: Balthus a trail that led north from the road. It
• 2:05:21
  Speaker 1: was an old trail partly grown with new young growth,
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: and this growth had recently been broken down. Balthus realized
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: this fact more by feel than sight, though Conan seemed
• 2:05:34
  Speaker 1: to see like a cat in the dark. The Samarans
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 1: showed him where broad wagon tracks turned off the main trail,
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 1: deeply indented in the forest mold suttlers going to the
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 1: licks after salt. He grunted. There at the edges of
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 1: the marsh, about nine miles from here. Blast it. They'll
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 1: be cut off and butchered. To a man. Listen, one
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 1: man can warn the people on the road. Go ahead
• 2:06:02
  Speaker 1: and wake them up and herd them into Belletrium. I'll
• 2:06:05
  Speaker 1: go and get the men gathering the salt. They'll be
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 1: camped by the licks. We won't come back to the road.
• 2:06:11
  Speaker 1: We'll head straight through the woods. With no further comment,
• 2:06:15
  Speaker 1: Conan turned off the trail and hurried down the dim path,
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 1: and Balthus, after staring after him for a few moments,
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 1: set out along the road. The dog had remained with
• 2:06:26
  Speaker 1: him and glided softly at his heels. When Balthus had
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 1: gone a few rods, he heard the animal growl. Whirling
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 1: he glared back the way. He had come, and was
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 1: startled to see a vague, ghostly glow vanishing into the
• 2:06:41
  Speaker 1: forest in the direction Conan had taken. Slasher rumbled deep
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 1: in his throat, his hackle stiff in his eyes, balls
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 1: of green fire. Balthus remembered the grim apparition that had
• 2:06:54
  Speaker 1: taken the head of the merchant Tiberius not far from
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 1: that spot, and he hesitated. The thing must be following Conan.
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 1: But the giant Sumerian had repeatedly demonstrated his ability to
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 1: take care of himself, and Balthus felt his duty lay
• 2:07:11
  Speaker 1: toward the helpless settlers who slumbered in the path of
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 1: the red hurricane. The horror of the fiery phantom was
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 1: overshadowed by the horror of those limp violated bodies beside
• 2:07:24
  Speaker 1: the burning Oxwain. He hurried down the road, crossed Scalp Creek,
• 2:07:29
  Speaker 1: and came in sight of the first settler's cabin, a long,
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 1: low structure of axe hewn logs. In an instant he
• 2:07:36
  Speaker 1: was pounding on the door. A sleepy voice inquired his
• 2:07:39
  Speaker 1: pleasure get up the pixel over the river. That brought
• 2:07:44
  Speaker 1: instant response. A low cry echoed his words, and then
• 2:07:48
  Speaker 1: the door was thrown open by a woman in a
• 2:07:50
  Speaker 1: scanty shift. Her hair hung over her bare shoulders in disorder.
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 1: She held a candle in one hand and an axe
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 1: in the other. Her face was colorless, her eyes wide
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 1: with terror. Come in, she begged. We'll hold the cabin. No,
• 2:08:06
  Speaker 1: we must make for Valetrium. The four can't hold them back.
• 2:08:10
  Speaker 1: It may have fallen already. Don't stop to dress, get
• 2:08:13
  Speaker 1: your children and come on. But my man's gone with
• 2:08:16
  Speaker 1: the others aft to salt, she wailed, wringing her hands
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 1: behind her peered three tousled the youngsters, blinking and bewildered.
• 2:08:24
  Speaker 1: Koonan's gone after them. He'll fetch them through safe. We
• 2:08:28
  Speaker 1: must hurry up the road to warn the other cabins.
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: Relief flooded her countenance. Mitra be thainked, She cried, if
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 1: the Samerian's gone after them, they're safe, if mortal man
• 2:08:38
  Speaker 1: can save them. In a whirlwind of activity, she snatched
• 2:08:42
  Speaker 1: up the smallest child and herded the others through the
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 1: door ahead of her. Bothos took the candle and ground
• 2:08:48
  Speaker 1: it out under his heel. He listened an instant, no
• 2:08:52
  Speaker 1: sound came up the dark road. Have you got a
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 1: horse in the stable. She groaned, oh hurry. He pushed
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 1: her aside as she fumbled with shaking hands at the bars.
