Avon Fantasy Reader No. 8 — page 19: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

QUEEN OF THE BLACK COAST _ 15 tioned. But look at’the handholes at either end of the altar! Priests often con- ceal their treasures beneath their altars. Four of you lay hold and see if you Cate lift itz She stepped back to make room for them, glancing up at the tower which loomed drunkenly above them. Three of the strongest blacks had gripped the handholds cut into the stone—curiously unsuited to human hands—when Beélit sprang back with a sharp cry. They froze in their places, and Conan, bending to aid them, wheeled with a startled curse. “A snake in the grass,” she said, backing away. “Come and slay it; the rest of you bend your backs to the stone.” Conan eame quickly toward her, another taking his place. As he impatiently scanned the grass for the reptile, the giant blacks braced their feet, grunted and heaved with their huge muscles coiling and straining under their ebon skin. The altar did not come off the ground, but it revolved suddenly on its side. And simultaneously there was a grinding rumble above and the tower came crashing down, covering the four black men with broken masonry. A cry of horror rose from their comrades. Bélit’s slim fingers dug into Conan’s arm-muscles. “There was no serpent,” she whispered. “It was but a ruse to call you away. I feared; the old ones*guarded their treasure well. Let us clear away the stones.” With herculean labor they did so, and lifted out the mangled bodies of the four men. And under them, stained with their blood, the pirates found a crypt carved in the solid stone. The altar, hinged curiously with stone rods and sockets on one side, had served as its lid. And at first glance the crypt seemed brimming with liquid fire, catching the early light with a million blazing facets. Undreamable wealth lay before the eyes of the gaping pirates: dia- monds, rubies, bloodstones, sapphires, turquoises, moonstones, opals, emeralds, amethysts, unknown gems that shone like the eyes of evil women. The crypt was filled to the brim with bright stones that the morning sun struck into lambent flame. With a cry Bélit dropped to her knees among the blood-stained rubble on the brink and thrust her white arms shoulder-deep into that pool of splendor. She withdrew them, clutching something that brought another cry to her lips —a long string of crimson stones that were like clots of frozen blood strung on a thick gold wire. In their glow the golden sunlight changed to bloody haze. Bélit’s eyes were like a woman’s in a trance. The Sheiie soul finds a bright drunkenness in riches and material splendor, and the sight of es treasure might have shaken the soul of a sated emperor of Shushan. “Take up the jewels, dogs!” her voice was shrill with her emotions. “Look!” A muscular black arm stabbed toward the Tigress, and Bélit wheeled, her crimson lips a-snarl, as if she expected to see a rival corsair Comicdooks (C@)