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肩書を与える: The Pool of the 黒人／ボイコット One
Author: Robert E. Howard
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Date first 地位，任命するd:  May 2006
Most 最近の update: 損なう 2020

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The Pool of the 黒人／ボイコット One

by

Robert E. Howard

First published in Weird Tales, October 1933

This e-調書をとる／予約する 版: 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg Australia, 2020

Weird Tales, October 1933, with "The Pool of the 黒人／ボイコット One"

One of the strangest stories ever told—a tale of 黒人／ボイコット 巨大（な）s, and the 血-氷点の horror that を待つd the buccaneers at the jade-green pool.

Across the grassy level a 巨大（な） 黒人／ボイコット was striding,
carrying a squirming 捕虜 under one arm.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

Into the west, unknown of man,
Ships have sailed since the world began.
Read, if you dare, what Skelos wrote,
With dead 手渡すs fumbling his silken coat;
And follow the ships through the 勝利，勝つd-blown wrack—
Follow the ships that come not 支援する.

SANCHA, once of Kordava, yawned daintily, stretched her supple 四肢s luxuriously, and composed herself more comfortably on the ermine-fringed silk spread on the carack's poop-deck. That the 乗組員 watched her with 燃やすing 利益／興味 from waist and forecastle she was lazily aware, just as she was also aware that her short silk kirtle 隠すd little of her voluptuous contours from their eager 注目する，もくろむs. Wherefore she smiled insolently and 用意が出来ている to snatch a few more winks before the sun, which was just thrusting his golden disk above the ocean, should dazzle her 注目する，もくろむs.

But at that instant a sound reached her ears unlike the creaking of 木材／素質s, thrum of cordage and （競技場の）トラック一周 of waves. She sat up, her gaze 直す／買収する，八百長をするd on the rail, over which, to her amazement, a dripping 人物／姿／数字 clambered. Her dark 注目する，もくろむs opened wide, her red lips parted in an O of surprise. The 侵入者 was a stranger to her. Water ran in rivulets from his 広大な／多数の／重要な shoulders and 負かす／撃墜する his 激しい 武器. His 選び出す／独身 衣料品—a pair of 有望な crimson silk breeks—was soaking wet, as was his 幅の広い gold-buckled girdle and the sheathed sword it supported. As he stood at the rail, the rising sun etched him like a 広大な／多数の／重要な bronze statue. He ran his fingers through his streaming 黒人／ボイコット mane, and his blue 注目する，もくろむs lit as they 残り／休憩（する）d on the girl.

"Who are you?" she 需要・要求するd. "Whence did you come?"

He made a gesture toward the sea that took in a whole ４半期/4分の1 of the compass, while his 注目する，もくろむs did not leave her supple 人物／姿／数字.

"Are you a merman, that you rise up out of the sea?" she asked, 混乱させるd by the candor of his gaze, though she was accustomed to 賞賛.

Before he could reply, a quick step sounded on the boards, and the master of the carack was glaring at the stranger, fingers twitching at sword-hilt.

"Who the devil are you, sirrah?" this one 需要・要求するd in no friendly トン.

"I am Conan," the other answered imperturbably. Sancha pricked up her ears もう一度; she had never heard Zingaran spoken with such an accent as the stranger spoke it.

"And how did you get 船内に my ship?" The 発言する／表明する grated with 疑惑.

"I swam."

"Swam!" exclaimed the master 怒って. "Dog, would you jest with me? We are far beyond sight of land. Whence do you come?"

Conan pointed with a muscular brown arm toward the east, banded in dazzling gold by the 解除するing sun.

"I （機の）カム from the Islands."

"Oh!" The other regarded him with 増加するd 利益／興味. 黒人／ボイコット brows drew 負かす／撃墜する over scowling 注目する，もくろむs, and the thin lip 解除するd unpleasantly.

"So you are one of those dogs of the Barachans."

A faint smile touched Conan's lips.

"And do you know who I am?" his 質問者 需要・要求するd.

"This ship is the Wastrel; so you must be Zaporavo."

"Aye!" It touched the captain's grim vanity that the man should know him. He was a tall man, tall as Conan, though of leaner build. でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れるd in his steel morion his 直面する was dark, saturnine and 強硬派-like, wherefore men called him the 強硬派. His armor and 衣料品s were rich and ornate, after the fashion of a Zingaran grandee. His 手渡す was never far from his sword-hilt.

There was little 好意 in the gaze he bent on Conan. Little love was lost between Zingaran renegades and the 無法者s who infested the Baracha Islands off the southern coast of Zingara. These men were mostly sailors from Argos, with a ぱらぱら雨ing of other 国籍s. They （警察の）手入れ，急襲d the shipping, and harried the Zingaran coast towns, just as the Zingaran buccaneers did, but these dignified their profession by calling themselves Freebooters, while they dubbed the Barachans 著作権侵害者s. They were neither the first nor the last to gild the 指名する of どろぼう.

Some of these thoughts passed through Zaporavo's mind as he toyed with his sword-hilt and scowled at his uninvited guest. Conan gave no hint of what his own thoughts might be. He stood with 倍のd 武器 as placidly as if upon his own deck; his lips smiled and his 注目する，もくろむs were untroubled.

"What are you doing here?" the Freebooter 需要・要求するd 突然の.

"I 設立する it necessary to leave the rendezvous at Tortage before moonrise last night," answered Conan. "I 出発／死d in a leaky boat, and 列／漕ぐ／騒動d and 保釈（金）d all night. Just at 夜明け I saw your topsails, and left the 哀れな tub to 沈む, while I made better 速度(を上げる） in the water."

"There are sharks in these waters," growled Zaporavo, and was ばく然と irritated by the answering shrug of the mighty shoulders. A ちらりと見ること toward the waist showed a 審査する of eager 直面するs 星／主役にするing 上向き. A word would send them leaping up on the poop in a 嵐／襲撃する of swords that would 圧倒する even such a fighting man as the stranger looked to be.

"Why should I 重荷（を負わせる） myself with every nameless vagabond that the sea casts up?" snarled Zaporavo, his look and manner more 侮辱ing than his words.

"A ship can always use another good sailor," answered the other without 憤慨. Zaporavo scowled, knowing the truth of that 主張. He hesitated, and doing so, lost his ship, his 命令（する）, his girl, and his life. But of course he could not see into the 未来, and to him Conan was only another wastrel, cast up, as he put it, by the sea. He did not like the man; yet the fellow had given him no 誘発. His manner was not insolent, though rather more 確信して than Zaporavo liked to see.

"You'll work for your keep," snarled the 強硬派. "Get off the poop. And remember, the only 法律 here is my will."

THE smile seemed to broaden on Conan's thin lips. Without hesitation but without haste he turned and descended into the waist. He did not look again at Sancha, who, during the 簡潔な／要約する conversation, had watched 熱望して, all 注目する，もくろむs and ears.

As he （機の）カム into the waist the 乗組員 thronged about him: Zingarans, all of them, half naked, their gaudy silk 衣料品s splashed with tar, jewels glinting in ear-（犯罪の）一味s and dagger-hilts. They were eager for the time-栄誉（を受ける）d sport of baiting the stranger. Here he would be 実験（する）d, and his 未来 status in the 乗組員 decided. Up on the poop Zaporavo had 明らかに already forgotten the stranger's 存在, but Sancha watched, 緊張した with 利益／興味. She had become familiar with such scenes, and knew the baiting would be 残虐な and probably 血まみれの.

But her familiarity with such 事柄s was scanty compared to that of Conan. He smiled faintly as he （機の）カム into the waist and saw the 脅迫的な 人物／姿／数字s 圧力（をかける）ing truculently about him. He paused and 注目する，もくろむd the （犯罪の）一味 inscrutably, his composure unshaken. There was a 確かな code about these things. If he had attacked the captain, the whole 乗組員 would have been at his throat, but they would give him a fair chance against the one selected to 押し進める the brawl.

The man chosen for this 義務 thrust himself 今後—a wiry brute, with a crimson sash knotted about his 長，率いる like a turban. His lean chin jutted out, his scarred 直面する was evil beyond belief. Every ちらりと見ること, each swaggering movement was an affront. His way of beginning the baiting was as 原始の, raw and 天然のまま as himself.

"Baracha, eh?" he sneered. "That's where they raise dogs for men. We of the Fellowship spit on 'em—like this!"

He spat in Conan's 直面する and snatched at his own sword.

The Barachan's movement was too quick for the 注目する，もくろむ to follow. His sledge- like 握りこぶし crunched with a terrible 衝撃 against his tormentor's jaw, and the Zingaran catapulted through the 空気／公表する and fell in a crumpled heap by the rail.