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 1: He led the horse out and lifted the children on
• 2:09:05
  Speaker 1: its back, telling them to hold to its mane and
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 1: to one another. They stared at him seriously, making no outcry.
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 1: The woman took the horses halter and set out up
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 1: the road. She still gripped her axe, and Balthus knew
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 1: that if cornered, she would fight with the desperate courage
• 2:09:23
  Speaker 1: of a sheep panther. He held behind, listening. He was
• 2:09:28
  Speaker 1: oppressed by the belief that the fort had been stormed
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 1: and taken. That the dark skinned hordes were already streaming
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 1: up the road toward Polletrium, drunken on slaughter and mad
• 2:09:40
  Speaker 1: for blood, they would come with the speed of starving wolves. Presently,
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 1: they saw another cabin looming ahead. The woman started to
• 2:09:49
  Speaker 1: shriek a warning, but Baltha stopped her. He hurried to
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 1: the door and knocked. A woman's voice answered him. He
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 1: repeated his warning, and soon the cabin discoraged its occupants,
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: an old woman, two young women, and four children. Like
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 1: the other woman's husband, their men had gone to the
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 1: salt licks. The day before. Unsuspecting of any danger. One
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: of the young women seemed dazed, the other prone to hysteria.
• 2:10:16
  Speaker 1: But the old woman, a stern old veteran of the frontier,
• 2:10:20
  Speaker 1: quieted them harshly. She helped Balthus get out the two
• 2:10:24
  Speaker 1: horses that were stabled in a pin behind the cabin
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 1: and put the children on them. Balthus urged that she
• 2:10:30
  Speaker 1: herself mount with them, but she shook her head and
• 2:10:34
  Speaker 1: made one of the younger women ride. She's with child,
• 2:10:38
  Speaker 1: grunted the old woman. I can walk and fight too,
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 1: if it comes to that. As they set out, one
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 1: of the women said, a young couple passed along the
• 2:10:47
  Speaker 1: road about dusk. We advised them to spend the night
• 2:10:50
  Speaker 1: at our cabin, but they were anxious to make the
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 1: fort tonight. Did did they met? The picks, answered Balthus briefly,
• 2:10:59
  Speaker 1: and the woman sobbed in horror. They were scarcely out
• 2:11:04
  Speaker 1: of sight of the cabin when some distance behind them
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 1: quavered a long, high pitched yell. A wolf, exclaimed one
• 2:11:14
  Speaker 1: of the women. A painted wolf with an axe in
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 1: his hand muttered, bothos, go rouse the other settlers along
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 1: the road and take them with you. I'll scout along
• 2:11:24
  Speaker 1: behind without a word. The old woman herded her charges
• 2:11:28
  Speaker 1: ahead of her. As they faded into the darkness, Balthos
• 2:11:32
  Speaker 1: could see the pale ovals that were the faces of
• 2:11:35
  Speaker 1: the children twisted back over their shoulders to stare toward him.
• 2:11:39
  Speaker 1: He remembered his own people on the truren, and a
• 2:11:43
  Speaker 1: moment's giddy sickness swam over him. With momentary weakness, he
• 2:11:47
  Speaker 1: groaned and sank down in the road. His muscular arm
• 2:11:51
  Speaker 1: fell over Slasher's massive neck, and he felt the dog's warm,
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 1: moist tongue touch his face. He lifted his head and
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 1: grinned with a painful effort. Come on, boy, he mumbled, rising,
• 2:12:05
  Speaker 1: we've got work to do. A red glow suddenly became
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 1: evident through the trees. The picks had fired the last hut.
• 2:12:16
  Speaker 1: He grinned. How Zogar Sag would froth if he knew
• 2:12:20
  Speaker 1: his warriors had let their destructive natures get the better
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 1: of them. The fire would warn the people farther up
• 2:12:27
  Speaker 1: the road. They would be awake and alert when the
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 1: fugitives reached them, But his face grew grim. The women
• 2:12:35
  Speaker 1: were traveling slowly on foot and on the overloaded horses.
