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肩書を与える: 血 of the Gods Author: Robert E. Howard * A 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia eBook * eBook No.: 0601041h.html Language: English Date first 地位，任命するd: May 2006 Most 最近の update: Jan 2019 This eBook was produced by Richard Scott and Colin Choat, and updated by Roy Glashan. 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia eBooks are created from printed 版s which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice is 含むd. We do NOT keep any eBooks in 同意／服従 with a particular paper 版. Copyright 法律s are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright 法律s for your country before downloading or redistributing this とじ込み／提出する. This eBook is made 利用できる at no cost and with almost no 制限s どれでも. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the 条件 of the 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia License which may be 見解（をとる）d online at http://gutenberg.逮捕する.au/licence.html To 接触する 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia go to http://gutenberg.逮捕する.au
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最高の，を越す-Notch magazine, July 1935
IT was the wolfish snarl on Hawkston's thin lips, the red glare in his 注目する，もくろむs, which first roused terrified 疑惑 in the Arab's mind, there in the 砂漠d hut on the 郊外s of the little town of el-Azem. 疑惑 became certainty as he 星／主役にするd at the three dark, lowering 直面するs of the other white men, bent toward him, and all beastly with the same cruel greed that 新たな展開d their leader's features.
The brandy glass slipped from the Arab's 手渡す and his swarthy 肌 went ashy.
"Lah!" he cried 猛烈に. "No! You lied to me! You are not friends—you brought me here to 殺人 me—"
He made a convulsive 成果／努力 to rise, but Hawkston しっかり掴むd the bosom of his gumbaz in an アイロンをかける 支配する and 軍隊d him 負かす／撃墜する into the （軍の）野営地，陣営 議長，司会を務める again. The Arab cringed away from the dark, 強硬派-like visage bending の近くに to his own.
"You won't be 傷つける, Dirdar," rasped the Englishman. "Not if you tell us what we want to know. You heard my question. Where is Al Wazir?"
The beady 注目する，もくろむs of the Arab glared wildly up at his captor for an instant, then Dirdar moved with all the strength and 速度(を上げる） of his wiry 団体／死体. を締めるing his feet against the 床に打ち倒す, he heaved backward suddenly, 倒れるing the 議長，司会を務める over and throwing himself along with it. With a rending of worn cloth the bosom of the gumbaz （機の）カム away in Hawkston's 手渡す, and Dirdar, 回復するing his feet like a bouncing rubber ball, dived straight at the open door, ducking beneath the pawing arm of the big Dutchman, 先頭 Brock. But he tripped over Ortelli's 延長するd 脚 and fell sprawling, rolling on his 支援する to 削除する up at the Italian with the curved knife he had snatched from his girdle. Ortelli jumped 支援する, yowling, 血 spurting from his 脚, but as Dirdar once more bounced to his feet, the ロシアの, Krakovitch, struck him ひどく from behind with a ピストル バーレル／樽.
As the Arab sagged to the 床に打ち倒す, stunned, Hawkston kicked the knife out of his 手渡す. The Englishman stooped, grabbed him by the collar of his abba, and grunted: "Help me 解除する him, 先頭 Brock."
The burly Dutchman 従うd, and the half-senseless Arab was slammed 負かす／撃墜する in the 議長，司会を務める from which he had just escaped. They did not tie him, but Krakovitch stood behind him, one 始める，決める of steely fingers digging into his shoulder, the other 宙に浮くing the long gun-バーレル／樽.
Hawkston 注ぐd out a glass of brandy and thrust it to his lips. Dirdar gulped mechanically, and the glassiness faded out of his 注目する，もくろむs.
"He's coming around," grunted Hawkston. "You 攻撃する，衝突する him hard, Krakovitch. Shut up, Ortelli! Tie a rag about your bally 脚 and やめる grousing about it! 井戸／弁護士席, Dirdar, are you ready to talk?"
The Arab looked about like a 罠にかける animal, his lean chest heaving under the torn gumbaz. He saw no mercy in the flinty 直面するs about him.
"Let's 燃やす his 悪口を言う／悪態d feet," snarled Ortelli, busy with an improvised 包帯. "Let me put the hot アイロンをかけるs to the swine—"
Dirdar shuddered and his gaze sought the 直面する of the Englishman, with 燃やすing intensity. He knew that Hawkston was leader of these lawless men by virtue of sharp wits and a sledge-like 握りこぶし.
The Arab licked his lips.
"As Allah is my 証言，証人／目撃する, I do not know where Al Wazir is!"
"You 嘘（をつく）!" snapped the Englishman. "We know that you were one of the party that took him into the 砂漠—and he never （機の）カム 支援する. We know you know where he was left. Now, are you going to tell?"
"El Borak will kill me!" muttered Dirdar.
"Who's El Borak?" rumbled 先頭 Brock.
"American," snapped Hawkston. "Adventurer. Real 指名する's Gordon. He led the caravan that took Al Wazir into the 砂漠. Dirdar, you needn't 恐れる El Borak. We'll 保護する you from him."
A new gleam entered the Arab's shifty 注目する，もくろむs; avarice mingled with the 恐れる already there. Those beady 注目する，もくろむs grew cunning and cruel.
"There is only one 推論する／理由 why you wish to find Al Wazir," he said. "You hope to learn the secret of a treasure richer than the secret hoard of Shahrazar the Forbidden! 井戸／弁護士席, suppose I tell you? Suppose I even guide you to the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where Al Wazir is to be 設立する—will you 保護する me from El Borak—will you give me a 株 of the 血 of the Gods?"
Hawkston frowned, and Ortelli ripped out an 誓い.
"約束 the dog nothing! 燃やす the 単独のs off his feet! Here! I'll heat the アイロンをかけるs!"
"Let that alone!" said Hawkston with an 誓い. "One of you better go to the door and watch. I saw that old devil Salim こそこそ動くing around through the alleys just before sundown."
No one obeyed. They did not 信用 their leader. He did not repeat the 命令（する）. He turned to Dirdar, in whose 注目する，もくろむs greed was much stronger now than 恐れる.
"How do I know you'd guide us 権利? Every man in that caravan swore an 誓い he'd never betray Al Wazir's hiding place."
"誓いs were made to be broken," answered Dirdar cynically. "For a 株 in the 血 of the Gods I would foreswear Muhammad. But even when you have 設立する Al Wazir, you may not be able to learn the secret of the treasure."
"We have ways of making men talk," Hawkston 保証するd him grimly. "Will you put our 技術 to the 実験（する）, or will you guide us to Al Wazir? We will give you a 株 of the treasure." Hawkston had no 意向 of keeping his word as he spoke.
"Mashallah!" said the Arab. "He dwells alone in an all but inaccessible place. When I 指名する it, you, at least, Hawkston effendi, will know how to reach it. But I can guide you by a shorter way, which will save two days. And a day saved on the 砂漠 is often the difference between life and death.
"Al Wazir dwells in the 洞穴s of El Khour-arrrgh!" His 発言する／表明する broke in a 叫び声をあげる, and he threw up his 手渡すs, a sudden image of frantic terror, 注目する，もくろむs glaring, teeth 明らかにするd. 同時に the deafening 報告（する）／憶測 of a 発射 filled the hut, and Dirdar 倒れるd from his 議長，司会を務める, clutching at his breast. Hawkston whirled, caught a glimpse through the window of a smoking 黒人／ボイコット ピストル バーレル／樽 and a grim bearded 直面する. He 解雇する／砲火／射撃d at that 直面する even as, with his left 手渡す, he swept the candle from the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する and 急落（する），激減（する）d the hut into 不明瞭.
His companions were 悪口を言う／悪態ing, yelling, 落ちるing over each other, but Hawkston 行為／法令／行動するd with unerring 決定／判定勝ち（する）. He 急落（する），激減（する）d to the door of the hut, knocking aside somebody who つまずくd into his path, and threw the door open. He saw a 人物／姿／数字 running across the road, into the 影をつくる／尾行するs on the 味方する. He threw up his revolver, 解雇する／砲火／射撃d, and saw the 人物／姿／数字 sway and 落ちる headlong, to be swallowed up by the 不明瞭 under the trees. He crouched for an instant in the doorway, gun 解除するd, left arm barring the 失敗ing 急ぐ of the other men.
"Keep 支援する, 悪口を言う／悪態 you! That was old Salim. There may be more, under the trees across the road."
But no 脅迫的な 人物／姿／数字 appeared, no sound mingled with the rustling of the palm-leaves in the 勝利，勝つd, except a noise that might have been a man flopping in his death-throes—or dragging himself painfully away on 手渡すs and 膝s. This noise quickly 中止するd and Hawkston stepped 慎重に out into the starlight. No 発射 迎える／歓迎するd his 外見, and 即時に he became a dynamo of energy. He leaped 支援する into the hut, snarling: "先頭 Brock, take Ortelli and look for Salim. I know I 攻撃する，衝突する him. You'll probably find him lying dead over there under the trees. If he's still breathing, finish him! He was Al Wazir's steward. We don't want him taking tales to Gordon."
Followed by Krakovitch, the Englishman groped his way into the darkened hut, struck a light and held it over the prostrate 人物／姿／数字 on the 床に打ち倒す; it etched a grey 直面する, 星／主役にするing glassy 注目する，もくろむs, and a naked breast in which showed a 一連の会議、交渉／完成する blue 穴を開ける from which the 血 had already 中止するd to ooze.
"発射 through the heart!" swore Hawkston, clenching his 握りこぶし. "Old Salim must have seen him with us, and 追跡するd him, guessing what we were after. The old devil 発射 him to keep him from guiding us to Al Wazir—but no 事柄. I don't need any guide to get me to the 洞穴s of El Khour—井戸／弁護士席?" As the Dutchman and the Italian entered.
先頭 Brock spoke: "We didn't find the old dog. Smears of 血 all over the grass, though. He must have been hard 攻撃する，衝突する."
"Let him go," snarled Hawkston. "He's はうd away to die somewhere. It's a mile to the nearest 占領するd house. He won't live to get that far. Come on! The camels and the men are ready. They're behind that palm grove south of this hut. Everything's ready for the jump, just as I planned it. Let's go!"
Soon thereafter there sounded the soft pad of camel's hoofs and the jingle of accoutrements, as a line of 機動力のある 人物／姿／数字s, ghostly in the night, moved 西方の into the 砂漠. Behind them the flat roofs of el-Azem slept in the starlight, 影をつくる／尾行するd by the palm-leaves which stirred in the 微風 that blew from the Persian 湾.
GORDON'S thumb was 麻薬中毒の easily in his belt, keeping his 手渡す 近づく the butt of his 激しい ピストル, as he 棒 leisurely through the starlight, and his gaze swept the palms which lined each 味方する of the road, their 幅の広い fronds 動揺させるing in the faint 微風. He did not 推定する／予想する an 待ち伏せ／迎撃する or the 外見 of an enemy. He had no 血-反目，不和 with any man in el-Azem. And yonder, a hundred yards ahead of him, stood the flat-roofed, 塀で囲む-encircled house of his friend, Achmet ibn Mitkhal, where the American was living as an 栄誉（を受ける）d guest. But the habits of a life-time are tenacious. For years El Borak had carried his life in his 手渡すs, and if there were hundreds of men in Arabia proud to call him friend, there were hundreds of others who would have given the teeth out of their 長，率いるs for a clean sight of him, etched against the 星／主役にするs, over the バーレル／樽 of a ライフル銃／探して盗む.
Gordon reached the gate, and was about to call to the gate-keeper, when it swung open, and the portly 人物／姿／数字 of his host 現れるd.
"Allah be with thee, El Borak! I was beginning to 恐れる some enemy had laid an 待ち伏せ／迎撃する for you. Is it wise to ride alone, by night, when within a three days' ride dwell men who 耐える 血-反目，不和 with you?"
Gordon swung 負かす／撃墜する, and 手渡すd his reins to a groom who had followed his master out of the 構内／化合物. The American was not a large man, but he was square- shouldered and 深い-chested, with corded sinews and steely 神経s which had been tempered and honed by the tooth-and-nail struggle for 生き残り in the wild outlands of the world. His 黒人／ボイコット 注目する，もくろむs gleamed in the starlight like those of some untamed son of the wilderness.
"I think my enemies have decided to let me die of old age or inertia," he replied. "There has not been—"
"What's that?" Achmet ibn Mitkhal had his own enemies. In an instant the curious dragging, choking sounds he had heard beyond the nearest angle of the 塀で囲む had transformed him into a 緊張した image of 疑惑 and menace.
Gordon had heard the sounds as quickly as his Arab host, and he turned with the smooth 速度(を上げる） of a cat, the big ピストル appearing in his 権利 手渡す as if by 魔法. He took a 選び出す／独身 quick stride toward the angle of the 塀で囲む—then around that angle （機の）カム a strange 人物／姿／数字, with torn, 追跡するing 衣料品s. A man, はうing slowly and painfully along on his 手渡すs and 膝s. As he はうd he gasped and panted with a grisly whistling and gagging in his breathing. As they 星／主役にするd at him, he 低迷d 負かす／撃墜する almost at their feet, turning a 血- streaked visage to the starlight.
"Salim!" ejaculated Gordon softly, and with one stride he was at the angle, 星／主役にするing around it, ピストル 均衡を保った. No living thing met his 注目する，もくろむ; only an expanse of 明らかにする ground, 閉めだした by the 影をつくる／尾行するs of the palms. He turned 支援する to the prostrate man, over whom Achmet was already bending.
"Effendi!" panted the old man. "El Borak!" Gordon dropped to his 膝 beside him, and Salim's bony fingers clenched 猛烈に on his arm.
"A hakim, quick, Achmet!" snapped Gordon.
"Nay," gasped Salim. "I am dying—"
"Who 発射 you, Salim?" asked Gordon, for he had already ascertained the nature of the 負傷させる which dyed the old man's tattered abba with crimson.
"Hawkston—the Englishman." The words （機の）カム with an 成果／努力. "I saw him—the three rogues who follow him—beguiling that fool Dirdar to the 砂漠d hut 近づく Mekmet's Pool. I followed for I knew—they meant no good. Dirdar was a dog. He drank アルコール飲料—like an Infidel. El Borak! He betrayed Al Wazir! In spite of his 誓い. I 発射 him—through the window—but not in time. He will never guide them—but he told Hawkston—of the 洞穴s of El Khour. I saw their caravan-camels—seven Arab servants. El Borak! They have 出発／死d—for the 洞穴s—the 洞穴s of El Khour!"
"Don't worry about them, Salim," replied Gordon, 答える／応じるing to the 緊急の 控訴，上告 in the glazing 注目する，もくろむs. "They'll never lay 手渡す on Al Wazir. I 約束 you."
"Al Hamud Lillah—" whispered the old Arab, and with a spasm that brought frothy 血 to his bearded lips, his grim old 直面する 始める，決める in アイロンをかける lines, and he was dead before Gordon could 緩和する his 長，率いる to the ground.
The American stood up and looked 負かす／撃墜する at the silent 人物／姿／数字. Achmet （機の）カム の近くに to him and tugged his sleeve.
"Al Wazir!" murmured Achmet. "Wallah! I thought men had forgotten all about that man. It is more than a year now since he disappeared."
