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肩書を与える: People of the Dark
Author: Robert E. Howard
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Language: English
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People of the Dark

by

Robert E. Howard

First published in Strange Tales Of Mystery And Terror, June 1932

Strange Tales, June 1932

I CAME to Dagon's 洞穴 to kill Richard Brent. I went 負かす／撃墜する the dusky avenues made by the 非常に高い trees, and my mood 井戸／弁護士席-matched the 原始の grimness of the scene.

The approach to Dagon's 洞穴 is always dark, for the mighty 支店s and 厚い leaves shut out the sun, and now the somberness of my own soul made the 影をつくる／尾行するs seem more ominous and 暗い／優うつな than was natural.

Not far away I heard the slow wash of the waves against the tall cliffs, but the sea itself was out of sight, masked by the dense oak forest. The 不明瞭 and the stark gloom of my surroundings gripped my 影をつくる／尾行するd soul as I passed beneath the 古代の 支店s—as I （機の）カム out into a 狭くする glade and saw the mouth of the 古代の cavern before me. I paused, scanning the cavern's exterior and the 薄暗い reaches of the silent oaks.

The man I hated had not come before me! I was in time to carry out my grim 意図. For a moment my 決意／決議 滞るd, then like a wave there 殺到するd over me the fragrance of Eleanor Bland, a 見通し of wavy golden hair and 深い gray 注目する，もくろむs, changing and mystic as the sea. I clenched my 手渡すs until the knuckles showed white, and instinctively touched the wicked 無視する，冷たく断わる-nosed revolver whose 負わせる sagged my coat pocket.

But for Richard Brent, I felt 確かな I had already won this woman, 願望（する） for whom made my waking hours a torment and my sleep a 拷問. Whom did she love? She would not say; I did not believe she knew. Let one of us go away, I thought, and she would turn to the other. And I was going to 簡単にする 事柄s for her—and for myself. By chance I had overheard my blond English 競争相手 発言／述べる that he ーするつもりであるd coming to lonely Dagon's 洞穴 on an idle 調査するing 遠出—alone.

I am not by nature 犯罪の. I was born and raised in a hard country, and have lived most of my life on the raw 辛勝する／優位s of the world, where a man took what he 手配中の，お尋ね者, if he could, and mercy was a virtue little known. But it was a torment that racked me day and night that sent me out to take the life of Richard Brent. I have lived hard, and violently, perhaps. When love overtook me, it also was 猛烈な／残忍な and violent. Perhaps I was not wholly sane, what with my love for Eleanor Bland and my 憎悪 for Richard Brent. Under any other circumstances, I would have been glad to call him friend—a 罰金, rangy, upstanding young fellow, （疑いを）晴らす-注目する，もくろむd and strong. But he stood in the way of my 願望（する） and he must die.

I stepped into the dimness of the cavern and 停止（させる）d. I had never before visited Dagon's 洞穴, yet a vague sense of misplaced familiarity troubled me as I gazed on the high arching roof, the even 石／投石する 塀で囲むs and the dusty 床に打ち倒す. I shrugged my shoulders, unable to place the elusive feeling; doubtless it was evoked by a similarity to caverns in the mountain country of the American 南西 where I was born and spent my childhood.

And yet I knew that I had never seen a 洞穴 like this one, whose 正規の／正選手 面 gave rise to myths that it was not a natural cavern, but had been hewn from the solid 激しく揺する ages ago by the tiny 手渡すs of the mysterious Little People, the 先史の 存在s of British legend. The whole countryside thereabouts was a haunt for 古代の folk lore.

The country folk were predominantly Celtic; here the Saxon invaders had never 勝つ／広く一帯に広がるd, and the legends reached 支援する, in that long-settled countryside, その上の than anywhere else in England—支援する beyond the coming of the Saxons, aye, and incredibly beyond that distant age, beyond the coming of the Romans, to those unbelievably 古代の days when the native Britons warred with 黒人／ボイコット-haired Irish 著作権侵害者s.

The Little People, of course, had their part in the lore. Legend said that this cavern was one of their last 要塞／本拠地s against the 征服する／打ち勝つing Celts, and hinted at lost tunnels, long fallen in or 封鎖するd up, connecting the 洞穴 with a 網状組織 of subterranean 回廊（地帯）s which honeycombed the hills. With these chance meditations 争う idly in my mind with grimmer 憶測s, I passed through the outer 議会 of the cavern and entered a 狭くする tunnel, which, I knew by former descriptions, connected with a larger room.

It was dark in the tunnel, but not too dark for me to make out the vague, half-defaced 輪郭（を描く）s of mysterious etchings on the 石／投石する 塀で囲むs. I 投機・賭けるd to switch on my electric たいまつ and 診察する them more closely. Even in their dimness I was repelled by their 異常な and 反乱ing character. Surely no men cast in human mold as we know it, scratched those grotesque obscenities.

The Little People—I wondered if those anthropologists were 訂正する in their theory of a squat Mongoloid aboriginal race, so low in the 規模 of 進化 as to be scarcely human, yet 所有するing a 際立った, though repulsive, culture of their own. They had 消えるd before the 侵略するing races, theory said, forming the base of all Aryan legends of trolls, elves, dwarfs and witches. Living in 洞穴s from the start, these aborigines had 退却／保養地d さらに先に and さらに先に into the caverns of the hills, before the 征服者／勝利者s, 消えるing at last 完全に, though folklore fancy pictures their 子孫s still dwelling in the lost chasms far beneath the hills, loathsome 生存者s of an outworn age.

