by J. T. Edson
Noticing the guards were wearing metal helmets and breastplates, the blond giant based his strategy accordingly. Hurdling the body so that he passed between them, he struck at both simultaneously. In one respect, the man on the left fared somewhat better than his companion. He received the heel of Bunduki’s clenched fist in the centre of the face, while the other guard was struck by the scalloped brass butt cap of the bowie’s hilt. It was a small mercy, something like feeling grateful that one had been kicked by a horse instead of a mule. Each recipient was flung backwards with blood gushing from his smashed nostrils and mouth. Going down, neither of them was in any condition to interfere with the blond giant’s departure.
Having made good his own escape, Bunduki’s next concern was to rescue Dawn. He knew that she was being held in the High Priest’s pavilion, or had been. There was a possibility that she had been moved elsewhere. With the whole camp aroused by the fire, searching for and reaching her would be difficult. Unless he could create another diversion, it might even endanger her life.
Hearing the snorting of the disturbed zebras not far away, Bunduki remembered something which his short acquaintance with them had taught him. An idea sprang to his head. Knife in hand, he loped swiftly towards the herd. Alert for any evidence that he was being pursued and hearing none, he selected a route which would keep him hidden from the animals’ attendants. Keeping going until they were between him and the camp, he came to a halt. He noticed that a second fire was burning near the one that he had started. From its position, he guessed correctly that it was at the High Priest’s pavilion.
Worried in case Dawn should be trapped in the second blaze, although he was also hoping that she might have caused it as an aid to escaping, the blond giant tossed back his head and cupped his hands about his mouth.
‘Aaaah—eeee—aaaah—eee—aaagh!’
Deep, awesome and threatening, the challenge roar of a bull-Mangani thundered into the air!
The result was everything Bunduki had hoped to achieve!
Already made restless by the commotion at the camp, the zebras were milling in a worried manner. Startled by the menacing roar from so close at hand, they had one idea in their heads. To get away from whatever had caused the sound. That applied equally to the animals being used by the men who were guarding the herd. Rearing and plunging in terror, the majority of them threw their riders. Those which did not, bolted before the herd-guards on them could do anything to avert the panic. Within seconds of the call having been made, all of the zebras were stampeding recklessly towards the camp.
Having achieved his purpose, Bunduki set off after the animals, but at an angle which would take him to the rear of the second blazing pavilion.
Despite being encumbered by having her wrists manacled and the knife in her right hand, Dawn contrived to draw ahead of the two guards who were chasing her. They were carrying their long lances and had less inducement to speed. When the challenge roar thundered out, the girl felt her heart give a bound. There was no doubt in her mind as to who had made it. From behind her came startled exclamations as the pursuing Mun-Gatahs heard the call. Ahead, there were snorts of alarm, mingled with furious yells as men were thrown from their mounts. Then hooves drummed as the mass of zebras took flight.
Taking a chance of expanding much needed air from her lungs, Dawn answered Bunduki with the distress call of a she-Mangani. Once again, the pair of guards expressed their astonishment. Hoping to add to their consternation, the girl stopped to confront them.
Crouching slightly, grasping the knife with grim determination, Dawn peered through the surrounding gloom. As soon as she saw the two vague shapes starting to form, she repeated the call. From not too far away, although the sound of his running feet was being drowned by the rumbling caused by the stampeding zebras, Bunduki gave his reply.
Staring ahead of them, the two Mun-Gatahs could make out Dawn’s figure. The faint light thrown by the stars did not permit great clarity of vision, but tended to distort it. To their eyes, the ill-seen form appeared to be very different from that of the beautiful and shapely girl who had emerged from the tent. That impression was increased by the sound which came from her. Nor did the response which it received do anything to steady their nerves.
Brave enough under normal circumstances, the eerie sounds—associated with the mysterious and dreaded ‘Hairy People’—filled the two warriors with superstitious dread. Then they made out an even larger form that came looming out of the blackness. It proved to be the final straw. Discarding their lances, the pair spun around and fled toward the camp.
Dropping the knife as her pursuers ran away, Dawn turned. A moment later, she was in Bunduki’s arms.
‘Dawn!’ the blond giant said. ‘Are you all right?’
‘Yes,’ the girl confirmed. ‘Are you?’
‘I am,’ Bunduki replied and a harder note crept into his voice. ‘Did any of them—?’
‘No,’ Dawn assured him, knowing what the question had implied.
Releasing his adoptive cousin after having satisfied himself that she had not been harmed or sexually assaulted, Bunduki looked at the camp. Following the direction of his gaze, Dawn watched and listened to the confusion and pandemonium as the zebras rushed through it. Tents were collapsing and their erstwhile occupants were being scattered by the panic-stricken animals.
‘We’d better get going,’ Bunduki suggested, after a few seconds. ‘I don’t think they’ll be coming after us just yet, but we might as well build up as good a lead as we can before they do.’
‘Can you get these hobbles off first, please?’ Dawn inquired, holding out her hands. ‘Then I’ll find my knife and we’ll be going. It looks as if you’ve lost your bow and arrows, if you had them with you.’
