Blackbeard The Cursed Jungle Free Download
Odina Conkright
"Then I'm for Kush! Push off, I tell you!" The other cast aquick glance up the street, along which a squad of horsemen weregalloping; far behind them toiled a group of archers, crossbowson their shoulders.
"I pay my way with steel!" roared the man in armor,brandishing the great sword that glittered bluely in the sun. "ByCrom, man, if you don't get under way, I'll drench this galley inthe blood of its crew!"
The shipmaster was a good judge of men. One glance at thedark-scarred face of the swordsman, hardened with passion, and heshouted a quick order, thrusting strongly against the piles. Thegalley wallowed out into clear water, the oars began to clackrhythmically; then a puff of wind filled the shimmering sail, thelight ship heeled to the gust, then took her course like a swan,gathering headway as she skimmed along.
The master descended from the small deck between the bows,made his way between the rows of oarsmen, and mounted the mid-deck. The stranger stood there with his back to the mast, eyesnarrowed alertly, sword ready. The shipman eyed him steadily,careful not to make any move toward the long knife in his belt.He saw a tall powerfully built figure in a black scale-mailhauberk, burnished greaves and a blue-steel helmet from whichjutted bull's horns highly polished. From the mailed shouldersfell the scarlet cloak, blowing in the sea-wind. A broad shagreenbelt with a golden buckle held the scabbard of the broadsword hebore. Under the horned helmet a square-cut black mane contrastedwith smoldering blue eyes.
"If we must travel together," said the master, "we may as wellbe at peace with each other. My name is Tito, licensedmastershipman of the ports of Argos. I am bound for Kush, totrade beads and silks and sugar and brass-hilted swords to theblack kings for ivory, copra, copper ore, slaves and pearls."
"Well, last night in a tavern, a captain in the king's guardoffered violence to the sweetheart of a young soldier, whonaturally ran him through. But it seems there is some cursed lawagainst killing guardsmen, and the boy and his girl fled away. Itwas bruited about that I was seen with them, and so today I washaled into court, and a judge asked me where the lad had gone. Ireplied that since he was a friend of mine, I could not betrayhim. Then the court waxed wroth, and the judge talked a greatdeal about my duty to the state, and society, and other things Idid not understand, and bade me tell where my friend had flown.By this time I was becoming wrathful myself, for I had explainedmy position.
"But I choked my ire and held my peace, and the judge squalledthat I had shown contempt for the court, and that I should behurled into a dungeon to rot until I betrayed my friend. So then,seeing they were all mad, I drew my sword and cleft the judge'sskull; then I cut my way out of the court, and seeing the highconstable's stallion tied near by, I rode for the wharfs, where Ithought to find a ship bound for foreign ports."
"Well," said Tito hardily, "the courts have fleeced me toooften in suits with rich merchants for me to owe them any love.I'll have questions to answer if I ever anchor in that portagain, but I can prove I acted under compulsion. You may as wellput up your sword. We're peaceable sailors, and have nothingagainst you. Besides, it's as well to have a fighting-man likeyourself on board. Come up to the poop-deck and we'll have atankard of ale."
The Argus was a small sturdy ship, typical of those trading-craft which ply between the ports of Zingara and Argos and thesouthern coasts, hugging the shoreline and seldom venturing farinto the open ocean. It was high of stern, with a tall curvingprow; broad in the waist, sloping beautifully to stem and stern.It was guided by the long sweep from the poop, and propulsion wasfurnished mainly by the broad striped silk sail, aided by ajibsail. The oars were for use in tacking out of creeks and bays,and during calms. There were ten to the side, five fore and fiveaft of the small mid-deck. The most precious part of the cargowas lashed under this deck, and under the fore-deck. The menslept on deck or between the rowers' benches, protected in badweather by canopies. With twenty men at the oars, three at thesweep, and the shipmaster, the crew was complete.
Nor did master Tito pull into the broad bay where the Styxriver emptied its gigantic flood into the ocean, and the massiveblack castles of Khemi loomed over the blue waters. Ships did notput unasked into this port, where dusky sorcerers wove awfulspells in the murk of sacrificial smoke mounting eternally fromblood-stained altars where naked women screamed, and where Set,the Old Serpent, arch-demon of the Hyborians but god of theStygians, was said to writhe his shining coils among hisworshippers.
Master Tito gave that dreamy glass-floored bay a wide berth,even when a serpent-prowed gondola shot from behind a castellatedpoint of land, and naked dusky women, with great red blossoms intheir hair, stood and called to his sailors, and posed andpostured brazenly.