Conan turned に向かって the others. But for a slumbering glitter in his 注目する，もくろむs, his 耐えるing was 不変の. But the baiting was over as suddenly as it had begun. The seamen 解除するd their companion; his broken jaw hung slack, his 長，率いる lolled unnaturally.

"By Mitra, his neck's broken!" swore a 黒人／ボイコット-bearded sea-rogue.

"You Freebooters are a weak-boned race," laughed the 著作権侵害者. "On the Barachas we take no account of such taps as that. Will you play at sword- 一打／打撃s, now, any of you? No? Then all's 井戸／弁護士席, and we're friends, eh?"

There were plenty of tongues to 保証する him that he spoke truth. Brawny 武器 swung the dead man over the rail, and a dozen fins 削減（する） the water as he sank. Conan laughed and spread his mighty 武器 as a 広大な／多数の／重要な cat might stretch itself, and his gaze sought the deck above. Sancha leaned over the rail, red lips parted, dark 注目する，もくろむs aglow with 利益／興味. The sun behind her 輪郭（を描く）d her lithe 人物／姿／数字 through the light kirtle which its glow made transparent. Then across her fell Zaporavo's scowling 影をつくる／尾行する and a 激しい 手渡す fell possessively on her わずかな／ほっそりした shoulder. There were menace and meaning in the glare he bent on the man in the waist; Conan grinned 支援する, as if at a jest 非，不，無 knew but himself.

Zaporavo made the mistake so many autocrats make; alone in somber grandeur on the poop, he underestimated the man below him. He had his 適切な時期 to kill Conan, and he let it pass, engrossed in his own 暗い／優うつな ruminations. He did not find it 平易な to think any of the dogs beneath his feet 構成するd a menace to him. He had stood in the high places so long, and had ground so many 敵s underfoot, that he unconsciously assumed himself to be above the machinations of inferior 競争相手s.

Conan, indeed, gave him no 誘発. He mixed with the 乗組員, lived and made merry as they did. He 証明するd himself a 技術d sailor, and by far the strongest man any of them had seen. He did the work of three men, and was always first to spring to any 激しい or dangerous 仕事. His mates began to rely upon him. He did not quarrel with them, and they were careful not to quarrel with him. He 賭事d with them, putting up his girdle and sheath for a 火刑／賭ける, won their money and 武器s, and gave them 支援する with a laugh. The 乗組員 instinctively looked toward him as the leader of the forecastle. He vouchsafed no （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） as to what had 原因（となる）d him to 逃げる the Barachas, but the knowledge that he was 有能な of a 行為 血まみれの enough to have 追放するd him from that wild 禁止（する）d 増加するd the 尊敬（する）・点 felt toward him by the 猛烈な／残忍な Freebooters. Toward Zaporavo and the mates he was imperturbably courteous, never insolent or servile.

The dullest was struck by the contrast between the 厳しい, taciturn, 暗い／優うつな 指揮官, and the 著作権侵害者 whose laugh was gusty and ready, who roared ribald songs in a dozen languages, guzzled ale like a toper, and—明らかに—had no thought for the morrow.

HAD Zaporavo known he was 存在 compared, even though unconsciously, with a man before the mast, he would have been speechless with amazed 怒り／怒る. But he was engrossed with his broodings, which had become blacker and grimmer as the years はうd by, and with his vague grandiose dreams; and with the girl whose 所有／入手 was a bitter 楽しみ, just as all his 楽しみs were.

And she looked more and more at the 黒人／ボイコット-maned 巨大（な） who towered の中で his mates at work or play. He never spoke to her, but there was no mistaking the candor of his gaze. She did not mistake it, and she wondered if she dared the perilous game of 主要な him on.

No 広大な／多数の／重要な length of time lay between her and the palaces of Kordava, but it was as if a world of change separated her from the life she had lived before Zaporavo tore her 叫び声をあげるing from the 炎上ing caravel his wolves had plundered. She, who had been the spoiled and petted daughter of the Duke of Kordava, learned what it was to be a buccaneer's plaything, and because she was supple enough to bend without breaking, she lived where other women had died, and because she was young and vibrant with life, she （機の）カム to find 楽しみ in the 存在.

The life was uncertain, dream-like, with sharp contrasts of 戦う／戦い, 略奪する, 殺人, and flight. Zaporavo's red 見通しs made it even more uncertain than that of the 普通の／平均（する） Freebooter. No one knew what he planned next. Now they had left all charted coasts behind and were 急落（する），激減（する）ing その上の and その上の into that unknown billowy waste ordinarily shunned by seafarers, and into which, since the beginnings of Time, ships had 投機・賭けるd, only to 消える from the sight of man for ever. All known lands lay behind them, and day upon day the blue 殺到するing immensity lay empty to their sight. Here there was no 略奪する—no towns to 解雇（する） nor ships to 燃やす. The men murmured, though they did not let their murmurings reach the ears of their implacable master, who tramped the poop day and night in 暗い／優うつな majesty, or pored over 古代の charts and time- yellowed 地図／計画するs, reading in tomes that were 崩壊するing 集まりs of worm-eaten parchment. At times he talked to Sancha, wildly it seemed to her, of lost continents, and fabulous 小島s dreaming unguessed まっただ中に the blue 泡，激怒すること of nameless 湾s, where horned dragons guarded treasures gathered by pre-human kings, long, long ago.

Sancha listened, uncomprehending, hugging her わずかな／ほっそりした 膝s, her thoughts 絶えず roving away from the words of her grim companion 支援する to a clean- 四肢d bronze 巨大（な） whose laughter was gusty and elemental as the sea 勝利，勝つd.

So, after many 疲れた／うんざりした weeks, they raised land to 西方の, and at 夜明け dropped 錨，総合司会者 in a shallow bay, and saw a beach which was like a white 禁止（する）d 国境ing an expanse of gently grassy slopes, masked by green trees. The 勝利，勝つd brought scents of fresh vegetation and spices, and Sancha clapped her 手渡すs with glee at the prospect of adventuring 岸に. But her 切望 turned to sulkiness when Zaporavo ordered her to remain 船内に until he sent for her. He never gave any explanation for his 命令（する）s; so she never knew his 推論する／理由, unless it was the lurking devil in him that frequently made him 傷つける her without 原因（となる）.

So she lounged sulkily on the poop and watched the men 列／漕ぐ／騒動 岸に through the 静める water that sparkled like liquid jade in the morning sunlight. She saw them bunch together on the sands, 怪しげな, 武器s ready, while several scattered out through the trees that fringed the beach. の中で these, she 公式文書，認めるd, was Conan. There was no mistaking that tall brown 人物／姿／数字 with its springy step. Men said he was no civilized man at all, but a Cimmerian, one of those 野蛮な tribesmen who dwelt in the gray hills of the far North, and whose （警察の）手入れ，急襲s struck terror in their southern neighbors. At least, she knew that there was something about him, some 最高の-vitality or 野蛮／未開 that 始める，決める him apart from his wild mates.

発言する／表明するs echoed along the shore, as the silence 安心させるd the buccaneers. The clusters broke up, as men scattered along the beach in search of fruit. She saw them climbing and plucking の中で the trees, and her pretty mouth watered. She stamped a little foot and swore with a proficiency acquired by 協会 with her blasphemous companions.

The men on shore had indeed 設立する fruit, and were gorging on it, finding one unknown golden-skinned variety 特に luscious. But Zaporavo did not 捜し出す or eat fruit. His scouts having 設立する nothing 示すing men or beasts in the 近隣, he stood 星／主役にするing inland, at the long reaches of grassy slopes melting into one another. Then, with a 簡潔な／要約する word, he 転換d his sword-belt and strode in under the trees. His mate expostulated with him against going alone, and was rewarded by a savage blow in the mouth. Zaporavo had his 推論する／理由s for wishing to go alone. He 願望（する）d to learn if this island were indeed that について言及するd in the mysterious 調書をとる／予約する of Skelos, whereon, nameless 下落するs aver, strange monsters guard crypts filled with hieroglyph-carven gold. Nor, for murky 推論する／理由s of his own, did he wish to 株 his knowledge, if it were true, with any one, much いっそう少なく his own 乗組員.

Sancha, watching 熱望して from the poop, saw him 消える into the leafy fastness. Presently she saw Conan, the Barachan, turn, ちらりと見ること 簡潔に at the men scattered up and 負かす／撃墜する the beach; then the 著作権侵害者 went quickly in the direction taken by Zaporavo, and likewise 消えるd の中で the trees.

