Black Canaan
()
About this ebook
Read more from Robert E. Howard
The Christmas Library: 250+ Essential Christmas Novels, Poems, Carols, Short Stories...by 100+ Authors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Conan Saga Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cthulhu Mythos MEGAPACK®: 40 Modern and Classic Lovecraftian Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Robert E. Howard's Conan the Cimmerian Barbarian: The Complete Weird Tales Omnibus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsComplete Works of Robert E. Howard (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Start Conan the Barbarian Super Pack Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Adventures of Solomon Kane Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Horror Megapack: 25 Classic and Modern Horror Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Weird Fiction MEGAPACK ®: 25 Stories from Weird Tales Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Occult Detective Megapack: 29 Classic Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Nails: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest Christmas Stories: 120+ Authors, 250+ Magical Christmas Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales of Cthulhu Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Adventure MEGAPACK ®: 25 Classic Adventure Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wildside Book of Fantasy: 20 Great Tales of Fantasy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShadow Kingdoms: The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard, Vol. 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Robert E. Howard Western Super Pack Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to Black Canaan
Related ebooks
Black Canaan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Magic of Unkindness: The Books of Conjury, #1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Seventh Petal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Roof Tree Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Book of the Damned Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Arlin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAssassin's Fate: The Assassin and her Dragon Princes, #1 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Hills of the Dead Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Book of Iod: Ten Cthulhu Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hollow Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fang Deep in the Blues: ICRA Files: Berlin, #0.5 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsClass-M Exile Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Skulls in the Stars: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Secret Books of Paradys Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guinevere Unconquered: Lost Camelot, #2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRest in Peace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEclipse Of The Soul Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeyond the Black River Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Weird Fiction Collection #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhispers In The Dark Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSilver Frost Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Barrakee Mystery: The Lure of the Bush Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHook: Dead to Rights: Captain Hook and the Pirates of Neverland, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBarnaby: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsChristmas Eve at Claredon Hall Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlight of the Windwalker: A Legend Is Born Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlood and Bone: A Smattering of Unease: The Uneasy Series, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFang Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Captive Star: Star-Crossed Lovers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHair of Gold Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Classics For You
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hell House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Animal Farm: A Fairy Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sense and Sensibility (Centaur Classics) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heroes: The Greek Myths Reimagined Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Learn French! Apprends l'Anglais! THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY: In French and English Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Scarlet Letter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Man and the Sea: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5East of Eden Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Murder of Roger Ackroyd Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Things They Carried Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Sun Also Rises: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Confederacy of Dunces Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad (The Samuel Butler Prose Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For Whom the Bell Tolls: The Hemingway Library Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lathe Of Heaven Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Farewell to Arms Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Titus Groan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wuthering Heights (with an Introduction by Mary Augusta Ward) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Count of Monte Cristo (abridged) (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Black Canaan
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Black Canaan - Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard
Black Canaan
EAN 8596547316787
DigiCat, 2022
Contact: DigiCat@okpublishing.info
Table of Contents
Call from Canaan
The Stranger on Tularoosa
Shadows Over Canaan
The Dwellers in the Swamp
Call from Canaan
Table of Contents
Trouble on Tularoosa Creek!
A warning to send cold fear along the spine of any man who was raised in that isolated back-country, called Canaan, that lies between Tularoosa and Black River-to send him racing back to that swamp-bordered region, wherever the word might reach him.
It was only a whisper from the withered lips of a shuffling black crone, who vanished among the throng before I could seize her; but it was enough. No need to seek confirmation; no need to inquire by what mysterious, black-folk way the word had come to her. No need to inquire what obscure forces worked to unseal those wrinkled lips to a Black River man. It was enough that the warning had been given-and understood.
Understood? How could any Black River man fail to understand that warning? It could have but one meaning-old hates seething again in the jungle-deeps of the swamplands, dark shadows slipping through the cypress, and massacre stalking out of the black, mysterious village that broods on the moss-festooned shore of sullen Tularoosa.
Within an hour New Orleans was falling further behind me with every turn of the churning wheel. To every man born in Canaan, there is always an invisible tie that draws him back whenever his homeland is imperiled by the murky shadow that has lurked in its jungled recesses for more than half a century.
The fastest boats I could get seemed maddeningly slow for that race up the big river, and up the smaller, more turbulent stream. I was burning with impatience when I stepped off on the Sharpsville landing, with the last fifteen miles of my journey yet to make. It was past midnight, but I hurried to the livery stable where, by tradition half a century old, there is always a Buckner horse, day or night.
As a sleepy black boy fastened the cinches, I turned to the owner of the stable, Joe Lafely, yawning and gaping in the light of the lantern he upheld. There are rumors of trouble on Tularoosa?
He paled in the lantern-light.
I don't know. I've heard talk. But you people in Canaan are a shut-mouthed clan. No one outside knows what goes on in there.
The night swallowed his lantern and his stammering voice as I headed west along the pike.
The moon set red through the black pines. Owls hooted away off in the woods, and somewhere a hound howled his ancient wistfulness to the night. In the darkness that foreruns dawn I crossed Nigger Head Creek, a streak of shining black fringed by walls of solid shadows. My horse's hooves splashed through the shallow water and clinked on the wet stones, startlingly loud in the stillness. Behind Nigger Head Creek began the countrymen called Canaan
Heading in the same swamp, miles to the north, that gives birth to Tularoosa, Nigger Head flows due south to ioin Black River a few miles west of Sharpsville, while the Tularoosa runs westward to meet the same river at a higher point. The trend of Black River is from northwest to southeast; so these three streams form the great irregular triangle known as Canaan.
In Canaan lived the sons and daughters of the white frontiersmen who first settled the country, and the sons and daughters of their slaves. Joe Lafely was right; we were an isolated, shut-mouthed breed. Self-sufficient, jealous of our seclusion and independence.
Beyond Nigger Head the woods thickened, the road narrowed, winding through unfenced pinelands, broken by live-oaks and cypresses. There was no sound except the