Now no more shining towers rose inland. They had passed thesouthern borders of Stygia and were cruising along the coasts ofKush. The sea and the ways of the sea were neverending mysteriesto Conan, whose homeland was among the high hills of the northernuplands. The wanderer was no less of interest to the sturdyseamen, few of whom had ever seen one of his race.
They were characteristic Argossean sailors, short and stockilybuilt. Conan towered above them, and no two of them could matchhis strength. They were hardy and robust, but his was theendurance and vitality of a wolf, his thews steeled and hisnerves whetted by the hardness of his life in the world'swastelands. He was quick to laugh, quick and terrible in hiswrath. He was a valiant trencherman, and strong drink was apassion and a weakness with him. Naive as a child in many ways,unfamiliar with the sophistry of civilization, he was naturallyintelligent, jealous of his rights, and dangerous as a hungrytiger. Young in years, he was hardened in warfare and wandering,and his sojourns in many lands were evident in his apparel. Hishorned helmet was such as was worn by the golden-haired Aesir ofNordheim; his hauberk and greaves were of the finest workmanshipof Koth; the fine ring-mail which sheathed his arms and legs wasof Nemedia; the blade at his girdle was a great Aquilonianbroadsword; and his gorgeous scarlet cloak could have been spunnowhere but in Ophir.
So they beat southward, and master Tito began to look for thehigh-walled villages of the black people. But they found onlysmoking ruins on the shore of a bay, littered with naked blackbodies. Tito swore.
"The wildest she-devil unhanged. Unless I read the signsawrong, it was her butchers who destroyed that village on thebay. May I some day see her dangling from the yard-arm! She iscalled the queen of the black coast. She is a Shemite woman, wholeads black raiders. They harry the shipping and have sent many agood tradesman to the bottom."
It was just at sunrise when the lookout shouted a warning.Around the long point of an island off the starboard bow glided along lethal shape, a slender serpentine galley, with a raiseddeck that ran from stem to stern. Forty oars on each side droveher swiftly through the water, and the low rail swarmed withnaked blacks that chanted and clashed spears on oval shields.From the masthead floated a long crimson pennon.
So, veering sharply, the Argus ran for the line of surf thatboomed along the palm-fringed shore, Tito striding back andforth, exhorting the panting rowers to greater efforts. Themaster's black beard bristled, his eyes glared.
Standing on the poop, he watched the serpent-like shipskimming lightly over the waters, and landsman though he was, itwas evident to him that the Argus would never win that race.Already arrows, arching from the pirate's deck, were falling witha hiss into the sea, not twenty paces astern.
"Bend to it, dogs!" roared Tito with a passionate gesture ofhis brawny fist. The bearded rowers grunted, heaved at the oars,while their muscles coiled and knotted, and sweat started out ontheir hides. The timbers of the stout little galley creaked andgroaned as the men fairly ripped her through the water. The windhad fallen; the sail hung limp. Nearer crept the inexorableraiders, and they were still a good mile from the surf when oneof the steersmen fell gagging across a sweep, a long arrowthrough his neck. Tito sprang to take his place, and Conan,bracing his feet wide on the heaving poop-deck, lifted his bow.He could see the details of the pirate plainly now. The rowerswere protected by a line of raised mantelets along the sides, butthe warriors dancing on the narrow deck were in full view. Thesewere painted and plumed, and mostly naked, brandishing spears andspotted shields.
Hand over hand the pirate galley was overhauling the lightership. Arrows fell in a rain about the Argus, and men cried out.All the steersmen were down, pincushioned, and Tito was handlingthe massive sweep alone, gasping black curses, his braced legsknots of straining thews. Then with a sob he sank down, a longshaft quivering in his sturdy heart. The Argus lost headway androlled in the swell. The men shouted in confusion, and Conan tookcommand in characteristic fashion.
"Up, lads!" he roared, loosing with a vicious twang of cord."Grab your steel and give these dogs a few knocks before they cutour throats! Useless to bend your backs any more: they'll boardus ere we can row another fifty paces!"
In desperation the sailors abandoned their oars and snatchedup their weapons. It was valiant, but useless. They had time forone flight of arrows before the pirate was upon them. With no oneat the sweep, the Argus rolled broadside, and the steel-beakedprow of the raider crashed into her amidships. Grappling-ironscrunched into the side. From the lofty gunwales, the blackpirates drove down a volley of shafts that tore through thequilted jackets of the doomed sailormen, then sprang down spearin hand to complete the slaughter. On the deck of the pirate layhalf a dozen bodies, an earnest reckoning of Conan's archery.
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