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 1: The swift footed Picks would run them down within a
• 2:12:42
  Speaker 1: mile unless he took his position behind a tangle of
• 2:12:47
  Speaker 1: fallen logs beside the trail. The road west of him
• 2:12:50
  Speaker 1: was lighted by the burning cabin, and when the picks came,
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 1: he saw them first black furtive figures etched against the
• 2:12:59
  Speaker 1: distant glare. Drawing a shaft to the head, he loosed,
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 1: and one of the figures crumpled. The rest melted into
• 2:13:08
  Speaker 1: the woods on either side of the road. Slasher whimpered
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 1: with a killing lust. Beside him. Suddenly a figure appeared
• 2:13:15
  Speaker 1: on the fringe of the trail, under the trees, and
• 2:13:18
  Speaker 1: began gliding toward the fallen timbers. Balthus's bowstring twanged, and
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 1: the pick yelped, staggered, and fell into the shadows. With
• 2:13:28
  Speaker 1: the arrow through his thigh, Slasher cleared the timbers with
• 2:13:32
  Speaker 1: a bound and leaped into the bushes. They were violently shaken,
• 2:13:37
  Speaker 1: and then the dog slunk back to Balthus's side, his jaws.
• 2:13:41
  Speaker 1: Crimson no more appeared in the trail. Balthus began to
• 2:13:46
  Speaker 1: fear they were stealing past his position through the woods,
• 2:13:50
  Speaker 1: and when he heard a faint sound to his left,
• 2:13:52
  Speaker 1: he loosed blindly. He cursed as he heard the shaft
• 2:13:56
  Speaker 1: splinter against a tree, but Slasher glided away as violently
• 2:14:00
  Speaker 1: as a phantom, and presently Balthus heard a thrashing and
• 2:14:04
  Speaker 1: a gurgling. Then Slasher came like a ghost through the bushes,
• 2:14:09
  Speaker 1: snuggling his great crimson stained head against Balthus's arm. Blood
• 2:14:14
  Speaker 1: oozed from a gash in his shoulder, but the sounds
• 2:14:17
  Speaker 1: in the wood had ceased forever. The men lurking on
• 2:14:22
  Speaker 1: the edges of the road evidently sensed the fate of
• 2:14:25
  Speaker 1: their companion and decided that an open charge was preferable
• 2:14:29
  Speaker 1: to being dragged down in the dark by a devil
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 1: beast they could neither see nor hear. Perhaps they realized
• 2:14:36
  Speaker 1: that only one man lay behind the logs. They came
• 2:14:39
  Speaker 1: with a sudden rush, breaking cover from both sides of
• 2:14:42
  Speaker 1: the trail. Three dropped with arrows through them, and the
• 2:14:46
  Speaker 1: remaining pair hesitated. One turned and ran back down the road,
• 2:14:51
  Speaker 1: but the other lunged over the breastwork, his eyes and
• 2:14:54
  Speaker 1: teeth gleaming in the dim light. His axe lifted. Balthus's
• 2:14:59
  Speaker 1: foot slipped as he sprang up, but the slip saved
• 2:15:02
  Speaker 1: his life. The descending axe shaved the lock of hair
• 2:15:06
  Speaker 1: from his head, and the pick rolled down the logs
• 2:15:09
  Speaker 1: from the force of his waist to blow. Before he
• 2:15:11
  Speaker 1: could regain his feet, Slasher tore his throat out. Then
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 1: followed a tense period of waiting, in which time Baltus
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 1: wondered if the man who had fled had been the
• 2:15:22
  Speaker 1: only survivor of the party. Obviously it had been a
• 2:15:25
  Speaker 1: small band that had either left the fighting at the
• 2:15:28
  Speaker 1: fort or was scouting ahead of the main body. Each
• 2:15:32
  Speaker 1: moment that passed increased the chances for safety of the
• 2:15:35
  Speaker 1: women and children hurrying toward Valetrium. Then, without warning, a
• 2:15:40
  Speaker 1: shower of arrows whistled over his retreat. A wild howling
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 1: rose from the woods along the trail. Either the survivor
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 1: had gone after aid, or another party had joined the first.
• 2:15:53
  Speaker 1: The burning cabin still smotered, lending a little light. Then
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 1: they were after him, gliding through the trees beside the trail.
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 1: He shot three arrows and threw the bow away. As
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 1: if sensing his plight, they came on, not yelling now,
• 2:16:09
  Speaker 1: but in deadly silence, except for a swift pad of
• 2:16:13
  Speaker 1: many feet. He fiercely hugged the head of the great dog,
• 2:16:17
  Speaker 1: growling at his side, muttered, all right, boy, give him hell,
• 2:16:24
  Speaker 1: and sprang to his feet, drawing his axe. Then the
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 1: dark figures flooded over the breastworks and closed in a
• 2:16:31
  Speaker 1: storm of flailing axes, stabbing knives, and ripping fangs. End
• 2:16:38
  Speaker 1: of chapter six chapter seven of Conan Beyond the Black
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 1: River by Robert E. Howard. This LibriVox recording is in
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Chapter seven, The Devil in the fire Wing.
