As a wind, the from Conan's brain. With a he into the and the him. He up the slopes, hesitated, and then the in the direction he had been going when by Khemsa's trickery. But now he did not at a gait. He the and the like a thunderbolt, as if to in physical exertion. Across the and around the and the narrow the great they at speed. The path a of rock, from to of escarpment, and once, below, Conan got a of the that had fallen—a of and at the of a cliff.

The was still him when he a long and that out from the like a natural causeway. Out upon this he rode, with an almost on either hand. He ahead of him the and a great into the river-bed at his left hand. He the of those miles, but it was the only way. To try to to the of the here would be to attempt the impossible. Only a bird to the river-bed with a whole neck.

So he on the stallion, until a of his ears, up from below. Pulling up and to the lip of the cliff, he into the river-bed that along the of the ridge. Along that a throng—bearded men on half-wild horses, five hundred strong, with weapons. And Conan suddenly, over the of the cliff, three hundred above them.

At his they back, and five hundred were up him; a deep, the canyon. Conan did not waste words.

'I was for Ghor!' he roared. 'I had not to meet you dogs on the trail. Follow me as fast as your can push! I'm going to Yimsha, and—'

'Traitor!' The was like a of ice-water in his face.

'What?' He at them, speechless. He saw wild up at him, with fury, blades.

'Traitor!' they back, wholeheartedly. 'Where are the seven in Peshkhauri?'

'Why, in the governor's prison, I suppose,' he answered.

A from a hundred answered him, with such a of and a that he not what they were saying. He the with a bull-like roar, and bellowed: 'What devil's play is this? Let one of you speak, so I can what you mean!'

A old elected himself to this position, his at Conan as a preamble, and accusingly: 'You would not let us go Peshkhauri to our brothers!'

'No, you fools!' the Cimmerian. 'Even if you'd the wall, which is unlikely, they'd have the you them.'

'And you alone to traffic with the governor!' the Afghuli, himself into a frenzy.

'Well?'

'Where are the seven chiefs?' the old chief, making his into a wheel of about his head. 'Where are they? Dead!'

'What!' Conan nearly off his in his surprize.

'Aye, dead!' five hundred voices him.

The old his arms and got the again. 'They were not hanged!' he screeched. 'A Wazuli in another saw them die! The sent a to them by craft!'

'That must be a lie,' said Conan. 'The would not dare. Last night I talked with him—'

The was unfortunate. A of and the skies.

'Aye! You to him alone! To us! It is no lie. The Wazuli through the doors the in his entry, and told the to our he met in Zhaibar. They had been sent to search for you, when you did not return. When they the Wazuli's tale, they returned with all to Ghor, and we our and our swords!'

'And what do you to do?' the Cimmerian.

'To our brothers!' they howled. 'Death to the Kshatriyas! Slay him, brothers, he is a traitor!'

Arrows to around him. Conan rose in his stirrups, to make himself above the tumult, and then, with a of rage, and disgust, he and up the trail. Behind him and him the Afghulis came pelting, their rage, too to that the only way they the he was to the river-bed in the other direction, make the and the up over the ridge. When they did this, and back, their had almost the point where the joined the escarpment.

At the he did not take the by which he had descended, but off on another, a along a rock-fault, where the for footing. He had not when the and from something in the trail. Conan on the of a man, a broken, shredded, that and teeth.

Impelled by some reason, Conan and looking at the shape, that he was of a thing and to nature. The Rakhsha his head, and his eyes, with and death, rested on Conan with recognition.

'Where are they?' It was a not a voice.

'Gone to their on Yimsha,' Conan. 'They took the Devi with them.'

'I will go!' the man. 'I will them! They killed Gitara; I will kill them—the acolytes, the Four of the Black Circle, the Master himself! Kill—kill them all!' He to his along the rock, but not his will that longer, where the together only by and fibre.

'Follow them!' Khemsa, a slaver. 'Follow!'

'I'm going to,' Conan. 'I to my Afghulis, but they've on me. I'm going on to Yimsha alone. I'll have the Devi if I have to tear that with my hands. I didn't think the would kill my headmen, when I had the Devi, but it he did. I'll have his for that. She's no use to me now as a hostage, but—'

'The of Yizil on them!' Khemsa. 'Go! I am dying. Wait—take my girdle.'

He to with a hand at his tatters, and Conan, what he to convey, and from about his a of aspect.

'Follow the through the abyss,' Khemsa. 'Wear the girdle. I had it from a Stygian priest. It will you, though it failed me at last. Break the with the four pomegranates. Beware of the Master's transmutations—I am going to Gitara—she is waiting for me in hell—aie, ya Skelos yar!' And so he died.

