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肩書を与える: Worms of the Earth Author: Robert E. Howard * A 事業／計画（する） Gutenberg of Australia eBook * eBook No.: 0607861h.html Language: English Date first 地位，任命するd: September 2006 Most 最近の update: January 2019 This eBook was produced by Richard Scott 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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Weird Tales, November 1932
"STRIKE in the nails, 兵士s, and let our guest see the reality of our good Roman 司法（官）!"
The （衆議院の）議長 wrapped his purple cloak closer about his powerful でっちあげる，人を罪に陥れる and settled 支援する into his 公式の／役人 議長，司会を務める, much as he might have settled 支援する in his seat at the Circus Maximus to enjoy the 衝突／不一致 of gladiatorial swords. 現実化 of 力／強力にする colored his every move. Whetted pride was necessary to Roman satisfaction, and Titus Sulla was 正確に，正当に proud; for he was 軍の 知事 of Eboracum and 責任のある only to the emperor of Rome. He was a 堅固に built man of medium 高さ, with the 強硬派-like features of the pure-bred Roman. Now a mocking smile curved his 十分な lips, 増加するing the arrogance of his haughty 面. Distinctly 軍の in 外見, he wore the golden-規模d corselet and chased breastplate of his 階級, with the short stabbing sword at his belt, and he held on his 膝 the silvered helmet with its plumed crest. Behind him stood a clump of impassive 兵士s with 保護物，者 and spear—blond 巨人s from the Rhineland.
Before him was taking place the scene which 明らかに gave him so much real gratification—a scene ありふれた enough wherever stretched the far-flung 境界s of Rome. A rude cross lay flat upon the barren earth and on it was bound a man—half-naked, wild of 面 with his corded 四肢s, glaring 注目する，もくろむs and shock of 絡まるd hair. His executioners were Roman 兵士s, and with 激しい 大打撃を与えるs they 用意が出来ている to pin the 犠牲者's 手渡すs and feet to the 支持を得ようと努めるd with アイロンをかける spikes.
Only a small group of men watched this 恐ろしい scene, in the dread place of 死刑執行 beyond the city 塀で囲むs: the 知事 and his watchful guards; a few young Roman officers; the man to whom Sulla had referred as "guest" and who stood like a bronze image, unspeaking. Beside the gleaming splendor of the Roman, the 静かな garb of this man seemed 淡褐色, almost somber.
He was dark, but he did not 似ている the Latins around him. There was about him 非，不，無 of the warm, almost Oriental sensuality of the Mediterranean which colored their features. The blond barbarians behind Sulla's 議長，司会を務める were いっそう少なく unlike the man in facial 輪郭（を描く） than were the Romans. Not his were the 十分な curving red lips, nor the rich waving locks suggestive of the Greek. Nor was his dark complexion the rich olive of the south; rather it was the 荒涼とした 不明瞭 of the north. The whole 面 of the man ばく然と 示唆するd the 影をつくる／尾行するd もやs, the gloom, the 冷淡な and the icy 勝利，勝つd of the naked northern lands. Even his 黒人／ボイコット 注目する，もくろむs were savagely 冷淡な, like 黒人／ボイコット 解雇する／砲火／射撃s 燃やすing through fathoms of ice.
His 高さ was only medium but there was something about him which transcended mere physical 本体，大部分／ばら積みの—a 確かな 猛烈な／残忍な innate vitality, 類似の only to that of a wolf or a panther. In every line of his supple, compact 団体／死体, 同様に as in his coarse straight hair and thin lips, this was evident—in the 強硬派-like 始める，決める of the 長，率いる on the corded neck, in the 幅の広い square shoulders, in the 深い chest, the lean loins, the 狭くする feet. Built with the savage economy of a panther, he was an image of dynamic potentialities, pent in with アイロンをかける self-支配（する）／統制する.
At his feet crouched one like him in complexion—but there the resemblance ended. This other was a stunted 巨大（な）, with gnarly 四肢s, 厚い 団体／死体, a low sloping brow and an 表現 of dull ferocity, now 明確に mixed with 恐れる. If the man on the cross 似ているd, in a 部族の way, the man Titus Sulla called guest, he far more 似ているd the stunted crouching 巨大（な）.
"井戸／弁護士席, Partha Mac Othna," said the 知事 with 熟考する／考慮するd effrontery, "when you return to your tribe, you will have a tale to tell of the 司法（官） of Rome, who 支配するs the south."
"I will have a tale," answered the other in a 発言する／表明する which betrayed no emotion, just as his dark 直面する, schooled to immobility, showed no 証拠 of the maelstrom in his soul.
"司法（官） to all under the 支配する of Rome," said Sulla. "Pax Romana! Reward for virtue, 罰 for wrong!" He laughed inwardly at his own 黒人／ボイコット hypocrisy, then continued: "You see, 特使 of Pictland, how 速く Rome punishes the transgressor."
"I see," answered the Pict in a 発言する／表明する which 堅固に-抑制（する）d 怒り／怒る made 深い with menace, "that the 支配する of a foreign king is dealt with as though he were a Roman slave."
"He has been tried and 非難するd in an unbiased 法廷，裁判所," retorted Sulla.
"Aye! And the accuser was a Roman, the 証言，証人／目撃するs Roman, the 裁判官 Roman! He committed 殺人? In a moment of fury he struck 負かす／撃墜する a Roman merchant who cheated, tricked and robbed him, and to 傷害 追加するd 侮辱—aye, and a blow! Is his king but a dog, that Rome crucifies his 支配するs at will, 非難するd by Roman 法廷，裁判所s? Is his king too weak or foolish to do 司法（官）, were he 知らせるd and formal 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金s brought against the 違反者／犯罪者?"
"井戸／弁護士席," said Sulla cynically, "you may 知らせる Bran Mak Morn yourself. Rome, my friend, makes no account of her 活動／戦闘s to barbarian kings. When savages come の中で us, let them 行為／法令／行動する with discretion or 苦しむ the consequences."
The Pict shut his アイロンをかける jaws with a snap that told Sulla その上の badgering would elicit no reply. The Roman made a gesture to the executioners. One of them 掴むd a spike and placing it against the 厚い wrist of the 犠牲者, smote ひどく. The アイロンをかける point sank 深い through the flesh, crunching against the bones. The lips of the man on the cross writhed, though no moan escaped him. As a 罠にかける wolf fights against his cage, the bound 犠牲者 instinctively wrenched and struggled. The veins swelled in his 寺s, sweat beaded his low forehead, the muscles in 武器 and 脚s writhed and knotted. The 大打撃を与えるs fell in inexorable 一打／打撃s, 運動ing the cruel points deeper and deeper, through wrists and ankles; 血 flowed in a 黒人／ボイコット river over the 手渡すs that held the spikes, staining the 支持を得ようと努めるd of the cross, and the 後援ing of bones was distinctly heard. Yet the 苦しんでいる人 made no 激しい抗議, though his blackened lips writhed 支援する until the gums were 明白な, and his shaggy 長，率いる jerked involuntarily from 味方する to 味方する.
The man called Partha Mac Othna stood like an アイロンをかける image, 注目する，もくろむs 燃やすing from an inscrutable 直面する, his whole 団体／死体 hard as アイロンをかける from the 緊張 of his 支配（する）／統制する. At his feet crouched his misshapen servant, hiding his 直面する from the grim sight, his 武器 locked about his master's 膝s. Those 武器 gripped like steel and under his breath the fellow mumbled ceaselessly as if in invocation.
The last 一打／打撃 fell; the cords were 削減（する） from arm and 脚, so that the man would hang supported by the nails alone. He had 中止するd his struggling that only 新たな展開d the spikes in his agonizing 負傷させるs. His 有望な 黒人／ボイコット 注目する，もくろむs, unglazed, had not left the 直面する of the man called Partha Mac Othna; in them ぐずぐず残るd a desperate 影をつくる／尾行する of hope. Now the 兵士s 解除するd the cross and 始める，決める the end of it in the 穴を開ける 用意が出来ている, stamped the dirt about it to 持つ／拘留する it 築く.
The Pict hung in 空中, 一時停止するd by the nails in his flesh, but still no sound escaped his lips. His 注目する，もくろむs still hung on the somber 直面する of the 特使, but the 影をつくる／尾行する of hope was fading.
"He'll live for days!" said Sulla cheerfully. "These Picts are harder than cats to kill! I'll keep a guard of ten 兵士s watching night and day to see that no one takes him 負かす／撃墜する before he dies. 売春婦, there, Valerius, in 栄誉（を受ける） of our esteemed neighbor, King Bran Mak Morn, give him a cup of ワイン!"
With a laugh the young officer （機の）カム 今後, 持つ／拘留するing a brimming ワイン cup, and rising on his toes, 解除するd it to the parched lips of the 苦しんでいる人. In the 黒人／ボイコット 注目する，もくろむs ゆらめくd a red wave of unquenchable 憎悪; writhing his 長，率いる aside to 避ける even touching the cup, he spat 十分な into the young Roman's 注目する，もくろむs. With a 悪口を言う／悪態 Valerius dashed the cup to the ground, and before any could 停止（させる） him, wrenched out his sword and sheathed it in the man's 団体／死体.