I snapped off the たいまつ and passed through the tunnel, to come out into a sort of doorway which seemed 完全に too symmetrical to have been the work of nature. I was looking into a 広大な 薄暗い cavern, at a somewhat lower level than the outer 議会, and again I shuddered with a strange 外国人 sense of familiarity. A short flight of steps led 負かす／撃墜する from the tunnel to the 床に打ち倒す of the cavern—tiny steps, too small for normal human feet, carved into the solid 石／投石する. Their 辛勝する／優位s were 大いに worn away, as if by ages of use. I started the 降下／家系—my foot slipped suddenly. I instinctively knew what was coming—it was all in part with that strange feeling of familiarity—but I could not catch myself. I fell headlong 負かす／撃墜する the steps and struck the 石／投石する 床に打ち倒す with a 衝突，墜落 that blotted out my senses...

* * * * *

Slowly consciousness returned to me, with a throbbing of my 長，率いる and a sensation of bewilderment. I 解除するd a 手渡す to my 長，率いる and 設立する it caked with 血. I had received a blow, or had taken a 落ちる, but so 完全に had my wits been knocked out of me that my mind was an 絶対の blank. Where I was, who I was, I did not know. I looked about, blinking in the 薄暗い light, and saw that I was in a wide, dusty cavern. I stood at the foot of a short flight of steps which led 上向き into some 肉親，親類d of tunnel. I ran my 手渡す dazedly through my square-削減（する） 黒人／ボイコット mane, and my 注目する，もくろむs wandered over my 大規模な naked 四肢s and powerful torso. I was 覆う？, I noticed absently, in a sort of loincloth, from the girdle of which swung an empty scabbard, and leathern sandals were on my feet.

Then I saw an 反対する lying at my feet, and stooped and took it up. It was a 激しい アイロンをかける sword, whose 幅の広い blade was darkly stained. My fingers fitted instinctively about its hilt with the familiarity of long usage. Then suddenly I remembered and laughed to think that a 落ちる on his 長，率いる should （判決などを）下す me, Conan of the reavers, so 完全に daft. Aye, it all （機の）カム 支援する to me now. It had been a （警察の）手入れ，急襲 on the Britons, on whose coasts we continually 急襲するd with たいまつ and sword, from the island called Eireann. That day we of the 黒人／ボイコット-haired Gael had swept suddenly 負かす／撃墜する on a 沿岸の village in our long, low ships and in the ハリケーン of 戦う／戦い which followed, the Britons had at last given up the stubborn contest and 退却／保養地d, 軍人s, women and bairns, into the 深い 影をつくる／尾行するs of the oak forests, whither we seldom dared follow.

But I had followed, for there was a girl of my 敵s whom I 願望（する）d with a 燃やすing passion, a lithe, わずかな／ほっそりした young creature with wavy golden hair and 深い gray 注目する，もくろむs, changing and mystic as the sea. Her 指名する was Tamera—井戸／弁護士席 I knew it, for there was 貿易（する） between the races 同様に as war, and I had been in the villages of the Britons as a 平和的な 訪問者, in times of rare 一時休戦.

I saw her white half-覆う？ 団体／死体 flickering の中で the trees as she ran with the swiftness of a doe, and I followed, panting with 猛烈な／残忍な 切望. Under the dark 影をつくる／尾行するs of the gnarled oaks she fled, with me in の近くに 追跡, while far away behind us died out the shouts of 虐殺（する） and the 衝突／不一致ing of swords. Then we ran in silence, save for her quick labored panting, and I was so の近くに behind her as we 現れるd into a 狭くする glade before a somber-mouthed cavern, that I caught her 飛行機で行くing golden tresses with one mighty 手渡す. She sank 負かす／撃墜する with a despairing wail, and even so, a shout echoed her cry and I wheeled quickly to 直面する a rangy young Briton who sprang from の中で the trees, the light of desperation in his 注目する，もくろむs.

"Vertorix!" the girl wailed, her 発言する／表明する breaking in a sob, and fiercer 激怒（する） 井戸／弁護士席d up in me, for I knew the lad was her lover.

"Run for the forest, Tamera!" he shouted, and leaped at me as a panther leaps, his bronze ax whirling like a flashing wheel about his 長，率いる. And then sounded the clangor of 争い and the hard-drawn panting of 戦闘.

The Briton was as tall as I, but he was lithe where I was 大規模な. The advantage of sheer muscular 力／強力にする was 地雷, and soon he was on the 防御の, 努力する／競うing 猛烈に to parry my 激しい 一打／打撃s with his ax. 大打撃を与えるing on his guard like a smith on an anvil, I 圧力（をかける）d him relentlessly, 運動ing him irresistibly before me. His chest heaved, his breath （機の）カム in labored gasps, his 血 dripped from scalp, chest and thigh where my whistling blade had 削減（する） the 肌, and all but gone home. As I redoubled my 一打／打撃s and he bent and swayed beneath them like a sapling in a 嵐／襲撃する, I heard the girl cry: "Vertorix! Vertorix! The 洞穴! Into the 洞穴!"

I saw his 直面する pale with a 恐れる greater than that induced by my 切り開く／タクシー／不正アクセスing sword.

"Not there!" he gasped. "Better a clean death! In Il-marenin's 指名する, girl, run into the forest and save yourself!"

"I will not leave you!" she cried. "The 洞穴! It is our one chance!"

I saw her flash past us like a 飛行機で行くing wisp of white and 消える in the cavern, and with a despairing cry, the 青年 開始する，打ち上げるd a wild desperate 一打／打撃 that nigh cleft my skull. As I staggered beneath the blow I had barely parried, he sprang away, leaped into the cavern after the girl and 消えるd in the gloom.

