This may be the cover least related to the story I have ever seen. Rather than being a sword-and-sorcery slash-fest, Pigeons from Hell is one of several regional horror stories by Howard set in the piney woods in or near the Ark-La-Tex region of the Deep South. It centers on a seemingly abandoned plantation and the legacy of terror the former slave-masters inflicted.
You can read the whole thing here.
I can imagine some youth reading the story, and about 2 pages from the end he looks at the cover again and thinks:
“This story’s gonna have to take a huge left turn very soon to fit THAT picture.”