Sulla rose with an imperious exclamation of 怒り／怒る; the man called Partha Mac Othna had started violently, but he bit his lip and said nothing. Valerius seemed somewhat surprized at him as he sullenly 洗浄するd his sword. The 行為／法令／行動する had been 直感的に, に引き続いて the 侮辱 to Roman pride, the one thing unbearable.
"Give up your sword, young sir!" exclaimed Sulla. "Centurion Publius, place him under 逮捕（する）. A few days in a 独房 with stale bread and water will teach you to 抑制（する） your patrician pride in 事柄s 取引，協定ing with the will of the empire. What, you young fool, do you not realize that you could not have made the dog a more kindly gift? Who would not rather 願望（する） a quick death on the sword than the slow agony on the cross? Take him away. And you, centurion, see that guards remain at the cross so that the 団体／死体 is not 削減（する） 負かす／撃墜する until the ravens 選ぶ 明らかにする the bones. Partha Mac Othna, I go to a 祝宴 at the house of Demetrius—will you not …を伴って me?"
The 特使 shook his 長，率いる, his 注目する，もくろむs 直す／買収する，八百長をするd on the limp form which sagged on the 黒人／ボイコット-stained cross. He made no reply. Sulla smiled sardonically, then rose and strode away, followed by his 長官 who bore the gilded 議長，司会を務める ceremoniously, and by the stolid 兵士s, with whom walked Valerius, 長，率いる sunken.
The man called Partha Mac Othna flung a wide 倍の of his cloak about his shoulder, 停止（させる）d a moment to gaze at the grim cross with its 重荷（を負わせる）, darkly etched against the crimson sky, where the clouds of night were 集会. Then he stalked away, followed by his silent servant.
IN an inner 議会 of Eboracum, the man called Partha Mac Othna paced tigerishly to and fro. His sandaled feet made no sound on the marble tiles.
"Grom!" he turned to the gnarled servant. "井戸／弁護士席 I know why you held my 膝s so tightly—why you muttered 援助（する） of the Moon-Woman—you 恐れるd I would lose my self-支配（する）／統制する and make a mad 試みる／企てる to succor that poor wretch. By the gods, I believe that was what the dog Roman wishedhis アイロンをかける-事例／患者d 監視者s watched me 辛うじて, I know, and his baiting was harder to 耐える than ordinarily.
"Gods 黒人／ボイコット and white, dark and light!" He shook his clenched 握りこぶしs above his 長，率いる in the 黒人／ボイコット gust of his passion. "That I should stand by and see a man of 地雷 butchered on a Roman cross—without 司法（官） and with no more 裁判，公判 than that farce! 黒人／ボイコット gods of R'lyeh, even you would I invoke to the 廃虚 and 破壊 of those butchers! I 断言する by the Nameless Ones, men shall die howling for that 行為, and Rome shall cry out as a woman in the dark who treads upon an adder!"
"He knew you, master," said Grom.
The other dropped his 長，率いる and covered his 注目する，もくろむs with a gesture of savage 苦痛.
"His 注目する，もくろむs will haunt me when I 嘘（をつく） dying. Aye, he knew me, and almost until the last, I read in his 注目する，もくろむs the hope that I might 援助（する） him. Gods and devils, is Rome to butcher my people beneath my very 注目する，もくろむs? Then I am not king but dog!"
"Not so loud, in the 指名する of all the gods!" exclaimed Grom in affright. "Did these Romans 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑う you were Bran Mak Morn, they would nail you on a cross beside that other."
"They will know it ere long," grimly answered the king. "Too long I have ぐずぐず残るd here in the guise of an 特使, 秘かに調査するing upon 地雷 enemies. They have thought to play with me, these Romans, masking their contempt and 軽蔑（する） only under polished satire. Rome is courteous to barbarian 外交官／大使s, they give us 罰金 houses to live in, 申し込む／申し出 us slaves, pander to our lusts with women and gold and ワイン and games, but all the while they laugh at us; their very 儀礼 is an 侮辱, and いつかs—as today—their contempt discards all veneer. Bah! I've seen through their baitings—have remained imperturbably serene and swallowed their 熟考する／考慮するd 侮辱s. But this—by the fiends of Hell, this is beyond human endurance! My people look to me; if I fail them—if I fail even one—even the lowest of my people, who will 援助（する） them? To whom shall they turn? By the gods, I'll answer the gibes of these Roman dogs with 黒人／ボイコット 軸 and trenchant steel!"
"And the 長，指導者 with the plumes?" Grom meant the 知事 and his gutturals thrummed with the 血-lust. "He dies?" He flicked out a length of steel.
Bran scowled. "Easier said than done. He dies—but how may I reach him? By day his German guards keep at his 支援する; by night they stand at door and window. He has many enemies, Romans 同様に as barbarians. Many a Briton would 喜んで slit his throat."
Grom 掴むd Bran's 衣料品, stammering as 猛烈な／残忍な 切望 broke the 社債s of his inarticulate nature.
"Let me go, master! My life is 価値（がある） nothing. I will 削減（する） him 負かす／撃墜する in the 中央 of his 軍人s!"
Bran smiled ひどく and clapped his 手渡す on the stunted 巨大（な）'s shoulder with a 軍隊 that would have felled a lesser man.
"Nay, old war-dog, I have too much need of thee! You shall not throw your life away uselessly. Sulla would read the 意図 in your 注目する，もくろむs, besides, and the javelins of his Teutons would be through you ere you could reach him. Not by the dagger in the dark will we strike this Roman, not by the venom in the cup nor the 軸 from the 待ち伏せ／迎撃する."
The king turned and paced the 床に打ち倒す a moment, his 長，率いる bent in thought. Slowly his 注目する，もくろむs grew murky with a thought so fearful he did not speak it aloud to the waiting 軍人.
"I have become somewhat familiar with the maze of Roman politics during my stay in this accursed waste of mud and marble," said he. "During a war on the 塀で囲む, Titus Sulla, as 知事 of this 州, is supposed to 急いで thither with his centuries. But this Sulla does not do; he is no coward, but the bravest 避ける 確かな things—to each man, however bold, his own particular 恐れる. So he sends in his place Caius Camillus, who in times of peace patrols the fens of the west, lest the Britons break over the 国境. And Sulla takes his place in the Tower of Trajan. Ha!"
He whirled and gripped Grom with steely fingers.
"Grom, take the red stallion and ride north! Let no grass grow under the stallion's hoofs! Ride to Cormac na Connacht and tell him to sweep the frontier with sword and たいまつ! Let his wild Gaels feast their fill of 虐殺（する）. After a time I will be with him. But for a time I have 事件／事情／状勢s in the west."
Grom's 黒人／ボイコット 注目する，もくろむs gleamed and he made a 熱烈な gesture with his crooked 手渡す—an 直感的に move of savagery.
Bran drew a 激しい bronze 調印（する） from beneath his tunic.
"This is my 安全な-行為／行う as an 特使 to Roman 法廷，裁判所s," he said grimly. "It will open all gates between this house and Baal-dor. If any 公式の／役人 questions you too closely—here!"
解除するing the lid of an アイロンをかける-bound chest, Bran took out a small, 激しい leather 捕らえる、獲得する which he gave into the 手渡すs of the 軍人.
"When all 重要なs fail at a gate," said he, "try a golden 重要な. Go now!"
There were no ceremonious 別れの（言葉，会）s between the barbarian king and his barbarian vassal. Grom flung up his arm in a gesture of salute; then turning, he hurried out.
Bran stepped to a 閉めだした window and gazed out into the moonlit streets.
"Wait until the moon 始める，決めるs," he muttered grimly. "Then I'll take the road to—Hell! But before I go I have a 負債 to 支払う／賃金."
The stealthy clink of a hoof on the 旗s reached him.
"With the 安全な-行為／行う and gold, not even Rome can 持つ／拘留する a Pictish reaver," muttered the king. "Now I'll sleep until the moon 始める，決めるs."
With a snarl at the marble frieze-work and fluted columns, as symbols of Rome, he flung himself 負かす／撃墜する on a couch, from which he had long since impatiently torn the cushions and silk stuffs, as too soft for his hard 団体／死体. Hate and the 黒人／ボイコット passion of vengeance seethed in him, yet he went 即時に to sleep. The first lesson he had learned in his bitter hard life was to snatch sleep any time he could, like a wolf that snatches sleep on the 追跡（する）ing 追跡する. 一般に his slumber was as light and dreamless as a panther's, but tonight it was さもなければ.
*
He sank into fleecy gray fathoms of slumber and in a timeless, misty realm of 影をつくる／尾行するs he met the tall, lean, white-bearded 人物／姿／数字 of old Gonar, the priest of the Moon, high 助言者／カウンセラー to the king. And Bran stood aghast, for Gonar's 直面する was white as driven snow and he shook as with ague. 井戸／弁護士席 might Bran stand appalled, for in all the years of his life he had never before seen Gonar the Wise show any 調印する of 恐れる.
"What now, old one?" asked the king. "Goes all 井戸／弁護士席 in Baal-dor?"
"All is 井戸／弁護士席 in Baal-dor where my 団体／死体 lies sleeping," answered old Gonar. "Across the 無効の I have come to 戦う／戦い with you for your soul. King, are you mad, this thought you have thought in your brain?"