• 2:16:59
  Speaker 1: Conan turned from the Valetrium road. He expected a run
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 1: of some nine miles and set himself to the task.
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 1: But he had not gone for when he heard the
• 2:17:09
  Speaker 1: sounds of a party of men ahead of him. From
• 2:17:12
  Speaker 1: the noise they were making in their progress, he knew
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 1: they were not picks. He hailed them, who's there, challenged
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 1: a harsh voice. Stand where you are until we know you,
• 2:17:23
  Speaker 1: or you'll get an arrow for you. You couldn't hit
• 2:17:27
  Speaker 1: an elephant in this darkness, answered Conan impatiently. Come on, fool,
• 2:17:31
  Speaker 1: it's I Conan. The picks are over the river. We
• 2:17:36
  Speaker 1: suspected as much, answered the leader of the men. As
• 2:17:39
  Speaker 1: they strode forward, tall rangy men, stern faced with bows
• 2:17:43
  Speaker 1: in their hands. One of our party wounded an antelope
• 2:17:47
  Speaker 1: and tracked it nearly to Black River. He heard them
• 2:17:50
  Speaker 1: yelling down the river and ran back to our camp.
• 2:17:52
  Speaker 1: We left the salt in the wagons, turned the oxen loose,
• 2:17:55
  Speaker 1: and came as swiftly as we could. If the Picks
• 2:17:58
  Speaker 1: are besieging the fort, war parties will be ranging up
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 1: the road toward our cabins. Your families are safe, grunted Conan,
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 1: my companion went ahead to take them to Velletrium. If
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 1: we go back to the main road, we may run
• 2:18:13
  Speaker 1: into the whole horde. A wheel strike southeast through the timber.
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 1: Go ahead, I'll scout behind. A few moments later the
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 1: whole band was hurrying southeastward. Conan followed more slowly, keeping
• 2:18:27
  Speaker 1: just within earshot. He cursed the noise they were making.
• 2:18:31
  Speaker 1: That many Picks or Simerians would have moved through the
• 2:18:34
  Speaker 1: woods with no more noise than the wind makes as
• 2:18:37
  Speaker 1: it blows through the black branches. He had just crossed
• 2:18:41
  Speaker 1: a small glade when he wheeled, answering the conviction of
• 2:18:45
  Speaker 1: his primitive instincts that he was being followed. Standing motionless
• 2:18:51
  Speaker 1: among the bushes, he heard the sounds of the retreating
• 2:18:54
  Speaker 1: settlers fade away. Then a voice called faintly back along
• 2:18:59
  Speaker 1: the way he had come, Conan. Conan, wait for me, Conan, Balthus,
• 2:19:05
  Speaker 1: he swore, bewilderedly, cautiously he called here, I am, wait
• 2:19:11
  Speaker 1: for me, Conan. The voice came more distinctly. Conan moved
• 2:19:17
  Speaker 1: out of the shadows, scowling, What the devil are you
• 2:19:20
  Speaker 1: doing here? Crum He half crouched, the flesh prickling along
• 2:19:26
  Speaker 1: his spine. It was not Balthus who was emerging from
• 2:19:30
  Speaker 1: the other side of the glade. A weird glow burned
• 2:19:34
  Speaker 1: through the trees. It moved toward him, shimmering weirdly, a
• 2:19:39
  Speaker 1: green witch fire that moved with purpose and intent. It
• 2:19:44
  Speaker 1: halted some feet away, and Conan glared at it, trying
• 2:19:49
  Speaker 1: to distinguish its fire misted outlines. The quivering flame had
• 2:19:53
  Speaker 1: a solid core. The flame was but a green garment
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 1: that masked some animate and evil entity, but the Samerian
• 2:20:02
  Speaker 1: was unable to make out its shape or likeness. Then, shockingly,
• 2:20:07
  Speaker 1: a voice spoke to him from amidst the fiery column.
• 2:20:11
  Speaker 1: Why do you stand like a sheep waiting for the butcher? Conan?