Sancha's curiosity was piqued. She waited for them to 再現する, but they did not. The seamen still moved aimlessly up and 負かす／撃墜する the beach, and some had wandered inland. Many had lain 負かす／撃墜する in the shade to sleep. Time passed and she fidgeted about restlessly. The sun began to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 負かす／撃墜する hotly, in spite of the canopy above the poop-deck. Here it was warm, silent, draggingly monotonous; a few yards away across a 禁止（する）d of blue shallow water, the 冷静な／正味の shady mystery of tree-fringed beach and woodland-dotted meadow beckoned her. Moreover, the mystery 関心ing Zaporavo and Conan tempted her.

She 井戸／弁護士席 knew the 刑罰，罰則 for disobeying her merciless master, and she sat for some time, squirming with 不決断. At last she decided that it was 価値（がある） even one of Zaporavo's whippings to play truant, and with no more ado she kicked off her soft leather sandals, slipped out of her kirtle and stood up on the deck naked as Eve. Clambering over the rail and 負かす／撃墜する the chains, she slid into the water and swam 岸に. She stood on the beach a few moments, squirming as the sands tickled her small toes, while she looked for the 乗組員. She saw only a few, at some distance up or 負かす／撃墜する the beach. Many were 急速な／放蕩な asleep under the trees, bits of golden fruit still clutched in their fingers. She wondered why they should sleep so soundly, so 早期に in the day.

NONE あられ／賞賛するd her as she crossed the white girdle of sand and entered the shade of the woodland. The trees, she 設立する, grew in 不規律な clusters, and between these groves stretched rolling expanses of meadow-like slopes. As she 進歩d inland, in the direction taken by Zaporavo, she was 入り口d by the green vistas that 広げるd gently before her, soft slope beyond slope, carpeted with green sward and dotted with groves. Between the slopes lay gentle declivities, likewise swarded. The scenery seemed to melt into itself, or each scene into the other; the 見解（をとる） was singular, at once 幅の広い and 制限するd. Over all a dreamy silence lay like an enchantment.

Then she （機の）カム suddenly の上に the level 首脳会議 of a slope, circled with tall trees, and the dreamily faery-like sensation 消えるd 突然の at the sight of what lay on the reddened and trampled grass. Sancha involuntarily cried out and recoiled, then stole 今後, wide-注目する，もくろむd, trembling in every 四肢.

It was Zaporavo who lay there on the sward, 星／主役にするing sightlessly 上向き, a gaping 負傷させる in his breast. His sword lay 近づく his nerveless 手渡す. The 強硬派 had made his last 急襲する.

It is not to be said that Sancha gazed on the 死体 of her lord without emotion. She had no 原因（となる） to love him, yet she felt at least the sensation any girl might feel when looking on the 団体／死体 of the man who was first to 所有する her. She did not weep or feel any need of weeping, but she was 掴むd by a strong trembling, her 血 seemed to congeal 簡潔に, and she resisted a wave of hysteria.

She looked about her for the man she 推定する／予想するd to see. Nothing met her 注目する，もくろむs but the （犯罪の）一味 of tall, thickly leafed forest 巨大（な）s, and the blue slopes beyond them. Had the Freebooter's slayer dragged himself away, mortally 負傷させるd? No 血まみれの 跡をつけるs led away from the 団体／死体.

Puzzled, she swept the surrounding trees, 強化するing as she caught a rustle in the emerald leaves that seemed not to be of the 勝利，勝つd. She went toward the trees, 星／主役にするing into the leafy depths.

"Conan?" Her call was 問い合わせing; her 発言する／表明する sounded strange and small in the vastness of silence that had grown suddenly 緊張した.

Her 膝s began to tremble as a nameless panic swept over her.

"Conan!" she cried 猛烈に. "It is I—Sancha! Where are you? Please, Conan—" Her 発言する／表明する 滞るd away. Unbelieving horror dilated her brown 注目する，もくろむs. Her red lips parted to an inarticulate 叫び声をあげる. Paralysis gripped her 四肢s; where she had such desperate need of swift flight, she could not move. She could only shriek wordlessly.

CHAPTER 2

WHEN Conan saw Zaporavo stalk alone into the woodland, he felt that the chance he had watched for had come. He had eaten no fruit, nor joined in the horse-play of his mates; all his faculties were 占領するd with watching the buccaneer 長，指導者. Accustomed to Zaporavo's moods, his men were not 特に surprised that their captain should choose to 調査する an unknown and probably 敵意を持った 小島 alone. They turned to their own amusement, and did not notice Conan when he glided like a stalking panther after the chieftain.

Conan did not underrate his dominance of the 乗組員. But he had not 伸び（る）d the 権利, through 戦う／戦い and foray, to challenge the captain to a duel to the death. In these empty seas there had been no 適切な時期 for him to 証明する himself によれば Freebooter 法律. The 乗組員 would stand solidly against him if he attacked the chieftain 率直に. But he knew that if he killed Zaporavo without their knowledge, the leaderless 乗組員 would not be likely to be swayed by 忠義 to a dead man. In such wolf-packs only the living counted.

So he followed Zaporavo with sword in 手渡す and 切望 in his heart, until he （機の）カム out の上に a level 首脳会議, circled with tall trees, between whose trunks he saw the green vistas of the slopes melting into the blue distance. In the 中央 of the glade Zaporavo, sensing 追跡, turned, 手渡す on hilt.

The buccaneer swore.

"Dog, why do you follow me?"

"Are you mad, to ask?" laughed Conan, coming 速く toward his erstwhile 長，指導者. His lips smiled, and in his blue 注目する，もくろむs danced a wild gleam.

Zaporavo ripped out his sword with a 黒人／ボイコット 悪口を言う／悪態, and steel 衝突／不一致d against steel as the Barachan （機の）カム in recklessly and wide open, his blade singing a wheel of blue 炎上 about his 長，率いる.

Zaporavo was the 退役軍人 of a thousand fights by sea and by land. There was no man in the world more 深く，強烈に and 完全に 詩（を作る）d than he in the lore of swordcraft. But he had never been pitted against a blade （権力などを）行使するd by thews bred in the wild lands beyond the 国境s of civilization. Against his fighting- （手先の）技術 was matched blinding 速度(を上げる） and strength impossible to a civilized man. Conan's manner of fighting was unorthodox, but 直感的に and natural as that of a 木材／素質 wolf. The intricacies of the sword were as useless against his 原始の fury as a human boxer's 技術 against the 猛攻撃s of a panther.

Fighting as he had never fought before, 緊張するing every last ounce of 成果／努力 to parry the blade that flickered like 雷 about his 長，率いる, Zaporavo in desperation caught a 十分な 一打／打撃 近づく his hilt, and felt his whole arm go numb beneath the terrific 衝撃. That 一打／打撃 was 即時に followed by a thrust with such terrible 運動 behind it that the sharp point ripped through chain-mail and ribs like paper, to transfix the heart beneath. Zaporavo's lips writhed in 簡潔な／要約する agony, but, grim to the last, he made no sound. He was dead before his 団体／死体 relaxed on the trampled grass, where 血 減少（する）s glittered like spilt rubies in the sun.

Conan shook the red 減少（する）s from his sword, grinned with 影響を受けない 楽しみ, stretched like a 抱擁する cat—and 突然の 強化するd, the 表現 of satisfaction on his 直面する 存在 取って代わるd by a 星／主役にする of bewilderment. He stood like a statue, his sword 追跡するing in his 手渡す.

As he 解除するd his 注目する，もくろむs from his vanquished 敵, they had absently 残り／休憩（する）d on the surrounding trees, and the vistas beyond. And he had seen a fantastic thing—a thing incredible and inexplicable. Over the soft 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd green shoulder of a distant slope had loped a tall 黒人／ボイコット naked 人物／姿／数字, 耐えるing on its shoulder an 平等に naked white form. The apparition 消えるd as suddenly as it had appeared, leaving the 選挙立会人 gasping in surprise.

The 著作権侵害者 星／主役にするd about him, ちらりと見ることd uncertainly 支援する the way he had come, and swore. He was nonplussed—a bit upset, if the 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語 might be 適用するd to one of such steely 神経s as his. In the 中央 of 現実主義の, if exotic surroundings, a 浮浪者 image of fantasy and nightmare had been introduced. Conan 疑問d neither his eyesight nor his sanity. He had seen something 外国人 and uncanny, he knew; the mere fact of a 黒人／ボイコット 人物／姿／数字 racing across the landscape carrying a white 捕虜 was bizarre enough, but this 黒人／ボイコット 人物／姿／数字 had been unnaturally tall.

Shaking his 長，率いる doubtfully, Conan started off in the direction in which he had seen the thing. He did not argue the 知恵 of his move; with his curiosity so piqued, he had no choice but to follow its promptings.