"Gonar," answered Bran somberly, "this day I stood still and watched a man of 地雷 die on the cross of Rome. What his 指名する or his 階級, I do not know. I do not care. He might have been a faithful unknown 軍人 of 地雷, he might have been an 無法者. I only know that he was 地雷; the first scents he knew were the scents of the heather; the first light he saw was the sunrise on the Pictish hills. He belonged to me, not to Rome. If 罰 was just, then 非，不，無 but me should have dealt it. If he were to be tried, 非，不，無 but me should have been his 裁判官. The same 血 flowed in our veins; the same 解雇する／砲火／射撃 maddened our brains; in 幼少／幼藍期 we listened to the same old tales, and in 青年 we sang the same old songs. He was bound to my heartstrings, as every man and every woman and every child of Pictland is bound. It was 地雷 to 保護する him; now it is 地雷 to avenge him."
"But in the 指名する of the gods, Bran," expostulated the wizard, "take your vengeance in another way! Return to the heather—集まり your warriorsjoin with Cormac and his Gaels, and spread a sea of 血 and 炎上 the length of the 広大な／多数の／重要な 塀で囲む!"
"All that I will do," grimly answered Bran. "But now—now—I will have a vengeance such as no Roman ever dreamed of! Ha, what do they know of the mysteries of this 古代の 小島, which 避難所d strange life long before Rome rose from the 沼s of the Tiber?"
"Bran, there are 武器s too foul to use, even against Rome!"
Bran barked short and sharp as a jackal.
"Ha! There are no 武器s I would not use against Rome! My 支援する is at the 塀で囲む. By the 血 of the fiends, has Rome fought me fair? Bah! I am a barbarian king with a wolfskin mantle and an アイロンをかける 栄冠を与える, fighting with my handful of 屈服するs and broken pikes against the queen of the world. What have I? The heather hills, the wattle huts, the spears of my shock-長，率いるd tribesmen! And I fight Rome—with her 装甲の legions, her 幅の広い fertile plains and rich seas—her mountains and her rivers and her gleaming citiesher wealth, her steel, her gold, her mastery and her wrath. By steel and 解雇する／砲火／射撃 I will fight her—and by subtlety and treachery—by the thorn in the foot, the adder in the path, the venom in the cup, the dagger in the dark; aye," his 発言する／表明する sank somberly, "and by the worms of the earth!"
"But it is madness!" cried Gonar. "You will 死なせる／死ぬ in the 試みる／企てる you planyou will go 負かす／撃墜する to Hell and you will not return! What of your people then?"
"If I can not serve them I had better die," growled the king.
"But you can not even reach the 存在s you 捜し出す," cried Gonar. "For untold centuries they have dwelt apart. There is no door by which you can come to them. Long ago they 厳しいd the 社債s that bound them to the world we know."
"Long ago," answered Bran somberly, "you told me that nothing in the universe was separated from the stream of Life—a 説 the truth of which I have often seen evident. No race, no form of life but is の近くに-knit somehow, by some manner, to the 残り／休憩（する） of Life and the world. Somewhere there is a thin link connecting those I 捜し出す to the world I know. Somewhere there is a Door. And somewhere の中で the 荒涼とした fens of the west I will find it."
Stark horror flooded Gonar's 注目する，もくろむs and he gave 支援する crying, "Woe! Woe! Woe! to Pictdom! Woe to the unborn kingdom! Woe, 黒人／ボイコット woe to the sons of men! Woe, woe, woe, woe!"
*
Bran awoke to a 影をつくる／尾行するd room and the starlight on the window-妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s. The moon had sunk from sight though its glow was still faint above the house 最高の，を越すs. Memory of his dream shook him and he swore beneath his breath.
Rising, he flung off cloak and mantle, donning a light shirt of 黒人／ボイコット mesh-mail, and girding on sword and dirk. Going again to the アイロンをかける-bound chest he 解除するd several compact 捕らえる、獲得するs and emptied the clinking contents into the leathern pouch at his girdle. Then wrapping his wide cloak about him, he silently left the house. No servants there were to 秘かに調査する on him—he had impatiently 辞退するd the 申し込む／申し出 of slaves which it was Rome's 政策 to furnish her barbarian 特使s. Gnarled Grom had …に出席するd to all Bran's simple needs.
The stables 前線d on the 中庭. A moment's groping in the dark and he placed his を引き渡す a 広大な／多数の／重要な stallion's nose, checking the nicker of 承認. Working without a light he 速く bridled and saddled the 広大な／多数の／重要な brute, and went through the 中庭 into a shadowy 味方する street, 主要な him. The moon was setting, the 国境 of floating 影をつくる／尾行するs 広げるing along the western 塀で囲む. Silence lay on the marble palaces and mud hovels of Eboracum under the 冷淡な 星／主役にするs.
Bran touched the pouch at his girdle, which was 激しい with 造幣局d gold that bore the stamp of Rome. He had come to Eboracum 提起する／ポーズをとるing as an 特使 of Pictdom, to 行為／法令／行動する the 秘かに調査する. But 存在 a barbarian, he had not been able to play his part in aloof 形式順守 and sedate dignity. He 保持するd a （人が）群がるd memory of wild feasts where ワイン flowed in fountains; of white-bosomed Roman women, who, 満たすd with civilized lovers, looked with something more than 好意 on a virile barbarian; of gladiatorial games; and of other games where dice clicked and spun and tall stacks of gold changed 手渡すs. He had drunk 深く，強烈に and 賭事d recklessly, after the manner of barbarians, and he had had a remarkable run of luck, 予定 かもしれない to the 無関心／冷淡 with which he won or lost. Gold to the Pict was so much dust, flowing through his fingers. In his land there was no need of it. But he had learned its 力／強力にする in the 境界s of civilization.
Almost under the 影をつくる／尾行する of the northwestern 塀で囲む he saw ahead of him ぼんやり現れる the 広大な／多数の／重要な watchtower which was connected with and 後部d above the outer 塀で囲む. One corner of the 城-like 要塞, farthest from the 塀で囲む, served as a dungeon. Bran left his horse standing in a dark alley, with the reins hanging on the ground, and stole like a prowling wolf into the 影をつくる／尾行するs of the 要塞.
*
The young officer Valerius was awakened from a light, unquiet sleep by a stealthy sound at the 閉めだした window. He sat up, 悪口を言う／悪態ing softly under his breath as the faint starlight which etched the window-妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s fell across the 明らかにする 石／投石する 床に打ち倒す and reminded him of his 不名誉. 井戸／弁護士席, in a few days, he ruminated, he'd be 井戸／弁護士席 out of it; Sulla would not be too 厳しい on a man with such high 関係s; then let any man or woman gibe at him! Damn that insolent Pict! But wait, he thought suddenly, remembering: what of the sound which had roused him?
"Hsssst!" it was a 発言する／表明する from the window.
Why so much secrecy? It could hardly be a 敵—yet, why should it be a friend? Valerius rose and crossed his 独房, coming の近くに to the window. Outside all was 薄暗い in the starlight and he made out but a shadowy form の近くに to the window.
"Who are you?" he leaned の近くに against the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業s, 緊張するing his 注目する，もくろむs into the gloom.
His answer was a snarl of wolfish laughter, a long flicker of steel in the starlight. Valerius reeled away from the window and 衝突，墜落d to the 床に打ち倒す, clutching his throat, gurgling horribly as he tried to 叫び声をあげる. 血 噴出するd through his fingers, forming about his twitching 団体／死体 a pool that 反映するd the 薄暗い starlight dully and redly.
Outside Bran glided away like a 影をつくる／尾行する, without pausing to peer into the 独房. In another minute the guards would 一連の会議、交渉／完成する the corner on their 正規の／正選手 決まりきった仕事. Even now he heard the 手段d tramp of their アイロンをかける-覆う？ feet. Before they （機の）カム in sight he had 消えるd and they clumped stolidly by the 独房-window with no intimation of the 死体 that lay on the 床に打ち倒す within.
Bran 棒 to the small gate in the western 塀で囲む, unchallenged by the sleepy watch. What 恐れる of foreign 侵略 in Eboracum?—and 確かな 井戸／弁護士席 組織するd thieves and women-stealers made it profitable for the watchmen not to be too vigilant. But the 選び出す／独身 guardsman at the western gate—his fellows lay drunk in a nearby 売春宿—解除するd his spear and bawled for Bran to 停止（させる） and give an account of himself. Silently the Pict reined closer. Masked in the dark cloak, he seemed 薄暗い and indistinct to the Roman, who was only aware of the glitter of his 冷淡な 注目する，もくろむs in the gloom. But Bran held up his 手渡す against the starlight and the 兵士 caught the gleam of gold; in the other 手渡す he saw a long sheen of steel. The 兵士 understood, and he did not hesitate between the choice of a golden 賄賂 or a 戦う／戦い to the death with this unknown rider who was 明らかに a barbarian of some sort. With a grunt he lowered his spear and swung the gate open. Bran 棒 through, casting a handful of coins to the Roman. They fell about his feet in a golden にわか雨, clinking against the 旗s. He bent in greedy haste to retrieve them and Bran Mak Morn 棒 西方の like a 飛行機で行くing ghost in the night.