• 2:20:16
  Speaker 1: The voice was human, but carried strange vibrations that were
• 2:20:20
  Speaker 1: not human sheep. Conan's wrath got the best of his
• 2:20:24
  Speaker 1: momentary awe. Do you think I'm afraid of a damned
• 2:20:27
  Speaker 1: Pictish swamp devil? A friend called me, I called in
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 1: his voice, answered the other. The men you follow belonged
• 2:20:37
  Speaker 1: to my brother. I would not rob his knife of
• 2:20:41
  Speaker 1: their blood. But you are mine, o fool. You have
• 2:20:49
  Speaker 1: come from the four gray hills of Samaria to meet
• 2:20:53
  Speaker 1: your doom in the forest the konnai Jahara. You've had
• 2:20:58
  Speaker 1: your chance at me for now, snorted Conan. Why didn't
• 2:21:03
  Speaker 1: you kill me then if you could. My brother had
• 2:21:08
  Speaker 1: not painted a skull black for you and hurled it
• 2:21:12
  Speaker 1: into the fire that burns forever on Gula's black altar.
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 1: He had not whispered your name to the black ghosts
• 2:21:21
  Speaker 1: that haunt the uplands of the dark Land. But a
• 2:21:25
  Speaker 1: bat has flown over the mountains of the dead and
• 2:21:29
  Speaker 1: drawn your image in blood on the white tiger's hide
• 2:21:35
  Speaker 1: that hangs before the long hut where sleeps the four
• 2:21:38
  Speaker 1: Brothers of the Night. The great serpents coil about their feet,
• 2:21:44
  Speaker 1: and the stars burn like fireflies in their hair. Why
• 2:21:50
  Speaker 1: have the gods of darkness doomed me to death, growled Conan.
• 2:21:54
  Speaker 1: Something a hand foot or tallon he could not tell
• 2:21:57
  Speaker 1: which thrust out from the fire and marked swiftly on
• 2:22:02
  Speaker 1: the mold. A symbol blazed there, marked with fire, and faded,
• 2:22:07
  Speaker 1: but not before he recognized it. You dared make the
• 2:22:13
  Speaker 1: sign which only a priest of Jabal Saga dare make.
• 2:22:19
  Speaker 1: Thunder rumbled through the black mountain of the dead, and
• 2:22:23
  Speaker 1: the altar hut of Gulah was thrown down by a
• 2:22:27
  Speaker 1: wind from the gulf of ghosts. The loon, which is
• 2:22:32
  Speaker 1: messenger to the four brothers of the night, flew swiftly
• 2:22:36
  Speaker 1: and whispered your name in my ear. Your head will
• 2:22:41
  Speaker 1: hang in the altar hut of my brother. Your body
• 2:22:46
  Speaker 1: will be eaten by the black winged, sharp beaked children
• 2:22:52
  Speaker 1: of Jahil, who the devil is your brother, demanded Knan.
• 2:22:57
  Speaker 1: His sword was naked in his hand, and he was
• 2:23:00
  Speaker 1: subtly loosening the axe in his belt. Zogar Sag, a
• 2:23:06
  Speaker 1: child of Jabbal Sag, who still visits his sacred groves
• 2:23:11
  Speaker 1: at times, a woman of while we last slept in
• 2:23:15
  Speaker 1: a grove wholly to Jibbal Sag, her babe was Zogar Sag.
• 2:23:23
  Speaker 1: I too, am a son of Jebbal Sag, out of
• 2:23:27
  Speaker 1: a fire being from a fore realm. Zogar Sag summoned
• 2:23:33
  Speaker 1: me out of the misty lands with incantations and sorcery
• 2:23:38
  Speaker 1: in his own blood. He materialized me in the flesh
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 1: of his own planet. We are one, tied together by
• 2:23:50
  Speaker 1: invisible threads. His thoughts are my thoughts. If he is struck,
• 2:23:57
  Speaker 1: I am bruised. If I am cut, he bleeds. But
• 2:24:02
  Speaker 1: I have talked enough. Soon your ghosts will talk with
• 2:24:07
  Speaker 1: the ghosts of the Darkland, and they will tell you
• 2:24:11
  Speaker 1: of the old gods, which are not dead, but sleep
• 2:24:15
  Speaker 1: in the outer abysses, and from time to time awake.