"White men don't forget—not when there's 略奪する in the 沖," answered Gordon sardonically. "All up and 負かす／撃墜する the coast men are still looking for the 血 of the Gods—those marvelous matched rubies which were Al Wazir's especial pride, and which disappeared when he forsook the world and went into the 砂漠 to live as a hermit, 捜し出すing the Way to Truth through meditation and self-否定."
Achmet shivered and ちらりと見ることd 西方の where, beyond the belt of palms, the shadowy 砂漠 stretched 広大な and mysterious to mingle its immensity with the dimness of the starlit night.
"A hard way to 捜し出す Truth," said Achmet, who was a lover of the soft things and the rich things of life.
"Al Wazir was a strange man," answered Gordon. "But his servants loved him. Old Salim there, for instance. Good God, Mekmet's Pool is more than a mile from here. Salim はうd—はうd all that way, 発射 through and through. He knew Hawkston would 拷問 Al Wazir—maybe kill him. Achmet, have my racing camel saddled—"
"I'll go with you!" exclaimed Achmet. "How many men will we need? You heard Salim—Hawkston will have at least eleven men with him—"
"We couldn't catch him now," answered Gordon. "He's got too much of a start on us. His camels are hejin—racing-camels—too. I'm going to the 洞穴s of El Khour, alone."
"But—"
"They'll go by the caravan road that leads to Riyadh; I'm going by the 井戸／弁護士席 of Amir 旅宿泊所."
Achmet blenched.
"Amir 旅宿泊所 lies within the country of Shalan ibn Mansour, who hates you as an iman hates Shaitan the Damned!"
"Perhaps 非，不，無 of his tribe will be at the 井戸／弁護士席," answered Gordon. "I'm the only Feringhi who knows of that 大勝する. If Dirdar told Hawkston about it, the Englishman couldn't find it, without a guide. I can get to the 洞穴s a 十分な day ahead of Hawkston. I'm going alone, because we couldn't take enough men to whip the Ruweila if they're on the war-path. One man has a better chance of slipping through than a 得点する／非難する／２０. I'm not going to fight Hawkston—not now. I'm going to 警告する Al Wazir. We'll hide until Hawkston gives it up and comes 支援する to el-Azem. Then, when he's gone, I'll return by the caravan road."
Achmet shouted an order to the men who were 集会 just within the gate, and they scampered to do his bidding.
"You will go disguised, at least?" he 勧めるd.
"No. It wouldn't do any good. Until I get into Ruweila country I won't be in any danger, and after that a disguise would be useless. The Ruweila kill and plunder every stranger they catch, whether Christian or Muhammadan."
He strode into the 構内／化合物 to 監督する the saddling of the white racing camel.
"I'm riding light as possible," he said. "速度(を上げる） means everything. The camel won't need any water until we reach the 井戸／弁護士席. After that it's not a 走り幅跳び to the 洞穴s. 負担 on just enough food and water to last me to the 井戸／弁護士席, with economy."
His economy was that of a true son of the 砂漠. Neither water-肌 nor food-捕らえる、獲得する was over-激しい when the two were slung on the high 後部 鞍馬. With a 簡潔な／要約する word of 別れの（言葉，会）, Gordon swung into the saddle, and at the tap of his bamboo stick, the beast lurched to its feet. "Yahh!" Another tap and it swung into 動議. Men pulled wide the 構内／化合物 gate and stood aside, their 注目する，もくろむs gleaming in the torchlight.
"Bismillah el rahman el rahhim!" quoth Achmet resignedly, 解除するing his 手渡すs in a gesture of benediction, as the camel and its rider faded into the night.
"He rides to death," muttered a bearded Arab.
"Were it another man I should agree," said Achmet. "But it is El Borak who rides. Yet Shalan ibn Mansour would give many horses for his 長，率いる."
* * * * *
The sun was swinging low over the 砂漠, a tawny stretch of rocky 国／地域 and sand as far as Gordon could see in every direction. The 独房監禁 rider was the only 明白な 調印する of life, but Gordon's vigilance was keen. Days and nights of hard riding lay behind him; he was coming into the Ruweila country now, and every step he took 増加するd his danger by that much. The Ruweila, whom he believed to be 肉親，親類 to the powerful Roualla of El Hamad, were true sons of Ishmael—強硬派s of the 砂漠, whose 手渡すs were against every man not of their 一族／派閥. To 避ける their country the 正規の／正選手 caravan road to the west swung wide to the south. This was an 平易な 大勝する, with 井戸／弁護士席s a day's march apart, and it passed within a day's ride of the 洞穴s of El Khour, the catacombs which 炭坑，オーケストラ席 a low 範囲 of hills rising sheer out of the wastelands.
Few white men know of their 存在, but evidently Hawkston knew of the 古代の 追跡する that turned northward from the 井戸／弁護士席 of Khosru, on the caravan road. Hawkston was perforce approaching El Khour circuitously. Gordon was 長，率いるing straight 西方の, across waterless wastes, 削減（する） by a trace so faint only an Arab or El Borak could have followed it. On that 大勝する there was but one watering place between the fringe of oases along the coast and the 洞穴s—the half-mythical 井戸／弁護士席 of Amir 旅宿泊所, the 存在 of which was a secret jealously guarded by the Bedouins.
There was no 直す／買収する，八百長をするd habitation at the oasis, which was but a clump of palms, watered by a small spring, but frequently 禁止（する）d of Ruweila （軍の）野営地，陣営d there. That was a chance he must take. He hoped they were 運動ing their camel herds somewhere far to the north, in the heart of their country; but like true 強硬派s, they 範囲d far afield, striking at the caravans and the 辺ぴな villages.
The 追跡する he was に引き続いて was so slight that few would have 認めるd it as such. It stretched dimly away before him over a level expanse of 石／投石する- littered ground, broken on one 手渡す by sand dunes, on the other by a succession of low 山の尾根s. He ちらりと見ることd at the sun, and tapped the water-捕らえる、獲得する that swung from the saddle. There was little left, though he had practiced the grim economy of a Bedouin or a wolf. But within a few hours he would be at the 井戸／弁護士席 of Amir 旅宿泊所, where he would 補充する his 供給（する）—though his 神経s 強化するd at the thought of what might be waiting there for him.
Even as the thought passed through his mind, the sun struck a glint from something on the nearer of the sand dunes. The quick duck of his 長，率いる was 直感的に, and 同時に there rang out the 割れ目 of a ライフル銃／探して盗む and he heard the thud of the 弾丸 into flesh. The camel leaped convulsively and （機の）カム 負かす／撃墜する in a headlong sprawl, 発射 through the heart. Gordon leaped 解放する／自由な as it fell, ライフル銃／探して盗む in 手渡す, and in an instant was crouching behind the carcass, watching the crest of the dune over the バーレル／樽 of his ライフル銃／探して盗む. A strident yell 迎える／歓迎するd the 落ちる of the camel, and another 発射 始める，決める the echoes barking. The 弾丸 ploughed into the ground beside Gordon's 強化するing breastwork, and the American replied. Dust spurted into the 空気／公表する so 近づく the muzzle that gleamed on the crest that it evoked a ボレー of lurid 誓いs in a choked 発言する／表明する.
The 黒人／ボイコット glittering （犯罪の）一味 was 孤立した, and presently there rose the 早い 派手に宣伝する of hoofs. Gordon saw a white kafieh bobbing の中で the dunes, and understood the Bedouin's 計画（する）. He believed there was only one man. That man ーするつもりであるd to circle Gordon's position, cross the 追跡する a few hundred yards west of him, and get on the rising ground behind the American, where his vantage- point would 許す him to shoot over the 本体，大部分／ばら積みの of the camel—for of course he knew Gordon would keep the dead beast between them. But Gordon 転換d himself only enough to 命令（する） the 追跡する ahead of him, the open space the Arab must cross after leaving the dunes before he reached the 保護 of the 山の尾根s. Gordon 残り／休憩（する）d his ライフル銃／探して盗む across the stiff forelegs of the camel.
A ４半期/4分の1 of a mile up the 追跡する there was a sandstone 激しく揺する jutting up in the skyline. Anyone crossing the 追跡する between it and himself would be limned against it momentarily. He 始める，決める his sights and drew a bead against that 激しく揺する. He was betting that the Bedouin was alone, and that he would not 身を引く to any 広大な／多数の／重要な distance before making the dash across the 追跡する.
Even as he meditated a white-覆う？ 人物／姿／数字 burst from の中で the 山の尾根s and raced across the 追跡する, bending low in the saddle and flogging his 開始する. It was a long 発射, but Gordon's 神経s did not quiver. At the exact instant that the white-覆う？ 人物／姿／数字 was limned against the distant 激しく揺する, the American pulled the 誘発する／引き起こす. For a (n)艦隊／(a)素早いing moment he thought he had 行方不明になるd; then the rider straightened convulsively, threw up two wide-sleeved 武器 and reeled 支援する drunkenly. The 脅すd horse 後部d high, throwing the man ひどく. In an instant the landscape showed two separate 形態／調整s where there had been one —a bundle of white sprawling on the ground, and a horse racing off southward.
Gordon lay motionless for a few minutes, too 用心深い to expose himself. He knew the man was dead; the 落ちる alone would have killed him. But there was a slight chance that other riders might be lurking の中で the sand dunes, after all.
The sun （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 負かす／撃墜する savagely; vultures appeared from nowhere—黒人／ボイコット dots in the sky, swinging in 広大な／多数の／重要な circles, lower and lower. There was no hint of movement の中で the 山の尾根s or the dunes.
Gordon rose and ちらりと見ることd 負かす／撃墜する at the dead camel. His jaws 始める，決める a trifle more grimly; that was all. But he realized what the 殺人，大当り of his steed meant. He looked 西方の, where the 熱波s shimmered. It would be a long walk, a long, 乾燥した，日照りの walk, before it ended.
Stooping, he unslung water-肌 and food-捕らえる、獲得する and threw them over his shoulders. ライフル銃／探して盗む in 手渡す he went up the 追跡する with a 安定した, swinging stride that would eat up the miles and carry him for hour after hour without 滞るing.
When he （機の）カム to the 形態／調整 sprawling in the path, he 始める，決める the butt of his ライフル銃／探して盗む on the ground and stood looking 簡潔に, one 手渡す 安定したing the 捕らえる、獲得するs on his shoulders. The man he had killed was a Ruweila, 権利 enough: one of the tall, sinewy, 強硬派-直面するd and wolf-hearted plunderers of the southern 砂漠. Gordon's 弾丸 had caught him just below the arm-炭坑，オーケストラ席. That the man had been alone, and on a horse instead of a camel, meant that there was a larger party of his tribesmen somewhere in the 周辺. Gordon shrugged his shoulders, 転換d the ライフル銃／探して盗む to the crook of his arm, and moved on up the 追跡する. The 得点する／非難する／２０ between himself and the men of Shalan ibn Mansour was red enough, already. It might 井戸／弁護士席 be settled once and for all at the 井戸／弁護士席 of Amir 旅宿泊所.
As he swung along the 追跡する he kept thinking of the man he was going to 警告する: Al Wazir, the Arabs called him, because of his former capacity with the 暴君 of Oman. A ロシアの nobleman, in reality, wandering over the world in search of some mystical goal Gordon had never understood, just as an unquenchable かわき for adventure drove El Borak around the 惑星 in constant wanderings. But the dreamy soul of the Slav coveted something more than 構成要素 things. Al Wazir had been many things. Wealth, 力／強力にする, position; all had slipped through his unsatisfied fingers. He had delved 深い in strange 宗教s and philosophies, 捜し出すing the answer to the riddle of 存在, as Gordon sought the stimulation of hazard. The mysticisms of the Sufia had attracted him, and finally the ascetic mysteries of the Hindus.
A year before Al Wazir had been 知事 of Oman, next to the 暴君 the wealthiest and most powerful man on the Pearl Coast. Without 警告 he had given up his position and disappeared. Only a chosen few knew that he had 分配するd his 広大な wealth の中で the poor, 放棄するd all ambition and 力／強力にする, and gone like an 古代の prophet to dwell in the 砂漠, where, in the 独房監禁 meditation and self 否定 of a true ascetic, he hoped to read at last the eternal riddle of Life—as the 古代の prophets read it. Gordon had …を伴ってd him on that last 旅行, with the handful of faithful servants who knew their master's 意向s—old Salim の中で them, for between the dreamy philosopher and the hard-bitten man of 活動／戦闘 there 存在するd a powerful tie of friendship.
But for the 反逆者 and fool, Dirdar, Al Wazir's secret had been 井戸／弁護士席 kept. Gordon knew that ever since Al Wazir's 見えなくなる, adventurers of every 産む／飼育する had been searching for him, hoping to 安全な・保証する 所有／入手 of the treasure that the ロシアの had 所有するd in the days of his 力／強力にする—the wonderful collection of perfectly matched rubies, known as the 血 of the Gods, which had 炎d a lurid path through Oriental history for five hundred years. These jewels had not been 分配するd の中で the poor with the 残り／休憩（する） of Al Wazir's wealth. Gordon himself did not know what the man had done with them. Nor did the American care. Greed was not one of his faults. And Al Wazir was his friend.
The 炎ing sun 激しく揺するd slowly 負かす／撃墜する the sky, its 炎上 turned to molten 巡査; it touched the 砂漠 縁, and etched against it, a はうing 黒人／ボイコット tiny 人物／姿／数字, Gordon moved grimly on, striding inexorably into the somber immensities of the Ruba al Khali—the Empty Abodes.
ETCHED against a white streak of 夜明け, motionless as 人物／姿／数字s on a tapestry, Gordon saw the clump of palms that 示すd the 井戸／弁護士席 of Amir 旅宿泊所 grow up out of the fading night.
A few moments later he swore, softly. Luck, the fickle jade, was not with him this time. A faint 略章 of blue smoke curled up against the whitening sky. There were men at the 井戸／弁護士席 of Amir 旅宿泊所.
Gordon licked his 乾燥した，日照りの lips. The water-捕らえる、獲得する that slapped against his 支援する at each stride was flat, empty. The distance he would have covered in a 事柄 of hours, skimming over the 砂漠 on the 支援する of his tireless camel, he had trudged on foot, the whole night long, even though he had held a gait that few even of the 砂漠's sons could have 持続するd 無傷の. Even for him, in the coolness of the night, it had been a hard trek, though his アイロンをかける muscles resisted 疲労，（軍の）雑役 like a wolf's.
Far to the east a low blue line lay on the horizon. It was the 範囲 of hills that held the 洞穴s of El Khour. He was still ahead of Hawkston, (1)偽造する／(2)徐々に進むing on somewhere far to the south. But the Englishman would be 伸び（る）ing on him at every stride. Gordon could swing wide to 避ける the men at the 井戸／弁護士席, and trudge on. Trudge on, 進行中で, and with empty water-捕らえる、獲得する? It would be 自殺. He could never reach the 洞穴s on foot and without water. Already he was bitten by the devils of かわき.