Slope after slope he 横断するd, each with its even sward and clustered groves. The general 傾向 was always 上向き, though he 上がるd and descended the gentle inclines with monotonous regularity. The array of 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd shoulders and shallow declivities was bewildering and 明らかに endless. But at last he 前進するd up what he believed was the highest 首脳会議 on the island, and 停止（させる）d at the sight of green 向こうずねing 塀で囲むs and towers, which, until he had reached the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す on which he then stood, had 合併するd so perfectly with the green landscape as to be invisible, even to his keen sight.

He hesitated, fingered his sword, then went 今後, bitten by the worm of curiosity. He saw no one as he approached a tall archway in the curving 塀で囲む. There was no door. Peering warily through, he saw what seemed to be a 幅の広い open 法廷，裁判所, grass-carpeted, surrounded by a circular 塀で囲む of the green semitranslucent 実体. さまざまな arches opened from it. 前進するing on the balls of his 明らかにする feet, sword ready, he chose one of these arches at 無作為の, and passed into another 類似の 法廷，裁判所. Over an inner 塀で囲む he saw the pinnacles of strangely 形態／調整d towerlike structures. One of these towers was built in, or 事業／計画（する）d into the 法廷，裁判所 in which he 設立する himself, and a 幅の広い stair led up to it, along the 味方する of the 塀で囲む. Up this he went, wondering if it were all real, or if he were not in the 中央 of a 黒人／ボイコット lotus dream.

At the 長，率いる of the stair he 設立する himself on a 塀で囲むd ledge, or balcony, he was not sure which. He could now make out more 詳細（に述べる）s of the towers, but they were meaningless to him. He realised uneasily that no ordinary human 存在s could have built them. There was symmetry about their architecture, and system, but it was a mad symmetry, a system 外国人 to human sanity. As for the 計画（する） of the whole town, 城, or whatever it was ーするつもりであるd for, he could see just enough to get the impression of a 広大な／多数の／重要な number of 法廷，裁判所s, mostly circular, each surrounded by its own 塀で囲む, and connected with the others by open arches, and all, 明らかに, grouped about the cluster of fantastic towers in the 中心.

Turning in the other direction from these towers, he got a fearful shock, and crouched 負かす／撃墜する suddenly behind the parapet of the balcony, glaring amazedly.

The balcony or ledge was higher than the opposite 塀で囲む, and he was looking over that 塀で囲む into another swarded 法廷，裁判所. The inner curve of the その上の 塀で囲む of that 法廷，裁判所 異なるd from the others he had seen, in that, instead of 存在 smooth, it seemed to be banded with long lines or ledges, （人が）群がるd with small 反対するs the nature of which he could not 決定する.

However, he gave little 注意する to the 塀で囲む at the time. His attention was 中心d on the 禁止（する）d of 存在s that squatted about a dark green pool in the 中央 of the 法廷，裁判所. These creatures were 黒人／ボイコット and naked, made like men, but the least of them, standing upright, would have towered 長，率いる and shoulders above the tall 著作権侵害者. They were rangy rather than 大規模な, but were finely formed, with no suggestion of deformity or abnomality, save as their 広大な／多数の／重要な 高さ was 異常な. But even at that distance Conan sensed the basic diabolism of their features.

In their 中央, cringing and naked, stood a 青年 that Conan recognised as the youngest sailor 船内に the Wastrel. He, then, had been the 捕虜 the 著作権侵害者 had seen borne across the grass-covered slope. Conan had heard no sound of fighting—saw no 血-stains or 負傷させるs on the sleek ebon 四肢s of the 巨大（な）s. Evidently the lad had wandered inland away from his companions and been snatched up by a 黒人／ボイコット man lurking in 待ち伏せ／迎撃する. Conan mentally 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語d the creatures 黒人／ボイコット men, for 欠如（する） of a better 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語; instinctively he knew that these tall ebony 存在s were not men, as he understood the 称する，呼ぶ／期間／用語.

No sound （機の）カム to him. The 黒人／ボイコットs nodded and gestured to one another, but they did not seem to speak—vocally, at least. One, squatting on his haunches before the cringing boy, held a 麻薬を吸う-like thing in his 手渡す. This he 始める，決める to his lips, and 明らかに blew, though Conan heard no sound. But the Zingaran 青年 heard or felt, and cringed. He quivered and writhed as if in agony; a regularity became evident in the twitching of his 四肢s, which quickly became rhythmic. The twitching became a violent jerking, the jerking 正規の／正選手 movements. The 青年 began to dance, as cobras dance by compulsion to the tune of the faquir's fife. There was naught of zest or joyful abandon in that dance. There was, indeed, abandon that was awful to see, but it was not joyful. It was as if the mute tune of the 麻薬を吸うs しっかり掴むd the boy's inmost soul with salacious fingers and with 残虐な 拷問 wrung from it every involuntary 表現 of secret passion. It was a convulsion of obscenity, a spasm of lasciviousness—an exudation of secret hungers でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れるd by compulsion: 願望（する） without 楽しみ, 苦痛 mated awfully to lust. It was like watching a soul stripped naked, and all its dark and unmentionable secrets laid 明らかにする.

Conan glared frozen with repulsion and shaken with nausea. Himself as cleanly elemental as a 木材／素質 wolf, he was yet not ignorant of the perverse secrets of rotting civilizations. He had roamed the cities of Zamora, and known the women of Shadizar the Wicked. But he sensed here a cosmic vileness transcending mere human degeneracy—a perverse 支店 on the tree of Life, developed along lines outside human comprehension. It was not at the agonized contortions and posturing of the wretched boy that he was shocked, but at the cosmic obscenity of these 存在s which could drag to light the abysmal secrets that sleep in the unfathomed 不明瞭 of the human soul, and find 楽しみ in the brazen flaunting of such things as should not be hinted at, even in restless nightmares.

Suddenly the 黒人／ボイコット torturer laid 負かす／撃墜する the 麻薬を吸うs and rose, 非常に高い over the writhing white 人物／姿／数字. 残酷に しっかり掴むing the boy by neck and haunch, the 巨大（な） up-ended him and thrust him 長，率いる-first into the green pool. Conan saw the white 微光 of his naked 団体／死体 まっただ中に the green water, as the 黒人／ボイコット 巨大（な） held his 捕虜 深い under the surface. Then there was a restless movement の中で the other 黒人／ボイコットs, and Conan ducked quickly below the balcony 塀で囲む, not daring to raise his 長，率いる lest he be seen.

AFTER a while his curiosity got the better of him, and he 慎重に peered out again. The 黒人／ボイコットs were とじ込み／提出するing out of an archway into another 法廷，裁判所. One of them was just placing something on a ledge of the その上の 塀で囲む, and Conan saw it was the one who had 拷問d the boy. He was taller than the others, and wore a jeweled 長，率いる-禁止（する）d. Of the Zingaran boy there was no trace. The 巨大（な） followed his fellows, and presently Conan saw them 現れる from the archway by which he had 伸び（る）d 接近 to that 城 of horror, and とじ込み／提出する away across the green slopes, in the direction from which he had come. They bore no 武器, yet he felt that they planned その上の 侵略 against the Freebooters.

But before he went to 警告する the unsuspecting buccaneers, he wished to 調査／捜査する the 運命／宿命 of the boy. No sound 乱すd the 静かな. The 著作権侵害者 believed that the towers and 法廷，裁判所s were 砂漠d save for himself.

He went 速く 負かす／撃墜する the stair, crossed the 法廷，裁判所 and passed through an arch into the 法廷，裁判所 the 黒人／ボイコットs had just quitted. Now he saw the nature of the striated 塀で囲む. It was banded by 狭くする ledges, 明らかに 削減（する） out of the solid 石／投石する, and 範囲d along these ledges or 棚上げにするs were thousands of tiny 人物／姿／数字s, mostly grayish in color. These 人物／姿／数字s, not much longer than a man's 手渡す, 代表するd men, and so cleverly were they made that Conan recognised さまざまな racial 特徴 in the different idols, features typical of Zingarans, Argosseans, Ophireans and Kushite corsairs. These last were 黒人／ボイコット in color, just as their models were 黒人／ボイコット in reality. Conan was aware of a vague uneasiness as he 星／主役にするd at the dumb sightless 人物／姿／数字s. There was a mimicry of reality about them that was somehow 乱すing. He felt of them gingerly and could not decide of what 構成要素 they were made. It felt like petrified bone; but he could not imagine petrified 実体 存在 設立する in the locality in such 豊富 as to be used so lavishly.

He noticed that the images 代表するing types with which he was familiar were all on the higher ledges. The lower ledges were 占領するd by 人物／姿／数字s the features of which were strange to him. They either 具体的に表現するd 単に the artists' imagination, or typified racial types long 消えるd and forgotten.

