Bunduki (Bunduki Series Book One) Read Free

hunting
bow—custom built to a draw weight of seventy pounds—a supply of
arrows and the Randall Model 1 Fighting knife which he had brought
her as a Christmas present, Dawn could feed and, to a certain
extent, protect herself until he could find her. The blood of Sir
John and Lady Meriem Drummond-Clayton flowed through her veins and
their jungle knowledge was bettered only by that of Lord and Lady
Greystoke. viii Always a tomboy, Dawn had been on
several of the family’s expeditions before taking up her post at
the University of Ambagasali and was capable of taking care of
herself.
    Eager as the blond giant might be to
commence his search for Dawn, he was too wise to set about it in a
hurried or impatient manner. The rash and incautious did not
survive for long in a jungle. His every instinct warned him that
the rule might apply even more strongly in his present situation.
He was in a strange and unfamiliar type of country.
    Just how strange, he could not yet say.
    Seeing the red howler monkeys had
suggested that he was no longer in Africa. Yet it was impossible
for him to be anywhere else. He realized, however, that under the
circumstances, he could not be sure of what was—or was
not—possible.
    He should not be dressed in the
leopard skin loincloth. The big knife could have been hanging on
his belt as he always carried it when on patrol, but the bow and
arrows should have been locked in his study at the Wild Life
Reserve’s Headquarters.
    So what was the answer?
    Had Dawn and he been snatched from
certain death and, in some equally miraculous manner, been
transported without their knowledge to the jungles of South
America?
    If so, why had it been done and who
could have had the technical knowledge and equipment capable of
doing it?
    Even while thinking on those lines,
Bunduki became conscious of the sensation of being watched.
Instantly, he grew alert and started to search for the
watcher.
    There was a movement in an adjacent
tree. Reaching for his bow, the blond giant turned his head to make
a closer study. What he saw brought an even more puzzled frown to
his face. He found himself looking at a predatory animal, but it
was over thirty yards away and not a source of danger. The surprise
came from a different reason. While the creature was feline, it was
not—as might have been expected in a jungle that had red howler
monkeys—a jaguar, mountain lion or ocelot. An ashy-gray in color,
its short-legged body was dappled with large, deeper grey areas
which enclosed small dark spots and its tail looked long in
proportion to its build.
    As if becoming aware that it
had been seen, the animal turned and darted away through the
branches with as much ease and as swift as if it had been on the
ground. That was, Bunduki realized, hardly surprising. Neofelis
nebulosa, the clouded leopard, was arboreal by nature and only rarely
descended to the ground. However, there were no clouded leopards in
Africa, or South America. They were only found in the jungles of
the East Indies and South-East Asia.
    After continuing with what
proved to be an abortive search for the watcher, whom he felt sure
still had him under observation, Bunduki thrust the question, along
with the puzzle of a jungle that held red howler monkeys and clouded leopards,
from his mind. In the former case, he was willing to let the
watcher take the initiative in making a closer acquaintance. The
incessant inner suggestion that Dawn was somewhere to the
north-west was too urgent for him to waste time on less vital
considerations.
    There was, Bunduki suddenly
realized, one way in which he might learn of Dawn’s exact
whereabouts. Although the Mangani ix — with whom Lord Greystoke had lived until
young manhood x , following the
death of his parents while he was still a baby—had become extinct
in the early 1950s, Tarzan and his family had made use of their
calls as a means of signaling to each other. Some acoustic quality
in the vocal range of the Mangani allowed the