• 2:24:22
  Speaker 1: I'd like to see what you look like, muttered Conan,
• 2:24:25
  Speaker 1: working his axe. Free you who leave a track like
• 2:24:28
  Speaker 1: a bird, who burn like a flame, and yet speak
• 2:24:32
  Speaker 1: with a human voice, You shall see, answered the voice
• 2:24:37
  Speaker 1: from the flame. See and carry the knowledge with you
• 2:24:42
  Speaker 1: into the darkland. The flames leaped and sank, dwindling and dimming.
• 2:24:49
  Speaker 1: A face began to take shadowy form. At first, Kanan
• 2:24:52
  Speaker 1: thought it was Zogar Sag himself, who stood wrapped in
• 2:24:56
  Speaker 1: green fire. But the face was higher than his own,
• 2:25:00
  Speaker 1: and there was a demoniac aspect about it. Koonan had
• 2:25:04
  Speaker 1: noted various abnormalities about zogar socks, features and obliqueness of
• 2:25:10
  Speaker 1: the eyes, a sharpness of the ears, a Wolffish thinness
• 2:25:14
  Speaker 1: of the lips. These peculiarities were exaggerated in the apparition
• 2:25:20
  Speaker 1: which swayed before him. The eyes were red as coals
• 2:25:24
  Speaker 1: of living fire. More details came into view. A slender
• 2:25:29
  Speaker 1: torso covered with snaky scales, which was yet manlike in shape,
• 2:25:35
  Speaker 1: with man like arms from the waist upward below, long
• 2:25:40
  Speaker 1: crane like legs ended in splay, three toed feet like
• 2:25:44
  Speaker 1: those of some huge bird. Along the monstrous limbs, the
• 2:25:48
  Speaker 1: blue fire fluttered and ran. He saw it as through
• 2:25:52
  Speaker 1: a glistening mist. Then suddenly it was towering over him,
• 2:25:57
  Speaker 1: though he had not seen it move toward him. A
• 2:26:00
  Speaker 1: long arm, which for the first time he noticed, was
• 2:26:03
  Speaker 1: armed with curving, sickle like talons, swung high and swept
• 2:26:08
  Speaker 1: down at his neck with a fierce cry. He broke
• 2:26:11
  Speaker 1: the spell and bounded aside, hurling his axe. The demon
• 2:26:16
  Speaker 1: avoided the cast with an unbelievably quick movement of its
• 2:26:19
  Speaker 1: narrow head, and was on him again with a hissing
• 2:26:23
  Speaker 1: rush of leaping flames. But fear had fought far it
• 2:26:27
  Speaker 1: when it slew his other victims, and Conan was not afraid.
• 2:26:32
  Speaker 1: He knew that any being clothed in material flesh can
• 2:26:36
  Speaker 1: be slain by material weapons. However grisly his form may be.
• 2:26:41
  Speaker 1: One flailing talon armed limb knocked his helmet from his
• 2:26:45
  Speaker 1: head a little lower, and it would have decapitated him,
• 2:26:49
  Speaker 1: But fierce joy surged through him as his savagely driven
• 2:26:54
  Speaker 1: sword sank deep in the monster's groin. He bounded backward
• 2:26:59
  Speaker 1: from a flailing stroke, tearing his sword free as he leaped.
• 2:27:03
  Speaker 1: The talons raked his breast, ripping through mail lynks as
• 2:27:07
  Speaker 1: if they had been cloth. But his return spring was
• 2:27:11
  Speaker 1: like that of a starving wolf. He was inside the
• 2:27:15
  Speaker 1: lashing arms and driving his sword deep in the monstrous belly,
• 2:27:20
  Speaker 1: felt the arms lock about him, and the talons ripping
• 2:27:24
  Speaker 1: the mail from his back as they sought his vitals.
• 2:27:28
  Speaker 1: He was lapped and dazzled by the blue flame that
• 2:27:31
  Speaker 1: was chill as ice. Then he had torn fiercely away
• 2:27:36
  Speaker 1: from the weakening arms, and his sword cut the air
• 2:27:39
  Speaker 1: in a tremendous swipe. The demon staggered and fell, sprawling sidewise,
• 2:27:45
  Speaker 1: its head hanging only by a shred of flesh. The
• 2:27:49
  Speaker 1: fires that veiled it leaped fiercely upward, now red as
• 2:27:53
  Speaker 1: gushing blood, hiding the figure from view. A scent of
• 2:27:58
  Speaker 1: burning flesh filled Conan's nostrils. Shaking the blood and sweat
• 2:28:03
  Speaker 1: from his eyes, he wheeled and ran, staggering through the woods.