Shaking his 長，率いる impatiently, Conan turned toward the pool. The circular 法廷，裁判所 申し込む／申し出d no place of concealment; as the 団体／死体 of the boy was nowhere in sight, it must be lying at the 底（に届く） of the pool.

Approaching the placid green disk, he 星／主役にするd into the 微光ing surface. It was like looking through a 厚い green glass, unclouded, yet strangely illusory. Of no 広大な／多数の／重要な dimensions, the pool was 一連の会議、交渉／完成する as a 井戸／弁護士席, 国境d by a 縁 of green jade. Looking 負かす／撃墜する he could see the 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd 底（に届く）—how far below the surface he could not decide. But the pool seemed incredibly 深い—he was aware of a dizziness as he looked 負かす／撃墜する, much as if he were looking into an abyss. He was puzzled by his ability to see the 底（に届く）; but it lay beneath his gaze, impossibly remote, illusive, shadowy, yet 明白な. At times he thought a faint luminosity was 明らかな 深い in the jade-colored depth, but he could not be sure. Yet he was sure that the pool was empty except for the shimmering water.

Then where in the 指名する of Crom was the boy whom he had seen 残酷に 溺死するd in that pool? Rising, Conan fingered his sword, and gazed around the 法廷，裁判所 again. His gaze 焦点（を合わせる）d on a 位置／汚点／見つけ出す on one of the higher ledges. There he had seen the tall 黒人／ボイコット place something—冷淡な sweat broke suddenly out on Conan's brown hide.

Hesitantly, yet as if drawn by a magnet, the 著作権侵害者 approached the shimmering 塀で囲む. Dazed by a 疑惑 too monstrous to 発言する／表明する, he glared up at the last 人物／姿／数字 on that ledge. A horrible familiarity made itself evident. Stony, immobile, dwarfish, yet unmistakable, the features of the Zingaran boy 星／主役にするd unseeingly at him. Conan recoiled, shaken to his soul's 創立／基礎s. His sword 追跡するd in his 麻ひさせるd 手渡す as he glared, open-mouthed, stunned by the 現実化 which was too abysmal and awful for the mind to しっかり掴む.

Yet the fact was indisputable; the secret of the dwarfish 人物／姿／数字s was 明らかにする／漏らすd, though behind that secret lay the darker and more cryptic secret of their 存在.

CHAPTER 3

HOW long Conan stood 溺死するd in dizzy cogitation, he never knew. A 発言する／表明する shook him out of his gaze, a feminine 発言する／表明する that shrieked more and more loudly, as if the owner of the 発言する／表明する were 存在 borne nearer. Conan recognised that 発言する／表明する, and his paralysis 消えるd 即時に.

A quick bound carried him high up on the 狭くする ledges, where he clung, kicking aside the clustering images to 得る room for his feet. Another spring and a 緊急発進する, and he was 粘着するing to the 縁 of the 塀で囲む, glaring over it. It was an outer 塀で囲む; he was looking into the green meadow that surrounded the 城.

Across the grassy level a 巨大（な） 黒人／ボイコット was striding, carrying a squirming 捕虜 under one arm as a man might carry a 反抗的な child. It was Sancha, her 黒人／ボイコット hair 落ちるing in disheveled rippling waves, her olive 肌 contrasting 突然の with the glossy ebony of her captor. He gave no 注意する to her wrigglings and cries as he made for the outer archway.

As he 消えるd within, Conan sprang recklessly 負かす／撃墜する the 塀で囲む and glided into the arch that opened into the その上の 法廷，裁判所. Crouching there, he saw the 巨大（な） enter the 法廷，裁判所 of the pool, carrying his writhing 捕虜. Now he was able to make out the creature's 詳細（に述べる）s.

The superb symmetry of 団体／死体 and 四肢s was more impressive at の近くに 範囲. Under the ebon 肌 long, 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd muscles rippled, and Conan did not 疑問 that the monster could rend an ordinary man 四肢 from 四肢. The nails of the fingers 供給するd その上の 武器s, for they were grown like the talons of a wild beast. The 直面する was a carven ebony mask. The 注目する，もくろむs were tawny, a vibrant gold that glowed and glittered. But the 直面する was 残忍な; each line, each feature was stamped with evil—evil transcending the mere evil of humanity. The thing was not a human—it could not be; it was a growth of Life from the 炭坑，オーケストラ席s of blasphemous 創造—a perversion of evolutionary 開発.

The 巨大（な） cast Sancha 負かす／撃墜する on the sward, where she grovelled, crying with 苦痛 and terror. He cast a ちらりと見ること about as if uncertain, and his tawny 注目する，もくろむs 狭くするd as they 残り／休憩（する）d on the images overturned and knocked from the 塀で囲む. Then he stooped, しっかり掴むd his 捕虜 by her neck and crotch, and strode purposefully toward the green pool. And Conan glided from his archway, and raced like a 勝利，勝つd of death across the sward.

The 巨大（な） wheeled, and his 注目する，もくろむs ゆらめくd as he saw the bronzed avenger 急ぐing toward him. In the instant of surprise his cruel 支配する relaxed and Sancha wriggled from his 手渡すs and fell to the grass. The taloned 手渡すs spread and clutched, but Conan ducked beneath their 急襲する and drove his sword through the 巨大（な）'s groin. The 黒人／ボイコット went 負かす／撃墜する like a felled tree, 噴出するing 血, and the next instant Conan was 掴むd in a frantic しっかり掴む as Sancha sprang up and threw her 武器 around him in a frenzy of terror and hysterical 救済.

He 悪口を言う／悪態d as he 解放する／撤去させるd himself, but his 敵 was already dead; the tawny 注目する，もくろむs were glazed, the long ebony 四肢s had 中止するd to twitch.

"Oh, Conan," Sancha was sobbing, 粘着するing tenaciously to him, "what will become of us? What are these monsters? Oh, surely this is hell and that was the devil—"

"Then hell needs a new devil." The Barachan grinned ひどく. "But how did he get 持つ／拘留する of you? Have they taken the ship?"

"I don't know." She tried to wipe away her 涙／ほころびs, fumbled for her skirt, and then remembered that she wore 非，不，無. "I （機の）カム 岸に. I saw you follow Zaporavo, and I followed you both. I 設立する Zaporavo—was—was it you who—"

"Who else?" he grunted. "What then?"

"I saw a movement in the trees," she shuddered. "I thought it was you. I called—then I saw that—that 黒人／ボイコット thing squatting like an ape の中で the 支店s, leering 負かす／撃墜する at me. It was like a nightmare; I couldn't run. All I could do was squeal. Then it dropped from the tree and 掴むd me—oh, oh, oh!" She hid her 直面する in her 手渡すs, and was shaken もう一度 at the memory of the horror.

"井戸／弁護士席, we've got to get out of here," he growled, catching her wrist. "Come on; we've got to get to the 乗組員—"

"Most of them were asleep on the beach as I entered the 支持を得ようと努めるd," she said.

"Asleep?" he exclaimed profanely. "What in the seven devils of hell's 解雇する／砲火／射撃 and damnation—"

"Listen!" She froze, a white quivering image of fright.

"I heard it!" he snapped. "A moaning cry! Wait!"

He bounded up the ledges again and, glaring over the 塀で囲む, swore with a concentrated fury that made even Sancha gasp. The 黒人／ボイコット men were returning, but they （機の）カム not alone or empty-手渡すd. Each bore a limp human form; some bore two. Their 捕虜s were the Freebooters; they hung slackly in their captors' 武器, and but for an 時折の vague movement or twitching, Conan would have believed them dead. They had been 武装解除するd but not stripped; one of the 黒人／ボイコットs bore their sheathed swords, a 広大な／多数の／重要な armload of bristling steel. From time to time one of the seamen 発言する／表明するd a vague cry, like a drunkard calling out in sottish sleep.

Like a 罠にかける wolf Conan glared about him. Three arches led out of the 法廷，裁判所 of the pool. Through the eastern arch the 黒人／ボイコットs had left the 法廷，裁判所, and through it they would 推定では return. He had entered by the southern arch. In the western arch he had hidden, and had not had time to notice what lay beyond it. 関わりなく his ignorance of the 計画（する） of the 城, he was 軍隊d to make his 決定／判定勝ち（する） 敏速に.

Springing 負かす／撃墜する the 塀で囲む, he 取って代わるd the images with frantic haste, dragged the 死体 of his 犠牲者 to the pool and cast it in. It sank 即時に and, as he looked, he distinctly saw an appalling 収縮過程—a 縮むing, a hardening. He あわてて turned away, shuddering. Then he 掴むd his companion's arm and led her あわてて toward the southern archway, while she begged to be told what was happening.