INTO the 薄暗い fens of the west （機の）カム Bran Mak Morn. A 冷淡な 勝利，勝つd breathed across the 暗い／優うつな waste and against the gray sky a few herons flapped ひどく. The long reeds and 沼-grass waved in broken undulations and out across the desolation of the wastes a few still meres 反映するd the dull light. Here and there rose curiously 正規の／正選手 hillocks above the general levels, and gaunt against the somber sky Bran saw a marching line of upright monoliths—menhirs, 後部d by what nameless 手渡すs?
A faint blue line to the west lay the 山のふもとの丘s that beyond the horizon grew to the wild mountains of むちの跡s where dwelt still wild Celtic tribesfierce blue-注目する，もくろむd men that knew not the yoke of Rome. A 列／漕ぐ／騒動 of 井戸／弁護士席-守備隊d watchtowers held them in check. Even now, far away across the moors, Bran glimpsed the unassailable keep men called the Tower of Trajan.
These barren wastes seemed the dreary 業績／成就 of desolation, yet human life was not utterly 欠如（する）ing. Bran met the silent men of the fen, reticent, dark of 注目する，もくろむ and hair, speaking a strange mixed tongue whose long-blended elements had forgotten their pristine separate sources. Bran 認めるd a 確かな kinship in these people to himself, but he looked on them with the 軽蔑（する） of a pure-血d patrician for men of mixed 緊張するs.
Not that the ありふれた people of Caledonia were altogether pure-血d; they got their stocky 団体／死体s and 大規模な 四肢s from a 原始の Teutonic race which had 設立する its way into the northern tip of the 小島 even before the Celtic conquest of Britain was 完全にするd, and had been 吸収するd by the Picts. But the 長，指導者s of Bran's folk had kept their 血 from foreign taint since the beginnings of time, and he himself was a pure-bred Pict of the Old Race. But these fenmen, 侵略（する）／超過（する） 繰り返して by British, Gaelic and Roman 征服者／勝利者s, had assimilated 血 of each, and in the 過程 almost forgotten their 初めの language and lineage.
For Bran （機の）カム of a race that was very old, which had spread over western Europe in one 広大な Dark Empire, before the coming of the Aryans, when the ancestors of the Celts, the Hellenes and the Germans were one primal people, before the days of 部族の splitting-off and 西方の drift.
Only in Caledonia, Bran brooded, had his people resisted the flood of Aryan conquest. He had heard of a Pictish people called Basques, who in the crags of the Pyrenees called themselves an unconquered race; but he knew that they had paid 尊敬の印 for centuries to the ancestors of the Gaels, before these Celtic 征服者／勝利者s abandoned their mountain-realm and 始める，決める sail for Ireland. Only the Picts of Caledonia had remained 解放する／自由な, and they had been scattered into small 反目，不和ing tribes—he was the first 定評のある king in five hundred years—the beginning of a new 王朝—no, a 復活 of an 古代の 王朝 under a new 指名する. In the very teeth of Rome he dreamed his dreams of empire.
He wandered through the fens, 捜し出すing a Door. Of his 追求（する），探索（する） he said nothing to the dark-注目する，もくろむd fenmen. They told him news that drifted from mouth to moutha tale of war in the north, the skirl of war-麻薬を吸うs along the winding 塀で囲む, of 集会-解雇する／砲火／射撃s in the heather, of 炎上 and smoke and rapine and the glutting of Gaelic swords in the crimson sea of 虐殺（する）. The eagles of the legions were moving northward and the 古代の road resounded to the 手段d tramp of the アイロンをかける-覆う？ feet. And Bran, in the fens of the west, laughed, 井戸／弁護士席 pleased.
*
In Eboracum, Titus Sulla gave secret word to 捜し出す out the Pictish 特使 with the Gaelic 指名する who had been under 疑惑, and who had 消えるd the night young Valerius was 設立する dead in his 独房 with his throat ripped out. Sulla felt that this sudden bursting 炎上 of war on the 塀で囲む was connected closely with his 死刑執行 of a 非難するd Pictish 犯罪の, and he 始める，決める his 秘かに調査する system to work, though he felt sure that Partha Mac Othna was by this time far beyond his reach. He 用意が出来ている to march from Eboracum, but he did not …を伴って the かなりの 軍隊 of legionaries which he sent north. Sulla was a 勇敢に立ち向かう man, but each man has his own dread, and Sulla's was Cormac na Connacht, the 黒人／ボイコット-haired prince of the Gaels, who had sworn to 削減（する） out the 知事's heart and eat it raw. So Sulla 棒 with his ever-現在の 護衛, 西方の, where lay the Tower of Trajan with its warlike 指揮官, Caius Camillus, who enjoyed nothing more than taking his superior's place when the red waves of war washed at the foot of the 塀で囲む. Devious politics, but the legate of Rome seldom visited this far 小島, and what of his wealth and intrigues, Titus Sulla was the highest 力／強力にする in Britain.
And Bran, knowing all this, 根気よく waited his coming, in the 砂漠d hut in which he had taken up his abode.
One gray evening he strode on foot across the moors, a stark 人物／姿／数字, blackly etched against the 薄暗い crimson 解雇する／砲火／射撃 of the sunset. He felt the incredible antiquity of the slumbering land, as he walked like the last man on the day after the end of the world. Yet at last he saw a 記念品 of human life—a 淡褐色 hut of wattle and mud, 始める，決める in the reedy breast of the fen.
A woman 迎える／歓迎するd him from the open door and Bran's somber 注目する，もくろむs 狭くするd with a dark 疑惑. The woman was not old, yet the evil 知恵 of ages was in her 注目する，もくろむs; her 衣料品s were ragged and scanty, her 黒人／ボイコット locks 絡まるd and unkempt, lending her an 面 of wildness 井戸／弁護士席 in keeping with her grim surroundings. Her red lips laughed but there was no mirth in her laughter, only a hint of mockery, and under the lips her teeth showed sharp and pointed like fangs.
"Enter, master," said she, "if you do not 恐れる to 株 the roof of the witch-woman of Dagon-moor!"
Bran entered silently and sat him 負かす／撃墜する on a broken （法廷の）裁判 while the woman busied herself with the scanty meal cooking over an open 解雇する／砲火／射撃 on the squalid hearth. He 熟考する／考慮するd her lithe, almost serpentine 動議s, the ears which were almost pointed, the yellow 注目する，もくろむs which slanted curiously.
"What do you 捜し出す in the fens, my lord?" she asked, turning toward him with a supple 新たな展開 of her whole 団体／死体.
"I 捜し出す a Door," he answered, chin 残り／休憩（する）ing on his 握りこぶし. "I have a song to sing to the worms of the earth!"
She started upright, a jar 落ちるing from her 手渡すs to 粉々にする on the hearth.
"This is an ill 説, even spoken in chance," she stammered.
"I speak not by chance but by 意図," he answered.
She shook her 長，率いる. "I know not what you mean."
"井戸／弁護士席 you know," he returned. "Aye, you know 井戸／弁護士席! My race is very oldthey 統治するd in Britain before the nations of the Celts and the Hellenes were born out of the womb of peoples. But my people were not first in Britain. By the mottles on your 肌, by the slanting of your 注目する，もくろむs, by the taint in your veins, I speak with 十分な knowledge and meaning."
Awhile she stood silent, her lips smiling but her 直面する inscrutable.
"Man, are you mad," she asked, "that in your madness you come 捜し出すing that from which strong men fled 叫び声をあげるing in old times?"
"I 捜し出す a vengeance," he answered, "that can be 遂行するd only by Them I 捜し出す."
She shook her 長，率いる.
"You have listened to a bird singing; you have dreamed empty dreams."
"I have heard a viper hiss," he growled, "and I do not dream. Enough of this weaving of words. I （機の）カム 捜し出すing a link between two worlds; I have 設立する it."
"I need 嘘（をつく） to you no more, man of the North," answered the woman. "They you 捜し出す still dwell beneath the sleeping hills. They have drawn apart, さらに先に and さらに先に from the world you know."
"But they still steal 前へ／外へ in the night to 支配する women 逸脱するing on the moors," said he, his gaze on her slanted 注目する，もくろむs. She laughed wickedly.
"What would you of me?"
"That you bring me to Them."
She flung 支援する her 長，率いる with a scornful laugh. His left 手渡す locked like アイロンをかける in the breast of her scanty 衣料品 and his 権利 の近くにd on his hilt. She laughed in his 直面する.
"Strike and be damned, my northern wolf! Do you think that such life as 地雷 is so 甘い that I would 粘着する to it as a babe to the breast?"
His 手渡す fell away.
"You are 権利. 脅しs are foolish. I will buy your 援助（する）."
"How?" the laughing 発言する／表明する hummed with mockery.
Bran opened his pouch and 注ぐd into his cupped palm a stream of gold.
"More wealth than the men of the fen ever dreamed of."
Again she laughed. "What is this rusty metal to me? Save it for some white-breasted Roman woman who will play the 反逆者 for you!"
"指名する me a price!" he 勧めるd. "The 長，率いる of an enemy—"
"By the 血 in my veins, with its 遺産 of 古代の hate, who is 地雷 enemy but thee?" she laughed and springing, struck catlike. But her dagger 後援d on the mail beneath his cloak and he flung her off with a loathsome flit of his wrist which 投げ上げる／ボディチェックするd her sprawling across her grass-strewn bunk. Lying there she laughed up at him.