• 2:28:08
  Speaker 1: Blood trickled from his limbs. Somewhere miles to the south,
• 2:28:13
  Speaker 1: he saw the faint glow of flames that might mark
• 2:28:16
  Speaker 1: a burning cabin. Behind him, toward the road rose a
• 2:28:20
  Speaker 1: distant howling that spurred him to greater efforts. End of
• 2:28:27
  Speaker 1: chapter seven, Chapter eight of Conan Beyond the Black River
• 2:28:36
  Speaker 1: by Robert E. Howard. This LibriVox recording is in the
• 2:28:40
  Speaker 1: public domain. Chapter eight Conaijahara no more. There had been
• 2:28:49
  Speaker 1: fighting on Thunder River, fierce fighting before the walls of voltrium,
• 2:28:55
  Speaker 1: ax and torch had been piled up and down the bank,
• 2:28:58
  Speaker 1: and many a settle's cabin lay in ashes before the
• 2:29:02
  Speaker 1: painted hoard was rolled back. A strange quiet followed the storm,
• 2:29:08
  Speaker 1: in which people gathered and talked in hushed voices, and
• 2:29:12
  Speaker 1: men with red stained bandages, drank their ale silently in
• 2:29:16
  Speaker 1: the taverns along the river bank. There to Conan, the Sumerian,
• 2:29:21
  Speaker 1: moodily quaffing from a great wine glass, came a gaunt
• 2:29:25
  Speaker 1: forester with a bandage about his head and his arm
• 2:29:29
  Speaker 1: in a sling. He was the one survivor of Fort Tuscalan.
• 2:29:35
  Speaker 1: You went with the soldiers to the ruins of the fort.
• 2:29:38
  Speaker 1: Conan nodded, I wasn't able, murmured the other. There was
• 2:29:43
  Speaker 1: no fighting. The picks had fallen back across the Black River.
• 2:29:47
  Speaker 1: Something must have broken their nerve, though only the devil
• 2:29:50
  Speaker 1: who made them knows what. The woodsmen glanced at his
• 2:29:54
  Speaker 1: bandaged arm and sighed. They say there were nobodies worth
• 2:29:58
  Speaker 1: disposing of. Conan shook his head ashes. The picks had
• 2:30:04
  Speaker 1: piled them in the fort and set fire to the
• 2:30:06
  Speaker 1: fort before they crossed the river. They're own dead, and
• 2:30:09
  Speaker 1: the men of Villanus. Valanas was killed among the last
• 2:30:13
  Speaker 1: in the hand to hand fighting. When they broke the barriers.
• 2:30:17
  Speaker 1: They tried to take him alive, but he made them
• 2:30:19
  Speaker 1: kill him. They took ten of the rest of us prisoners.
• 2:30:22
  Speaker 1: When we were so weak from fighting we could fight
• 2:30:25
  Speaker 1: no more. They butchered nine of us then and there.
• 2:30:28
  Speaker 1: It was when Zogar Sag died that I got my
• 2:30:31
  Speaker 1: chance to break free and run for it. Zogar SOG's
• 2:30:35
  Speaker 1: dead ejaculated conan. I I saw him die. That's why
• 2:30:41
  Speaker 1: the Picks didn't press the fight against Valetrium as fiercely
• 2:30:44
  Speaker 1: as they did against the fort. It was strange he
• 2:30:48
  Speaker 1: took no wounds in battle. He was dancing among the slain,
• 2:30:52
  Speaker 1: waving an axe from which he'd just brained the last
• 2:30:54
  Speaker 1: of my comrades. He came at me, howling like a wolf,
• 2:30:58
  Speaker 1: and then he staggered and dropped the axe and began
• 2:31:02
  Speaker 1: to reel in a circle, screaming as I never heard
• 2:31:05
  Speaker 1: a man or beast scream. Before he fell between me
• 2:31:09
  Speaker 1: and the fire they'd build to roast me, gagging and
• 2:31:12
  Speaker 1: frothing at the mouth, And all at once he went rigid,
• 2:31:16
  Speaker 1: and the Picks shouted that he was dead. It was
• 2:31:20
  Speaker 1: during the confusion that I slipped my cords and ran
• 2:31:22
  Speaker 1: for the woods. I saw him lying in the firelight.