A red 炎上 grew up in his 注目する，もくろむs, and his dark 直面する 始める，決める in wolfish lines. Water was life in the 砂漠; life for him and for Al Wazir. There was water at the 井戸／弁護士席, and camels. There were men, his enemies, in 所有／入手 of both. If they lived, he must die. It was the 法律 of the wolf-pack, and of the 砂漠. He slipped the limp 捕らえる、獲得するs from his shoulders, cocked his ライフル銃／探して盗む and went 今後 to kill or be killed—not for wealth, nor the love of a woman, nor an ideal, nor a dream, but for as much water as could be carried in a sheep-肌 捕らえる、獲得する.
A wadi or gully broke the plain ahead of him, meandering to a point within a few hundred feet of the 井戸／弁護士席. Gordon crept toward it, taking advantage of every bit of cover. He had almost reached it, at a point a hundred yards from the 井戸／弁護士席, when a man in white kafieh and ragged abba materialized from の中で the palms. 発見 in the growing light was instant. The Arab yelled and 解雇する／砲火／射撃d. The 弾丸 knocked up dust a foot from Gordon's 膝, as he crouched on the 辛勝する／優位 of the gully, and he 解雇する／砲火／射撃d 支援する. The Arab cried out, dropped his ライフル銃／探して盗む and staggered drunkenly 支援する の中で the palms.
The next instant Gordon had sprung 負かす／撃墜する into the gully and was moving 速く and carefully along it, toward the point where it bent nearest the 井戸／弁護士席. He glimpsed white-覆う？ 人物／姿／数字s flitting 簡潔に の中で the trees, and then ライフル銃／探して盗むs began to 割れ目 viciously. 弾丸s sang over the gully as the men 解雇する／砲火／射撃d from behind their saddles and bales of goods, piled like a rampart の中で the 茎・取り除くs of the palms. They lay in the eastern fringe of the clump; the camels, Gordon knew, were on the other 味方する of the trees. From the 容積／容量 of the 解雇する／砲火／射撃ing it could not be a large party.
A 激しく揺する on the 辛勝する／優位 of the gully 供給するd cover. Gordon thrust his ライフル銃／探して盗む バーレル／樽 under a jutting corner of it and watched for movement の中で the palms. 解雇する／砲火／射撃 spurted and a 弾丸 whined off the 激しく揺する—zingggg! Dwindling in the distance like the 乾燥した，日照りの whir of a rattler. Gordon 解雇する／砲火／射撃d at the puff of smoke, and a 反抗的な yell answered him.
His 注目する，もくろむs were slits of 黒人／ボイコット 炎上. A fight like this could last for days. And he could not 耐える a 包囲. He had no water; he had no time. A long march to the south the caravan of Hawkston was swinging relentlessly 西方の, each step carrying them nearer the 洞穴s of El Khour and the unsuspecting man who dreamed his dreams there. A few hundred feet away from Gordon there was water, and camels that would carry him 速く to his 目的地; but lead- fanged wolves of the 砂漠 lay between.
Lead （機の）カム at his 退却／保養地 厚い and 急速な／放蕩な, and vehement 発言する／表明するs rained maledictions on him. They let him know they knew he was alone, and on foot, and probably half-mad with かわき. They howled jeers and 脅しs. But they did not expose themselves. They were 確信して but 用心深い, with the 警告を与える taught by the 砂漠 深い ingrained in them. They held the winning 手渡す and they ーするつもりであるd to keep it so.
An hour of this, and the sun climbing over the eastern 縁, and the heat beginning—the molten, blinding heat of the southern 砂漠. It was 猛烈な／残忍な already; later it would be a scorching hell in that unshielded gully. Gordon licked his blackened lips and 火刑／賭けるd his life and the life of Al Wazir on one desperate cast of 運命／宿命's blind dice.
認めるing and 受託するing the terrible 半端物s against success, he raised himself high enough to expose 長，率いる and one shoulder above the gully 縁, 解雇する／砲火／射撃ing as he did so. Three ライフル銃／探して盗むs 割れ目d together and lead hummed about his ears; the 弾丸 of one raked a white-hot line across his upper arm. 即時に Gordon cried out, the loud, agonized cry of a man hard 攻撃する，衝突する, and threw his 武器 above the 縁 of the gully in the convulsive gesture of a man suddenly death- stricken. One 手渡す held the ライフル銃／探して盗む and the 動議 threw it out of the gully, to 落ちる ten feet away, in plain sight of the Arabs.
An instant's silence, in which Gordon crouched below the 縁, then 血- thirsty yells echoed his cry. He dared not raise himself high enough to look, but he heard the 非難する-非難する-非難する of sandalled feet, winged by hate and 血- lust. They had fallen for his ruse. Why not? A crafty man might feign a 負傷させる and 落ちる, but who would deliberately cast away his ライフル銃／探して盗む? The thought of a Feringhi, lying helpless and 不正に 負傷させるd in the 底（に届く） of the gully, with a defenseless throat ready for the knife, was too much for the 血-lust of the Bedouins. Gordon held himself in アイロンをかける 支配（する）／統制する, until the swift feet were only a 事柄 of yards away—then he （機の）カム 築く like a steel spring 解放（する）d, the big (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 in his 手渡す.
As he leaped up he caught one 分裂（する）-second glimpse of three Arabs, 停止（させる）ing dead in their 跡をつけるs, wild-注目する，もくろむd at the 予期しない apparition—even as he straightened—his gun was roaring. One man spun on his heel and fell in a crumpled heap, 発射 through the 長，率いる. Another 解雇する／砲火／射撃d once, with a ライフル銃／探して盗む, from the hip, without 目的（とする）. An instant later he was 負かす／撃墜する, with a slug through his groin and another ripping through his breast as he fell. And then 運命／宿命 took a 手渡す again—運命／宿命 in the form of a 穀物 of sand in the 機械装置 of Gordon's (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃. The gun jammed just as he threw it 負かす／撃墜する on the remaining Arab.
This man had no gun; only a long knife. With a howl he wheeled and legged it 支援する for the grove, his rags whipping on the 勝利，勝つd of his haste. And Gordon was after him like a 餓死するing wolf. His 戦略 might go for nothing if the man got 支援する の中で the trees, where he might have left a ライフル銃／探して盗む.
The Bedouin ran like an antelope, but Gordon was so の近くに behind him when they reached the trees, the Arab had no time to snatch up the ライフル銃／探して盗む leaning against the improvised rampart. He wheeled at bay, yowling like a mad dog, and 削除するing with the long knife. The point tore Gordon's shirt as the American dodged, and brought 負かす／撃墜する the 激しい ピストル on the Arab's 長，率いる. The 厚い kafieh saved the man's skull from 存在 鎮圧するd, but his 膝s buckled and he went 負かす／撃墜する, throwing his 武器 about Gordon's waist and dragging 負かす／撃墜する the white man as he fell. Somewhere on the other 味方する of the grove the 負傷させるd man was calling 負かす／撃墜する 悪口を言う／悪態s on El Borak.
The two men rolled on the ground, ripping and smiting like wild animals. Gordon struck once again with his gun バーレル／樽, a ちらりと見ることing blow that laid open the Arab's 直面する from 注目する，もくろむ to jaw, and then dropped the jammed ピストル and caught at the arm that （権力などを）行使するd the knife. He got a 支配する with his left 手渡す on the wrist and the guard of the knife itself, and with his other 手渡す began to fight for a throat-持つ／拘留する. The Arab's 恐ろしい, 血-smeared countenance writhed in a 拷問d grin of muscular 緊張する. He knew the terrible strength that lurked in El Borak's アイロンをかける fingers, knew that if they の近くにd on his throat they would not let go until his jugular was torn out.
He threw his 団体／死体 frantically from 味方する to 味方する, wrenching and 涙／ほころびing. The 暴力／激しさ of his 成果／努力s sent both men rolling over and over, to 衝突，墜落 against palm 茎・取り除くs and carom against saddles and bales. Once Gordon's 長，率いる was driven hard against a tree, but the blow did not 弱める him, nor did the vicious 運動 the Arab got in with a 膝 to his groin. The Bedouin grew frantic, maddened by the fingers that sought his throat, the dark 直面する, inexorable as アイロンをかける, that glared into his own. Somewhere on the other 味方する of the grove a ピストル was barking, but Gordon did not feel the 涙／ほころび of lead, nor hear the whistle of 弾丸s.
With a shriek like a 負傷させるd panther's, the Arab whirled over again, a knot of 緊張するing muscles, and his 手渡す, thrown out to balance himself, fell on the バーレル／樽 of the ピストル Gordon had dropped. Quick as a flash he 解除するd it, just as Gordon 設立する the 持つ／拘留する he had been 捜し出すing, and 衝突，墜落d the butt 負かす／撃墜する on the American's 長，率いる with every ounce of strength in his lean sinews, 支援するd by the 恐れる of death. A （軽い）地震 ran through the American's アイロンをかける でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる, and his 長，率いる fell 今後. And in that instant the Ruweila tore 解放する／自由な like a wolf breaking from a 罠（にかける）, leaving his long knife in Gordon's 手渡す.
Even before Gordon's brain （疑いを）晴らすd, his war-trained muscles were 答える／応じるing instinctively. As the Ruweila sprang up, he shook his 長，率いる and rose more slowly, the long knife in his 手渡す. The Arab 投げつけるd the ピストル at him, and caught up the ライフル銃／探して盗む which leaned against the 障壁. He gripped it by the バーレル／樽 with both 手渡すs and wheeled, whirling the 在庫／株 above his 長，率いる; but before the blow could 落ちる Gordon struck with all the blinding 速度(を上げる） that had earned him his 指名する の中で the tribes. In under the descending butt he 肺d and his knife, driven with all his strength and the 勢い of his 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金, 急落（する），激減（する）d into the Arab's breast and drove him 支援する against a tree into which the blade sank a 手渡す's breadth 深い. The Bedouin cried out, a 厚い, choking cry that death 削減（する） short. An instant he sagged against the haft, dead on his feet and nailed upright to the palm tree. Then his 膝s buckled and his 負わせる tore the knife from the 支持を得ようと努めるd and he pitched into the sand.
Gordon wheeled, shaking the sweat from his 注目する，もくろむs, glaring about for the fourth man—the 負傷させるd man. The furious fight had taken only a 事柄 of moments. The ピストル was still 割れ目ing dryly on the other 味方する of the trees, and an animal 叫び声をあげる of 苦痛 mingled with the 報告（する）／憶測s.
With a 悪口を言う／悪態 Gordon caught up the Arab's ライフル銃／探して盗む and burst through the grove. The 負傷させるd man lay under the shade of the trees, propped on an 肘, and 目的（とする）ing his ピストル, not at El Borak but at the one camel that still lived. The other three lay stretched in their 血. Gordon sprang at the man, swinging the ライフル銃／探して盗む 在庫／株. He was a 分裂（する）-second too late. The 発射 割れ目d and the camel moaned and crumpled even as the butt fell on the 解除するd arm, snapping the bone like a twig. The smoking ピストル fell into the sand and the Arab sank 支援する, laughing like a ghoul.
"Now see if you can escape from the 井戸／弁護士席 of Amir 旅宿泊所, El Borak!" he gasped. "The riders of Shalan ibn Mansour are out! Tonight or tomorrow they will return to the 井戸／弁護士席! Will you を待つ them here, or 逃げる on foot to die in the 砂漠, or be 跡をつけるd 負かす／撃墜する like a wolf? Ya kalb! Forgotten of God! They will hang thy 肌 on a palmtree! Laan' abuk—!"
解除するing himself with an 成果／努力 that spattered his 耐えるd with 血まみれの 泡，激怒すること, he spat toward Gordon, laughed croakingly and fell 支援する, dead before his 長，率いる 攻撃する，衝突する the ground.
Gordon stood like a statue, 星／主役にするing 負かす／撃墜する at the dying camels. The dead man's vengeance was grimly characteristic of his race. Gordon 解除するd his 長，率いる and looked long at the low blue 範囲 on the western horizon. Cheeringly the dying Arab had foretold the grim choice left him. He could wait at the 井戸／弁護士席 until Shalan ibn Mansour's wild riders returned and wiped him out by 軍隊 of numbers, or he could 急落（する），激減（する） into the 砂漠 again on foot. And whether he を待つd 確かな doom at the 井戸／弁護士席, or sought the uncertain doom of the 砂漠, inexorably Hawkston would be marching 西方の, 刻々と cutting 負かす／撃墜する the lead Gordon had had at the beginning.
But Gordon never had any 疑問 関心ing his next move. He drank 深い at the 井戸／弁護士席, and bolted some of the food the Arabs had been 準備するing for their breakfast. Some 乾燥した，日照りのd dates and crusted cheese-balls he placed in a food-捕らえる、獲得する, and he filled a water-肌 from the 井戸／弁護士席. He retrieved his ライフル銃／探して盗む, got the sand out of his (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃 and buckled to his belt a scimitar from the girdle of one of the men he had killed. He had come into the 砂漠 ーするつもりであるing to run and hide, not to fight. But it looked very much as if he would do much more fighting before this 投機・賭ける was over, and the 追加するd 負わせる of the sword was more than balanced by the feeling of 追加するd 安全 in the touch of the lean curved blade.
Then he slung the water-肌 and food-捕らえる、獲得する over his shoulders, took up his ライフル銃／探して盗む and strode out of the 影をつくる／尾行するs of the grove into the molten heat of the 砂漠 day. He had not slept at all the night before. His short 残り／休憩（する） at the 井戸／弁護士席 had put new life and spring into his resilient muscles, 常習的な and toughened by an incredibly strenuous life. But it was a long, long march to the 洞穴s of El Khour, under a searing sun. Unless some 奇蹟 occurred, he could not hope to reach them before Hawkston now. And before another sun-rise the riders of Shalan ibn Mansour might 井戸／弁護士席 be on his 追跡する, in which 事例／患者—but all he had ever asked of Fortune was a fighting chance.
The sun 激しく揺するd its slow, 拷問ing way up the sky and 負かす／撃墜する; twilight 深くするd into dusk, and the 砂漠 星／主役にするs winked out; and on, grimly on, plodded that 独房監禁 人物／姿／数字, pitting an indomitable will against the merciless immensity of かわき-haunted desolation.
THE 洞穴s of El Khour 炭坑，オーケストラ席 the sheer eastern 塀で囲むs of a gaunt hill-範囲 that rises like a stony backbone out of a waste of rocky plains. There is only one spring in the hills; it rises in a 洞穴 high up in the 塀で囲む and curls 負かす／撃墜する the 法外な rocky slope, a slender thread of silver, to empty into a 幅の広い shallow pool below. The sun was hanging like a 血-red ball above the western 砂漠 when Francis Xavier Gordon 停止（させる）d 近づく this pool and scanned the 列／漕ぐ／騒動s of gaping 洞穴-mouths with 血-発射 注目する，もくろむs. He licked heat-blackened lips with a tongue from which all moisture had been baked. Yet there was still a little water in the 肌 on his shoulder. He had economized on that gruelling march, with the savage economy of the wilderness-bred.