With a maddened yell that invoked all my grim Gaelic gods, I sprang recklessly after them, not reckoning if the Briton lurked beside the 入り口 to brain me as I 急ぐd in. But a quick ちらりと見ること showed the 議会 empty and a wisp of white disappearing through a dark doorway in the 支援する 塀で囲む.

I raced across the cavern and （機の）カム to a sudden 停止（させる） as an ax licked out of the gloom of the 入り口 and whistled perilously の近くに to my 黒人／ボイコット-maned 長，率いる. I gave 支援する suddenly. Now the advantage was with Vertorix, who stood in the 狭くする mouth of the 回廊（地帯） where I could hardly come at him without exposing myself to the 破滅的な 一打／打撃 of his ax.

I was 近づく frothing with fury and the sight of a わずかな／ほっそりした white form の中で the 深い 影をつくる／尾行するs behind the 軍人 drove me into a frenzy. I attacked savagely but warily, thrusting venomously at my 敵, and 製図／抽選 支援する from his 一打／打撃s. I wished to draw him out into a wide 肺, 避ける it and run him through before he could 回復する his balance. In the open I could have （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 him 負かす／撃墜する by sheer 力／強力にする and 激しい blows, but here I could only use the point and that at a disadvantage; I always preferred the 辛勝する／優位. But I was stubborn; if I could not come at him with a finishing 一打／打撃, neither could he or the girl escape me while I kept him hemmed in the tunnel.

It must have been the 現実化 of this fact that 誘発するd the girl's 活動／戦闘, for she said something to Vertorix about looking for a way 主要な out, and though he cried out ひどく forbidding her to 投機・賭ける away into the 不明瞭, she turned and ran 速く 負かす／撃墜する the tunnel to 消える in the dimness. My wrath rose appallingly and I nearly got my 長，率いる 分裂（する） in my 切望 to bring 負かす／撃墜する my 敵 before she 設立する a means for their escape.

Then the cavern echoed with a terrible 叫び声をあげる and Vertorix cried out like a man death-stricken, his 直面する ashy in the gloom. He whirled, as if he had forgotten me and my sword, and raced 負かす／撃墜する the tunnel like a madman, shrieking Tamera's 指名する. From far away, as if from the bowels of the earth, I seemed to hear her answering cry, mingled with a strange sibilant clamor that electrified me with nameless but 直感的に horror. Then silence fell, broken only by Vertorix's frenzied cries, receding さらに先に and さらに先に into the earth.

回復するing myself I sprang into the tunnel and raced after the Briton as recklessly as he had run after the girl. And to give me my 予定, 現行犯で reaver though I was, cutting 負かす／撃墜する my 競争相手 from behind was いっそう少なく in my mind than discovering what dread thing had Tamera in its clutches.

As I ran along I 公式文書，認めるd absently that the 味方するs of the tunnel were scrawled with monstrous pictures, and realized suddenly and creepily that this must be the dread Cavern of the Children of the Night, tales of which had crossed the 狭くする sea to resound horrifically in the ears of the Gaels. Terror of me must have ridden Tamera hard to have driven her into the cavern shunned by her people, where it was said, lurked the 生存者s of that grisly race which 住むd the land before the coming of the Picts and Britons, and which had fled before them into the unknown caverns of the hills.

Ahead of me the tunnel opened into a wide 議会, and I saw the white form of Vertorix 微光 momentarily in the semidarkness and 消える in what appeared to be the 入り口 of a 回廊（地帯） opposite the mouth of the tunnel I had just 横断するd. 即時に there sounded a short, 猛烈な／残忍な shout and the 衝突，墜落 of a hard-driven blow, mixed with the hysterical 叫び声をあげるs of a girl and a medley of serpentlike hissing that made my hair bristle. And at that instant I 発射 out of the tunnel, running at 十分な 速度(を上げる）, and realized too late the 床に打ち倒す of the cavern lay several feet below the level of the tunnel. My 飛行機で行くing feet 行方不明になるd the tiny steps and I 衝突，墜落d terrifically on the solid 石／投石する 床に打ち倒す.

Now as I stood in the semidarkness, rubbing my aching 長，率いる, all this （機の）カム 支援する to me, and I 星／主役にするd fearsomely across the 広大な 議会 at that 黒人／ボイコット cryptic 回廊（地帯） into which Tamera and her lover had disappeared, and over which silence lay like a 棺／かげり. Gripping my sword, I warily crossed the 広大な／多数の／重要な still cavern and peered into the 回廊（地帯）. Only a denser 不明瞭 met my 注目する，もくろむs. I entered, 努力する／競うing to pierce the gloom, and as my foot slipped on a wide wet smear on the 石／投石する 床に打ち倒す, the raw acrid scent of fresh-流出／こぼすd 血 met my nostrils. Someone or something had died there, either the young Briton or his unknown 攻撃者.

I stood there uncertainly, all the supernatural 恐れるs that are the 遺産 of the Gael rising in my 原始の soul. I could turn and stride out of these accursed mazes, into the （疑いを）晴らす sunlight and 負かす／撃墜する to the clean blue sea where my comrades, no 疑問, impatiently を待つd me after the 大勝するing of the Britons. Why should I 危険 my life の中で these grisly ネズミ dens? I was eaten with curiosity to know what manner of 存在s haunted the cavern, and who were called the Children of the Night by the Britons, but in it was my love for the yellow-haired girl which drove me 負かす／撃墜する that dark tunnel— and love her I did, in my way, and would have been 肉親，親類d to her, had I carried her away to my island haunt.

I walked softly along the 回廊（地帯）, blade ready. What sort of creatures the Children of the Night were, I had no idea, but the tales of the Britons had lent them a distinctly 残忍な nature.