‘I didn’t,’ the blond giant answered, starting to unbuckle the hobbles. While he was setting the girl free and she was retrieving her knife, he explained why he had not been in possession of the weapons.
After a final check that nobody from the disrupted and ruined camp was coming, Dawn and Bunduki set off. Using the stars as a way of guiding themselves, they made for the ford across the river. It was their intention to rejoin Joar-Fane and At-Vee. Not only would they have a better chance of evading any pursuers from the plains-dwelling Mun-Gatah nation in the jungle, but they would be in possession of weapons with which to defend themselves and the two Telongas.
Knowing the need to keep constantly alert against the possibility of meeting dangerous animals, or so that they could detect any attempt that might be made to recapture them, Dawn and Bunduki kept as quiet as possible while walking along. Much as they would have liked to discuss the matter which was of such interest and importance to them both, they agreed to put it off until a more suitable occasion.
Daybreak found the girl and the blond giant at the edge of the river. They had reached it without incident, or hearing anything to suggest that the Mun-Gatahs were following them. Nor did they anticipate any difficulty in making the crossing. Wading into the ford side by side, they started to go over. As they were approaching the opposite bank, they saw something which brought them to a halt and sent their hands to the hilts of their knives.
Coming from nowhere, or so it seemed, something started to glow about ten feet from the river’s edge. Faintly at first, it became brighter and brighter.
Neither Dawn nor Bunduki had ever seen anything like it in all their lives.
Chapter Seventeen – Will You Go Back, Or Stay Here?
Dawn Drummond-Clayton and Bunduki stared at the shimmering, intangible glow and wondered what it might be. They were not kept waiting long for an answer, but when it came neither of them was much the wiser. After a few seconds, the glow began to take shape as a tall, white-haired and venerable-looking old man clad in long, flowing white robes.
‘Good morning, Miss Drummond-Clayton, Mr. Gunn,’ the figure said, in a gentle and pleasant voice. ‘Or may I call you “Bunduki”, sir?’
‘What the—!’ the blond giant bega
n.
‘Please come out of the water,’ requested the man, or whatever it was. ‘There’s no cause for you to be alarmed and your knives won’t be needed.’
‘What shall we do, Bunduki?’ Dawn inquired, glancing at her adoptive cousin in perplexity.
‘Get out of the water,’ the blond giant answered, without taking his eyes from the figure. ‘Who are you?’
‘You can call me your “Supplier”,’ the figure replied, still in friendly tones. ‘I should explain that this is not my real form. It is merely an appearance for your convenience, a conventionalization which allows you to see and communicate with us.’
‘But what are you?’ Dawn insisted as she and Bunduki waded from the river.
‘An alien life form so complex that you could not understand it,’ the “Supplier” answered.
‘Then it must have been you who saved us when the Land Rover went over the edge of the Gambuti Gorge,’ Bunduki guessed.
‘It was,’ the “Supplier” confirmed. ‘And, as you both surmised, transported you to the planet you may call Zillikian. You have never heard of it. It lies exactly opposite Earth and follows the same orbit around the sun.’
‘If you were so close,’ Dawn said indignantly, ‘why didn’t you stop whoever it was shooting M’Bili?’
‘We are not permitted to interfere in such matters.’
‘You saved us,’ Bunduki pointed out.
‘Only because there was no way in which you could have saved yourselves. I think it would be advisable for me to give you a full explanation.’
‘Can we walk while we’re talking?’ Bunduki requested. ‘If you’re the one who’s been watching me, you’ll know that we didn’t exactly leave the Mun-Gatahs in a peaceful and friendly manner.’
‘We have been keeping both of you under observation,’ the “Supplier” admitted, turning and starting to stride along between the girl and the blond giant with the vigor of a young man despite his aged appearance. ‘It is strange, but none of the others have ever been aware of our scrutiny. However, throughout your ages, we “Suppliers” have brought many life forms to Zillikian, including humanoids from Earth and other planets.
‘The Telongas were the first human beings, brought from the South Sea island which had always been their home just before it was destroyed by a volcanic eruption. We settled them in villages in the jungle and began to supply their needs. As you have noticed, there are no noxious, nor disease-bearing insects here. Nor did the specimens—if you will excuse me referring to human beings in such a fashion—bring harmful genus and bacteria with them. During the transportation, we purged all such from their bodies to ensure that they would have nothing to prevent them from establishing their species.
‘Incidentally, the reason you both felt so hungry on recovering was that we subjected you to the same treatment, which includes emptying out your stomachs and alimentary tracts.
‘But I digress.
‘The Telongas established themselves in a way which exceeded our expectations. Given adequate protection against the predatory beasts, with their needs supplied by us and the jungle, their numbers increased at a truly amazing rate. Normally that could not have happened, as illness, starvation or warfare would have held the population in check.
‘As the animals could not do it, we had to find some other means of control. So we decided that human predators were the only solution. The other nations of this continent maintain their own balances by raiding and fighting with each other, but none of them had come across the Telongas—’
‘So you gave the Mun-Gatahs a similar kind of subconscious auto-suggestion, as you did Dawn and I, letting them know about the Telongas,’ Bunduki interrupted. ‘Was the People-Taker your idea too?’