It seemed a bit hard to realize he had 現実に reached his goal. The hills of El Khour had shimmered before him for so many miles, unreal in the heat-waves, until at last they had seemed like a しん気楼, a fantasy of a かわき- maddened imagination. The 砂漠 sun plays tricks even with a brain like Gordon's. Slowly, slowly the hills had grown up before him—now he stood at the foot of the eastern-most cliff, frowning up at the tiers of 洞穴s which showed their 黒人／ボイコット mouths in even 列／漕ぐ／騒動s.
Nightfall had not brought Shalan ibn Mansour's riders 急襲するing after the 独房監禁 wanderer, nor had 夜明け brought them. Again and again through the long, hot day, Gordon had 停止（させる）d on some rise and looked 支援する, 推定する／予想するing to see the dust of the hurrying camels; but the 砂漠 had stretched empty to the horizon.
And now it seemed another 奇蹟 had taken place, for there were no 調印するs of Hawkston and his caravan. Had they come and gone? They would have at least watered their camels at the pool; and from the utter 欠如（する） of 調印するs about it, Gordon knew that no one had （軍の）野営地，陣営d or watered animals at the pool for many moons. No, it was indisputable, even if unexplainable. Something had 延期するd Hawkston and Gordon had reached the 洞穴s ahead of him after all.
The American dropped on his belly at the pool and sank his 直面する into the 冷静な／正味の water. He 解除するd his 長，率いる presently, shook it like a lion shaking his mane, and leisurely washed the dust from his 直面する and 手渡すs.
Then he rose and went toward the cliff. He had seen no 調印する of life, yet he knew that in one of those 洞穴s lived the man he had come to 捜し出す. He 解除するd his 発言する／表明する in a far-carrying shout.
"Al Wazir! 売春婦 there, Al Wazir!"
"Wazirrr!" whispered the echo 支援する from the cliff. There was no other answer. The silence was ominous. With his ライフル銃／探して盗む at the ready Gordon went toward the 狭くする 追跡する that 負傷させる up the rugged 直面する of the cliff. Up this he climbed, 熱心に scanning the eaves. They pitted the whole 塀で囲む, in even tiers —too even to be the chance work of nature. They were man-made. Thousands of years ago, in the 薄暗い 夜明け of pre-history they had served as dwelling-places for some race of people who were not mere savages, who nitched their caverns in the soft strata with 技術 and cunning. Gordon knew the 洞穴s were connected by 狭くする passages, and that only by this ladder-like path he was に引き続いて could they be reached from below.
The path ended at a long ledge, upon which all the 洞穴s of the lower tier opened. In the largest of these Al Wazir had taken up his abode.
Gordon called again, without result. He strode into the 洞穴, and there he 停止（させる）d. It was square in 形態／調整. In the 支援する 塀で囲む and in each 味方する 塀で囲む showed a 狭くする door-like 開始. Those at the 味方するs led into 隣接するing 洞穴s. That at the 支援する let into a smaller cavern, without any other 出口. There, Gordon remembered, Al Wazir had 蓄える／店d the 乾燥した，日照りのd and tinned foods he had brought with him. He had brought no furniture, nor 武器s.
In one corner of the square 洞穴 a heap of charred fragments 示すd that a 解雇する／砲火／射撃 had once been built there. In one corner lay a heap of 肌s—Al Wazir's bed. Nearby lay the one 調書をとる／予約する Al Wazir had brought with him—The Bhagavat-Gita. But of the man himself there was no 証拠.
Gordon went into the storeroom, struck a match and looked about him. The tins of food were there, though the 供給（する） was かなり 使い果たすd. But they were not stacked against the 塀で囲む in neat columns as Gordon had seen them stowed under Al Wazir's directions. They were 宙返り／暴落するd and scattered about all over the 床に打ち倒す, with open and empty tins の中で them. This was not like Al Wazir, who placed a high value on neatness and order, even in small things. The rope he had brought along to 援助（する） him in 調査するing the 洞穴s lay coiled in one corner.
Gordon, 極端に puzzled, returned to the square 洞穴. Here, he had fully 推定する／予想するd to find Al Wazir sitting in tranquil meditation, or out on the ledge meditating over the sun-始める，決める 砂漠. Where was the man?
He was 確かな that Al Wazir had not wandered away to 死なせる／死ぬ in the 砂漠. There was no 推論する／理由 for him to leave the 洞穴s. If he had 簡単に tired of his lonely life and taken his 出発, he would have taken the 調書をとる／予約する that was lying on the 床に打ち倒す, his inseparable companion. There was no 血-stain on the 床に打ち倒す, or anything to 示す that the hermit had met a violent end. Nor did Gordon believe that any Arab, even the Ruweila, would （性的に）いたずらする the "宗教上の man." Anyway, if Arabs had done away with Al Wazir, they would have taken away the rope and the tins of food. And he was 確かな that, until Hawkston learned of it, no white man but himself had known of Al Wazir's どの辺に.
He searched through the lower tiers of 洞穴s without avail. The sun had sunk out of sight behind the hills, whose long 影をつくる／尾行するs streamed far eastward across the 砂漠, and 深くするing 影をつくる／尾行するs filled the caverns. The silence and the mystery began to 重さを計る on Gordon's 神経s. He began to be 困らすd by the feeling that unseen 注目する，もくろむs were watching him. Men who live lives of constant 危険，危なくする develop 確かな obscure faculties or instincts to a keenness unknown to those lapped about by the 安全s of "civilization." As he passed through the 洞穴s, Gordon 繰り返して felt an impulse to turn suddenly, to try to surprise those 注目する，もくろむs that seemed to be boring into his 支援する. At last he did wheel suddenly, thumb 圧力（をかける）ing 支援する the 大打撃を与える of his ライフル銃／探して盗む, 注目する，もくろむs 警報 for any movement in the growing dusk. The shadowy 議会s and passages stood empty before him.
Once, as he passed a dark passageway he could have sworn he heard a soft noise, like the stealthy tread of a 明らかにする, furtive foot. He stepped to the mouth of the tunnel and called, without 有罪の判決: "Is that you, Ivan?" He shivered at the silence which followed; he had not really believed it was Al Wazir. He groped his way into the tunnel, ライフル銃／探して盗む poked ahead of him. Within a few yards he 遭遇（する）d a blank 塀で囲む; there seemed to be no 入り口 or 出口 except the doorway through which he had come. And the tunnel was empty, save for himself.
He returned to the ledge before the 洞穴s, in disgust.
"Hell, am I getting jumpy?"
But a grisly thought kept recurring to him—recollection of the Bedouins' belief that a supernatural fiend lurked in these 古代の 洞穴s and devoured any human foolish enough to be caught there by night. This thought kept recurring, together with the reflection that the Orient held many secrets, which the West would laugh at, but which often 証明するd to be grim realities. That would explain Al Wazir's mysterious absence: if some fiendish or bestial dweller in the 洞穴s had devoured him—Gordon's 憶測s 回転するd about a hypothetical 激しく揺する-python of enormous size, dwelling for 世代s, perhaps centuries, in the hills—that would explain the 欠如（する） of any 血-stains. 突然の he swore: "Damn! I'm going batty. There are no snakes like that in Arabia. These 洞穴s are getting on my 神経s."
It was a fact. There was a brooding weirdness about these 古代の and forgotten caverns that roused uncanny 憶測s in Gordon's predominantly Celtic mind. What race had 占領するd them, so long ago? What wars had they 証言，証人／目撃するd, against what 猛烈な／残忍な barbarians 広範囲にわたる up from the south? What cruelties and intrigues had they known, what grim rituals of worship and human sacrifice? Gordon shrugged his shoulders, wishing he had not thought of human sacrifice. The idea fitted too 井戸／弁護士席 with the general atmosphere of these grim caverns.
Angry at himself, he returned to the big square cavern, which, he remembered, the Arabs called Niss'rosh, The Eagle's Nest, for some 推論する／理由 or other. He meant to sleep in the 洞穴s that night, partly to 打ち勝つ the aversion he felt toward them, partly because he did not care to be caught 負かす／撃墜する on the plain in 事例／患者 Hawkston or Shalan ibn Mansour arrived in the night. There was another mystery. Why had not they reached the 洞穴s, one or both of them? The 砂漠 was a 産む／飼育するing-place of mysteries, a twilight realm of fantasy. Al Wazir, Hawkston and Shalan ibn Mansour—had the fabled djinn of the Empty Abodes snatched them up and flown away with them, leaving him the one man alive in all the 広大な 砂漠? Such whims of imagination played through his exhausted brain, as, too 疲れた／うんざりした to eat, he 用意が出来ている for the night.
He put a large 激しく揺する in the 追跡する, 均衡を保った precariously, which anyone climbing the path in the dark would be sure to dislodge. The noise would awaken him. He stretched himself on the pile of 肌s, painfully aware of the 強調する／ストレス and 緊張する of his long trek, which had 税金d even his アイロンをかける でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる to the 最大の. He was asleep almost the instant he touched his rude bed.
It was because of this weariness of 団体／死体 and mind that he did not hear the velvet-footed approach of the thing that crept upon him in the 不明瞭. He woke only when taloned fingers clenched murderously on his throat and an 残忍な 発言する／表明する whinnied sickening 勝利 in his ear.
Gordon's reflexes had been trained in a thousand 戦う／戦いs. So now he was fighting for his life before he was awake enough to know whether it was an ape or a 広大な／多数の／重要な serpent that had attacked him. The 猛烈な／残忍な fingers had almost 鎮圧するd his throat before he had a chance to 緊張した his neck muscles. Yet those powerful muscles, even though relaxed, had saved his life. Even so the attack was so 素晴らしい, the しっかり掴む so nearly 致命的な, that as they rolled over the 床に打ち倒す Gordon wasted precious seconds trying to 涙／ほころび away the strangling 手渡すs by wrenching at the wrists. Then as his fighting brain 主張するd itself, even through the red, thickening もやs that were enfolding him, he 転換d his 策略, drove a savage 膝 into a hard-muscled belly, and getting his thumbs under the little finger of each 鎮圧するing 手渡す, bent them ひどく 支援する. No strength can resist that てこ入れ／借入資本. The unknown 攻撃者 let go, and 即時に Gordon 粉砕するd a trip- 大打撃を与える blow against the 味方する of his 長，率いる and rolled （疑いを）晴らす as the hard でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる went momentarily limp. It was as dark in the 洞穴 as the gullet of Hell, so dark Gordon could not even see his antagonist.
He sprang to his feet, 製図／抽選 his scimitar. He stood 均衡を保った, 緊張した, wondering uncomfortably if the thing could see in the dark, and scarcely breathing as he 緊張するd his ears. At the first faint sound he sprang like a panther, and 削除するd murderously at the noise. The blade 削減（する） only empty 空気／公表する, there was an incoherent cry, a shuffle of feet, then the 速く receding pad of hurried footsteps. Whatever it was, it was in 退却／保養地. Gordon tried to follow it, ran into a blank 塀で囲む, and by the time he had 位置を示すd the 味方する door through which, 明らかに, the creature had fled, the sounds had faded out. The American struck a match and glared around, not 推定する／予想するing to see anything that would give him a 手がかり（を与える） to the mystery. Nor did he. The 激しく揺する 床に打ち倒す of the cavern showed no 足跡.
What manner of creature he had fought in the dark he did not know. Its 団体／死体 had not seemed hairy enough for an ape, though the 長，率いる had been a 絡まるd 集まり of hair. Yet it had not fought like a human 存在; he had felt its talons and teeth, and it was hard to believe that human muscles could have 含む／封じ込めるd such アイロンをかける strength as he had 遭遇（する）d. And the noises it had made had certainly not 似ているd the sounds a man makes, even in 戦闘.
Gordon 選ぶd up his ライフル銃／探して盗む and went out on the ledge. From the position of the 星／主役にするs, it was past midnight. He sat 負かす／撃墜する on the ledge, with his 支援する against the cliff 塀で囲む. He did not ーするつもりである to sleep, but he slept in spite of himself, and woke suddenly, to find himself on his feet, with every 神経 tingling, and his 肌 はうing with the sensation that grim 危険，危なくする had crept の近くに upon him.
Even as he wondered if a bad dream had awakened him, he glimpsed a vague 影をつくる／尾行する fading into the 黒人／ボイコット mouth of a 洞穴 not far away. He threw up his ライフル銃／探して盗む and the 発射 sent the echoes 飛行機で行くing and （犯罪の）一味ing from cliff to cliff. He waited tensely, but neither saw nor heard anything else.
After that he sat with his ライフル銃／探して盗む across his 膝s, every faculty 警報. His position, he realized, was 不安定な. He was like a man marooned on a 砂漠d island. It was a day's hard ride to the caravan road to the south. On foot it would take longer. He could reach it, 邪魔されない—but unless Hawkston had abandoned the 追求（する），探索（する）, which was not likely, the Englishman's caravan was moving along that road somewhere. If Gordon met it, alone and on foot—Gordon had no illusions about Hawkston. But there was still a greater danger: Shalan ibn Mansour. He did not know why the shaykh had not 跡をつけるd him 負かす／撃墜する already, but it was 確かな that Shalan, scouring the 砂漠 to find the man who slew his 軍人s at the 井戸／弁護士席 of Amir 旅宿泊所, would 結局 run him 負かす／撃墜する. When that happened, Gordon did not wish to be caught out on the 砂漠, on foot. Here, in the 洞穴s, with water, food and 避難所, he would have at least a fighting chance. If Hawkston and Shalan should chance to arrive at the same time—that 申し込む／申し出d 可能性s. Gordon was a fighting man who depended on his wits as much as his sword, and he had 始める，決める his enemies 涙／ほころびing at each other before now. But there was a 現在の menace to him, in the 洞穴s themselves, a menace he felt was the 解答 to the riddle of Al Wazir's 運命／宿命. That menace he meant to 運動 to bay with the coming of daylight.
He sat there until 夜明け turned the eastern sky rose and white. With the coming of the light he 緊張するd his 注目する，もくろむs into the 砂漠, 推定する／予想するing to see a moving line of dots that would mean men on camels. But only the tawny, empty waste levels and 山の尾根s met his gaze. Not until the sun was rising did he enter the 洞穴s; the level beams struck into them, 公表する／暴露するing features that had been 隠すd in 影をつくる／尾行するs the evening before.
He went first to the passage where he had first heard the 悪意のある footfalls, and there he 設立する the explanation to one mystery. A 一連の 手渡す and foot 持つ／拘留するs, lightly nitched in the 石／投石する of the 塀で囲む, led up through a square 穴を開ける in the rocky 天井 into the 洞穴 above. The djinn of the 洞穴s had been in that passage, and had escaped by that 大勝する, for some 推論する／理由 choosing flight rather than 戦う／戦い just then.
Now that he was 残り／休憩（する）d, he became aware of the bite of hunger, and 長，率いるd for The Eagle's Nest, to get his breakfast out of the tins before he 追求するd his 探検 of the 洞穴s. He entered the wide 議会, lighted by the 早期に sun which streamed through the door—and stopped dead.