The 不明瞭 の近くにd around me as I 前進するd, until I was moving in utter blackness. My groping left 手渡す 遭遇（する）d a strangely carven doorway, and at that instant something hissed like a viper beside me and 削除するd ひどく at my thigh. I struck 支援する savagely and felt my blind 一打／打撃 crunch home, and something fell at my feet and died. What thing I had 殺害された in the dark I could not know, but it must have been at least partly human because the shallow gash in my thigh had been made with a blade of some sort, and not by fangs or talons. And I sweated with horror, for the gods know, the hissing 発言する／表明する of the Thing had 似ているd no human tongue I had ever heard.

And now in the 不明瞭 ahead of me I heard the sound repeated, mingled with horrible slitherings, as if numbers of reptilian creatures were approaching. I stepped quickly into the 入り口 my groping 手渡す had discovered and （機の）カム 近づく repeating my headlong 落ちる, for instead of letting into another level 回廊（地帯）, the 入り口 gave の上に a flight of dwarfish steps on which I floundered wildly.

回復するing my balance I went on 慎重に, groping along the 味方するs of the 軸 for support. I seemed to be descending into the very bowels of the earth, but I dared not turn 支援する. Suddenly, far below me, I glimpsed a faint eerie light. I went on, perforce, and （機の）カム to a 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where the 軸 opened into another 広大な／多数の／重要な 丸天井d 議会; and I shrank 支援する, aghast.

In the 中心 of the 議会 stood a grim, 黒人／ボイコット altar; it had been rubbed all over with a sort of phosphorous, so that it glowed dully, lending a 半分-照明 to the shadowy cavern. 非常に高い behind it on a pedestal of human skulls, lay a cryptic 黒人／ボイコット 反対する, carven with mysterious hieroglyphics. The 黒人／ボイコット 石／投石する! The 古代の, 古代の 石／投石する before which, the Britons said, the Children of the Night 屈服するd in gruesome worship, and whose origin was lost in the 黒人／ボイコット もやs of a hideously distant past. Once, legend said, it had stood in that grim circle of monoliths called Stonehenge, before its votaries had been driven like chaff before the 屈服するs of the Picts.

But I gave it but a passing, shuddering ちらりと見ること. Two 人物／姿／数字s lay, bound with rawhide thongs, on the glowing 黒人／ボイコット altar. One was Tamera; the other was Vertorix, bloodstained and disheveled. His bronze ax, crusted with clotted 血, lay 近づく the altar. And before the glowing 石／投石する squatted Horror.

Though I had never seen one of those ghoulish aborigines, I knew this thing for what it was, and shuddered. It was a man of a sort, but so low in the 行う／開催する／段階 of life that its distorted humanness was more horrible than its bestiality.

築く, it could not have been five feet in 高さ. Its 団体／死体 was scrawny and deformed, its 長，率いる 不均衡な large. Lank snaky hair fell over a square 残忍な 直面する with flabby writhing lips that 明らかにするd yellow fangs, flat spreading nostrils and 広大な／多数の／重要な yellow slant 注目する，もくろむs. I knew the creature must be able to see in the dark 同様に as a cat. Centuries of skulking in 薄暗い caverns had lent the race terrible and 残忍な せいにするs. But the most repellent feature was its 肌: scaly, yellow and mottled, like the hide of a serpent. A loincloth made of a real snake's 肌 girt its lean loins, and its taloned 手渡すs gripped a short 石／投石する-tipped spear and a 悪意のある-looking mallet of polished flint.

So intently was it gloating over its 捕虜s, it evidently had not heard my stealthy 降下／家系. As I hesitated in the 影をつくる／尾行するs of the 軸, far above me I heard a soft 悪意のある rustling that 冷気／寒がらせるd the 血 in my veins. The Children were creeping 負かす／撃墜する the 軸 behind me, and I was 罠にかける. I saw other 入り口s 開始 on the 議会, and I 行為／法令／行動するd, realizing that an 同盟 with Vertorix was our only hope. Enemies though we were, we were men, cast in the same mold, 罠にかける in the lair of these indescribable monstrosities.

As I stepped from the 軸, the horror beside the altar jerked up his 長，率いる and glared 十分な at me. And as he sprang up, I leaped and he crumpled, 血 spurting, as my 激しい sword 分裂（する） his reptilian heart. But even as he died, he gave tongue in an abhorrent shriek which was echoed far up the 軸. In desperate haste I 削減（する） Vertorix's 社債s and dragged him to his feet. And I turned to Tamera, who in that 悲惨な extremity did not 縮む from me, but looked up at me with pleading, terror-dilated 注目する，もくろむs. Vertorix wasted no time in words, realizing chance had made 同盟（する）s of us. He snatched up his ax as I 解放する／自由なd the girl.

"We can't go up the 軸," he explained 速く; "we'll have the whole pack upon us quickly. They caught Tamera as she sought for an 出口, and overpowered me by sheer numbers when I followed. They dragged us hither and all but that carrion scattered—耐えるing word of the sacrifice through all their burrows, I 疑問 not. Il-marenin alone knows how many of my people, stolen in the night, have died on that altar. We must take our chance in one of these tunnels—all lead to Hell! Follow me!"

掴むing Tamera's 手渡す he ran fleetly into the nearest tunnel and I followed. A ちらりと見ること 支援する into the 議会 before a turn in the 回廊（地帯） blotted it from 見解（をとる） showed a 反乱ing horde streaming out of the 軸. The tunnel slanted steeply 上向き, and suddenly ahead of us we saw a 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 of gray light. But the next instant our cries of hope changed to 悪口を言う／悪態s of bitter 失望. There was daylight, aye, drifting in through a cleft in the 丸天井d roof, but far, far above our reach. Behind us the pack gave tongue exultingly. And I 停止（させる）d.