"They've bagged the 乗組員," he answered あわてて. "I 港／避難所't any 計画（する）, but we'll hide somewhere and watch. If they don't look in the pool, they may not 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う our presence."

"But they'll see the 血 on the grass!"

"Maybe they'll think one of their own devils 流出／こぼすd it," he answered. "Anyway, we'll have to take the chance."

They were in the 法廷，裁判所 from which he had watched the 拷問 of the boy, and he led her あわてて up the stair that 機動力のある the southern 塀で囲む, and 軍隊d her into a crouching position behind the balustrade of the balcony; it was poor concealment, but the best they could do.

SCARCELY had they settled themselves, when the 黒人／ボイコットs とじ込み／提出するd into the 法廷，裁判所. There was a resounding 衝突／不一致 at the foot of the stairs, and Conan 強化するd, しっかり掴むing his sword. But the 黒人／ボイコットs passed through an archway on the southwestern 味方する, and they heard a 一連の thuds and groans. The 巨大（な）s were casting their 犠牲者s 負かす／撃墜する on the sward. An hysterical giggle rose to Sancha's lips, and Conan quickly clapped his を引き渡す her mouth, stifling the sound before it could betray them.

After a while they heard the padding of many feet on the sward below, and then silence 統治するd. Conan peered over the 塀で囲む. The 法廷，裁判所 was empty. The 黒人／ボイコットs were once more gathered about the pool in the 隣接するing 法廷，裁判所, squatting on their haunches. They seemed to 支払う／賃金 no 注意する to the 広大な／多数の／重要な smears of 血 on the sward and the jade 縁 of the pool. Evidently 血 stains were nothing unusual. Nor were they looking into the pool. They were engrossed in some inexplicable conclave of their own; the tall 黒人／ボイコット was playing again on his golden 麻薬を吸うs, and his companions listened like ebony statues.

Taking Sancha's 手渡す, Conan glided 負かす／撃墜する the stair, stooping so that his 長，率いる would not be 明白な above the 塀で囲む. The cringing girl followed perforce, 星／主役にするing fearfully at the arch that let into the 法廷，裁判所 of the pool, but through which, at that angle, neither the pool nor its grim throng were 明白な. At the foot of the stair lay the swords of the Zingarans. The 衝突／不一致 they had heard had been the casting 負かす／撃墜する of the 逮捕（する）d 武器s.

Conan drew Sancha toward the southwestern arch, and they silently crossed the sward and entered the 法廷，裁判所 beyond. There the Freebooters lay in careless heaps, mustaches bristling, earrings glinting. Here and there one stirred or groaned restlessly. Conan bent 負かす／撃墜する to them, and Sancha knelt beside him, leaning 今後 with her 手渡すs on her thighs.

"What is that 甘い cloying smell?" she asked nervously. "It's on all their breaths."

"It's that damned fruit they were eating," he answered softly. "I remember the smell of it. It must have been like the 黒人／ボイコット lotus, that makes men sleep. By Crom, they are beginning to awake—but they're 非武装の, and I have an idea that those 黒人／ボイコット devils won't wait long before they begin their 魔法 on them. What chance will the lads have, 非武装の and stupid with slumber?"

He brooded for an instant, scowling with the intentness of his thoughts; then 掴むd Sancha's olive shoulder in a 支配する that made her wince.

"Listen! I'll draw those 黒人／ボイコット swine into another part of the 城 and keep them busy for a while. 一方／合間 you shake these fools awake, and bring their swords to them—it's a fighting chance. Can you do it?"

"I—I—don't know!" she stammered, shaking with terror, and hardly knowing what she was 説.

With a 悪口を言う／悪態, Conan caught her 厚い tresses 近づく her 長，率いる and shook her until the 塀で囲むs danced to her dizzy sight.

"You must do it!" he hissed at her. "It's our only chance!"

"I'll do my best!" she gasped, and with a grunt of commendation and an encouraging 非難する on the 支援する that nearly knocked her 負かす／撃墜する, he glided away.

A few moments later he was crouching at the arch that opened into the 法廷，裁判所 of the pool, glaring upon his enemies. They still sat about the pool, but were beginning to show 証拠s of an evil impatience. From the 法廷，裁判所 where lay the rousing buccaneers he heard their groans growing louder, beginning to be mingled with incoherent 悪口を言う／悪態s. He 緊張したd his muscles and sank into a pantherish crouch, breathing easily between his teeth.

The jeweled 巨大（な） rose, taking his 麻薬を吸うs from his lips—and at that instant Conan was の中で the startled 黒人／ボイコットs with a tigerish bound. And as a tiger leaps and strikes の中で his prey, Conan leaped and struck: thrice his blade flickered before any could 解除する a 手渡す in 弁護; then he bounded from の中で them and raced across the sward. Behind him sprawled three 黒人／ボイコット 人物／姿／数字s, their skulls 分裂（する）.

But though the 予期しない fury of his surprize had caught the 巨大（な）s off guard, the 生存者s 回復するd quickly enough. They were at his heels as he ran through the western arch, their long 脚s 広範囲にわたる them over the ground at headlong 速度(を上げる）. However, he felt 確信して of his ability to outfoot them at will; but that was not his 目的. He ーするつもりであるd 主要な them on a long chase, ーするために give Sancha time to rouse and arm the Zingarans.

And as he raced into the 法廷，裁判所 beyond the western arch, he swore. This 法廷，裁判所 異なるd from the others he had seen. Instead of 存在 一連の会議、交渉／完成する, it was octagonal, and the arch by which he had entered was the only 入り口 or 出口.

Wheeling, he saw that the entire 禁止（する）d had followed him in; a group clustered in the arch, and the 残り／休憩（する） spread out in a wide line as they approached. He 直面するd them, 支援 slowly toward the northern 塀で囲む. The line bent into a semicircle, spreading out to hem him in. He continued to move backward, but more and more slowly, 公式文書，認めるing the spaces 広げるing between the pursuers. They 恐れるd lest he should try to dart around a horn of the 三日月, and lengthened their line to 妨げる it.

He watched with the 静める alertness of a wolf, and when he struck it was with the 破滅的な suddenness of a thunderbolt—十分な at the 中心 of the 三日月. The 巨大（な） who 閉めだした his way went 負かす／撃墜する cloven to the middle of the breast-bone, and the 著作権侵害者 was outside their の近くにing （犯罪の）一味 before the 黒人／ボイコットs to 権利 and left could come to their stricken comrade's 援助（する）. The group at the gate 用意が出来ている to receive his 猛攻撃, but Conan did not 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 them. He had turned and was watching his hunters without 明らかな emotion, and certainly without 恐れる.

This time they did not spread out in a thin line. They had learned that it was 致命的な to divide their 軍隊s against such an incarnation of clawing, rending fury. They bunched up in a compact 集まり, and 前進するd on him without undue haste, 持続するing their 形式.

CONAN knew that if he fell foul of that 集まり of taloned muscle and bone, there could be but one culmination. Once let them drag him 負かす／撃墜する の中で them where they could reach him with their talons and use their greater 団体／死体-負わせる to advantage, even his 原始の ferocity would not 勝つ／広く一帯に広がる. He ちらりと見ることd around the 塀で囲む and saw a ledge-like 発射／推定 above a corner on the western 味方する. What it was he did not know, but it would serve his 目的. He began 支援 toward that corner, and the 巨大（な）s 前進するd more 速く. They evidently thought that they were herding him into the corner themselves, and Conan 設立する time to 反映する that they probably looked on him as a member of a lower order, mentally inferior to themselves. So much the better. Nothing is more 悲惨な than underestimating one's antagonist.

Now he was only a few yards from the 塀で囲む, and the 黒人／ボイコットs were の近くにing in 速く, evidently thinking to pin him in the corner before he realised his 状況／情勢. The group at the gate had 砂漠d their 地位，任命する and were 急いでing to join their fellows. The 巨大（な）s half-crouched, 注目する，もくろむs 炎ing like golden hell- 解雇する／砲火／射撃, teeth glistening whitely, taloned 手渡すs 解除するd as if to fend off attack. They 推定する／予想するd an abrupt and violent move on the part of their prey, but when it （機の）カム, it took them by surprise.

Conan 解除するd his sword, took a step toward them, then wheeled and raced to the 塀で囲む. With a (n)艦隊／(a)素早いing coil and 解放（する） of steel muscles, he 発射 high in the 空気／公表する, and his 緊張するing arm 麻薬中毒の its fingers over the 発射／推定. 即時に there was a rending 衝突，墜落 and the jutting ledge gave way, precipitating the 著作権侵害者 支援する into the 法廷，裁判所.