A bent 人物／姿／数字 in the door of the 蓄える／店-room wheeled 築く, to 直面する him. For an instant they both stood frozen. Gordon saw a man 直面するing him like an image of the primordial—naked, gaunt, with a 広大な／多数の／重要な matted 絡まる of hair and 耐えるd, from which the 注目する，もくろむs 炎d weirdly. It might have been a caveman out of the 夜明け centuries who stood there, a 石／投石する gripped in each brawny 手渡す. But the high, 幅の広い forehead, half hidden under the thatch of hair, was not the slanting brow of a savage. Nor was the 直面する, almost covered though it was by the 絡まるd 耐えるd.
"Ivan!" ejaculated Gordon aghast, and the explanation of the mystery 急ぐd upon him, with all its sickening 関わりあい／含蓄s. Al Wazir was a madman.
As if goaded by the sound of his 発言する／表明する, the naked man started violently, cried out incoherently, and 投げつけるd the 激しく揺する in his 権利 手渡す. Gordon dodged and it 粉々にするd on the 塀で囲む behind him with an 衝撃 that 警告するd him of the unnatural 力／強力にする lurking in the maniac's thews. Al Wazir was taller than Gordon, with a magnificent, 幅の広い-shouldered, lean-hipped torso, 山の尾根d with muscles. Gordon half turned and 始める，決める his ライフル銃／探して盗む against the 塀で囲む, and as he did so, Al Wazir 投げつけるd the 激しく揺する in his left 手渡す, awkwardly, and followed it across the 洞穴 with a bound, shrieking frightfully, 泡，激怒すること 飛行機で行くing from his lips.
Gordon met him breast to breast, を締めるing his muscular 脚s against the 衝撃, and Al Wazir grunted explosively as he was stopped dead in his 跡をつけるs. Gordon pinioned his 武器 at his 味方する, and a wild shriek broke from the madman's lips as he tore and 急落（する），激減（する）d like a 罠にかける animal. His muscles were like quivering steel wires under Gordon's しっかり掴む, that writhed and knotted. His teeth snapped beast-like at Gordon's throat, and as the American jerked 支援する his 長，率いる to escape them, Al Wazir tore loose his 権利 arm, and whipped it over Gordon's left arm and 負かす／撃墜する. Before the American could 妨げる it, he had しっかり掴むd the scimitar hilt and torn the blade from its scabbard. Up and 支援する went the long arm, with the sheen of naked steel, and Gordon, sensing death in the 解除するd sword, 粉砕するd his left 握りこぶし to the madman's jaw. It was a short terrific hook that traveled little more than a foot, but it was like the 揺さぶる of a mule's kick.
Al Wazir's 長，率いる snapped 支援する between his shoulders under the 衝撃, then fell limply 今後 on his breast. His 脚s gave way 同時に and Gordon caught him and 緩和するd him to the rocky 床に打ち倒す.
Leaving the limp form where it lay, Gordon went hurriedly into the 蓄える／店- room and 安全な・保証するd the rope. Returning to the senseless man he knotted it about his waist, then 解除するd him to a sitting position against a natural 石／投石する 中心存在 at the 支援する of the 洞穴, passed the rope about the column and tied it with an intricate knot on the other 味方する. The rope was too strong, even for the superhuman strength of a maniac, and Al Wazir could not reach backward around the 中心存在 to reach and untie the knot. Then Gordon 始める，決める to work 生き返らせるing the man—no light 仕事, for El Borak, with the 危険，危なくする of death upon him, had struck hard, with the 運動 and snap of steel-罠（にかける） muscles. Only the 激しい 耐えるd had saved the jawbone from fracture.
But presently the 注目する，もくろむs opened and gazed wildly around, ゆらめくing redly as they 直す／買収する，八百長をするd on Gordon's 直面する. The clawing 手渡すs with their long 黒人／ボイコット nails, （機の）カム up and caught at Gordon's throat, as the American drew 支援する out of reach. Al Wazir made a convulsive 成果／努力 to rise, then sank 支援する and crouched, with his unwinking 星／主役にする, his fingers making aimless 動議s. Gordon looked at him somberly, sick at his soul. What a 哀れな, 反乱ing end to dreams and philosophies! Al Wazir had come into the 砂漠 捜し出すing meditation and peace and the 見通しs of the 古代の prophets; he had 設立する horror and insanity. Gordon had come looking for a hermit-philosopher, radiant with mellow 知恵; he had 設立する a filthy, naked madman.
The American filled an empty tin with water and 始める，決める it, with an opened tin of meat, 近づく Al Wazir's 手渡す. An instant later he dodged, as the mad hermit 投げつけるd the tins at him with all his 力／強力にする. Shaking his 長，率いる in despair, Gordon went into the 蓄える／店-room and broke his own 急速な／放蕩な. He had little heart to eat, with the 廃虚 of that once-splendid personality before him, but the urgings of hunger would not be 否定するd.
It was while thus 雇うd that a sudden noise outside brought him to his feet, galvanized by the imminence of danger.
IT was the 動揺させるing 落ちる of the 石／投石する Gordon had placed in the path that had alarmed him. Someone was climbing up the winding 追跡する! Snatching up his ライフル銃／探して盗む he glided out on the ledge. One of his enemies had come at last.
負かす／撃墜する at the pool a 疲れた／うんざりした, dusty camel was drinking. On the path, a few feet below the ledge there stood a tall, wiry man in dust-stained boots and breeches, his torn shirt 明らかにする／漏らすing his brown, muscular chest.
"Gordon!" this man ejaculated, 星／主役にするing amazedly into the 黒人／ボイコット muzzle of the American's ライフル銃／探して盗む. "How the devil did you get here?" His 手渡すs were empty, 残り／休憩（する）ing on an outcropping of 激しく揺する, just as he had 停止（させる）d in the 行為／法令／行動する of climbing. His ライフル銃／探して盗む was slung to his 支援する, ピストル and scimitar in their scabbards at his belt.
"Put up your 手渡すs, Hawkston," ordered Gordon, and the Englishman obeyed.
"What are you doing here?" he repeated. "I left you in el-Azem—"
"Salim lived long enough to tell me what he saw in the hut by Mekmet's Pool. I （機の）カム by a road you know nothing about. Where are the other jackals?"
Hawkston shook the sweat-beads from his sun-burnt forehead. He was above medium 高さ, brown, hard as 単独の-leather, with a dark 強硬派-like 直面する and a high-橋（渡しをする）d predatory nose arching over a thin 黒人／ボイコット mustache. A lawless adventurer, his scintillant grey 注目する，もくろむs 反映するd a ruthless and 無謀な nature, and as a fighting man he was as 悪名高い as was Gordon—more 悪名高い in Arabia, for Afghanistan had been the 行う／開催する／段階 for most of El Borak's 偉業／利用するs.
"My men? Dead by now, I fancy. The Ruweila are on the war-path. Shalan ibn Mansour caught us at Sulaymen's 井戸／弁護士席, with fifty men. We made a バリケード of our saddles の中で the palms and stood them off all day. 先頭 Brock and three of our camel-drivers were killed during the fighting, and Krakovitch was 負傷させるd. That night I took a camel and （疑いを）晴らすd out. I knew it was no use hanging on."
"You swine," said Gordon without passion. He did not call Hawkston a coward. He knew that not cowardice, but a 冷笑的な 決意 to save his 肌 at all hazards had driven the Englishman to 砂漠 his 負傷させるd and beleaguered companions.
"There wasn't any use for us all to be killed," retorted Hawkston. "I believed one man could こそこそ動く away in the dark and I did. They 急ぐd the （軍の）野営地，陣営 just as I got （疑いを）晴らす. I heard them 殺人，大当り the others. Ortelli howled like a lost soul when they 削減（する） his throat—I knew they'd run me 負かす／撃墜する long before I could reach the Coast, so I 長，率いるd for the 洞穴s—northwest across the open 砂漠, leaving the road and Khosru's 井戸／弁護士席 off to the south. It was a long, 乾燥した，日照りの ride, and I made it more by luck than anything else. And now can I put my 手渡すs 負かす／撃墜する?"
"You might 同様に," replied Gordon, the ライフル銃／探して盗む at his shoulder never wavering. "In a few seconds it won't 事柄 much to you where your 手渡すs are."
Hawkston's 表現 did not change. He lowered his 手渡すs, but kept them away from his belt.
"You mean to kill me?" he asked calmly.
"You 殺人d my friend Salim. You （機の）カム here to 拷問 and 略奪する Al Wazir. You'd kill me if you got the chance. I'd be a fool to let you live."
"Are you going to shoot me in 冷淡な 血?"
"No. Climb up on the ledge. I'll give you any 肉親，親類d of an even break you want."
Hawkston 従うd, and a few seconds later stood 直面するing the American. An 観察者／傍聴者 would have been struck by a 確かな similarity between the two men. There was no facial resemblance, but both were 燃やすd dark by the sun, both were built with the hard economy of rawhide and spring steel, and both wore the keen, 強硬派-like 面 which is the ありふれた brand of men who live by their wits and guts out on the raw 辛勝する／優位s of the world.
Hawkston stood with his empty 手渡すs at his 味方するs while Gordon 直面するd him with ライフル銃／探して盗む held hip-low, but covering his midriff.
"ライフル銃／探して盗むs, ピストルs or swords?" asked the American. "They say you can 扱う a blade."
"Second to 非，不，無 in Arabia," answered Hawkston confidently. "But I'm not going to fight you, Gordon."
"You will!" A red 炎上 began to smolder in the 黒人／ボイコット 注目する，もくろむs. "I know you, Hawkston. You've got a 悪賢い tongue, and you're 背信の as a snake. We'll settle this thing here and now. Choose your 武器s—or by God, I'll shoot you 負かす／撃墜する in your 跡をつけるs!"
Hawkston shook his 長，率いる calmly.
"You wouldn't shoot a man in 冷淡な 血, Gordon. I'm not going to fight you—yet. Listen, man, we'll have plenty of fighting on our 手渡すs before long! Where's Al Wazir?"
"That's 非，不，無 of your 商売／仕事," growled Gordon.
"井戸／弁護士席, no 事柄. You know why I'm here. And I know you （機の）カム here to stop me if you could. But just now you and I are in the same boat. Shalan ibn Mansour's on my 追跡する. I slipped through his fingers, as I said, but he 選ぶd up my 跡をつけるs and was after me within a 事柄 of hours. His camels were faster and fresher than 地雷, and he's been slowly 精密検査するing me. When I topped the tallest of those 山の尾根s to the south there, I saw his dust. He'll be here within the next hour! He hates you as much as he does me. You need my help, and I need yours. With Al Wazir to help us, we can 持つ／拘留する these 洞穴s 無期限に／不明確に."
Gordon frowned. Hawkston's tale sounded plausible, and would explain why Shalan ibn Mansour had not come hot on the American's 追跡する, and why the Englishman had not arrived at the 洞穴s sooner. But Hawkston was such a snake- tongued liar it was dangerous to 信用 him. The merciless creed of the 砂漠 said shoot him 負かす／撃墜する without any more 交渉，会談, and take his camel. 残り／休憩（する）d, it would carry Gordon and Al Wazir out of the 砂漠. But Hawkston had 計器d Gordon's character 正確に when he said the American could not shoot a man in 冷淡な 血.
"Don't move," Gordon 警告するd him, and 持つ／拘留するing the cocked ライフル銃／探して盗む like a ピストル in one 手渡す, he 武装解除するd Hawkston, and ran a 手渡す over him to see that he had no 隠すd 武器s. If his scruples 妨げるd him 狙撃 his enemy, he was 決定するd not to give that enemy a chance to get the 減少（する） on him. For he knew Hawkston had no such scruples.
"How do I know you're not lying?" he 需要・要求するd.
"Would I have come here alone, on a worn-out camel, if I wasn't telling the truth?" 反対するd Hawkston. "We'd better hide that camel, if we can. If we should （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 them off, we'll need it to get to the Coast on. Damn it, Gordon, your 疑惑 and hesitation will get our throats 削減（する） yet! Where's Al Wazir?"
"Turn and look into that 洞穴," replied Gordon grimly.
Hawkston, his 直面する suddenly sharp with 疑惑, obeyed. As his 注目する，もくろむs 残り／休憩（する）d on the 人物／姿／数字 crouched against the column at the 支援する of the cavern, his breath sucked in はっきりと.
"Al Wazir! What in God's 指名する's the 事柄 with him?"
"Too much loneliness, I reckon," growled Gordon. "He's stark mad. He couldn't tell you where to find the 血 of the Gods if you 拷問d him all day."
"井戸／弁護士席, it doesn't 事柄 much just now," muttered Hawkston callously. "Can't think of treasure when life itself is at 火刑／賭ける. Gordon, you'd better believe me! We should be 準備するing for a 包囲, not standing here chinning. If Shalan ibn Mansour—look!" He started violently, his long arm stabbing toward the south.
Gordon did not turn at the exclamation. He stepped 支援する instead, out of the Englishman's reach, and still covering the man, 転換d his position so he could watch both Hawkston and the point of the compass 示すd. Southeastward the country was undulating, broken by barren 山の尾根s. Over the farthest 山の尾根 a string of white dots was 注ぐing, and a faint dust-煙霧 大波d up in the 空気／公表する. Men on camels! A 正規の／正選手 horde of them.
"The Ruweila!" exclaimed Hawkston. "They'll be here within the hour!"
"They may be men of yours," answered Gordon, too 用心深い to 受託する anything not fully proven. Hawkston was as tricky as a fox, and to make a mistake on the 砂漠 meant death. "We'll hide that camel, though, just on the chance you're telling the truth. Go ahead of me 負かす／撃墜する the 追跡する."
支払う／賃金ing no attention to the Englishman's profanity, Gordon herded him 負かす／撃墜する the path to the pool. Hawkston took the camel's rope and went ahead 主要な it, under Gordon's 指導／手引. A few hundred yards north of the pool there was a 狭くする canyon winding 深い into a break of the hills, and a short distance up this ravine Gordon showed Hawkston a 狭くする cleft in the 塀で囲む, 隠すd behind a jutting 玉石. Through this the camel was squeezed, into a natural pocket, open at the 最高の，を越す, 概略で 一連の会議、交渉／完成する in 形態／調整, and about forty feet across.
"I don't know whether the Arabs know about this place or not," said Gordon. "But we'll have to take the chance that they won't find the beast."
Hawkston was nervous.
"For God's sake let's get 支援する to the 洞穴s! They're coming like the 勝利，勝つd. If they catch us in the open they'll shoot us like rabbits!"
He started 支援する at a run, and Gordon was の近くに on his heels. But Hawkston's nervousness was 正当化するd. The white men had not やめる reached the foot of the 追跡する that led up to the 洞穴s when a low 雷鳴 of hoofs rose on their ears, and over the nearest 山の尾根 （機の）カム a wild white-覆う？ 人物／姿／数字 on a camel, waving a ライフル銃／探して盗む. At the sight of them he yelled stridently and flogged his beast into a more furious gallop, and threw his ライフル銃／探して盗む to his shoulder. Behind him man after man topped the 山の尾根—Bedouins on hejin—white racing-camels.
"Up the cliff, man!" yelled Hawkston, pale under his bronze. Gordon was already racing up the path, and behind him Hawkston panted and 悪口を言う／悪態d, 勧めるing greater haste, where more 速度(を上げる） was impossible. 弾丸s began to snick against the cliff, and the 真っ先の rider howled in 血-thirsty glee as he bore 負かす／撃墜する 速く upon them. He was many yards ahead of his companions, and he was a remarkable marksman, for an Arab. 解雇する／砲火／射撃ing from the 激しく揺するing, swaying saddle, he was clipping his 的s の近くに.
