#33) Fritz Leiber Super Pack #1: ISBN: 978-1-5154-1-847-4
(PSP #34) Wizard of Oz Super Pack: ISBN: 978-1-5154-1-872-6
(PSP #35) The Vampire Super Pack: ISBN: 978-1-5154-3-954-7
(PSP #36) The Doctor Dolittle Super Pack: ISBN: 978-1-5154-4-296-7
(PSP #37) Charles Boardman Hawes Super Pack: ISBN: 978-1-5154-4-384-1
(PSP #38) The Edgar Wallace Super Pack: ISBN: 978-1-5154-4-387-2
(PSP #39) Inspector Gabriel Hanaud Super Pack: ISBN: 978-1-5154-4-385-8
(PSP #40) Tarzan Super Pack: ISBN: 978-1-5154-4497-8
(PSP #41) Algis Budry Super Pack: ISBN: 978-1-5154-4496-1
(PSP #42) Max Brand Western Super Pack: ISBN 978-1-63384-841-2
Acknowledgments
“Beyond the Black River” by Robert E. Howard originally appeared in Weird Tales, May and June 1935.
“The Secret of Kralitz” by Henry Kuttner originally appeared in Weird Tales, October 1936.
“The Shunned House” by H. P. Lovecraft originally appeared in Weird Tales, October 1937.
“Way Station” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman originally appeared in Weird Tales, November 1953.
“Never Stop to Pat a Kitten” by Miriam Allen deFord originally appeared in Weird Tales, July 1954.
“The Diaryof Philip Westerly” by Paul Compton originally appeared in Weird Tales, August-September 1936.
“The Door Into Infinity” by Edmond Hamilton originally appeared in Weird Tales, August-September 1936.
“Isle of the Undead” by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach originally appeared in Weird Tales, October 1936.
“The Perfect Host” by Theodore Sturgeon originally appeared in Weird Tales, November 1948.
“Gainful Employment” by Jamie Wild originally appeared in Weird Tales, Summer 2000.
“The Tree of Life” by C. L. Moore originally appeared in Weird Tales, October 1936.
“Mop-Head” by Leah Bodine Drake originally appeared in Weird Tales, January 1954.
“The Golgotha Dancers” by Manly Wade Wellman originally appeared in Weird Tales, October 1937.
“The Medici Boots” by Pearl Norton Swet originally appeared in Weird Tales, August-September 1936.
“The House in the Valley” by August Derleth originally appeared in Weird Tales, July 1953.
“More than Shadow” by Dorothy Quick originally appeared in Weird Tales, July 1954.
“In the Dark” by Ronal Kayser originally appeared in Weird Tales, August-September 1936.
“Dearest” by H. Beam Piper originally appeared in Weird Tales, March 1951.
“Doom of the House of Duryea” by Earl Peirce, Jr. originally appeared in Weird Tales, October 1936.
“The Mississippi Saucer” by Frank Belknap Long originally appeared in Weird Tales, March 1951.
“Mask of Death” by Paul Ernst originally appeared in Weird Tales, August-September 1936.
“The Ring of Bastet” by Seabury Quinn originally appeared in Weird Tales, September 1951.
“Tiger Cat” by David H. Keller originally appeared in Weird Tales, October 1937.
“Old Mr. Wiley” by Greye La Spina originally appeared in Weird Tales, March 1951,
“The Long Arm” by Franz Habl originally appeared in Weird Tales, October 1937.
“The People of the Black Circle” by Robert E. Howard originally appeared in Weird Tales, September 1934.
Beyond the Black River
By Robert E Howard
Conan Loses His Ax
The stillness of the forest trail was so primeval that the tread of a soft-booted foot was a startling disturbance. At least it seemed so to the ears of the wayfarer, though he was moving along the path with the caution that must be practised by any man who ventures beyond Thunder River. He was a young man of medium height, with an open countenance and a mop of tousled tawny hair unconfined by cap or helmet. His garb was common enough for that country—a coarse tunic, belted at the waist, short leather breeches beneath, and soft buckskin boots that came short of the knee. A knife-hilt jutted from one boot-top. The broad leather belt supported a short, heavy sword and a buckskin pouch. There was no perturbation in the wide eyes that scanned the green walls which fringed the trail. Though not tall, he was well built, and the arms that the short wide sleeves of the tunic left bare were thick with corded muscle.
He tramped imperturbably along, although the last settler’s cabin lay miles behind him, and each step was carrying him nearer the grim peril that hung like a brooding shadow over the ancient forest.
He was not making as much noise as it seemed to him, though he well knew that the faint tread of his booted feet would be like a tocsin of alarm to the fierce ears that might be lurking in the treacherous green fastness. His careless attitude was not genuine; his eyes and ears were keenly alert, especially his ears, for no gaze could penetrate the leafy tangle for more than a few feet in either direction.
But it was instinct more than any warning by the external senses which brought him up suddenly, his hand on his hilt. He stood stock-still in the middle of the trail, unconsciously holding his breath, wondering what he had heard, and wondering if indeed he had heard anything. The silence seemed absolute. Not a squirrel chattered or bird chirped. Then his gaze fixed itself on a mass of bushes beside the trail a few yards ahead of him. There was no breeze, yet he had seen a branch quiver. The short hairs on his scalp prickled, and he stood for an instant undecided, certain that a move in either direction would bring death streaking at him from the bushes.
A heavy chopping crunch sounded behind the leaves. The bushes were shaken violently, and simultaneously with the sound, an arrow arched erratically from among them and vanished among the trees along the trail. The wayfarer glimpsed its flight as he sprang frantically to cover.
Crouching behind a thick stem, his sword quivering in his fingers, he saw the bushes part, and a tall figure stepped leisurely into the trail. The traveller stared in surprise. The stranger