"I will 指名する you a price, then, my wolf, and it may be in days to come you will 悪口を言う／悪態 the armor that broke Atla's dagger!" She rose and （機の）カム の近くに to him, her disquietingly long 手渡すs fastened ひどく into his cloak. "I will tell you, 黒人／ボイコット Bran, king of Caledon! Oh, I knew you when you （機の）カム into my hut with your 黒人／ボイコット hair and your 冷淡な 注目する，もくろむs! I will lead you to the doors of Hell if you wish—and the price shall be the kisses of a king!
"What of my 爆破d and bitter life, I, whom mortal men loathe and 恐れる? I have not known the love of men, the clasp of a strong arm, the sting of human kisses, I, Atla, the were-woman of the moors! What have I known but the 孤独な 勝利，勝つd of the fens, the dreary 解雇する／砲火／射撃 of 冷淡な sunsets, the whispering of the 沼 grasses?—the 直面するs that blink up at me in the waters of the meres, the foot-pad of night—things in the gloom, the 微光 of red 注目する，もくろむs, the grisly murmur of nameless 存在s in the night!
"I am half-human, at least! Have I not known 悲しみ and yearning and crying wistfulness, and the drear ache of loneliness? Give to me, kinggive me your 猛烈な／残忍な kisses and your hurtful barbarian's embrace. Then in the long drear years to come I shall not utterly eat out my heart in vain envy of the white-bosomed women of men; for I shall have a memory few of them can 誇る—the kisses of a king! One night of love, oh king, and I will guide you to the gates of Hell!"
Bran 注目する，もくろむd her somberly; he reached 前へ／外へ and gripped her arm in his アイロンをかける fingers. An involuntary shudder shook him at the feel of her sleek 肌. He nodded slowly and 製図／抽選 her の近くに to him, 軍隊d his 長，率いる 負かす／撃墜する to 会合，会う her 解除するd lips.
THE 冷淡な gray もやs of 夜明け wrapped King Bran like a clammy cloak. He turned to the woman whose slanted 注目する，もくろむs gleamed in the gray gloom.
"Make good your part of the 契約," he said 概略で. "I sought a link between worlds, and in you I 設立する it. I 捜し出す the one thing sacred to Them. It shall be the 重要な 開始 the Door that lies unseen between me and Them. Tell me how I can reach it."
"I will," the red lips smiled terribly. "Go to the 塚 men call Dagon's Barrow. Draw aside the 石／投石する that 封鎖するs the 入り口 and go under the ドーム of the 塚. The 床に打ち倒す of the 議会 is made of seven 広大な／多数の／重要な 石／投石するs, six grouped about the seventh. 解除する out the 中心 石／投石する—and you will see!"
"Will I find the 黒人／ボイコット 石／投石する?" he asked.
"Dagon's Barrow is the Door to the 黒人／ボイコット 石／投石する," she answered, "if you dare follow the Road."
"Will the symbol be 井戸／弁護士席 guarded?" He unconsciously 緩和するd his blade in its sheath. The red lips curled mockingly.
"If you 会合，会う any on the Road you will die as no mortal man has died for long centuries. The 石／投石する is not guarded, as men guard their treasures. Why should They guard what man has never sought? Perhaps They will be 近づく, perhaps not. It is a chance you must take, if you wish the 石／投石する. Beware, king of Pictdom! Remember it was your folk who, so long ago, 削減（する） the thread that bound Them to human life. They were almost human then—they overspread the land and knew the sunlight. Now they have drawn apart. They know not the sunlight and they shun the light of the moon. Even the starlight they hate. Far, far apart have they drawn, who might have been men in time, but for the spears of your ancestors."
*
The sky was 曇った with misty gray, through which the sun shone coldly yellow when Bran （機の）カム to Dagon's Barrow, a 一連の会議、交渉／完成する hillock overgrown with 階級 grass of a curious fungoid 外見. On the eastern 味方する of the 塚 showed the 入り口 of a crudely built 石／投石する tunnel which evidently 侵入するd the barrow. One 広大な／多数の／重要な 石／投石する 封鎖するd the 入り口 to the tomb. Bran laid 持つ／拘留する of the sharp 辛勝する／優位s and 発揮するd all his strength. It held 急速な／放蕩な. He drew his sword and worked the blade between the 封鎖するing 石／投石する and the sill. Using the sword as a lever, he worked carefully, and managed to 緩和する the 広大な／多数の／重要な 石／投石する and wrench it out. A foul charnel house scent flowed out of the aperture and the 薄暗い sunlight seemed いっそう少なく to illuminate the cavern-like 開始 than to be fouled by the 階級 不明瞭 which clung there.
Sword in 手渡す, ready for he knew not what, Bran groped his way into the tunnel, which was long and 狭くする, built up of 激しい joined 石／投石するs, and was too low for him to stand 築く. Either his 注目する，もくろむs became somewhat accustomed to the gloom, or the 不明瞭 was, after all, somewhat lightened by the sunlight filtering in through the 入り口. At any 率 he （機の）カム into a 一連の会議、交渉／完成する low 議会 and was able to make out its general ドーム-like 輪郭（を描く）. Here, no 疑問, in old times, had reposed the bones of him for whom the 石／投石するs of the tomb had been joined and the earth heaped high above them; but now of those bones no 痕跡 remained on the 石／投石する 床に打ち倒す. And bending の近くに and 緊張するing his 注目する，もくろむs, Bran made out the strange, startlingly 正規の／正選手 pattern of that 床に打ち倒す: six 井戸／弁護士席-削減（する） 厚板s clustered about a seventh, six-味方するd 石／投石する.
He drove his sword-point into a 割れ目 and 調査するd carefully. The 辛勝する／優位 of the central 石／投石する 攻撃するd わずかに 上向き. A little work and he 解除するd it out and leaned it against the curving 塀で囲む. 緊張するing his 注目する，もくろむs downward he saw only the gaping blackness of a dark 井戸／弁護士席, with small, worn steps that led downward and out of sight. He did not hesitate. Though the 肌 between his shoulders はうd curiously, he swung himself into the abyss and felt the 粘着するing blackness swallow him.
Groping downward, he felt his feet slip and つまずく on steps too small for human feet. With one 手渡す 圧力（をかける）d hard against the 味方する of the 井戸／弁護士席 he 安定したd himself, 恐れるing a 落ちる into unknown and unlighted depths. The steps were 削減（する） into solid 激しく揺する, yet they were 大いに worn away. The さらに先に he 進歩d, the いっそう少なく like steps they became, mere bumps of worn 石／投石する. Then the direction of the 軸 changed はっきりと. It still led 負かす／撃墜する, but at a shallow slant 負かす／撃墜する which he could walk, 肘s を締めるd against the hollowed 味方するs, 長，率いる bent low beneath the curved roof. The steps had 中止するd altogether and the 石／投石する felt slimy to the touch, like a serpent's lair. What 存在s, Bran wondered, had slithered up and 負かす／撃墜する this slanting 軸, for how many centuries?
The tunnel 狭くするd until Bran 設立する it rather difficult to 押す through. He lay on his 支援する and 押し進めるd himself along with his 手渡すs, feet first. Still he knew he was 沈むing deeper and deeper into the very guts of the earth; how far below the surface he was, he dared not 熟視する／熟考する. Then ahead a faint witch-解雇する／砲火／射撃 gleam tinged the abysmal blackness. He grinned savagely and without mirth. If They he sought （機の）カム suddenly upon him, how could he fight in that 狭くする 軸? But he had put the thought of personal 恐れる behind him when he began this hellish 追求（する），探索（する）. He はうd on, thoughtless of all else but his goal.
And he （機の）カム at last into a 広大な space where he could stand upright. He could not see the roof of the place, but he got an impression of dizzying vastness. The blackness 圧力（をかける）d in on all 味方するs and behind him he could see the 入り口 to the 軸 from which he had just 現れるd—a 黒人／ボイコット 井戸／弁護士席 in the 不明瞭. But in 前線 of him a strange grisly radiance glowed about a grim altar built of human skulls. The source of that light he could not 決定する, but on the altar lay a sullen night-黒人／ボイコット 反対する—the 黒人／ボイコット 石／投石する!
Bran wasted no time in giving thanks that the 後見人s of the grim 遺物 were nowhere 近づく. He caught up the 石／投石する, and gripping it under his left arm, はうd into the 軸. When a man turns his 支援する on 危険，危なくする its clammy menace ぼんやり現れるs more grisly than when he 前進するs upon it. So Bran, はうing 支援する up the nighted 軸 with his grisly prize, felt the 不明瞭 turn on him and slink behind him, grinning with dripping fangs. Clammy sweat beaded his flesh and he 急いでd to the best of his ability, ears 緊張するd for some stealthy sound to betray that fell 形態／調整s were at his heels. Strong shudders shook him, にもかかわらず himself, and the short hair on his neck prickled as if a 冷淡な 勝利，勝つd blew at his 支援する.