Hawkston yelped as he was stung by a 飛行機で行くing sliver of 激しく揺する, flaked off by a 粉砕するing slug.
"Damn you, Gordon!" he panted. "This is your fault—your 血まみれの stubbornness—he'll 選ぶ us off like rabbits—"
The oncoming rider was not more than three hundred yards from the foot of the cliff, and the 縁 of the ledge was ten feet above the 登山者s. Gordon wheeled suddenly, threw his ライフル銃／探して盗む to his shoulder and 解雇する／砲火／射撃d all in one 動議, so quickly he did not even seem to take 目的（とする）. But the Arab went out of his saddle like a man 攻撃する，衝突する by 雷. Without pausing to 公式文書，認める the result of his 発射, Gordon raced on up the path, and an instant later he 群れているd over the ledge, with Hawkston at his heels.
"Damndest snap-発射 I ever saw!" gasped the Englishman.
"There's your guns," grunted Gordon, throwing himself flat on the ledge. "Here they come!"
Hawkston snatched his 武器s from the 激しく揺する where Gordon had left them, and followed the American's example.
The Arabs had not paused. They 迎える／歓迎するd the 落ちる of their 無謀な leader with yells of hate, but they flogged their 開始するs and （機の）カム on in a headlong 急ぐ. They meant to spring off at the foot of the 追跡する and 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 up it on foot. There were at least fifty, of them.
The two men lying 傾向がある on the ledge above did not lose their 長，率いるs. 退役軍人s, both of them, of a thousand wild 戦う／戦いs, they waited coolly until the first of the riders were within good 範囲. Then they began 解雇する／砲火／射撃ing, without haste and without error. And at each 発射 a man 宙返り／暴落するd headlong from his saddle or 低迷d 今後 on his 開始する's bobbing neck.
Not even Bedouins could 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 into such a 爆破 of 破壊. The 急ぐ wavered, 分裂（する）, turned on itself—and in an instant the white-覆う？ riders were turning their 支援するs on the 洞穴s and flogging in the other direction as madly as they had come. Five of them would never 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金 again, and as they fled Hawkston 演習d one of the rearmost men neatly between the shoulders.
They fell 支援する beyond the first low, 石／投石する-littered 山の尾根, and Hawkston shook his ライフル銃／探して盗む at them and 悪口を言う／悪態d them with virile eloquence.
"砂漠 scum! Try it again, you bounders!"
Gordon wasted no breath on words. Hawkston had told the truth, and Gordon knew he was in no danger from treachery from that source, for the 現在の. Hawkston would not attack him as long as they were 直面するd by a ありふれた enemy —but he knew that the instant that 危険，危なくする was 除去するd, the Englishman might shoot him in the 支援する, if he could. Their position was bad, but it might 井戸／弁護士席 have been worse. The Bedouins were all seasoned 砂漠-闘士，戦闘機s, cruel as wolves. Their 長，指導者 had a 血-反目，不和 with both white men, and would not fail to しっかり掴む the chance that had thrown them into his reach. But the defenders had the advantage of 避難所, an inexhaustible water 供給（する）, and food enough to last for months. Their only 証拠不十分 was the 限られた／立憲的な 量 of 弾薬／武器.
Without 協議するing one another, they took their 駅／配置するs on the ledge, Hawkston to the north of the trailhead, Gordon about an equal distance to the south of it. There was no need for a 会議／協議会; each man knew the other knew his 商売／仕事. They lay 傾向がある, 集会 broken 激しく揺するs in heaps before them to 追加する to the 保護 申し込む／申し出d by the ledge-縁.
Spurts of 炎上 began to 栄冠を与える the 山の尾根; 弾丸s whined and splatted against the 激しく揺する. Men crept from each end of the 山の尾根 into the clusters of 玉石s that littered the plain. The men on the ledge held their 解雇する／砲火／射撃, unmoved by the slugs that whistled and spanged 近づく at 手渡す. Their minds worked so 類似して in a 状況／情勢 like this that they understood each other without the necessity of conversation. There was no chance of them wasting two cartridges on the same man. An imaginary line, running from the foot of the 追跡する to the 山の尾根, divided their 領土s. When a turbaned 長，率いる was poked from a 激しく揺する north of that line, it was Hawkston's ライフル銃／探して盗む that knocked the man dead and sprawling over the 玉石. And when a Bedouin darted from behind a 刺激（する） of 激しく揺する south of that line in a weaving, dodging run for cover nearer the cliff, Hawkston held his 解雇する／砲火／射撃. Gordon's ライフル銃／探して盗む 割れ目d and the 走者 took the earth in a rolling 宙返り／暴落する that ended in a 簡潔な／要約する thrashing of 四肢s.
A 発言する／表明する rose from the 山の尾根, 辛勝する／優位d with fury.
"That's Shalan, damn him!" snarled Hawkston. "Can you make out what he says?"
"He's telling his men to keep out of sight," answered Gordon. "He tells them to be 患者—they've got plenty of time."
"And that's the truth, too," grunted Hawkston. "They've got time, food, water—they'll be こそこそ動くing to the pool after dark to fill their water- 肌s. I wish one of us could get a clean 発射 at Shalan. But he's too foxy to give us a chance at him. I saw him when they were 非難する us, standing 支援する on the 山の尾根, too far away to 危険 a 弾丸 on him."
"If we could 減少（する） him the 残り／休憩（する） of them wouldn't hang around here a minute," commented Gordon. "They're afraid of the man-eating djinn they think haunts these hills."
"井戸／弁護士席, if they could get a good look at Al Wazir now, they'd 断言する it was the djinn in person," said Hawkston. "How many cartridges have you?"
"Both guns are 十分な, about a dozen extra ライフル銃／探して盗む cartridges."
Hawkston swore.
"I 港／避難所't many more than that, myself. We'd better 投げ上げる／ボディチェックする a coin to see which one of us こそこそ動くs out tonight, while the other keeps up a fusilade to distract their attention. The one who stays gets both ライフル銃／探して盗むs and all the 弾薬／武器."
"We will like hell," growled Gordon. "If we can't all go, Al Wazir with us, nobody goes!"
"You're crazy to think of a lunatic at a time like this!"
"Maybe. But if you try to こそこそ動く off I'll 演習 you in the 支援する as you run."
Hawkston snarled wordlessly and fell silent. Both men lay motionless as red Indians, watching the 山の尾根 and the 激しく揺するs that shimmered in the 熱波s. The 解雇する／砲火／射撃ing had 中止するd, but they had glimpses of white 衣料品s from time to time の中で the gullies and 石／投石するs, as the besiegers crept about の中で the 玉石s. Some distance to the south Gordon saw a group creeping along a shallow gully that ran to the foot of the cliff. He did not waste lead on them. When they reached the cliff at that point they would be no better off. They were too far away for 効果的な 狙撃, and the cliff could be climbed only at the point where the 追跡する 負傷させる 上向き. Gordon fell to 熟考する／考慮するing the hill that was serving the white men as their 要塞.
Some thirty 洞穴s formed the lower tier, 延長するing across the curtain of 激しく揺する that formed the 直面する of the cliff. As he knew, each 洞穴 was connected by a 狭くする passage to the 隣接するing 議会. There were three tiers above this one, all the tiers connected by ladders of 手渡す-持つ／拘留するs nitched in the 激しく揺する, 開始するing from the lower 洞穴s through 穴を開けるs in the 石／投石する 天井 to the ones above. The Eagle's Nest, in which Al Wazir was tied, 安全な from 飛行機で行くing lead, was だいたい in the middle of the lower tier, and the path hewn in the 激しく揺する （機の）カム upon the ledge 直接／まっすぐに before its 開始. Hawkston was lying in 前線 of the third 洞穴 to the north of it, and Gordon lay before the third 洞穴 to the south.
The Arabs lay in a wide 半分-circle, 延長するing from the 激しく揺するs at one end of the low 山の尾根, along its crest, and into the 激しく揺するs at the other end. Only those lying の中で the 激しく揺するs were の近くに enough to do any 損失, save by 事故. And looking up at the ledge from below, they could see only the gleaming muzzles of the white men's ライフル銃／探して盗むs, or catch (n)艦隊／(a)素早いing glimpses of their 長，率いるs occasionally. They seemed to be 疲れた／うんざりした of wasting lead on such difficult 的s. Not a 発射 had been 解雇する／砲火／射撃d for some time.
Gordon 設立する himself wondering if a man on the crest of the cliff above the 洞穴s could, looking 負かす／撃墜する, see him and Hawkston lying on the ledge. He 熟考する／考慮するd the 塀で囲む above him; it was almost sheer, but other, narrower ledges ran along each tier of 洞穴s, 妨害するing the 見解（をとる） from above, as it did from the lower ledge. Remembering the craggy 味方するs of the hill, Gordon did not believe these plains-dwellers would be able to 規模 it at any point.
He was just 熟視する／熟考するing returning to The Eagle's Nest to 申し込む／申し出 food and water again to Al Wazir, when a faint sound reached his ears that 原因（となる）d him to go 緊張した with 疑惑.
It seemed to come from the 洞穴s behind him. He ちらりと見ることd at Hawkston. The Englishman was squinting along his ライフル銃／探して盗む バーレル／樽, trying to get a bead on a kafieh that kept bobbing in and out の中で the 玉石s 近づく the end of the 山の尾根.
Gordon wriggled 支援する from the ledge-縁 and rolled into the mouth of the nearest 洞穴 before he stood up, out of sight of the men below. He stood still, 緊張するing his ears.
There it was again—soft and furtive, like the rustle of cloth against 石／投石する, the shuffle of 明らかにする feet. It （機の）カム from some point south of where he stood. Gordon moved silently in that direction, passed through the 隣接するing 議会, entered the next—and （機の）カム 直面する to 直面する with a tall 耐えるd Bedouin who yelled and whirled up a scimitar. Another raider, a man with an evil, scarred 直面する, was 直接／まっすぐに behind him, and three more were はうing out of a cleft in the 床に打ち倒す.
Gordon 解雇する／砲火／射撃d from the hip, checking the downward 一打／打撃 of the scimitar. The scar-直面するd Arab 解雇する／砲火／射撃d over the 落ちるing 団体／死体 and Gordon felt a numbing shock run up his 武器, jerked the 誘発する／引き起こす and got no 返答. The 弾丸 had 粉砕するd into the lock, 廃虚ing the 機械装置. He heard Hawkston yell savagely, out on the ledge, heard the pumping fusilade of the Englishman's ライフル銃／探して盗む, and a 嵐／襲撃する of 発射s and yells rising from the valley. They were 嵐／襲撃するing the cliff! And Hawkston must 会合，会う them alone, for Gordon had his 手渡すs 十分な.
What takes long to relate, 現実に happened in 分裂（する） seconds. Before the scarred Bedouin could 解雇する／砲火／射撃 again Gordon knocked him sprawling with a kick in the groin, and 逆転するing his ライフル銃／探して盗む, 鎮圧するd the skull of a man who 肺d at him with a long knife. No time to draw ピストル or scimitar. It was 手渡す-to-手渡す 虐殺（する） with a vengeance in the 狭くする 洞穴, two Bedouins 涙／ほころびing at him like wolves, and others jamming the 軸 in their 切望 to join the fray.
No ４半期/4分の1 given or 推定する／予想するd—a whirlwind of furious 動議, blades flashing and whickering, clanging on the ライフル銃／探して盗む バーレル／樽 and biting into the 在庫／株 as Gordon parried—and the butt 鎮圧するing home and men going 負かす／撃墜する with their 長，率いるs 粉砕するd. The scarred nomad had risen, but 恐れるing to 解雇する／砲火／射撃 because of the desperate closeness of the melee, 急ぐd in, clubbing his ライフル銃／探して盗む, just as the last man dropped. Gordon, bleeding from a gash across the breast muscles, ducked the swinging 在庫／株, 転換d his 支配する on his own ライフル銃／探して盗む and drove the 血-smeared butt, like a dagger, 十分な in the bearded 直面する. Teeth and bones crumpled and the man 倒れるd backward into the 軸, carrying with him the men who were just clambering out.
Snatching the instant's 一時的休止，執行延期 Gordon sprang to the mouth of the 軸, whipping out his (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃. Wild bearded 直面するs （人が）群がるing the 軸 glared up at him, frozen with the 承認 of doom—then the 洞穴 reverberated deafeningly to the 雷鳴ing of the big (a)自動的な／(n)自動拳銃, 爆破ing those wild 直面するs into red 廃虚. It was 虐殺（する） at that 範囲, 血 and brains spattered, nerveless 手渡すs 解放（する）d their 持つ／拘留するs, 団体／死体s went 事情に応じて変わる 負かす／撃墜する the 軸 in a red welter, jamming and choking it.
Gordon glared 負かす／撃墜する it for an instant, all 殺し屋 in that moment, then whirled and ran out on the ledge. 弾丸s sang past his 長，率いる, and he saw Hawkston stuffing fresh cartridges into his ライフル銃／探して盗む. No living Arab was in sight, but half a dozen new forms between the 山の尾根 and the foot of the 追跡する told of a 決定するd 成果／努力 to 嵐／襲撃する the cliff, 敗北・負かすd only by the Englishman's deadly 正確.
Hawkston shouted: "What the hell's been going on in there?"
"They've 設立する a 軸 主要な up from somewhere 負かす／撃墜する below," snapped Gordon. "Watch for another 急ぐ while I try to jam it."
Ignoring lead slapped at him from の中で the 激しく揺するs, he 設立する a sizable 玉石 and rolled it into the 洞穴. He peered 慎重に 負かす／撃墜する the 井戸／弁護士席. 手渡す and foot 持つ／拘留するs nitched in the 激しく揺する formed 不安定な stair-steps in the slanting 味方する. Some forty feet 負かす／撃墜する the 軸 made an angle, and it was there the 団体／死体s of the Arabs had jammed. But now only one 死体 hung there, and as he looked it moved, as if imbued with life, and slid 負かす／撃墜する out of sight. Men below the angle were pulling the 団体／死体s out, to （疑いを）晴らす the way for a fresh attack.
Gordon rolled the 玉石 into the 軸 and it rumbled downward and wedged hard at the angle. He did not believe it could be dislodged from below, and his belief was 確認するd by a muffled chorus of maledictions swelling up from the depths.
Gordon was sure this 軸 had not been in 存在 when he first （機の）カム to the 洞穴s with Al Wazir, a year before. 調査するing the caverns in search of the madman, the night before, it was not strange that he had failed to notice the 狭くする mouth in a dark corner of the 洞穴. That it opened into some cleft at the foot of the cliff was obvious. He remembered the men he had seen stealing along the gully to the south. They had 設立する that lower cleft, and the 同時の attack from both 味方するs had been 井戸／弁護士席 planned. But for Gordon's keen ears it might have 後継するd. As it was it had left the American with an empty ピストル and a broken ライフル銃／探して盗む.