Conan at the girdle. The of which it was was not horsehair. He was that it was of the thick black of a woman. Set in the thick were such as he had before. The was made, in the of a serpent-head, flat, wedge-shaped and with art. A Conan as he it, and he as though to it over the precipice; then he hesitated, and it about his waist, under the Bakhariot girdle. Then he and pushed on.

The sun had the crags. He the in the of the that was out like a dark over and below. He was not from the when, around the of a crag, he the of ahead of him. He did not turn back. Indeed, so narrow was the path that the not have his great upon it. He the of the and came upon a of the path that somewhat. A of on his ear, but his a hard against the rock, and Conan the arm of the in an iron grip, the in midair.

'Kerim Shah!' Conan, red in his eyes. The Turanian did not struggle; they sat their almost to breast, Conan's locking the other's sword-arm. Behind Kerim Shah a group of Irakzai on horses. They like wolves, and knives, but of the of the path and the of the that them.

'Where is the Devi?' Kerim Shah.

'What's it to you, you Hyrkanian spy?' Conan.

'I know you have her,' answered Kerim Shah. 'I was on my way with some when we were by in Shalizah Pass. Many of my men were slain, and the of us through the like jackals. When we had off our pursuers, we westward, toward Amir Jehun Pass, and this we came upon a Wazuli through the hills. He was mad, but I learned much from his he died. I learned that he was the of a which a of the Afghulis and a Kshatriya woman into a Khurum village. He much of a man in a green the Afghuli down, but who, when by the Wazulis who pursued, them with a that them out as a of wind-driven fire out a of locusts.

'How that one man escaped, I do not know, did he; but I from his that Conan of Ghor had been in Khurum with his captive. And as we our way through the hills, we a Galzai girl a of water, who told us a of having been and by a in the of an Afghuli chief, who, she said, gave her to a Vendhyan woman who him. She said you westward.'

Kerim Shah did not it necessary to that he had been on his way to keep his with the from Secunderam when he his way by tribesmen. The road to Gurashah through Shalizah Pass was longer than the road that through Amir Jehun Pass, but the part of the Afghuli country, which Kerim Shah had been to avoid until he came with an army. Barred from the Shalizah road, however, he had to the route, until news that Conan had not yet Afghulistan with his had him to turn and push on in the of the Cimmerian in the hills.

'So you had tell me where the Devi is,' Kerim Shah. 'We you—'

'Let one of your dogs a and I'll you over the cliff,' Conan promised. 'It wouldn't do you any good to kill me, anyhow. Five hundred Afghulis are on my trail, and if they you've them, they'll you alive. Anyway, I haven't got the Devi. She's in the hands of the Black Seers of Yimsha.'

'Tarim!' Kerim Shah softly, out of his for the time. 'Khemsa—'

'Khemsa's dead,' Conan. 'His masters sent him to on a landslide. And now out of my way. I'd be to kill you if I had the time, but I'm on my way to Yimsha.'

'I'll go with you,' said the Turanian abruptly.

Conan laughed at him. 'Do you think I'd trust you, you Hyrkanian dog?'

'I don't ask you to,' returned Kerim Shah. 'We want the Devi. You know my reason; King Yezdigerd to add her to his empire, and herself in his seraglio. And I you, in the days when you were a of the steppes; so I know your is plunder. You want to Vendhya, and to out a for Yasmina. Well, let us for the time being, without any about each other, our forces, and try to the Devi from the Seers. If we succeed, and live, we can it out to see who her.'

Conan the other for a moment, and then nodded, the Turanian's arm. 'Agreed; what about your men?'

Kerim Shah to the Irakzai and spoke briefly: 'This and I are going to Yimsha to the wizards. Will you go with us, or here to be by the Afghulis who are this man?'

They looked at him with fatalistic. They were and they it—had it since the of the Dagozai had them from the pass of Shalizah. The men of the Zhaibar had too many among the crag-dwellers. They were too small a to their way through the to the villages of the border, without the of the Turanian. They themselves as already, so they the reply that only men would make: 'We will go with and die on Yimsha.'

'Then in Crom's name let us be gone,' Conan, with as he started into the of the twilight. 'My were hours me, but we've a of time.'

Kerim Shah his from the black and the cliff, his and the horse. Presently the was up the path as as they dared. They came out upon the nearly a mile east of the spot where Khemsa had the Cimmerian and the Devi. The path they had was a one, for hill-men, and for that Conan had it that day when Yasmina, though Kerim Shah, him, had taken it the Cimmerian had done likewise. Even Conan with when the up over the last rim. They moved like through an of shadows. The soft of leather, the of marked their passing, then again the dark and in the starlight.