Science fiction -- Periodicals; Science fiction, American -- Periodicals
Garry hung fast to the struggling body, that was his shield; there
were other spears now that flashed in the air. He loosed one hand and
landed a short jab in the face of a savage whose hands were at his
throat. The blow was light, and he was amazed to see the man stagger
and fall. There were others who swayed helplessly and stumbled to
their knees. Spears rang sharply, clattering upon the stone.... They
were falling. The body he held went suddenly limp within his arms and
sagged heavily to the floor....
Garry saw the one who had threatened him drop; he took the girl with
him as he fell, and his spear flew wildly from his open hand. Garry
was alone!--and the enemy was only a tangle of sprawling bodies where
the twitching of an outflung arm marked the last sign of life.
He was breathing hard, for some of the enemies' blows had landed, and
he staggered as he wiped a trickle of blood from his eyes. No time to
figure what this meant, but the blacks were certainly out of it.
Beyond the huddled bodies the tall figure of Horab leaped wildly in
air as he sprang forward, and in the same instant Garry threw himself
between the black menace and the prostrate girl.
He staggered again as he landed from his wild leap, and he called for
his last reserve of strength to put power behind the blow that he
launched for the snarling face above.
The heavy scepter swung high, and was falling as Garry struck. He saw
the blow start; saw the fiery arc the jeweled head made in descending
like a mace above his head. Then the face of Horab vanished, and the
room was a whirling place of flashing red and yellow before blackness
blotted it out....
* * * * *
Garry awoke to blink stupidly at a green light above him. His head was
a blinding, throbbing pain that blurred his thoughts.
It cleared slowly. The gleaming figure of a girl was rising from the
floor. His aching eyes saw the white of her young body through the
dull glow of golden lace. Her eyes came to his, and sharply he
realized that this was no dream--this cave whose walls seemed swaying,
the face that was staring pitifully at him, and, beyond, in a ghastly
green light, the dark silhouette of a lean man who bent his pointed
head above a chest.
Connell's mind was a whirl of snarled thoughts and emotions, of
puzzled wonder and fighting rage; yet strangely through and above them
all was a feeling of pure joy in the message of the eyes in a face
that was utterly lovely.
The black figure had opened the chest. Garry saw the luminous green
about it shot through with the reflected radiance of many gems. Jewels
cascaded brilliantly from the lean black hands as they withdrew a
golden cord. Part of some gem-incrusted fabric, it was, that he tore
roughly from its rotted fastenings before coming swiftly to the still
helpless body of Connell.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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