Gordon dragged the 団体／死体s of the four Arabs he had killed to the ledge and heaved them over, ignoring the ferocious yells and 発射s that emanated from the 激しく揺するs. He did not bother to marvel that he had 現れるd the 勝利者 from that desperate melee. He knew that fighting was half 速度(を上げる） and strength and wit, and half blind luck. His number was not up yet, that was all.
Then he 始める，決める out on a 徹底的な 小旅行する of 調査 through the lower tiers, in search of other possible 軸s. Passing through The Eagle's Nest, he ちらりと見ることd at Al Wazir, sitting against the 中心存在. The man seemed to be asleep; his hairy 長，率いる was sunk on his breast, his 手渡すs 倍のd limply over the rope about his waist. Gordon 始める，決める food and water beside him.
His 探検s 明らかにする／漏らすd no more 予期しない tunnels. Gordon returned to the ledge with tins of food and a 肌 of water, procured from the stream which had its source in one of the 洞穴s. They ate lying flat on the shelf, for keen 注目する，もくろむs were watching with murderous hate and eager 誘発する／引き起こす-finger from 山の尾根 and 激しく揺する. The sun had passed its zenith.
Their frugal meal finished, the white men lay baking in the heat like lizards on a 激しく揺する, watching the 山の尾根. The afternoon 病弱なd.
"You've got another ライフル銃／探して盗む," said Hawkston.
"地雷 was broken in the fight in the 洞穴. I took this one from one of the men I killed. It has a 十分な magazine, but no more cartridges for it. My ピストル's empty."
"I've got only the cartridges in my guns," muttered Hawkston. "Looks like our number's up. They're just waiting for dark before they 急ぐ us again. One of us might get away in the dark, while the other held the fort, but since you won't agree to that, there's nothing to do but sit here and wait until they 削減（する） our throats."
"We have one chance," said Gordon. "If we can kill Shalan, the others will run. He's not afraid of man or devil, but his men 恐れる djinn. They'll be nervous as the devil after night 落ちるs."
Hawkston laughed 厳しく. "Fool's talk. Shalan won't give us a chance at him. We'll all die here. All but Al Wazir. The Arabs won't 害（を与える） him. But they won't help him, either. Damn him! Why did he have to go mad?"
"It wasn't very considerate," Gordon agreed with biting irony. "But then, you see he didn't know you 手配中の，お尋ね者 to 拷問 him into telling where he hid the 血 of the Gods."
"It wouldn't have been the first time a man has been 拷問d for them," retorted Hawkston. "Man, you have no real idea of the value of those jewels. I saw them once, when Al Wazir was 知事 of Oman. The sight of them's enough to 運動 a man mad. Their story sounds like a tale out of The Arabian Nights. Only God knows how many women have given up their souls or men their lives because of them, since 式の ed-din Muhammad of Delhi plundered the Hindu 寺 of Somnath, and 設立する them の中で the 略奪する. That was in 1294. They've 炎d a crimson path across Asia since then. 血's spilt wherever they go. I'd 毒（薬） my own brother to get them—" The wild 炎上 that rose in the Englishman's 注目する，もくろむs made it 平易な for Gordon to believe it, and he was swept by a revulsion toward the man.
"I'm going to 料金d Al Wazir," he said 突然の, rising.
No 発射s had come from the 激しく揺するs for some time, though they knew their 敵s were there, waiting with their 古代の, terrible patience. The sun had sunk behind the hills, the ravines and 山の尾根s were 隠すd in 広大な／多数の／重要な blue 影をつくる／尾行するs. Away to the east a silver-有望な 星／主役にする winked out and quivered in the 深くするing blue.
Gordon strode into the square 議会—and was galvanized at the sight of the 石／投石する 中心存在 standing empty. With a stride he reached it; bent over the frayed ends of the 厳しいd rope that told their own story. Al Wazir had 設立する a way to 解放する／自由な himself. Slowly, painfully, working with his claw-like fingernails through the long day, the madman had 選ぶd apart the 堅い 立ち往生させるs of the 激しい rope. And he was gone.
GORDON stepped to the door of the Nest and said curtly: "Al Wazir's gotten away. I'm going to search the 洞穴s for him. Stay on the ledge and keep watch."
"Why waste the last minutes of your life chasing a lunatic through a ネズミ- run?" growled Hawkston. "It'll be dark soon and the Arabs will be 急ぐing us—"
"You wouldn't understand," snarled Gordon, turning away.
The 仕事 ahead of him was distasteful. Searching for a homicidal maniac through the darkening 洞穴s was bad enough, but the thought of having 強制的に to subdue his friend again was 反乱ing. But it must be done. Left to run 捕まらないで in the 洞穴s Al Wazir might do 害（を与える） either to himself or to them. A 逸脱する 弾丸 might strike him 負かす／撃墜する.
A swift search through the lower tier 証明するd fruitless, and Gordon 機動力のある by the ladder into the second tier. As he climbed through the 穴を開ける into the 洞穴 above he had an uncomfortable feeling that Al Wazir was crouching at the 縁 to break his 長，率いる with a 激しく揺する. But only silence and emptiness 迎える／歓迎するd him. Dusk was filling the 洞穴s so 速く he began to despair of finding the madman. There were a hundred nooks and corners where Al Wazir could crouch unobserved, and Gordon's time was short.
The ladder that connected the second tier with the third was in the 議会 into which he had come, and ちらりと見ることing up through it Gordon was startled to see a circle of 深くするing blue 始める，決める with a winking 星／主役にする. In an instant he was climbing toward it.
He had discovered another unsuspected 出口 from the 洞穴s. The ladder of 手渡す 持つ／拘留するs led through the 天井, up the 塀で囲む of the 洞穴 above, and up through a 一連の会議、交渉／完成する 軸 that opened in the 天井 of the highest 洞穴. He went up, like a man climbing up a chimney, and a few moments later thrust his 長，率いる over the 縁.
He had come out on the 首脳会議 of the cliffs. To the east the 激しく揺する 縁 pitched up はっきりと, 妨害するing his 見解（をとる）, but to the west he looked out over a jagged backbone that broke in gaunt crags 輪郭（を描く）d against the twilight. He 強化するd as somewhere a pebble 動揺させるd 負かす／撃墜する, as if dislodged by a groping foot. Had Al Wazir come this way? Was the madman somewhere out there, climbing の中で those shadowy crags? If he was, he was 法廷，裁判所ing death by the slip of a 手渡す or a foot.
As he 緊張するd his 注目する，もくろむs in the 深くするing 影をつくる／尾行するs, a call 井戸／弁護士席d up from below: "I say, Gordon! The blighters are getting ready to 急ぐ us! I see them 集まりing の中で the 激しく揺するs!"
With a 悪口を言う／悪態 Gordon started 支援する 負かす／撃墜する the 軸. It was all he could do. With 不明瞭 集会 Hawkston would not be able to 持つ／拘留する the ledge alone.
Gordon went 負かす／撃墜する 速く, but before he reached the ledge 不明瞭 had fallen, lighted but little by the 星／主役にするs. The Englishman crouched on the 縁, 星／主役にするing 負かす／撃墜する into the 薄暗い 湾 of 影をつくる／尾行するs below.
"They're coming!" he muttered, cocking his ライフル銃／探して盗む. "Listen!"
There was no 狙撃, this time—only the swift purposeful 非難する of sandalled feet over the 石／投石するs. In the faint starlight a shadowy 集まり detached itself from the outer 不明瞭 and rolled toward the foot of the cliff. Steel clinked on the 激しく揺するs. The 集まり divided into individual 人物／姿／数字s. Men grew up out of the 不明瞭 below. No use to waste 弾丸s on 影をつくる／尾行するs. The white men held their 解雇する／砲火／射撃. The Arabs were on the 追跡する, and they （機の）カム up with a 急ぐ, steel gleaming dully in their 手渡すs. The path was thronged with 薄暗い 人物／姿／数字s; the defenders caught the glitter of white eyeballs, rolling 上向き.
They began to work their ライフル銃／探して盗むs. The dark was 削減（する） with incessant spurts of 炎上. Lead thudded home. Men cried out. 団体／死体s rolled from the 追跡する, to strike sickeningly on the 激しく揺するs below. Somewhere 支援する in the 不明瞭, Shalan ibn Mansour's 発言する／表明する was 勧めるing on his slayers. The crafty shaykh had no 意向s of 危険ing his hide within reach of those grim 闘士，戦闘機s 持つ／拘留するing the ledge.
Hawkston 悪口を言う／悪態d him as he worked his ライフル銃／探して盗む.
"Thibhahum, bism er rassul!" sobbed the 血-lusting howl as the maddened Bedouins fought their way 上向き, frothing like rabid dogs in their hate and 切望 to 涙／ほころび the Infidels 四肢 from 四肢.
Gordon's 大打撃を与える fell with an empty click. He clubbed the ライフル銃／探して盗む and stepped to the 長，率いる of the path. A white-覆う？ form ぼんやり現れるd before him, fighting for a foothold on the ledge. The swinging ライフル銃／探して盗む-butt 鎮圧するd his 長，率いる like an egg-爆撃する. A ライフル銃／探して盗む 解雇する／砲火／射撃d point-blank singed Gordon's brows and his gun-在庫／株 粉々にするd the rifleman's shoulder.
Hawkston 解雇する／砲火／射撃d his last cartridge, 投げつけるd the empty ライフル銃／探して盗む and leaped to Gordon's 味方する, scimitar in 手渡す. He 削減（する） 負かす／撃墜する a Bedouin who was 緊急発進するing over the 縁 with a knife in his teeth. The Arabs 集まりd in a milling clump below the 縁, snarling like wolves, flinching from the blows that rained 負かす／撃墜する from ライフル銃／探して盗む butt and scimitar.
Men began to slink 支援する 負かす／撃墜する the 追跡する.
"Wallah!" wailed a man. "They are devils! 逃げる, brothers!"
"Dogs!" yelled Shalan ibn Mansour, an eery 発言する／表明する out of the 不明瞭. He stood on a low knoll 近づく the 山の尾根, but he was invisible to the men on the cliff, what of the 厚い 影をつくる／尾行するs. "Stand to it! There are but two of them! They have 中止するd 解雇する／砲火／射撃ing, so their guns must be empty! If you do not bring me their 長，率いるs I will flay you alive! They—ahhh! Ya allah—!" His 発言する／表明する rose to an incoherent 叫び声をあげる, and then broke in a horrible gurgle. That was followed by a 緊張した silence, in which the Arabs 粘着するing to the 追跡する and 集まりd at its foot 新たな展開d their 長，率いるs over their shoulders to glare in amazement in the direction whence the cry had come. The men on the ledge, glad of the 一時的休止，執行延期, shook the sweat from their 注目する，もくろむs and stood listening with equal surprise and 利益／興味.
Someone called: "Ohai, Shalan ibn Mansour! Is all 井戸／弁護士席 with thee?"
There was no reply, and one of the Arabs left the foot of the cliff and ran toward the knoll, shouting the shaykh's 指名する. The men on the ledge could trace his 進歩 by his strident 発言する／表明する.
"Why did the shaykh cry out and 落ちる silent?" shouted a man on the path. "What has happened, Haditha?"
Haditha's reply （機の）カム 支援する plainly.
"I have reached the knoll whereon he stood—I do not see him—Wallah! He is dead! He lies here 殺害された, with his throat torn out! Allah! Help!" He 叫び声をあげるd, 解雇する／砲火／射撃d, and then （機の）カム sounds of his frantic flight. And as he howled like a lost soul, for the flash of the 発射 had showed him a 直面する stooping above the dead man, a wild grinning visage （判決などを）下すd 残忍な by a matted 絡まる of hair—the 直面する of a devil to the terrified Arab. And above his shrieks, as he ran, rose burst upon burst of maniacal laughter.
"逃げる! 逃げる! I have seen it! It is the djinn of El Khour!"
Instant panic 続いて起こるd. Men fell off the 追跡する like 熟した apples off a 四肢 叫び声をあげるing: "The djinn has 殺害された Shalan ibn Mansour! 逃げる, brothers, 逃げる!" The night was filled with their clamor as they 殺到d for the 山の尾根, and presently the sounds of lusty whacking and the grunting of camels （機の）カム 支援する to the men on the ledge. There was no trick about this. The Ruweila, 勇敢な in the 直面する of human 敵s, but haunted by superstitious terrors, were in 十分な flight, leaving behind them the 団体／死体s of their 長，指導者 and their 殺害された comrades.
"What the devil?" marveled Hawkston.
"It must have been Ivan," muttered Gordon. "Somehow he must have climbed 負かす／撃墜する the crags on the other 味方する of the hill-God, what a climb it must have been!"
They stood there listening, but the only sound that reached their ears was the 減らすing noise of the horde's wild flight. Presently they descended the path, past forms grotesquely 密談する／（身体を）寄せ集めるd where they had fallen. More 団体／死体s dotted the 床に打ち倒す at the foot of the cliff, and Gordon 選ぶd up a ライフル銃／探して盗む dropped from a dead 手渡す, and 保証するd himself that it was 負担d. With the Arabs in flight, the 一時休戦 between him and Hawkston might 井戸／弁護士席 be at an end. Their 未来 relations would depend 完全に upon the Englishman.
A few moments later they stood upon the low knoll on which Shalan ibn Mansour had stood. The Arab 長，指導者 was still there. He sprawled on his 支援する in a dark crimson puddle, and his throat had been ripped open as if by the claws of a wild beast. He was a grisly sight in the light of the match Gordon shaded over him.
The American straightened, blew out the match and flipped it away. He 緊張するd his 注目する，もくろむs into the surrounding 影をつくる／尾行するs and called: "Ivan!" There was no answer.
"Do you suppose it was really Al Wazir who killed him?" asked Hawkston uneasily.
"Who else could it have been? He must have こそこそ動くd on Shalan from behind. The other fellow caught a glimpse of him, and thought he was the devil of the 洞穴s, just as you said they would." What erratic whim had impelled Al Wazir to this 行為, Gordon could not say. Who can guess the vagaries of the insane? The 原始の instincts of 殺人 loosed by lunacy—a madman stealing through the night, attracted by a 独房監禁 人物／姿／数字 shouting from a knoll—it was not so strange, after all.
"井戸／弁護士席, let's start looking for him," growled Hawkston. "I know you won't start 支援する to the Coast until we've got him nicely tied up on that bally camel. So the sooner the better."
"All 権利." Gordon's 発言する／表明する betrayed 非，不，無 of the 疑惑 in his mind. He knew that Hawkston's nature and 目的s had been altered 非，不，無 by what they had passed through. The man was 背信の and 予測できない as a wolf. He turned and started toward the cliff, but he took good care not to let the Englishman get behind him, and he carried his cocked ライフル銃／探して盗む ready.
"I want to find the lower end of that 軸 the Arabs （機の）カム up," said Gordon. "Ivan may be hiding there. It must be 近づく the western end of that gully they were こそこそ動くing along when I first saw them."