"Save yourselves if you can," I growled. "Here I make my stand. They can see in the dark and I cannot. Here at least I can see them. Go!"

But Vertorix 停止（させる）d also. "Little use to be 追跡（する）d like ネズミs to our doom. There is no escape. Let us 会合，会う our 運命／宿命 like men."

Tamera cried out, wringing her 手渡すs, but she clung to her lover.

"Stand behind me with the girl," I grunted. "When I 落ちる, dash out her brains with your ax lest they take her alive again. Then sell your own life as high as you may, for there is 非，不，無 to avenge us."

His keen 注目する，もくろむs met 地雷 squarely.

"We worship different gods, reaver," he said, "but all gods love 勇敢に立ち向かう men. Mayhap we shall 会合，会う again, beyond the Dark."

"あられ／賞賛する and 別れの（言葉，会）, Briton!" I growled, and our 権利 手渡すs gripped like steel.

"あられ／賞賛する and 別れの（言葉，会）, Gael!"

And I wheeled as a hideous horde swept up the tunnel and burst into the 薄暗い light, a 飛行機で行くing nightmare of streaming snaky hair, 泡，激怒すること-flecked lips and glaring 注目する，もくろむs. 雷鳴ing my war-cry I sprang to 会合，会う them and my 激しい sword sang and a 長，率いる spun grinning from its shoulder on an arching fountain of 血. They （機の）カム upon me like a wave and the fighting madness of my race was upon me. I fought as a maddened beast fights and at every 一打／打撃 I clove through flesh and bone, and 血 spattered in a crimson rain.

Then as they 殺到するd in and I went 負かす／撃墜する beneath the sheer 負わせる of their numbers, a 猛烈な／残忍な yell 削減（する） the din and Vertorix's ax sang above me, splattering 血 and brains like water. The 圧力（をかける） slackened and I staggered up, trampling the writhing 団体／死体s beneath my feet.

"A stair behind us!" the Briton was 叫び声をあげるing. "Half-hidden in an angle of the 塀で囲む! It must lead to daylight! Up it, in the 指名する of Il-marenin!"

So we fell 支援する, fighting our way インチ by インチ. The vermin fought like 血-hungry devils, clambering over the 団体／死体s of the 殺害された to screech and 切り開く／タクシー／不正アクセス. Both of us were streaming 血 at every step when we reached the mouth of the 軸, into which Tamera had に先行するd us.

叫び声をあげるing like very fiends the Children 殺到するd in to drag us 負かす／撃墜する. The 軸 was not as light as had been the 回廊（地帯）, and it grew darker as we climbed, but our 敵s could only come at us from in 前線. By the gods, we 虐殺（する）d them till the stair was littered with mangled 死体s and the Children frothed like mad wolves! Then suddenly they abandoned the fray and raced 支援する 負かす／撃墜する the steps.

"What portends this?" gasped Vertorix, shaking the 血まみれの sweat from his 注目する，もくろむs.

"Up the 軸, quick!" I panted. "They mean to 開始する some other stair and come at us from above!"

So we raced up those accursed steps, slipping and つまずくing, and as we fled past a 黒人／ボイコット tunnel that opened into the 軸, far 負かす／撃墜する it we heard a frightful howling. An instant later we 現れるd from the 軸 into a winding 回廊（地帯）, dimly illumined by a vague gray light filtering in from above, and somewhere in the bowels of the earth I seemed to hear the 雷鳴 of 急ぐing water. We started 負かす／撃墜する the 回廊（地帯） and as we did so, a 激しい 負わせる 粉砕するd on my shoulders, knocking me headlong, and a mallet 衝突，墜落d again and again on my 長，率いる, sending dull red flashes of agony across my brain. With a 火山の wrench I dragged my 攻撃者 off and under me, and tore out his throat with my naked fingers. And his fangs met in my arm in his death-bite.

Reeling up, I saw that Tamera and Vertorix had passed out of sight. I had been somewhat behind them, and they had run on, knowing nothing of the fiend which had leaped on my shoulders. Doubtless they thought I was still の近くに on their heels. A dozen steps I took, then 停止（させる）d. The 回廊（地帯） 支店d and I knew not which way my companions had taken. At blind 投機・賭ける I turned into the left-手渡す 支店, and staggered on in the semidarkness. I was weak from 疲労，（軍の）雑役 and loss of 血, dizzy and sick from the blows I had received. Only the thought of Tamera kept me doggedly on my feet. Now distinctly I heard the sound of an unseen 激流.

That I was not far 地下組織の was evident by the 薄暗い light which filtered in from somewhere above, and I momentarily 推定する／予想するd to come upon another stair. But when I did, I 停止（させる）d in 黒人／ボイコット despair; instead of up, it led 負かす／撃墜する. Somewhere far behind me I heard faintly the howls of the pack, and I went 負かす／撃墜する, 急落（する），激減（する）ing into utter 不明瞭. At last I struck a level and went along blindly. I had given up all hope of escape, and only hoped to find Tamera—if she and her lover had not 設立する a way of escape—and die with her. The 雷鳴 of 急ぐing water was above my 長，率いる now, and the tunnel was slimy and dank. 減少（する）s of moisture fell on my 長，率いる and I knew I was passing under the river.

Then I 失敗d again upon steps 削減（する） in the 石／投石する, and these led 上向き. I 緊急発進するd up as 急速な／放蕩な as my 強化するing 負傷させるs would 許す—and I had taken 罰 enough to have killed an ordinary man. Up I went and up, and suddenly daylight burst on me through a cleft in the solid 激しく揺する. I stepped into the 炎 of the sun. I was standing on a ledge high above the 急ぐing waters of a river which raced at awesome 速度(を上げる） between 非常に高い cliffs. The ledge on which I stood was の近くに to the 最高の，を越す of the cliff; safety was within arm's length. But I hesitated and such was my love for the golden-haired girl that I was ready to retrace my steps through those 黒人／ボイコット tunnels on the mad hope of finding her. Then I started.