When he reached the first of the tiny steps he felt as if he had 達成するd to the outer 境界s of the mortal world. Up them he went, つまずくing and slipping, and with a 深い gasp of 救済, （機の）カム out into the tomb, whose spectral grayness seemed like the 炎 of noon in comparison to the stygian depths he had just 横断するd. He 取って代わるd the central 石／投石する and strode into the light of the outer day, and never was the 冷淡な yellow light of the sun more 感謝する, as it dispelled the 影をつくる／尾行するs of 黒人／ボイコット-winged nightmares of 恐れる and madness that seemed to have ridden him up out of the 黒人／ボイコット 深いs. He 押すd the 広大な／多数の／重要な 封鎖するing 石／投石する 支援する into place, and 選ぶing up the cloak he had left at the mouth of the tomb, he wrapped it about the 黒人／ボイコット 石／投石する and hurried away, a strong revulsion and loathing shaking his soul and lending wings to his strides.
A gray silence brooded over the land. It was desolate as the blind 味方する of the moon, yet Bran felt the potentialities of life—under his feet, in the brown earth—sleeping, but how soon to waken, and in what horrific fashion?
He （機の）カム through the tall masking reeds to the still 深い men called Dagon's Mere. No slightest ripple ruffled the 冷淡な blue water to give 証拠 of the grisly monster legend said dwelt beneath. Bran closely scanned the breathless landscape. He saw no hint of life, human or unhuman. He sought the instincts of his savage soul to know if any unseen 注目する，もくろむs 直す／買収する，八百長をするd their lethal gaze upon him, and 設立する no 返答. He was alone as if he were the last man alive on earth.
速く he unwrapped the 黒人／ボイコット 石／投石する, and as it lay in his 手渡すs like a solid sullen 封鎖する of 不明瞭, he did not 捜し出す to learn the secret of its 構成要素 nor ざっと目を通す the cryptic characters carved thereon. 重さを計るing it in his 手渡すs and calculating the distance, he flung it far out, so that it fell almost 正確に／まさに in the middle of the lake. A sullen splash and the waters の近くにd over it. There was a moment of shimmering flashes on the bosom of the lake; then the blue surface stretched placid and unrippled again.
THE were-woman turned 速く as Bran approached her door. Her slant 注目する，もくろむs 広げるd.
"You! And alive! And sane!"
"I have been into Hell and I have returned," he growled. "What is more, I have that which I sought."
"The 黒人／ボイコット 石／投石する?" she cried. "You really dared steal it? Where is it?"
"No 事柄; but last night my stallion 叫び声をあげるd in his 立ち往生させる and I heard something crunch beneath his 雷鳴ing hoofs which was not the 塀で囲む of the stable—and there was 血 on his hoofs when I （機の）カム to see, and 血 on the 床に打ち倒す of the 立ち往生させる. And I have heard stealthy sounds in the night, and noises beneath my dirt 床に打ち倒す, as if worms burrowed 深い in the earth. They know I have stolen their 石／投石する. Have you betrayed me?"
She shook her 長，率いる.
"I keep your secret; they do not need my word to know you. The さらに先に they have 退却／保養地d from the world of men, the greater have grown their 力／強力にするs in other uncanny ways. Some 夜明け your hut will stand empty and if men dare 調査／捜査する they will find nothing—except 崩壊するing bits of earth on the dirt 床に打ち倒す."
Bran smiled terribly.
"I have not planned and toiled thus far to 落ちる prey to the talons of vermin. If They strike me 負かす／撃墜する in the night, They will never know what became of their idol—or whatever it be to Them. I would speak with Them."
"Dare you come with me and 会合，会う them in the night?" she asked.
"雷鳴 of all gods!" he snarled. "Who are you to ask me if I dare? Lead me to Them and let me 取引 for a vengeance this night. The hour of 天罰 draws nigh. This day I saw silvered helmets and 有望な 保護物，者s gleam across the fens—the new 指揮官 has arrived at the Tower of Trajan and Caius Camillus has marched to the 塀で囲む."
*
That night the king went across the dark desolation of the moors with the silent were-woman. The night was 厚い and still as if the land lay in 古代の slumber. The 星／主役にするs blinked ばく然と, mere points of red struggling through the unbreathing gloom. Their gleam was dimmer than the glitter in the 注目する，もくろむs of the woman who glided beside the king. Strange thoughts shook Bran, vague, titanic, primeval. Tonight ancestral linkings with these slumbering fens stirred in his soul and troubled him with the phantasmal, eon-隠すd 形態／調整s of monstrous dreams. The 広大な age of his race was borne upon him; where now he walked an 無法者 and an 外国人, dark-注目する，もくろむd kings in whose mold he was cast had 統治するd in old times. The Celtic and Roman invaders were as strangers to this 古代の 小島 beside his people. Yet his race likewise had been invaders, and there was an older race than his—a race whose beginnings lay lost and hidden 支援する beyond the dark oblivion of antiquity.
Ahead of them ぼんやり現れるd a low 範囲 of hills, which formed the easternmost extremity of those 逸脱するing chains which far away climbed at last to the mountains of むちの跡s. The woman led the way up what might have been a sheep-path, and 停止（させる）d before a wide 黒人／ボイコット gaping 洞穴.
"A door to those you 捜し出す, oh king!" her laughter rang hateful in the gloom. "Dare ye enter?"
His fingers の近くにd in her 絡まるd locks and he shook her viciously.
"Ask me but once more if I dare," he grated, "and your 長，率いる and shoulders part company! Lead on."
Her laughter was like 甘い deadly venom. They passed into the 洞穴 and Bran struck flint and steel. The flicker of the tinder showed him a wide dusty cavern, on the roof of which hung clusters of bats. Lighting a たいまつ, he 解除するd it and scanned the shadowy 休会s, seeing nothing but dust and emptiness.
"Where are They?" he growled.
She beckoned him to the 支援する of the 洞穴 and leaned against the rough 塀で囲む, as if casually. But the king's keen 注目する，もくろむs caught the 動議 of her 手渡す 圧力（をかける）ing hard against a 事業／計画（する）ing ledge. He recoiled as a 一連の会議、交渉／完成する 黒人／ボイコット 井戸／弁護士席 gaped suddenly at his feet. Again her laughter 削除するd him like a keen silver knife. He held the たいまつ to the 開始 and again saw small worn steps 主要な 負かす／撃墜する.
"They do not need those steps," said Atla. "Once they did, before your people drove them into the 不明瞭. But you will need them."
She thrust the たいまつ into a niche above the 井戸／弁護士席; it shed a faint red light into the 不明瞭 below. She gestured into the 井戸／弁護士席 and Bran 緩和するd his sword and stepped into the 軸. As he went 負かす／撃墜する into the mystery of the 不明瞭, the light was blotted out above him, and he thought for an instant Atla had covered the 開始 again. Then he realized that she was descending after him.
The 降下／家系 was not a long one. 突然の Bran felt his feet on a solid 床に打ち倒す. Atla swung 負かす／撃墜する beside him and stood in the 薄暗い circle of light that drifted 負かす／撃墜する the 軸. Bran could not see the 限界s of the place into which he had come.
"Many 洞穴s in these hills," said Atla, her 発言する／表明する sounding small and strangely brittle in the vastness, "are but doors to greater 洞穴s which 嘘（をつく） beneath, even as a man's words and 行為s are but small 指示，表示する物s of the dark caverns of murky thought lying behind and beneath."
And now Bran was aware of movement in the gloom. The 不明瞭 was filled with stealthy noises not like those made by any human foot. 突然の 誘発するs began to flash and float in the blackness, like flickering fireflies. Closer they （機の）カム until they girdled him in a wide half-moon. And beyond the （犯罪の）一味 gleamed other 誘発するs, a solid sea of them, fading away in the gloom until the farthest were mere tiny pin-points of light. And Bran knew they were the slanted 注目する，もくろむs of the 存在s who had come upon him in such numbers that his brain reeled at the contemplation—and at the vastness of the cavern.
Now that he 直面するd his 古代の 敵s, Bran knew no 恐れる. He felt the waves of terrible menace emanating from them, the grisly hate, the 残忍な 脅し to 団体／死体, mind and soul. More than a member of a いっそう少なく 古代の race, he realized the horror of his position, but he did not 恐れる, though he 直面するd the ultimate Horror of the dreams and legends of his race. His 血 raced ひどく but it was with the hot excitement of the hazard, not the 運動 of terror.
"They know you have the 石／投石する, oh king," said Atla, and though he knew she 恐れるd, though he felt her physical 成果／努力s to 支配（する）／統制する her trembling 四肢s, there was no quiver of fright in her 発言する／表明する. "You are in deadly 危険，危なくする; they know your 産む／飼育する of old—oh, they remember the days when their ancestors were men! I can not save you; both of us will die as no human has died for ten centuries. Speak to them, if you will; they can understand your speech, though you may not understand theirs. But it will avail not—you are human—and a Pict."
Bran laughed and the の近くにing （犯罪の）一味 of 解雇する／砲火／射撃 shrank 支援する at the savagery in his laughter. 製図／抽選 his sword with a soul-冷気／寒がらせるing rasp of steel, he 始める，決める his 支援する against what he hoped was a solid 石／投石する 塀で囲む. 直面するing the glittering 注目する，もくろむs with his sword gripped in his 権利 手渡す and his dirk in his left, he laughed as a 血-hungry wolf snarls.