Not long later they were moving along the shallow gully, and where it ended against the foot of the cliff, they saw a 狭くする slit-like cleft in the 石／投石する, large enough to 収容する／認める a man. Hoarding their matches carefully they entered and moved along the 狭くする tunnel into which it opened. This tunnel led straight 支援する into the cliff for a short distance, then turned はっきりと to the 権利, running along until it ended in a small 議会 削減（する） out of solid 激しく揺する, which Gordon believed was 直接／まっすぐに under the room in which he had fought the Arabs. His belief was 確認するd when they 設立する the 開始 of the 軸 主要な 上向き. A match held up in the 井戸／弁護士席 showed the angle still 封鎖するd by the 玉石.
"井戸／弁護士席, we know how they got into the 洞穴s," growled Hawkston. "But we 港／避難所't 設立する Al Wazir. He's not in here."
"We'll go up into the 洞穴s," answered Gordon. "He'll come 支援する there for food. We'll catch him then."
"And then what?" 需要・要求するd Hawkston.
"It's obvious, isn't it? We 攻撃する，衝突する out for the caravan road. Ivan rides. We walk. We can make it, all 権利. I don't believe the Ruweila will stop before they get 支援する to the テントs of their tribe. I'm hoping Ivan's mind can be 回復するd when we get him 支援する to civilization."
"And what about the 血 of the Gods?"
"井戸／弁護士席, what about them? They're his, to do what he pleases with them."
Hawkston did not reply, nor did he seem aware of Gordon's 疑惑 of him. He had no ライフル銃／探して盗む, but Gordon knew the ピストル at his hip was 負担d. The American carried his ライフル銃／探して盗む in the crook of his arm, and he 作戦行動d so the Englishman went ahead of him as they groped their way 支援する 負かす／撃墜する the tunnel and out into the starlight. Just what Hawkston's 意向s were, he did not know. Sooner or later, he believed, he would have to fight the Englishman for his life. But somehow he felt that this would not be necessary until after Al Wazir had been 設立する and 安全な・保証するd.
He wondered about the tunnel and the 軸 to the 最高の，を越す of the cliff. They had not been there a year ago. 明白に the Arabs had 設立する the tunnel 純粋に by 事故.
"No use searching the 洞穴s tonight," said Hawkston, when they had reached the ledge. "We'll take turns watching and sleeping. Take the first watch, will you? I didn't sleep last night, you know."
Gordon nodded. Hawkston dragged the sleeping-肌s from the Nest and wrapping himself in them, fell asleep の近くに to the 塀で囲む. Gordon sat 負かす／撃墜する a short distance away, his ライフル銃／探して盗む across his 膝s. As he sat he dozed lightly, waking each time the sleeping Englishman stirred.
He was still sitting there when the 夜明け reddened the eastern sky.
Hawkston rose, stretched and yawned.
"Why didn't you wake me to watch my turn?" he asked.
"You know damned 井戸／弁護士席 why I didn't," grated Gordon. "I don't care to run the 危険 of 存在 殺人d in my sleep."
"You don't like me, do you, Gordon?" laughed Hawkston. But only his lips smiled, and a red 炎上 smoldered in his 注目する，もくろむs. "井戸／弁護士席, that makes the feeling 相互の, don't you know. After we've gotten Al Wazir 支援する to el-Azem, I'm looking 今後 to a gentlemanly settling of our differences—just you and I—and a pair of swords."
"Why wait until then?" Gordon was on his feet, his nostrils quivering with the 切望 of hard-leashed hate.
Hawkston shook his 長，率いる, smiling ひどく.
"Oh no, El Borak. No fighting until we get out of the 砂漠."
"All 権利," snarled the American disgruntedly. "Let's eat, and then start 徹底的に捜すing the 洞穴s for Ivan."
A slight sound brought them both wheeling toward the door of the Nest. Al Wazir stood there, plucking at his 耐えるd with his long 黒人／ボイコット nails. His 注目する，もくろむs 欠如（する）d their former wild beast glare; they were clouded, plaintive. His 態度 was one of bewilderment rather than menace.
"Ivan!" muttered Gordon, setting 負かす／撃墜する his ライフル銃／探して盗む and moving toward the wild man. Al Wazir did not 退却／保養地, nor did he make any 敵意を持った demonstration. He stood stolidly, uneasily tugging at his 絡まるd 耐えるd.
"He's in a milder mood," murmured Gordon. "平易な, Hawkston. Let me 扱う this. I don't believe he'll have to be overpowered this time."
"In that 事例／患者," said Hawkston, "I don't need you any longer."
Gordon whipped around; the Englishman's 注目する，もくろむs were red with the 殺人，大当り lust, his 手渡す 残り／休憩（する）d on the butt of his ピストル. For an instant the two men stood tensely 直面するing one another. Hawkston spoke, almost in a whisper: "You fool, did you think I'd give you an even break? I don't need you to help me get Al Wazir 支援する to el-Azem. I know a German doctor who can 回復する his mind if anybody can—and then I'll see that he tells me where to find the 血 of the Gods—"
Their 権利 手渡すs moved in a 同時の blur of 速度(を上げる）. Hawkston's gun （疑いを）晴らすd its holster as Gordon's scimitar flashed 解放する／自由な. And the gun spoke just as the blade struck it, knocking it from the Englishman's 手渡す. Gordon felt the 勝利，勝つd of the slug and behind him the madman in the door grunted and fell ひどく. The ピストル rang on the 石／投石する and bounced from the ledge, and Gordon 削減（する） murderously at Hawkston's 長，率いる, his 注目する，もくろむs red with fury. A swift backward leap carried the Englishman out of 範囲, and Hawkston tore out his scimitar as Gordon （機の）カム at him in savage silence. The American had seen Al Wazir lying limp in the doorway, 血 oozing from his 長，率いる.
Gordon and Hawkston （機の）カム together with a dazzling 炎上 and 割れ目 of steel, in an 抑えるのをやめるing of hard-pent passions, two wild natures a-かわき for each others' lives. Here was the 勧める to kill, loosed at last, and 支援 every blow.
For a few minutes 一打／打撃 followed 一打／打撃 too 急速な／放蕩な for the 注目する，もくろむ to distinguish, had any 注目する，もくろむ 証言，証人／目撃するd that 猛攻撃. They fought with a 冷気／寒がらせるd- steel fury, a 無謀な abandon that was yet neither wild or careless. The clang of steel was deafening; miraculously, it seemed, the shimmer of steel played about their 長，率いるs, yet neither 辛勝する／優位 削減（する） home. The 技術 of the two 闘士，戦闘機s was too 井戸／弁護士席 matched.
After the first ハリケーン of attack, the play changed subtly; it grew, not いっそう少なく savage but more crafty. The 砂漠 sun, that had lighted the blades of a thousand 世代s of swordsmen, in a land sworn to the sword, had never shone on a more scintillating 陳列する，発揮する of swordsmanship than this, where two 外国人s carved out the 運命s of their 絡まるd careers on a high-flung ledge between sun and 砂漠.
Up and 負かす／撃墜する the ledge—scruff and 転換 of quick-moving feet—gliding, not stamping—（犯罪の）一味 and 衝突／不一致 of steel 会合 steel—炎上-lighted 黒人／ボイコット 注目する，もくろむs glaring into flinty grey 注目する，もくろむs; 飛行機で行くing blades turned crimson by the rising sun.
Hawkston had 削減（する） his teeth on the straight blade of his native land, and he was 部分的な／不平等な to the point and used it with devilish 技術. Gordon had learned sword fighting in the hard school of the Afghan mountain wars, with the curved tulwar, and he fought with no 始める，決める or 正統派の style. His blade was a lethal, living thing that darted like a serpent's tongue or 攻撃するd with 破滅的な 力／強力にする.
Here was no ceremonious dueling with elegant 支配するs and 形式順守s. It was a fight for life, naked and desperate, and within the space of half a dozen minutes both men had 試みる／企てるd or 失敗させる／負かすd tricks that would have made a 中世 Italian 盗品故買者ing master blink. There was no pause or breathing （一定の）期間; only the constant slither and rasp of blade on blade—Hawkston failing in his 試みる／企てる to 作戦行動 Gordon about so the sun would dazzle his 注目する，もくろむs; Gordon almost 急ぐing Hawkston over the 縁 of the ledge, the Englishman saving himself by a sidewise leap.
The end （機の）カム suddenly. Hawkston, with sweat 注ぐing 負かす／撃墜する his 直面する, realized that the sheer strength in Gordon's arm was beginning to tell. Even his アイロンをかける wrist was growing numb under the terrific blows the American rained on his guard. Believing himself to be superior to Gordon in pure 盗品故買者ing 技術, he began the 予選s of an intricate 作戦行動, and 会合 with 明らかな success, feinted a 削減（する） at Gordon's 長，率いる. El Borak knew it was a feint, but, pretending to be deceived by it, he 解除するd his sword as though to parry the 削減（する）. 即時に Hawkston's point licked at his throat. Even as the Englishman thrust he knew he had been tricked, but he could not check the 動議. The blade passed over Gordon's shoulder as the American 避けるd the thrust with a swaying 新たな展開 of his torso, and his scimitar flashed like white steel 雷 in the sun. Hawkston's dark features were blotted out by a 噴出する of 血 and brains; his scimitar rang loud on the rocky ledge; he swayed, tottered, and fell suddenly, his 栄冠を与える 分裂（する） to the hinges of the jawbone.
Gordon shook the sweat from his 注目する，もくろむs and glared 負かす／撃墜する at the prostrate 人物／姿／数字, too drunken with hate and 戦う／戦い to fully realize that his 敵 was dead. He started and whirled as a 発言する／表明する spoke weakly behind him: "The same swift blade as ever, El Borak!"
Al Wazir was sitting with his 支援する against the 塀で囲む. His 注目する，もくろむs, no longer murky nor bloodshot, met Gordon's levelly. In spite of his 絡まるd hair and 耐えるd there was something ineffably tranquil and seer-like about him. Here, indeed, was the man Gordon had known of old.
"Ivan! Alive! But Hawkston's 弾丸—"
"Was that what it was?" Al Wazir 解除するd a 手渡す to his 長，率いる; it （機の）カム away smeared with 血. "Anyway, I'm very much alive, and my mind's （疑いを）晴らす—for the first time in God knows how long. What happened?"
"You stopped a slug meant for me," grunted Gordon. "Let me see that 負傷させる." After a 簡潔な／要約する 調査 he 発表するd: "Just a graze; ploughed through the scalp and knocked you out. I'll wash it and 包帯 it." While he worked he said tersely: "Hawkston was on your 追跡する; after your rubies. I tried to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 him here, and Shalan ibn Mansour 罠にかける us both. You were a bit out of your 長，率いる and I had to tie you up. We had a tussle with the Arabs and finally （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 them off."
"What day is it?" asked Al Wazir. At Gordon's reply he ejaculated: "広大な／多数の／重要な heavens! It's more than a month since I got knocked on the 長，率いる!"
"What's that?" exclaimed Gordon. "I thought the loneliness—"
Al Wazir laughed. "Not that, El Borak. I was doing some 穴掘り work—I discovered a 軸 in one of the lower 洞穴s, 主要な 負かす／撃墜する to the tunnel. The mouths of both were 調印（する）d with 厚板s of 激しく揺する. I opened them up, just out of curiosity. Then I 設立する another 軸 主要な from an upper 洞穴 to the 首脳会議 of the cliff, like a chimney. It was while I was working out the 厚板 that 調印（する）d it, that I dislodged a にわか雨 of 激しく揺するs. One of them gave me an awful 非難する on the 長，率いる. My mind's been a blank ever since, except for 簡潔な／要約する intervals—and they weren't very （疑いを）晴らす. I remember them like bits of dreams, now. I remember squatting in the Nest, 涙／ほころびing tins open and gobbling food, trying to remember who I was and why I was here. Then everything would fade out again.
"I have another vague recollection of 存在 tied to a 激しく揺する in the 洞穴, and seeing you and Hawkston lying on the ledge, and 解雇する／砲火／射撃ing. Of course I didn't know either of you. I remember 審理，公聴会 you 説 that if somebody was killed the others would go away. There was a lot of 狙撃 and shouting and that 脅すd me and 傷つける my ears. I 手配中の，お尋ね者 you all to go away and leave me in peace.
"I don't know how I got loose, but my next disjointed bit of memory is that of creeping up the 軸 that leads to the 最高の，を越す of the cliff, and then climbing, climbing, with the 星／主役にするs over me and the 勝利，勝つd blowing in my 直面する—heavens! I must have climbed over the 首脳会議 of the hill and 負かす／撃墜する the crags on the other 味方する!
"Then I have a muddled remembrance of running and はうing through the dark—a 混乱させるd impression of 狙撃 and noise, and a man standing alone on a knoll and shouting—" he shuddered and shook his 長，率いる. "When I try to remember what happened then, it's all a blind whirl of 解雇する／砲火／射撃 and 血, like a nightmare. Somehow I seemed to feel that the man on the knoll was to 非難する for all the noise that was maddening me, and that if he やめる shouting, they'd all go away and let me alone. But from that point it's all a blind red もや."
Gordon held his peace. He realized that it was his 発言／述べる, overheard by Al Wazir, that if Shalan ibn Mansour were 殺害された, the Arabs would 逃げる, which had taken root in the madman's clouded brain and 供給するd the impulse—probably subconsciously—which finally translated itself into 活動／戦闘. Al Wazir did not remember having killed the shaykh, and there was no use 苦しめるing him with the truth.
"I remember running, then," murmured Al Wazir, rubbing his 長，率いる. "I was in a terrible fright, and trying to get 支援する to the 洞穴s. I remember climbing again—up this time. I must have climbed 支援する over the crags and 負かす／撃墜する the chimney again—I'll wager I couldn't make that climb 着せる／賦与するd in my 権利 mind. The next thing I remember is 審理，公聴会 発言する／表明するs, and they sounded somehow familiar. I started toward them—then something 割れ目d and flashed in my 長，率いる, and I knew nothing more until I （機の）カム to myself a few moments ago, in 所有／入手 of all my faculties, and saw you and Hawkston fighting with your swords."
"You were evidently 回復するing your senses," said Gordon. "It took the extra 揺さぶる of that slug to 始める，決める your numb 機械／機構 going again. Such things have happened before.
"Ivan, I've got a camel hidden nearby, and the Arabs left some ropes of hay in their （軍の）野営地，陣営 when they pulled out. I'm going to 料金d and water it, and then—井戸／弁護士席, I ーするつもりであるd taking you 支援する to the Coast with me, but since you've 回復するd your wits, I suppose you'll—"
"I'm going 支援する with you," said Al Wazir. "My meditations didn't give me the gift of prophecy, but they 納得させるd me—even before I got that 非難する on the 長，率いる—that the best life a man can live is one of service to his fellow man. Just as you do, in your own way! I can't help mankind by dreaming out here in the 砂漠." He ちらりと見ることd 負かす／撃墜する at the prostrate 人物／姿／数字 on the ledge. "We'll have to build a cairn, first. Poor devil, it was his 運命 to be the last sacrifice to the 血 of the Gods."
"What do you mean?"
"They were stained with men's 血," answered Al Wazir. "They have 原因（となる）d nothing but 苦しむing and 罪，犯罪 since they first appeared in history. Before I left el-Azem I threw them into the sea."
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