Across the river I saw another cleft in the cliff-塀で囲む which 前線d me, with a ledge 類似の to that on which I stood, but longer. In olden times, I 疑問 not, some sort of 原始の 橋（渡しをする） connected the two ledges— かもしれない before the tunnel was dug beneath the 河床. Now as I watched, two 人物／姿／数字s 現れるd upon that other ledge—one gashed, dust-stained, limping, gripping a bloodstained ax; the other わずかな／ほっそりした, white and girlish.

Vertorix and Tamera! They had taken the other 支店 of the 回廊（地帯） at the fork and had evidently followed the windows of the tunnel to 現れる as I had done, except that I had taken the left turn and passed （疑いを）晴らす under the river. And now I saw that they were in a 罠（にかける）. On that 味方する the cliffs rose half a hundred feet higher than on my 味方する of the river, and so sheer a spider could 不十分な have 規模d them. There were only two ways of escape from the ledge: 支援する through the fiend-haunted tunnels, or straight 負かす／撃墜する to the river which raved far beneath.

I saw Vertorix look up the sheer cliffs and then 負かす／撃墜する, and shake his 長，率いる in despair. Tamara put her 武器 about his neck, and though I could not hear their 発言する／表明するs for the 急ぐ of the river, I saw them smile, and then they went together to the 辛勝する／優位 of the ledge. And out of the cleft 群れているd a loathsome 暴徒, as foul reptiles writhe up out of the 不明瞭, and they stood blinking in the sunlight like the night-things they were. I gripped my sword-hilt in the agony of my helplessness until the 血 trickled from under my fingernails. Why had not the pack followed me instead of my companions?

The Children hesitated an instant as the two Britons 直面するd them, then with a laugh Vertorix 投げつけるd his ax far out into the 急ぐing river, and turning, caught Tamera in a last embrace. Together they sprang far out, and still locked in each other's 武器, hurtled downward, struck the madly 泡，激怒することing water that seemed to leap up to 会合，会う them, and 消えるd. And the wild river swept on like a blind, insensate monster, 雷鳴ing along the echoing cliffs.

A moment I stood frozen, then like a man in a dream I turned, caught the 辛勝する／優位 of the cliff above me and wearily drew myself up and over, and stood on my feet above the cliffs, 審理，公聴会 like a 薄暗い dream the roar of the river far beneath.

I reeled up, dazedly clutching my throbbing 長，率いる, on which 乾燥した，日照りのd 血 was clotted. I glared wildly about me. I had clambered the cliffs—no, by the 雷鳴 of Crom, I was still in the cavern! I reached for my sword—

The もやs faded and I 星／主役にするd about dizzily, orienting myself with space and time. I stood at the foot of the steps 負かす／撃墜する which I had fallen. I who had been Conan the reaver, was John O'Brien. Was all that grotesque interlude a dream? Could a mere dream appear so vivid? Even in dreams, we often know we are dreaming, but Conan the reaver had no cognizance of any other 存在. More, he remembered his own past life as a living man remembers, though in the waking mind of John O'Brien, that memory faded into dust and もや. But the adventures of Conan in the Cavern of the Children stood （疑いを）晴らす-etched in the mind of John O'Brien.

I ちらりと見ることd across the 薄暗い 議会 toward the 入り口 of the tunnel into which Vertorix had followed the girl. But I looked in vain, seeing only the 明らかにする blank 塀で囲む of the cavern. I crossed the 議会, switched on my electric たいまつ—miraculously 無傷の in my 落ちる—and felt along the 塀で囲む.

Ha! I started, as from an electric shock! 正確に／まさに where the 入り口 should have been, my fingers （悪事，秘密などを）発見するd a difference in 構成要素, a section which was rougher than the 残り／休憩（する） of the 塀で囲む. I was 納得させるd that it was of comparatively modern workmanship; the tunnel had been 塀で囲むd up.

I thrust against it, 発揮するing all my strength, and it seemed to me that the section was about to give. I drew 支援する, and taking a 深い breath, 開始する，打ち上げるd my 十分な 負わせる against it, 支援するd by all the 力／強力にする of my 巨大（な） muscles. The brittle, decaying 塀で囲む gave way with a 粉々にするing 衝突，墜落 and I catapulted through in a にわか雨 of 石／投石するs and 落ちるing masonry.

I 緊急発進するd up, a sharp cry escaping me. I stood in a tunnel, and I could not mistake the feeling of similarity this time. Here Vertorix had first fallen foul of the Children, as they dragged Tamera away, and here where I now stood the 床に打ち倒す had been awash with 血.

I walked 負かす／撃墜する the 回廊（地帯） like a man in a trance. Soon I should come to the doorway on the left—aye, there it was, the strangely carven portal, at the mouth of which I had 殺害された the unseen 存在 which 後部d up in the dark beside me. I shivered momentarily. Could it be possible that 残余s of that foul race still lurked hideously in these remote caverns?

I turned into the doorway and my light shone 負かす／撃墜する a long, slanting 軸, with tiny steps 削減（する） into the solid 石／投石する. 負かす／撃墜する these had Conan the reaver gone groping and 負かす／撃墜する them went I, John O'Brien, with memories of that other life filling my brain with vague phantasms. No light 微光d ahead of me but I （機の）カム into the 広大な／多数の／重要な 薄暗い 議会 I had known of yore, and I shuddered as I saw the grim 黒人／ボイコット altar etched in the gleam of my たいまつ. Now no bound 人物／姿／数字s writhed there, no crouching horror gloated before it. Nor did the pyramid of skulls support the 黒人／ボイコット 石／投石する before which unknown races had 屈服するd before Egypt was born out of time's 夜明け. Only a littered heap of dust lay strewn where the skulls had upheld the hellish thing. No, that had been no dream: I was John O'Brien, but I had been Conan of the reavers in that other life, and that grim interlude a 簡潔な／要約する episode of reality which I had relived.