"Aye," he growled, "I am a Pict, a son of those 軍人s who drove your brutish ancestors before them like chaff before the 嵐／襲撃する!—who flooded the land with your 血 and heaped high your skulls for a sacrifice to the Moon-Woman! You who fled of old before my race, dare ye now snarl at your master? Roll on me like a flood now, if ye dare! Before your viper fangs drink my life I will 得る your multitudes like ripened barley—of your 厳しいd 長，率いるs will I build a tower and of your mangled 死体s will I 後部 up a 塀で囲む! Dogs of the dark, vermin of Hell, worms of the earth, 急ぐ in and try my steel! When Death finds me in this dark cavern, your living will howl for the 得点する／非難する／２０s of your dead and your 黒人／ボイコット 石／投石する will be lost to you foreverfor only I know where it is hidden and not all the 拷問s of all the Hells can wring the secret from my lips!"
Then followed a 緊張した silence; Bran 直面するd the 解雇する／砲火／射撃-lit 不明瞭, 緊張したd like a wolf at bay, waiting the 告発（する），告訴（する）／料金; at his 味方する the woman cowered, her 注目する，もくろむs 燃えて. Then from the silent （犯罪の）一味 that hovered beyond the 薄暗い torchlight rose a vague abhorrent murmur. Bran, 用意が出来ている as he was for anything, started. Gods, was that the speech of creatures which had once been called men?
Atla straightened, listening intently. From her lips （機の）カム the same hideous soft sibilances, and Bran, though he had already known the grisly secret of her 存在, knew that never again could he touch her save with soul-shaken loathing.
She turned to him, a strange smile curving her red lips dimly in the ghostly light.
"They 恐れる you, oh king! By the 黒人／ボイコット secrets of R'lyeh, who are you that Hell itself quails before you? Not your steel, but the stark ferocity of your soul has driven 未使用の 恐れる into their strange minds. They will buy 支援する the 黒人／ボイコット 石／投石する at any price."
"Good," Bran sheathed his 武器s. "They shall 約束 not to （性的に）いたずらする you because of your 援助（する） of me. And," his 発言する／表明する hummed like the purr of a 追跡（する）ing tiger, "they shall 配達する into my 手渡すs Titus Sulla, 知事 of Eboracum, now 命令（する）ing the Tower of Trajan. This They can do—how, I know not. But I know that in the old days, when my people warred with these Children of the Night, babes disappeared from guarded huts and 非，不，無 saw the stealers come or go. Do They understand?"
Again rose the low frightful sounds and Bran, who 恐れるd not their wrath, shuddered at their 発言する／表明するs.
"They understand," said Atla. "Bring the 黒人／ボイコット 石／投石する to Dagon's （犯罪の）一味 tomorrow night when the earth is 隠すd with the blackness that foreruns the 夜明け. Lay the 石／投石する on the altar. There They will bring Titus Sulla to you. 信用 Them; They have not 干渉するd in human 事件／事情／状勢s for many centuries, but They will keep their word."
Bran nodded and turning, climbed up the stair with Atla の近くに behind him. At the 最高の，を越す he turned and looked 負かす／撃墜する once more. As far as he could see floated a glittering ocean of slanted yellow 注目する，もくろむs 上昇傾向d. But the owners of those 注目する，もくろむs kept carefully beyond the 薄暗い circle of torchlight and of their 団体／死体s he could see nothing. Their low hissing speech floated up to him and he shuddered as his imagination visualized, not a throng of biped creatures, but a 群れているing, swaying myriad of serpents, gazing up at him with their glittering unwinking 注目する，もくろむs.
He swung into the upper 洞穴 and Atla thrust the 封鎖するing 石／投石する 支援する in place. It fitted into the 入り口 of the 井戸／弁護士席 with uncanny precision; Bran was unable to discern any 割れ目 in the 明らかに solid 床に打ち倒す of the cavern. Atla made a 動議 to 消滅させる the たいまつ, but the king stayed her.
"Keep it so until we are out of the 洞穴," he grunted. "We might tread on an adder in the dark."
Atla's sweetly hateful laughter rose maddeningly in the flickering gloom.
IT was not long before sunset when Bran （機の）カム again to the reed-grown marge of Dagon's Mere. Casting cloak and sword-belt on the ground, he stripped himself of his short leathern breeches. Then gripping his naked dirk in his teeth, he went into the water with the smooth 緩和する of a 飛び込み 調印（する）. Swimming 堅固に, he 伸び（る）d the 中心 of the small lake, and turning, drove himself downward.
The mere was deeper than he had thought. It seemed he would never reach the 底（に届く）, and when he did, his groping 手渡すs failed to find what he sought. A roaring in his ears 警告するd him and he swam to the surface.
Gulping 深い of the refreshing 空気／公表する, he dived again, and again his 追求（する），探索（する） was fruitless. A third time he sought the depth, and this time his groping 手渡すs met a familiar 反対する in the silt of the 底（に届く）. しっかり掴むing it, he swam up to the surface.
The 石／投石する was not 特に bulky, but it was 激しい. He swam leisurely, and suddenly was aware of a curious 動かす in the waters about him which was not 原因（となる）d by his own exertions. Thrusting his 直面する below the surface, he tried to pierce the blue depths with his 注目する，もくろむs and thought to see a 薄暗い gigantic 影をつくる／尾行する hovering there.
He swam faster, not 脅すd, but 用心深い. His feet struck the shallows and he waded up on the 棚上げにするing shore. Looking 支援する he saw the waters 渦巻く and 沈下する. He shook his 長，率いる, 断言するing. He had 割引d the 古代の legend which made Dagon's Mere the lair of a nameless water-monster, but now he had a feeling as if his escape had been 狭くする. The time-worn myths of the 古代の land were taking form and coming to life before his 注目する，もくろむs. What primeval 形態／調整 lurked below the surface of that 背信の mere, Bran could not guess, but he felt that the fenmen had good 推論する／理由 for shunning the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す, after all.
Bran donned his 衣料品s, 機動力のある the 黒人／ボイコット stallion and 棒 across the fens in the desolate crimson of the sunset's afterglow, with the 黒人／ボイコット 石／投石する wrapped in his cloak. He 棒, not to his hut, but to the west, in the direction of the Tower of Trajan and the （犯罪の）一味 of Dagon. As he covered the miles that lay between, the red 星／主役にするs winked out. Midnight passed him in the moonless night and still Bran 棒 on. His heart was hot for his 会合 with Titus Sulla. Atla had gloated over the 予期 of watching the Roman writhe under 拷問, but no such thought was in the Pict's mind. The 知事 should have his chance with 武器s—with Bran's own sword he should 直面する the Pictish king's dirk, and live or die によれば his prowess. And though Sulla was famed throughout the 州s as a swordsman, Bran felt no 疑問 as to the 結果.
Dagon's （犯罪の）一味 lay some distance from the Tower—a sullen circle of tall gaunt 石／投石するs 工場／植物d upright, with a rough-hewn 石／投石する altar in the 中心. The Romans looked on these menhirs with aversion; they thought the Druids had 後部d them; but the Celts supposed Bran's people, the Picts, had 工場／植物d them—and Bran 井戸／弁護士席 knew what 手渡すs 後部d those grim monoliths in lost ages, though for what 推論する／理由s, he but dimly guessed.
The king did not ride straight to the （犯罪の）一味. He was 消費するd with curiosity as to how his grim 同盟（する）s ーするつもりであるd carrying out their 約束. That They could snatch Titus Sulla from the very 中央 of his men, he felt sure, and he believed he knew how They would do it. He felt the gnawings of a strange 疑惑, as if he had tampered with 力／強力にするs of unknown breadth and depth, and had loosed 軍隊s which he could not 支配（する）／統制する. Each time he remembered that reptilian murmur, those slanted 注目する，もくろむs of the night before, a 冷淡な breath passed over him. They had been abhorrent enough when his people drove Them into the caverns under the hills, ages ago; what had long centuries of retrogression made of them? In their nighted, subterranean life, had They 保持するd any of the せいにするs of humanity at all?
Some instinct 誘発するd him to ride toward the Tower. He knew he was 近づく; but for the 厚い 不明瞭 he could have plainly seen its stark 輪郭（を描く） tusking the horizon. Even now he should be able to make it out dimly. An obscure, shuddersome premonition shook him and he spurred the stallion into swift canter.
And suddenly Bran staggered in his saddle as from a physical 衝撃, so 素晴らしい was the surprize of what met his gaze. The impregnable Tower of Trajan was no more! Bran's astounded gaze 残り／休憩（する）d on a gigantic pile of ruinsof 粉々にするd 石／投石する and 崩壊するd granite, from which jutted the jagged and 後援d ends of broken beams. At one corner of the 宙返り／暴落するd heap one tower rose out of the waste of crumpled masonry, and it leaned drunkenly as if its 創立／基礎s had been half 削減（する） away.
Bran dismounted and walked 今後, dazed by bewilderment. The moat was filled in places by fallen 石／投石するs and broken pieces of 迫撃砲d 塀で囲む. He crossed over and （機の）カム の中で the 廃虚s. Where, he knew, only a few hours before the 旗s had resounded to the 戦争の tramp of アイロンをかける-覆う？ feet, and the 塀で囲むs had echoed to the clang of 保護物，者s and the 爆破 of the loud-throated trumpets, a horrific silence 統治するd.
