The Black Stranger

Book excerpt: The Black Stranger is a fantasy short story by American author Robert E. Howard that features the sword & sorcery hero Conan the Cimmerian on his adventures. Excerpt: "Thirty axemen raced down toward the beach, brawny men in sleeveless tunics, their axes gleaming in the sun. The manner of their lord had suggested a possibility of peril in that oncoming ship, and there was panic in their haste. The splintering of the timbers under their flying axes came plainly to the people inside the fort, and the axemen were racing back across the sands, trundling the great oaken wheels with them, before the Zingaran ship had dropped anchor where the pirate ship had stood."