Conan - Guarded Sleep

> Valeria awoke with a start, to the realization that a gray dawn was stealing over the plain.

> She sat up, rubbing her eyes. Conan squatted beside the cactus, cutting off the thick pears and dexterously twitching out the spikes.

> "You didn't awake me," she accused. "You let me sleep all night!"

> "You were tired," he answered. "Your posterior must have been sore, too, after that long ride. You pirates aren't used to horseback."

> "What about yourself?" she retorted.

> "I was a kozak before I was a pirate," he answered. "They live in the saddle. I snatch naps like a panther watching beside the trail for a deer to come by. My ears keep watch while my eyes sleep."

> And indeed the giant barbarian seemed as much refreshed as if he had slept the whole night on a golden bed. Having removed the thorns, and peeled off the tough skin, he handed the girl a thick, juicy cactus leaf.

> "Skin your teeth in that pear. It's food and drink to a desert man. I was a chief of the Zuagirs once—desert men who live by plundering the caravans."

> "Is there anything you haven't been?" inquired the girl, half in derision and half in fascination.