gorgeous [ˈɡɔ:ʤəs], actual [ˈækʧuəl], ancient [ˈeɪnʃənt]

Then he found something else to make him wonder. Among the furs on the dais was a gorgeous spotted skin, whose predominant hue was golden. It was not a clever copy, but the skin of an actual beast. And that beast, Conan knew, had been extinct for at least a thousand years; it was the great golden leopard which figures so prominently in Hyborian legendry, and which the ancient artists delighted to portray in pigments and marble.

Shaking his head in bewilderment (тряхнув головой в замешательстве), Conan passed through the archway into a winding corridor (Конан прошел через дверной проем в извилистый коридор). Silence hung over the house (тишина нависла над домом; to hang — висеть; нависать), but outside he heard a sound which his keen ears recognized (но снаружи он услышал звук, который распознал его тонкий слух) as something ascending the stair on the wall (как нечто = как звук шагов кого-то, поднимающегося по лестнице на стене) from which he had entered the building (с которой он вошел в здание). An instant later he was startled to hear something land with a soft but weighty thud on the floor of the chamber he had just quitted (мгновение спустя он был очень удивлен, услышав, как нечто приземлилось с мягким, но тяжелым /глухим/ стуком на пол в спальне, которую он только что покинул; to startle — испугать; поразить, сильно удивить; to land — высадиться на берег; приземлиться). Turning quickly away (быстро повернувшись; to turn away — прогонять; отворачиваться), he hurried along the twisting hallway (он поспешил по извилистому проходу) until something on the floor before him brought him to a halt (пока что-то на полу перед ним не остановило его; to bring to a halt — остановить).

weighty [ˈweɪtɪ], floor [flɔ:], brought [brɔ:t]

Shaking his head in bewilderment, Conan passed through the archway into a winding corridor. Silence hung over the house, but outside he heard a sound which his keen ears recognized as something ascending the stair on the wall from which he had entered the building. An instant later he was startled to hear something land with a soft but weighty thud on the floor of the chamber he had just quitted. Turning quickly away, he hurried along the twisting hallway until something on the floor before him brought him to a halt.