Almost under Bran's feet, a broken 形態／調整 writhed and groaned. The king bent 負かす／撃墜する to the legionary who lay in a sticky red pool of his own 血. A 選び出す／独身 ちらりと見ること showed the Pict that the man, horribly 鎮圧するd and 粉々にするd, was dying.
解除するing the 血まみれの 長，率いる, Bran placed his flask to the 低俗雑誌d lips and the Roman instinctively drank 深い, gulping through 後援d teeth. In the 薄暗い starlight Bran saw his glazed 注目する，もくろむs roll.
"The 塀で囲むs fell," muttered the dying man. "They 衝突，墜落d 負かす／撃墜する like the skies 落ちるing on the day of doom. Ah Jove, the skies rained shards of granite and hailstones of marble!"
"I have felt no 地震 shock," Bran scowled, puzzled.
"It was no 地震," muttered the Roman. "Before last 夜明け it began, the faint 薄暗い scratching and clawing far below the earth. We of the guard heard it—like ネズミs burrowing, or like worms hollowing out the earth. Titus laughed at us, but all day long we heard it. Then at midnight the Tower quivered and seemed to settle—as if the 創立／基礎s were 存在 dug away—"
A shudder shook Bran Mak Morn. The worms of the earth! Thousands of vermin digging like moles far below the 城, burrowing away the foundationsgods, the land must be honeycombed with tunnels and caverns—these creatures were even いっそう少なく human than he had thought—what 恐ろしい 形態／調整s of 不明瞭 had he invoked to his 援助（する）?
"What of Titus Sulla?" he asked, again 持つ／拘留するing the flask to the legionary's lips; in that moment the dying Roman seemed to him almost like a brother.
"Even as the Tower shuddered we heard a fearful 叫び声をあげる from the 知事's 議会," muttered the 兵士. "We 急ぐd there—as we broke 負かす／撃墜する the door we heard his shrieks—they seemed to recede—into the bowels of the earth! We 急ぐd in; the 議会 was empty. His bloodstained sword lay on the 床に打ち倒す; in the 石／投石する 旗s of the 床に打ち倒す a 黒人／ボイコット 穴を開ける gaped. Then—the—towers—reeled—the—roof—broke;—through—a—嵐／襲撃する—of—衝突，墜落ing—塀で囲むs—I—はうd—"
A strong convulsion shook the broken 人物／姿／数字.
"Lay me 負かす／撃墜する, friend," whispered the Roman. "I die."
He had 中止するd to breathe before Bran could 従う. The Pict rose, mechanically 洗浄するing his 手渡すs. He 急いでd from the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す, and as he galloped over the darkened fens, the 負わせる of the accursed 黒人／ボイコット 石／投石する under his cloak was as the 負わせる of a foul nightmare on a mortal breast.
As he approached the （犯罪の）一味, he saw an eery glow within, so that the gaunt 石／投石するs stood etched like the ribs of a 骸骨／概要 in which a witch-解雇する／砲火／射撃 燃やすs. The stallion snorted and 後部d as Bran tied him to one of the menhirs. Carrying the 石／投石する he strode into the grisly circle and saw Atla standing beside the altar, one 手渡す on her hip, her sinuous 団体／死体 swaying in a serpentine manner. The altar glowed all over with 恐ろしい light and Bran knew someone, probably Atla, had rubbed it with phosphorus from some dank 押し寄せる／沼地 or quagmire.
He strode 今後 and whipping his cloak from about the 石／投石する, flung the accursed thing on to the altar.
"I have 実行するd my part of the 契約," he growled.
"And They, theirs," she retorted. "Look!—They come!"
He wheeled, his 手渡す instinctively dropping to his sword. Outside the （犯罪の）一味 the 広大な／多数の／重要な stallion 叫び声をあげるd savagely and 後部d against his tether. The night 勝利，勝つd moaned through the waving grass and an abhorrent soft hissing mingled with it. Between the menhirs flowed a dark tide of 影をつくる／尾行するs, 安定性のない and 大混乱／混沌とした. The （犯罪の）一味 filled with glittering 注目する，もくろむs which hovered beyond the 薄暗い illusive circle of 照明 cast by the phosphorescent altar. Somewhere in the 不明瞭 a human 発言する／表明する tittered and gibbered idiotically. Bran 強化するd, the 影をつくる／尾行するs of a horror clawing at his soul.
He 緊張するd his 注目する，もくろむs, trying to make out the 形態／調整s of those who （犯罪の）一味d him. But he glimpsed only 大波ing 集まりs of 影をつくる／尾行する which heaved and writhed and squirmed with almost fluid consistency.
"Let them make good their 取引!" he exclaimed 怒って.
"Then see, oh king!" cried Atla in a 発言する／表明する of piercing mockery.
There was a 動かす, a seething in the writhing 影をつくる／尾行するs, and from the 不明瞭 crept, like a four-legged animal, a human 形態／調整 that fell 負かす／撃墜する and groveled at Bran's feet and writhed and mowed, and 解除するing a death's-長，率いる, howled like a dying dog. In the 恐ろしい light, Bran, soul-shaken, saw the blank glassy 注目する，もくろむs, the 無血の features, the loose, writhing, froth-covered lips of sheer lunacy—gods, was this Titus Sulla, the proud lord of life and death in Eboracum's proud city?
Bran 明らかにするd his sword.
"I had thought to give this 一打／打撃 in vengeance," he said somberly. "I give it in mercy—Vale Caesar!"
The steel flashed in the eery light and Sulla's 長，率いる rolled to the foot of the glowing altar, where it lay 星／主役にするing up at the 影をつくる／尾行するd sky.
"They 害（を与える）d him not!" Atla's hateful laugh 削除するd the sick silence. "It was what he saw and （機の）カム to know that broke his brain! Like all his 激しい-footed race, he knew nothing of the secrets of this 古代の land. This night he has been dragged through the deepest 炭坑，オーケストラ席s of Hell, where even you might have blenched!"
"井戸／弁護士席 for the Romans that they know not the secrets of this accursed land!" Bran roared, maddened, "with its monster-haunted meres, its foul witch-women, and its lost caverns and subterranean realms where spawn in the 不明瞭 形態／調整s of Hell!"
"Are they more foul than a mortal who 捜し出すs their 援助（する）?" cried Atla with a shriek of fearful mirth. "Give them their 黒人／ボイコット 石／投石する!"
A cataclysmic loathing shook Bran's soul with red fury.
"Aye, take your 悪口を言う／悪態d 石／投石する!" he roared, snatching it from the altar and dashing it の中で the 影をつくる／尾行するs with such savagery that bones snapped under its 衝撃. A hurried babel of grisly tongues rose and the 影をつくる／尾行するs heaved in 騒動. One segment of the 集まり detached itself for an instant and Bran cried out in 猛烈な／残忍な revulsion, though he caught only a (n)艦隊／(a)素早いing glimpse of the thing, had only a 簡潔な／要約する impression of a 幅の広い strangely flattened 長，率いる, pendulous writhing lips that 明らかにするd curved pointed fangs, and a hideously misshapen, dwarfish 団体／死体 that seemed—mottled—all 始める，決める off by those unwinking reptilian 注目する，もくろむs. Gods!—the myths had 用意が出来ている him for horror in human 面, horror induced by bestial visage and stunted deformity—but this was the horror of nightmare and the night.
"Go 支援する to Hell and take your idol with you!" he yelled, brandishing his clenched 握りこぶしs to the skies, as the 厚い 影をつくる／尾行するs receded, flowing 支援する and away from him like the foul waters of some 黒人／ボイコット flood. "Your ancestors were men, though strange and monstrous—but gods, ye have become in 恐ろしい fact what my people called ye in 軽蔑（する）!
"Worms of the earth, 支援する into your 穴を開けるs and burrows! Ye foul the 空気／公表する and leave on the clean earth the わずかな／ほっそりした of the serpents ye have become! Gonar was 権利—there are 形態／調整s too foul to use even against Rome!"
He sprang from the （犯罪の）一味 as a man 逃げるs the touch of a coiling snake, and tore the stallion 解放する／自由な. At his 肘 Atla was shrieking with fearful laughter, all human せいにするs dropped from her like a cloak in the night.
"King of Pictland!" she cried, "King of fools! Do you blench at so small a thing? Stay and let me show you real fruits of the 炭坑，オーケストラ席s! Ha! ha! ha! Run, fool, run! But you are stained with the taint—you have called them 前へ／外へ and they will remember! And in their own time they will come to you again!"
He yelled a wordless 悪口を言う／悪態 and struck her savagely in the mouth with his open 手渡す. She staggered, 血 starting from her lips, but her fiendish laughter only rose higher.
Bran leaped into the saddle, wild for the clean heather and the 冷淡な blue hills of the north where he could 急落（する），激減（する） his sword into clean 虐殺（する） and his sickened soul into the red maelstrom of 戦う／戦い, and forget the horror which lurked below the fens of the west. He gave the frantic stallion the rein, and 棒 through the night like a 追跡（する）d ghost, until the hellish laughter of the howling were-woman died out in the 不明瞭 behind.
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