• 2:31:27
  Speaker 1: No weapon had touched him, yet there were red marks
• 2:31:31
  Speaker 1: like the wounds of a sword in the groin, belly,
• 2:31:33
  Speaker 1: and neck, the last as if his head had been
• 2:31:36
  Speaker 1: almost severed from his body. What do you make of that?
• 2:31:41
  Speaker 1: Conan made no reply, and the forester, aware of the
• 2:31:45
  Speaker 1: reticence of barbarians on certain matters, continued, He lived by magic,
• 2:31:51
  Speaker 1: and somehow he died by magic. It was the mystery
• 2:31:55
  Speaker 1: of his death that took the heart out of the picks,
• 2:31:58
  Speaker 1: not a man who saw it. Was in the fighting
• 2:32:00
  Speaker 1: before Velitrium. They hurried back across Black River. Those that
• 2:32:05
  Speaker 1: struck Thunder River were warriors who had come on before
• 2:32:08
  Speaker 1: Zogar Sag died. They were not enough to take the
• 2:32:12
  Speaker 1: city by themselves. I came along the road behind their
• 2:32:16
  Speaker 1: main force, and I know none followed me from the fort.
• 2:32:19
  Speaker 1: I sneaked through their lines and got into the town.
• 2:32:23
  Speaker 1: You brought the settlers through, all right, But their women
• 2:32:26
  Speaker 1: and children got into Valeitrium just ahead of those painted devils.
• 2:32:31
  Speaker 1: If the youth Balthus and old Slasher hadn't held him
• 2:32:34
  Speaker 1: up awhile, they'd have butchered every woman and child in Kananjahara.
• 2:32:39
  Speaker 1: I passed the place where Balthus and the Dog made
• 2:32:42
  Speaker 1: their last stand. They were lying amid a heap of
• 2:32:45
  Speaker 1: dead picks. I counted seven brained by his axe or
• 2:32:49
  Speaker 1: disemboweled by the dog's fangs. And there were others in
• 2:32:52
  Speaker 1: the road with arrows sticking in them. Gods, what a
• 2:32:56
  Speaker 1: fight that must have been. He was a man, said Conan.
• 2:33:02
  Speaker 1: I drink to his shade, and to the shade of
• 2:33:05
  Speaker 1: the dog, who knew no fear. He quaffed part of
• 2:33:09
  Speaker 1: the wine, then emptied the rest upon the floor with
• 2:33:12
  Speaker 1: a curious heathen gesture, and smashed the goblet. The heads
• 2:33:17
  Speaker 1: of ten picks shall pay for his, and seven heads
• 2:33:21
  Speaker 1: for the dog, who was a better warrior than many
• 2:33:24
  Speaker 1: a man. And the forester, staring into the moody, smoldering
• 2:33:29
  Speaker 1: blue eyes, knew the barbaric oath would be kept. They'll
• 2:33:34
  Speaker 1: not rebuild the fort. No Conajahara is lost to Aquallonia.
• 2:33:40
  Speaker 1: The frontier has been pushed back. Thunder river will be
• 2:33:43
  Speaker 1: the new border. The woodsman sighed and stared at his
• 2:33:49
  Speaker 1: calloused hand, worn from contact with axe half and sword hilt.
• 2:33:53
  Speaker 1: Conan reached his long arm for the wine jug The
• 2:33:57
  Speaker 1: forester stared at him, comparing him with the men about them,
• 2:34:02
  Speaker 1: the men who had died along the lost river. Comparing
• 2:34:06
  Speaker 1: him with those other wild men over that river. Conan
• 2:34:10
  Speaker 1: did not seem aware of his gaze. Barbarism is the
• 2:34:15
  Speaker 1: natural state of mankind, the Borderer said, still staring sombrely
• 2:34:19
  Speaker 1: at the Samerian civilization is unnatural. It is a whim
• 2:34:24
  Speaker 1: of circumstance, and barbarism must always ultimately triumph. End of
• 2:34:32
  Speaker 1: chapter eight, end of Conan Beyond the Black River by
• 2:34:37
  Speaker 1: Robert E. Howard. This book was read by phil Cheavert
• 2:34:42
  Speaker 1: in April of twenty thirteen in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.