The Slithering Shadow

1 The desert shimmered in the heat waves. Conan the Cimmerian stared out over the aching desolation and involuntarily drew the back of his powerful hand over his blackened lips. He stood like a bronze image in the sand, apparently impervious to the murderous sun, though his only garment was a silk loin-cloth, girdled by a wide gold-buckled belt from which hung a saber and a broad-bladed poniard. On his clean-cut limbs were evidences of scarcely healed wounds. At his feet rested a girl, one white arm clasping his knee, against which her blond head drooped. Her white skin contrasted with his hard bronzed limbs; her short silken tunic, low-necked and sleeveless, girdled at the waist, emphasized rather than concealed her lithe figure. Conan shook his head, blinking. The sun's glare half blinded him. He lifted a small canteen from his belt and shook it, scowling at the faint splashing within. The girl moved wearily, whimpering. "Oh, Conan, we shall die here! I am so thirsty!" The Cimmerian growled wordlessly, glaring truculently at the surrounding waste, with outthrust jaw, and blue eyes smoldering savagely from under his black tousled mane, as if the desert were a tangible enemy. He stooped and put the canteen to the girl's lips. "Drink till I tell you to stop, Natala," he commanded. She drank with little panting gasps, and he did not check her. Only when the canteen was empty did she realize that he had deliberately allowed her to drink all their water supply, little enough that it was. Tears sprang to her eyes. "Oh, Conan," she wailed, wringing her hands, "why did you let me drink it all? I did not know--now there is none for you!" "Hush," he growled. "Don't waste your strength in weeping." Straightening, he threw the canteen from him. "Why did you do that?" she whispered. More In The 'Conan' Stories Series by ADB Publishing (The Original) The Phoenix on the Sword (1932) (The Original) The Scarlet Citadel (1933) (The Original) The Tower of the Elephant (1933) (The Original) Black Colossus (1933) (The Original) The Slithering Shadow (1933) (This Book) (The Original) The Pool of the Black One (1933) (The Original) Gods of the North (1934) (The Original) Rogues in the House (1934) (The Original) Shadows in the Moonlight (1934) (The Original) Queen of the Black Coast (1934) (The Original) The Devil in Iron (1934) (The Original) The People of the Black Circle (1934) (The Original) A Witch Shall be Born(1934) (The Original) Jewels of Gwahlur (1935) (The Original) Beyond the Black River (1935) (The Original) Shadows in Zamboula (1935) (The Original) Red Nails (1936) (The Original) The Hour of the Dragon (novel) (1936) (The Original) The Hyborian Age (1938)