I entered the tunnel 負かす／撃墜する which we had fled, 向こうずねing a beam of light ahead, and saw the 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 of gray light drifting 負かす／撃墜する from above—just as in that other, lost age. Here the Briton and I, Conan, had turned at bay. I turned my 注目する，もくろむs from the 古代の cleft high up in the 丸天井d roof, and looked for the stair. There it was, half-隠すd by an angle in the 塀で囲む.

I 機動力のある, remembering how hurriedly Vertorix and I had gone up so many ages before, with the horde hissing and frothing at our heels. I 設立する myself 緊張した with dread as I approached the dark, gaping 入り口 through which the pack had sought to 削減（する） us off. I had snapped off the light when I （機の）カム into the 薄暗い-lit 回廊（地帯） below, and now I ちらりと見ることd into the 井戸／弁護士席 of blackness which opened on the stair. And with a cry I started 支援する, nearly losing my 地盤 on the worn steps. Sweating in the semidarkness I switched on the light and directed its beam into the cryptic 開始, revolver in 手渡す.

I saw only the 明らかにする 一連の会議、交渉／完成するd 味方するs of a small shaftlike tunnel and I laughed nervously. My imagination was running 暴動; I could have sworn that hideous yellow 注目する，もくろむs glared terribly at me from the 不明瞭, and that a はうing something had scuttered away 負かす／撃墜する the tunnel. I was foolish to let these imaginings upset me. The Children had long 消えるd from these caverns; a nameless and abhorrent race closer to the serpent than the man, they had centuries ago faded 支援する into the oblivion from which they had はうd in the 黒人／ボイコット 夜明け ages of the Earth.

I （機の）カム out of the 軸 into the winding 回廊（地帯）, which, as I remembered of old, was はしけ. Here from the 影をつくる／尾行するs a lurking thing had leaped on my 支援する while my companions ran on, unknowing. What a brute of a man Conan had been, to keep going after receiving such savage 負傷させるs! Aye, in that age all men were アイロンをかける.

I （機の）カム to the place where the tunnel forked and as before I took the left-手渡す 支店 and （機の）カム to the 軸 that led 負かす／撃墜する. 負かす／撃墜する this I went, listening for the roar of the river, but not 審理，公聴会 it. Again the 不明瞭 shut in about the 軸, so I was 軍隊d to have 頼みの綱 to my electric たいまつ again, lest I lose my 地盤 and 急落（する），激減（する） to my death. Oh, I, John O'Brien, am not nearly so sure-footed as was I, Conan the reaver; no, nor as tigerishly powerful and quick, either.

I soon struck the dank lower level and felt again the dampness that denoted my position under the 河床, but still I could not hear the 急ぐ of the water. And indeed I knew that whatever mighty river had 急ぐd roaring to the sea in those 古代の times, there was no such 団体／死体 of water の中で the hills today. I 停止（させる）d, flashing my light about. I was in a 広大な tunnel, not very high of roof, but 幅の広い. Other smaller tunnels 支店d off from it and I wondered at the 網状組織 which 明らかに honeycombed the hills.

I cannot 述べる the grim, 暗い／優うつな 影響 of those dark, low-roofed 回廊（地帯）s far below the earth. Over all hung an overpowering sense of unspeakable antiquity. Why had the little people carved out these mysterious crypts, and in which 黒人／ボイコット age? Were these caverns their last 避難 from the onrushing tides of humanity, or their 城s since time immemorial? I shook my 長，率いる in bewilderment; the bestiality of the Children I had seen, yet somehow they had been able to carve these tunnels and 議会s that might 妨げる modern engineers. Even supposing they had but 完全にするd a 仕事 begun by nature, still it was a stupendous work for a race of dwarfish aborigines.

Then I realized with a start that I was spending more time in these 暗い／優うつな tunnels than I cared for, and began to 追跡（する） for the steps by which Conan had 上がるd. I 設立する them and, に引き続いて them up, breathed again 深く，強烈に in 救済 as the sudden glow of daylight filled the 軸. I （機の）カム out upon the ledge, now worn away until it was little more than a bump on the 直面する of the cliff. And I saw the 広大な／多数の／重要な river, which had roared like a 刑務所，拘置所d monster between the sheer 塀で囲むs of its 狭くする canyon, had dwindled away with the passing eons until it was no more than a tiny stream, far beneath me, trickling soundlessly の中で the 石／投石するs on its way to the sea.

Aye, the surface of the earth changes; the rivers swell or 縮む, the mountains heave and 倒れる, the lakes 乾燥した，日照りの up, the continents alter; but under the earth the work of lost, mysterious 手渡すs slumbers untouched by the sweep of Time. Their work, aye, but what of the 手渡すs that 後部d that work? Did they, too, lurk beneath the bosoms of the hills?

How long I stood there, lost in 薄暗い 憶測s, I do not know, but suddenly, ちらりと見ることing across at the other ledge, 崩壊するing and 天候d, I shrank 支援する into the 入り口 behind me. Two 人物／姿／数字s （機の）カム out upon the ledge and I gasped to see that they were Richard Brent and Eleanor Bland. Now I remembered why I had come to the cavern and my 手渡す instinctively sought the revolver in my pocket. They did not see me. But I could see them, and hear them plainly, too, since no roaring river now 雷鳴d between the ledges.