He 攻撃する，衝突する on his 支援する, which for all its springy sinews would have broken but for the cushioning of the sward, and 回復するing like a 広大な／多数の／重要な cat, he 直面するd his 敵s. The dancing recklessness was gone from his 注目する，もくろむs. They 炎d like blue bale-解雇する／砲火／射撃; his mane bristled, his thin lips snarled. In an instant the 事件／事情／状勢 had changed from a daring game to a 戦う／戦い of life and death, and Conan's savage nature 答える／応じるd with all the fury of the wild.

The 黒人／ボイコットs, 停止（させる）d an instant by the swiftness of the episode, now made to sweep on him and drag him 負かす／撃墜する. But in that instant a shout broke the stillness. Wheeling, the 巨大（な）s saw a disreputable throng （人が）群がるing the arch. The buccaneers weaved drunkenly, they swore incoherently; they were addled and bewildered, but they しっかり掴むd their swords and 前進するd with a ferocity not dimmed in the slightest by the fact that they did not understand what it was all about.

As the 黒人／ボイコットs glared in amazement, Conan yelled stridently and struck them like a かみそり-辛勝する／優位d thunderbolt. They fell like 熟した 穀物s beneath his blade, and the Zingarans, shouting with muddled fury, ran groggily across the 法廷，裁判所 and fell on their gigantic 敵s with bloodthirsty zeal. They were still dazed; 現れるing hazily from drugged slumber, they had felt Sancha frantically shaking them and 押すing swords into their 握りこぶしs, and had ばく然と heard her 勧めるing them to some sort of 活動／戦闘. They had not understood all she said, but the sight of strangers, and 血 streaming, was enough for them.

In an instant the 法廷，裁判所 was turned into a 戦う／戦い-ground which soon 似ているd a 虐殺（する）-house. The Zingarans weaved and 激しく揺するd on their feet, but they （権力などを）行使するd their swords with 力／強力にする and 影響, 断言するing prodigiously, and やめる oblivious to all 負傷させるs except those 即時に 致命的な. They far より数が多いd the 黒人／ボイコットs, but these 証明するd themselves no mean antagonists. 非常に高い above their 加害者s, the 巨大（な）s wrought havoc with talons and teeth, 涙／ほころびing out men's throats, and 取引，協定ing blows with clenched 握りこぶしs that 鎮圧するd in skulls. Mixed and mingled in that melee, the buccaneers could not use their superior agility to the best advantage, and many were too stupid from their drugged sleep to 避ける blows 目的（とする）d at them. They fought with a blind wild- beast ferocity, too 意図 on 取引，協定ing death to 避ける it. The sound of the 切り開く／タクシー／不正アクセスing swords was like that of butchers' cleavers, and the shrieks, yells and 悪口を言う／悪態s were appalling.

Sancha, 縮むing in the archway, was stunned by the noise and fury; she got a dazed impression of a whirling 大混乱 in which steel flashed and 切り開く／タクシー／不正アクセスd, 武器 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd, snarling 直面するs appeared and 消えるd, and 緊張するing 団体／死体s 衝突する／食い違うd, 回復するd, locked and mingled in a devil's dance of madness.

詳細（に述べる）s stood out 簡潔に, like 黒人／ボイコット etchings on a background of 血. She saw a Zingaran sailor, blinded by a 広大な／多数の／重要な flap of scalp torn loose and hanging over his 注目する，もくろむs, を締める his またがるing 脚s and 運動 his sword to the hilt in a 黒人／ボイコット belly. She distinctly heard the buccaneer grunt as he struck, and saw the 犠牲者's tawny 注目する，もくろむs roll up in sudden agony; 血 and entrails 噴出するd out over the driven blade. The dying 黒人／ボイコット caught the blade with his naked 手渡すs, and the sailor tugged blindly and stupidly; then a 黒人／ボイコット arm 麻薬中毒の about the Zingaran's 長，率いる, a 黒人／ボイコット 膝 was 工場／植物d with cruel 軍隊 in the middle of his 支援する. His 長，率いる was jerked 支援する at a terrible angle, and something 割れ目d above the noise of the fray, like the breaking of a 厚い 支店. The 征服者／勝利者 dashed his 犠牲者's 団体／死体 to the earth—and as he did, something like a beam of blue light flashed across his shoulders from behind, from 権利 to left. He staggered, his 長，率いる 倒れるd 今後 on his breast, and thence, hideously, to the earth.

SANCHA turned sick. She gagged and wished to vomit. She made abortive 成果／努力s to turn and 逃げる from the spectacle, but her 脚s would not work. Nor could she の近くに her 注目する，もくろむs. In fact, she opened them wider. 反乱d, repelled, nauseated, yet she felt the awful fascination she had always experienced at sight of 血. Yet this 戦う／戦い transcended anything she had ever seen fought out between human 存在s in port （警察の）手入れ，急襲s or sea 戦う／戦いs. Then she saw Conan.

Separated from his mates by the whole 集まり of the enemy, Conan had been enveloped in a 黒人／ボイコット wave of 武器 and 団体／死体s, and dragged 負かす／撃墜する. Then they would quickly have stamped the life out of him, but he had pulled 負かす／撃墜する one of them with him, and the 黒人／ボイコット's 団体／死体 保護するd that of the 著作権侵害者 beneath him. They kicked and tore at the Barachan and dragged at their writhing comrade, but Conan's teeth were 始める，決める 猛烈に in his throat, and the 著作権侵害者 clung tenaciously to his dying 保護物，者.

An 猛攻撃 of Zingarans 原因（となる）d a slackening of the 圧力（をかける）, and Conan threw aside the 死体 and rose, 血-smeared and terrible. The 巨大（な）s towered above him like 広大な／多数の／重要な 黒人／ボイコット 影をつくる／尾行するs, clutching, buffeting the 空気／公表する with terrible blows. But he was as hard to 攻撃する，衝突する or grapple as a 血-mad panther, and at every turn or flash of his blade, 血 jetted. He had already taken 罰 enough to kill three ordinary men, but his bull-like vitality was 衰えていない.

His war cry rose above the medley of the 大虐殺, and the bewildered but furious Zingarans took fresh heart and redoubled their 一打／打撃s, until the rending of flesh and the crunching of bone beneath the swords almost 溺死するd the howls of 苦痛 and wrath.

The 黒人／ボイコットs wavered, and broke for the gate, and Sancha squealed at their coming and scurried out of the way. They jammed in the 狭くする archway, and the Zingarans stabbed and 切り開く／タクシー／不正アクセスd at their 緊張するing 支援するs with strident yelps of glee. The gate was a shambles before the 生存者s broke through and scattered, each for himself.

The 戦う／戦い became a chase. Across grassy 法廷，裁判所s, up shimmering stairs, over the slanting roofs of fantastic towers, even along the 幅の広い 対処するing of the 塀で囲むs, the 巨大（な）s fled, dripping 血 at each step, harried by their merciless pursuers as by wolves. Cornered, some of them turned at bay and men died. But the ultimate result was always the same—a mangled 黒人／ボイコット 団体／死体 twitching on the sward, or 投げつけるd writhing and 新たな展開ing from parapet or tower roof.

Sancha had taken 避難 in the 法廷，裁判所 of the pool, where she crouched, shaking with terror. Outside rose a 猛烈な／残忍な yelling, feet 続けざまに猛撃するd the sward, and through the arch burst a 黒人／ボイコット, red-stained 人物／姿／数字. It was the 巨大（な） who wore the gemmed headband. A squat pursuer was の近くに behind, and the 黒人／ボイコット turned, at the very brink of the pool. In his extremity he had 選ぶd up a sword dropped by a dying sailor, and as the Zingaran 急ぐd recklessly at him, he struck with the unfamiliar 武器. The buccaneer dropped with his skull 鎮圧するd, but so awkwardly the blow was dealt, the blade shivered in the 巨大（な）'s 手渡す.

He 投げつけるd the hilt at the 人物／姿／数字s which thronged the arch, and bounded toward the pool, his 直面する a convulsed mask of hate.

Conan burst through the men at the gate, and his feet 拒絶するd the sward in his headlong 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金.

But the 巨大（な） threw his 広大な／多数の／重要な 武器 wide and from his lips rang an 残忍な cry—the only sound made by a 黒人／ボイコット during the entire fight. It 叫び声をあげるd to the sky its awful hate; it was like a 発言する／表明する howling from the 炭坑，オーケストラ席s. At the sound the Zingarans 滞るd and hesitated. But Conan did not pause. Silently and murderously he drove at the ebon 人物／姿／数字 均衡を保った on the brink of the pool.

