The Project Gutenberg EBook of Red Nails, by Robert E. Howard

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Title: Red Nails

Author: Robert E. Howard

Release Date: June 9, 2010 [EBook #32759]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Red Nails

By ROBERT E. HOWARD

_One of the strangest stories ever written--the tale of a barbarian
adventurer, a woman pirate, and a weird roofed city inhabited by the
most peculiar race of men ever spawned_

Nearly four years ago, WEIRD TALES published a story called "The
Phoenix on the Sword," built around a barbarian adventurer named
Conan, who had become king of a country by sheer force of valor and
brute strength. The author of that story was Robert E. Howard, who
was already a favorite with the readers of this magazine for his
stories of Solomon Kane, the dour English Puritan and redresser of
wrongs. The stories about Conan were speedily acclaimed by our
readers, and the barbarian's weird adventures became immensely
popular. The story presented herewith is one of the most powerful
and eery weird tales yet written about Conan. We commend this story
to you, for we know you will enjoy it through and through.

_1. The Skull on the Crag_

The woman on the horse reined in her weary steed. It stood with its legs
wide-braced, its head drooping, as if it found even the weight of the
gold-tasseled, red-leather bridle too heavy. The woman drew a booted
foot out of the silver stirrup and swung down from the gilt-worked
saddle. She made the reins fast to the fork of a sapling, and turned
about, hands on her hips, to survey her surroundings.

They were not inviting. Giant trees hemmed in the small pool where her
horse had just drunk. Clumps of undergrowth limited the vision that
quested under the somber twilight of the lofty arches formed by
intertwining branches. The woman shivered with a twitch of her
magnificent shoulders, and then cursed.

She wa