"By gad, Eleanor," Brent was 説, "I'm glad you decided to come with me. Who would have guessed there was anything to those old tales about hidden tunnels 主要な from the cavern? I wonder how that section of 塀で囲む （機の）カム to 崩壊（する）? I thought I heard a 衝突，墜落 just as we entered the outer 洞穴. Do you suppose some beggar was in the cavern ahead of us, and broke it in?"

"I don't know," she answered. "I remember—oh, I don't know. It almost seems as if I'd been here before, or dreamed I had. I seem to faintly remember, like a far-off nightmare, running, running, running endlessly through these dark 回廊（地帯）s with hideous creatures on my heels..."

"Was I there?" jokingly asked Brent.

"Yes, and John, too," she answered. "But you were not Richard Brent, and John was not John O'Brien. No, and I was not Eleanor Bland, either. Oh, it's so 薄暗い and far-off I can't 述べる it at all. It's 煙霧のかかった and misty and terrible."

"I understand, a little," he said 突然に. "Ever since we （機の）カム to the place where the 塀で囲む had fallen and 明らかにする／漏らすd the old tunnel, I've had a sense of familiarity with the place. There was horror and danger and 戦う／戦い— and love, too."

He stepped nearer the 辛勝する／優位 to look 負かす／撃墜する in the gorge, and Eleanor cried out はっきりと and suddenly, 掴むing him in a convulsive しっかり掴む.

"Don't, Richard, don't! 持つ／拘留する me, oh, 持つ／拘留する me tight!"

He caught her in his 武器. "Why, Eleanor, dear, what's the 事柄?"

"Nothing," she 滞るd, but she clung closer to him and I saw she was trembling. "Just a strange feeling—急ぐing dizziness and fright, just as if I were 落ちるing from a 広大な／多数の／重要な 高さ. Don't go 近づく the 辛勝する／優位, 刑事; it 脅すs me."

"I won't, dear," he answered, 製図／抽選 her closer to him, and continuing hesitantly: "Eleanor, there's something I've 手配中の，お尋ね者 to ask you for a long time—井戸／弁護士席, I 港／避難所't the knack of putting things in an elegant way. I love you, Eleanor; always have. You know that. But if you don't love me, I'll take myself off and won't annoy you any more. Only please tell me one way or another, for I can't stand it any longer. Is it I or the American?"

"You, 刑事," she answered, hiding her 直面する on his shoulder. "It's always been you, though I didn't know it. I think a 広大な／多数の／重要な 取引，協定 of John O'Brien. I didn't know which of you I really loved. But today as we （機の）カム through those terrible tunnels and climbed those fearful stairs, and just now, when I thought for some strange 推論する／理由 we were 落ちるing from the ledge, I realized it was you I loved—that I always loved you, through more lives than this one. Always!"

Their lips met and I saw her golden 長，率いる cradled on his shoulder. My lips were 乾燥した，日照りの, my heart 冷淡な, yet my soul was at peace. They belonged to each other. Eons ago they lived and loved, and because of that love they 苦しむd and died. And I, Conan, had driven them to that doom.

I saw them turn toward the cleft, their 武器 about each other, then I heard Tamera—I mean Eleanor—shriek. I saw them both recoil. And out of the cleft a horror （機の）カム writhing, a loathsome, brain-粉々にするing thing that blinked in the clean sunlight. Aye, I knew it of old—痕跡 of a forgotten age, it （機の）カム writhing its horrid 形態／調整 up out of the 不明瞭 of the Earth and the lost past to （人命などを）奪う，主張する its own.

What three thousand years of retrogression can do to a race hideous in the beginning, I saw, and shuddered. And instinctively I knew that in all the world it was the only one of its 肉親，親類d, a monster that had lived on. God alone knows how many centuries, wallowing in the わずかな／ほっそりした of its dank subterranean lairs. Before the Children had 消えるd, the race must have lost all human 外見, living as they did, the life of the reptile.

This thing was more like a 巨大（な） serpent than anything else, but it had 中止するd 脚s and snaky 武器 with 麻薬中毒の talons. It はうd on its belly, writhing 支援する mottled lips to 明らかにする needlelike fangs, which I felt must drip with venom. It hissed as it 後部d up its 恐ろしい 長，率いる on a horribly long neck, while its yellow slanted 注目する，もくろむs glittered with all the horror that is spawned in the 黒人／ボイコット lairs under the earth.

I knew those 注目する，もくろむs had 炎d at me from the dark tunnel 開始 on the stair. For some 推論する／理由 the creature had fled from me, かもしれない because it 恐れるd my light, and it stood to 推論する／理由 that it was the only one remaining in the caverns, else I had been 始める，決める upon in the 不明瞭. But for it, the tunnels could be 横断するd in safety.

Now the reptilian thing writhed toward the humans 罠にかける on the ledge. Brent had thrust Eleanor behind him and stood, 直面する ashy, to guard her as best he could. And I gave thanks silently that I, John O'Brien, could 支払う／賃金 the 負債 I, Conan the reaver, 借りがあるd these lovers since long ago.

The monster 後部d up and Brent, with 冷淡な courage, sprang to 会合，会う it with his naked 手渡すs. Taking quick 目的（とする）, I 解雇する／砲火／射撃d once. The 発射 echoed like the 割れ目 of doom between the 非常に高い cliffs, and the Horror, with a hideously human 叫び声をあげる, staggered wildly, swayed and pitched headlong, knotting and writhing like a 負傷させるd python, to 宙返り／暴落する from the sloping ledge and 落ちる plummetlike to the 激しく揺するs far below.

THE END

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