Suddenly the earth shook. A muffled moan within the ground swelled to a rumbling roar. The ground cracked open. A stream of rocks cascaded down the hillside past the entrance to the cave.
  The girl woke, screaming, and fumbled for her lover; but Conan, fully clad, was crouching on the cave floor, his outstretched arms braced against the stone wall, as the ground heaved and shook beneath him. Huddled there, he recalled the legends that his father told him about giants in the earth and wondered whether some of them, astir, were causing the catastrophe.
  The rumble increased in volume, until Conan had to shout to the trembling girl, urging her to join him. From Kolari came a continuing ululation of screams as terror-stricken people rushed from their tumbling houses. Behind Conan and the girl, a section of the cave roof collapsed with a thunderous roar, filling the air with rock dust.
  As Conan, growling curses, seized the bars that penned them in, the ground beneath his feet split open. A line like black lightning zigzagged down the rock in which the hinges of the barred gate were set. The gate loosened in Conan's desperate grip, as the lower hinge parted from its setting. A violent push, and the gate hung awry.
  "Get out, girl!" shouted Conan, as he forced the gate ajar. The girl squeezed past him through the narrow opening and ran screaming into the night, clutching her furs and flimsy garments against her naked bosom.
  With another mighty heave, Conan broke the gate loose from its remaining hinge and hurled it down the hillside. As the earth rocked and vibrated beneath his feet, he staggered out into the moonlight and glared wildly at the scene of devastation. In the middle distance, he perceived the houses of Kolari in ruins, and their homeless tenants running aimlessly about, like ants after the obliteration of their nest.
  "Conan!" came the voice of Toghrul. "Conan! Help me!"
  Below him, at the foot of the little hill, Conan saw the Pitmaster's head protruding from a wide crack in the earth. He saw that the earth had opened beneath the Hyrkanian's feet and swallowed him to his shoulders. Wedged in the crack, the man was unable to free himself.
  "Pull me out!" implored the Pitmaster.
  "Why should I?"
  "I'll pay gold! I'll give you your freedom! Only save me now!"
  "My freedom, eh?" Conan threw back his head and laughed — his first good laugh since the Vanir had captured him, ten long years ago. "That I already have. Stay there, swine! If the earth swallows you down, good riddance to you!"
  Conan turned and walked away. (...) Behind him, Toghrul's frantic voice rose to an awful shriek as, in a final earth tremor, the crack that held him closed once more.