‘It was,’ the “Supplier” admitted. ‘That was to prevent them from de-populating the Telongas, who had been living in such ease that the majority of them had lost all will, or knowledge, of how to defend themselves against human foes. The People-Taker removes only sufficient of the population to maintain a natural balance. In return, the Mun-Gatahs protect the Telongas against the other nations.’
‘And you supply them all with arms, clothing, equipment, most of their needs, in fact,’ Dawn guessed.
‘We do. Each nation has its supply point, to which we deliver their needs.’
‘And that means they never need to invent anything, or to advance technically,’ Bunduki stated.
‘Is that such a bad thing?’ the “Supplier” challenged mildly. ‘You have seen what technical advancement has done to Earth.’
‘You could have a point there, sir,’ the blond giant conceded. ‘Your supplying them accounts for why their property looks as though it has been made by more sophisticated machines than they seemed capable of inventing. But why did you rescue Dawn and I and fetch us here?’
‘It has long been our wish to do so with a pair from your family,’ the “Supplier” replied. ‘But we are not permitted to remove any life form from its natural habitat unless it is on the point of dying. Every time we saw one of your family in danger, we computed that, no matter how serious the situation might be, they would contrive to escape. There was no way that you could have survived. So we collected you and equipped you for your presence here. Your facility for learning languages was of the greatest use, allowing us to give you the means to communicate with members of any nation with whom you come into contact. For the rest, post-hypnotic suggestion informed both of you that the other was alive and gave you rough directions where to find each other. You might call it an initiative test and, I may say, you have passed it with great success.’
‘Do you mean that you manipulated the meetings we had with the Mangani and all the others?’ Bunduki demanded angrily.
‘No,’ the “Supplier” assured the blond giant. ‘That was pure chance.’
‘I’d still like to know why you brought us here,’ Dawn insisted and Bunduki nodded his agreement.
‘To offer you much the same position as you held in Ambagasali, Bunduki,’ the “Supplier” explained. ‘We want you to be the Chief Warden of Zillikian.’
‘Have I any choice?’ asked the blond giant.
‘We can take you back to Earth, but you will have difficulty in explaining how you came to escape from the Land Rover. I’m afraid that time travel, at least as far as going back through it, is still only feasible in the works of your science-fiction writers and a week has elapsed since the incident.’
‘Then our people will have heard and think we’re dead,’ Dawn gasped.
‘We have already informed them that you are alive,’ the “Supplier” said calmly. ‘Lord Greystoke says that he leaves the decision to you. Will you go back, or stay here?’
As the ‘Supplier’ dropped back a couple of steps, Dawn and Bunduki looked at each other. It did not occur to them that he might have been lying, even with regard to his having notified their families of what had happened to them. Any nation, or culture, capable of doing what he had claimed and clearly could do, would have no difficulty in communicating with the Greystokes even though they were living in Pellucidar at the Earth’s core.
Much the same thoughts were running through Dawn’s and Bunduki’s minds.
Should they accept the offer and remain on Zillikian?
Except for the absence of the other members of their family, the planet offered everything that the girl and the blond giant had so often discussed and wished that they could find. It was primitive, brutal perhaps, violent certainly; but completely natural, unspoiled, free from the mental and physical pollution of Earth and its bitter social conflicts.
To Bunduki, the prospect of staying was intriguing. He would be in much the same position of Chief Warden as he had been in the Ambagasali Wild Life Reserve. Yet here the task would be so much more complex and interesting. It would be a challenge and he could never resist a challenge.
Watching her adoptive cousin, although she was already starting to consider him less in that particular light, Da
wn knew what he was thinking. Almost with bated breath, she waited to hear his answer. On that depended her future.
‘I don’t wish to influence you, but if you decide to stay, you will be everything here that Tarzan was on earth,’ the “Supplier” remarked, after almost a minute’s silence. ‘And, if you decide to stay, at some time in the future we could arrange either for you to visit your family, or for them to come to see you.’
‘What about it, Dawn?’ Bunduki asked.
‘What do you think?’ the girl countered, looking at his handsome if bruised face.
‘We have Joar-Fane and At-Vee to consider,’ the blond giant pointed out. ‘With his ankle sprained, he can neither travel, hunt nor protect her adequately. So they’ll be in danger until he’s recovered. I’m going back to help him.’
‘Then so am I!’ Dawn stated firmly and her right hand reached out to take hold of Bunduki’s left.
When they looked behind them, the ‘Supplier’—whoever, or whatever, he might be—was dissolving into shimmering incandescence and disappeared in the same way that he had come.
‘You will not see me again,’ came the voice from the fading glow. ‘Nor, while I can supply certain of your needs, can I render any physical or actual assistance, What happens now is entirely up to you.’
‘We wouldn’t have it any other way,’ Bunduki declared and the girl at his side nodded her agreement.
Hand in hand, the blond giant and his beautiful companion walked onwards to their new life.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT WILL BE TOLD IN BUNDUKI AND DAWN
But the adventure doesn’t end here …
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