Short Fiction - Robert E. Howard (the reading list TXT) 📗

Short Fiction

By Robert E. Howard.

Table of Contents Titlepage Imprint Spear and Fang In the Forest of Villefère Wolfshead After the Game Sleeping Beauty Weekly Short Story Gods of the North Shadows in the Moonlight I II III IV Queen of the Black Coast I: Conan Joins the Pirates II: The Black Lotus III: The Horror in the Jungle IV: The Attack from the Air V: The Funeral Pyre The Devil in Iron I II III IV V VI The People of the Black Circle I: Death Strikes a King II: A Barbarian from the Hills III: Khemsa Uses Magic IV: An Encounter in the Pass V: The Black Stallion VI: The Mountain of the Black Seers VII: On to Yimsha VIII: Yasmina Knows Stark Terror IX: The Castle of the Wizards X: Yasmina and Conan A Witch Shall Be Born I: The Blood-Red Crescent II: The Tree of Death III: A Letter to Nemedia IV: Wolves of the Desert V: The Voice from the Crystal VI: The Vulture’s Wings Jewels of Gwahlur I: Paths of Intrigue II: Goddess Awakens III: The Return of the Oracle IV: The Teeth of Gwahlur Beyond the Black River I: Conan Loses His Ax II: The Wizard of Gwawela III: The Crawlers in the Dark IV: The Beasts of Zogar Sag V: The Children of Jhebbal Sag VI: Red Axes of the Border VII: The Devil in the Fire VIII: Conajohara No More Shadows in Zamboula I: A Drum Begins II: The Night Skulkers III: Black Hands Gripping IV: Dance, Girl, Dance! Red Nails I: The Skull on the Crag II: By the Blaze of the Fire-Jewels III: The People of the Feud IV: Scent of Black Lotus V: Twenty Red Nails VI: The Eyes of Tascela VII: He Comes from the Dark The Hyborian Age Colophon Uncopyright Imprint

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Spear and Fang A Tale of the Cavemen

A‑æa crouched close to the cave month, watching Ga‑nor with wondering eyes. Ga‑nor’s occupation interested her, as well as Ga‑nor himself. As for Ga‑nor, he was too occupied with his work to notice her. A torch stuck in a niche in the cave wall dimly illuminated the roomy cavern, and by its light Ga‑nor was laboriously tracing figures on the wall. With a piece of flint he scratched the outline and then with a twig dipped in ocher paint completed the figure. The result was crude, but gave evidence of real artistic genius, struggling for expression.

It was a mammoth that he sought to depict, and little A‑æa’s eyes widened with wonder and admiration. Wonderful! What though the beast lacked a leg and had no tail? It was tribesmen, just struggling out of utter barbarism, who were the critics, and to them Ga‑nor was a past master.

However, it was not to watch the reproduction of a mammoth that A‑æa hid among the scanty bushes by Ga‑nor’s cave. The admiration for the painting was as nothing beside the look of positive adoration with which she favored the artist. Indeed, Ga‑nor was not unpleasing to the eye. Tall he was, towering well over six feet, leanly built, with mighty shoulders and narrow hips, the build of a fighting man. Both his hands and his feet were long and slim; and his features, thrown into bold profile by the flickering torchlight, were intelligent, with a high, broad forehead, topped by a mane of sandy hair.

A‑æa herself was very easy to look upon. Her hair, as well as her eyes, was black and fell about her slim shoulders in a rippling wave. No ocher tattooing tinted her cheek, for she was still unmated.

Both the girl and the youth were perfect specimens of the great Cro-Magnon race which came from no man knows where and announced and enforced their supremacy over beast and beast-man.

A‑æa glanced about nervously. All ideas to the contrary, customs and taboos are much more narrow and vigorously enforced among savage peoples.

The more primitive a race, the more intolerant their customs. Vice and licentiousness may be the rule, but the appearance of vice is shunned and contemned. So if A‑æa had been discovered, hiding near the cave of an unattached young man, denunciation as a shameless woman would have been her lot, and doubtless a public whipping.

To be proper, A‑æa should have played the modest, demure maiden, perhaps skilfully arousing the young artist’s interest without seeming to do so. Then, if the youth was pleased, would have followed public wooing by means of crude love-songs and music from reed pipes. Then barter with her parents and then⁠—marriage. Or no wooing at all, if the lover was wealthy.

But little A‑æa was herself a mark of progress. Covert