But even as his dripping sword gleamed in the 空気／公表する, the 黒人／ボイコット wheeled and bounded high. For a flash of an instant they saw him 均衡を保った in 空中 above the pool; then with an earth-shaking roar, the green waters rose and 急ぐd up to 会合，会う him, enveloping him in a green 火山.

CONAN checked his headlong 急ぐ just in time to keep from 倒れるing into the pool, and he sprang 支援する, thrusting his men behind him with mighty swings of his 武器. The green pool was like a geyser now, the noise rising to deafening 容積／容量 as the 広大な／多数の／重要な column of water 後部d and 後部d, blossoming at the crest with a 広大な／多数の／重要な 栄冠を与える of 泡，激怒すること.

Conan was 運動ing his men to the gate, herding them ahead of him, （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing them with the flat of his sword; the roar of the water-spout seemed to have robbed them of their faculties. Seeing Sancha standing 麻ひさせるd, 星／主役にするing with wide-注目する，もくろむd terror at the seething 中心存在, he accosted her with a bellow that 削減（する） through the 雷鳴 of the water and made her jump out of her daze. She ran to him, 武器 outstretched, and he caught her up under one arm and raced out of the 法廷，裁判所.

In the 法廷，裁判所 which opened on the outer world, the 生存者s had gathered, 疲れた／うんざりした, tattered, 負傷させるd and 血-stained, and stood gaping dumbly at the 広大な／多数の／重要な 安定性のない 中心存在 that towered momentarily nearer the blue 丸天井 of the sky. Its green trunk was laced with white; its 泡，激怒することing 栄冠を与える was thrice the circumference of its base. Momentarily it 脅すd to burst and 落ちる in an （海，煙などが）飲み込むing 激流, yet it continued to jet skyward.

Conan's 注目する，もくろむs swept the 血まみれの, naked group, and he 悪口を言う／悪態d to see only a 得点する／非難する／２０. In the 強調する／ストレス of the moment he しっかり掴むd a corsair by the neck and shook him so violently that 血 from the man's 負傷させるs spattered all 近づく them.

"Where are the 残り／休憩（する）?" he bellowed in his 犠牲者's ear.

"That's all!" the other yelled 支援する, above the roar of the geyser. "The others were all killed by those 黒人／ボイコット—"

"井戸／弁護士席, get out of here!" roared Conan, giving him a thrust that sent him staggering headlong toward the outer archway. "That fountain is going to burst in a moment—"

"We'll all be 溺死するd!" squawked a Freebooter, limping toward the arch.

"溺死するd, hell!" yelled Conan. "We'll be turned to pieces of petrified bone! Get out, 爆破 you!"

He ran to the outer archway, one 注目する，もくろむ on the green roaring tower that ぼんやり現れるd so awfully above him, the other on stragglers. Dazed with 血-lust, fighting, and the thunderous noise, some of the Zingarans moved like men in a trance. Conan hurried them up; his method was simple. He しっかり掴むd loiterers by the scruff of the neck, impelled them violently through the gate, 追加するd impetus with a lusty kick in the 後部, spicing his urgings for haste with pungent comments on the 犠牲者's 家系. Sancha showed an inclination to remain with him, but he jerked away her twining 武器, blaspheming luridly, and 加速するd her movements with a tremendous 非難する on the posterior that sent her scurrying across the 高原.

Conan did not leave the gate until he was sure all his men who yet lived were out of the 城 and started across the level meadow. Then he ちらりと見ることd again at the roaring 中心存在 ぼんやり現れるing against the sky, dwarfing the towers, and he too fled that 城 of nameless horrors.

The Zingarans had already crossed the 縁 of the 高原 and were 逃げるing 負かす／撃墜する the slopes. Sancha waited for him at the crest of the first slope beyond the 縁, and there he paused for an instant to look 支援する at the 城. It was as if a gigantic green-stemmed and white-blossomed flower swayed above the towers; the roar filled the sky. Then the jade-green and 雪の降る，雪の多い 中心存在 broke with a noise like the rending of the skies, and 塀で囲むs and towers were blotted out in a thunderous 激流.

Conan caught the girl's 手渡す, and fled. Slope after slope rose and fell before them, and behind sounded the 急ぐing of a river. A ちらりと見ること over his 緊張するing shoulder showed a 幅の広い green 略章 rising and 落ちるing as it swept over the slopes. The 激流 had not spread out and dissipated; like a 巨大（な） serpent it flowed over the 不景気s and the 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd crests. It held a 一貫した course—it was に引き続いて them.

The realisation roused Conan to a greater pitch of endurance. Sancha つまずくd and went to her 膝s with a moaning cry of despair and exhaustion. Catching her up, Conan 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd her over his 巨大（な） shoulder and ran on. His breast heaved, his 膝s trembled; his breath tore in 広大な／多数の／重要な gasps through his teeth. He reeled in his gait. Ahead of him he saw the sailors toiling, spurred on by the terror that gripped them.

The ocean burst suddenly on his 見解（をとる）, and in his swimming gaze floated the Wastrel, 無事の. Men 宙返り／暴落するd into the boats helter-skelter. Sancha fell into the 底（に届く） and lay there in a crumpled heap. Conan, though the 血 雷鳴d in his ears and the world swam red to his gaze, took an oar with the panting sailors.

WITH hearts ready to burst from exhaustion, they pulled for the ship. The green river burst through the fringe of trees. Those trees fell as if their 茎・取り除くs had been 削減（する） away, and as they sank into the jade-colored flood, they 消えるd. The tide flowed out over the beach, lapped at the ocean, and the waves turned a deeper, more 悪意のある green.

Unreasoning, 直感的に 恐れる held the buccaneers, making them 勧める their agonised 団体／死体s and reeling brains to greater 成果／努力; what they 恐れるd they knew not, but they did know that in that abominable smooth green 略章 was a menace to 団体／死体 and to soul. Conan knew, and as he saw the 幅の広い line slip into the waves and stream through the water toward them, without altering its 形態／調整 or course, he called up his last ounce of reserve strength so ひどく that the oar snapped in his 手渡すs.

But their prows bumped against the 木材／素質s of the Wastrel, and the sailors staggered up the chains, leaving the boats to drift as they would. Sancha went up on Conan's 幅の広い shoulder, hanging limp as a 死体, to be 捨てるd 無作法に on to the deck as the Barachan took the wheel, gasping orders to his 骸骨／概要 of a 乗組員. Throughout the 事件／事情／状勢, he had taken the lead without question, and they had instinctively followed him. They reeled about like drunken men, fumbling mechanically at ropes and を締めるs. The 錨，総合司会者 chain, unshackled, splashed into the water, the sails unfurled and bellied in a rising 勝利，勝つd. The Wastrel quivered and shook herself, and swung majestically seaward. Conan glared shoreward; like a tongue of emerald 炎上, a 略章 licked out on the water futilely, an oar's length from the Wastrel's keel. It 前進するd no その上の. From that end of the tongue, his gaze followed an 無傷の stream of lambent green, across the white beach, and over the slopes, until it faded in the blue distance.

The Barachan, 回復するing his 勝利，勝つd, grinned at the panting 乗組員. Sancha was standing 近づく him, hysterical 涙／ほころびs coursing 負かす／撃墜する her cheeks. Conan's breeks hung in 血-stained tatters; his girdle and sheath were gone, his sword, driven upright into the deck beside him, was notched and crusted with red. 血 thickly clotted his 黒人／ボイコット mane, and one ear had been half torn from his 長，率いる. His 武器, 脚s, breast and shoulders were bitten and clawed as if by panthers. But he grinned as he を締めるd his powerful 脚s, and swung on the wheel in sheer exuberance of muscular might.

"What now?" 滞るd the girl.

"The plunder of the seas!" he laughed. "A paltry 乗組員, and that chewed and clawed to pieces, but they can work the ship, and 乗組員s can always be 設立する. Come here, girl, and give me a kiss."

"A kiss?" she cried hysterically. "You think of kisses at a time like this?"

His laughter にわか景気d above the snap and 雷鳴 of the sails, as he caught her up off her feet in the crook of one mighty arm, and smacked her red lips with resounding relish.

"I think of Life!" he roared. "The dead are dead, and what has passed is done! I have a ship and a fighting 乗組員 and a girl with lips like ワイン, and that's all I ever asked. Lick your 負傷させるs, いじめ（る）s, and 勃発する a 樽 of ale. You're going to work ship as she never was worked before. Dance and sing while you buckle to it, damn you! To the devil with empty seas! We're bound for waters where the seaports are fat, and the merchant ships are crammed with plunder!"

THE END

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