"Robert E. Howard - Conan - Rogues In The House" - читать интересную книгу автора (Howard Robert E)

prey did not move, nor seem to hear his cautious advance. Was the Red
Priest asleep, or was it a corpse which slumped in that great chair? The
length of a single stride separated Murilo from his enemy, when suddenly the
man in the chair rose and faced him.

The blood went suddenly from Murilo's features. His sword fell from his
fingers and rang on the polished floor. A terrible cry broke from his livid lips;
it was followed by the thud of a falling body. Then once more silence reigned
over the house of the Red Priest.

2

Shortly after Murilo left the dungeon where Conan the Cimmerian was
confined, Athicus brought the prisoner a platter of food which included,
among other things, a huge joint of beef and a tankard of ale. Conan fell to
voraciously, and Athicus made a final round of the cells, to see that all was in
order, and that none should witness the pretended prison break. It was while
he was so occupied that a squad of guardsmen marched into the prison and
placed him under arrest. Murilo had been mistaken when he assumed this
arrest denoted discovery of Conan's planned escape. It was another matter;
Athicus had become careless in his dealings with the underworld, and one of
his past sins had caught up with him.
 Another jailer took his place, a stolid, dependable creature whom no
amount of bribery could have shaken from his duty. He was unimaginative,
but he had an exalted idea of the importance of his job.

After Athicus had been marched away to be formally arraigned before a
magistrate, this jailer made the rounds of the cell as a matter of routine. As
he passed that of Conan, his sense of propriety was shocked and outraged to
see the prisoner free of his chains and in the act of gnawing the last shreds
of meat from a huge beefbone. The jailer was so upset that he made the
mistake of entering the cell alone, without calling guards from the other
parts of the prison. It was his first mistake in the line of duty, and his last.
Conan brained him with the beef bone, took his poniard and his keys, and
made a leisurely departure. As Murilo had said, only one guard was on duty
there at night. The Cimmerian passed himself outside the walls by means of
the keys he had taken and presently emerged into the outer air, as free as if
Murilo's plan had been successful.

In the shadows of the prison walls, Conan paused to decide his next
course of action. It occurred to him that since he had escaped through his
own actions, he owed nothing to Murilo; yet it had been the young nobleman
who had removed his chains and had the food sent to him, without either of
which his escape would have been impossible. Conan decided that he was
indebted to Murilo and, since he was a man who discharged his obligations
eventually, he determined to carry out his promise to the young aristocrat.
But first he had some business of his own to attend to.

He discarded his ragged tunic and moved off through the night naked but
for a loincloth. As he went he fingered the poniard he had captured -- a