Bunduki (Bunduki Series Book One) Read Free Page A

sounds to carry for vast distances
through a jungle. So, even if Dawn was beyond the range of a human
voice, the challenge of a bull Mangani —being the farthest carrying of the calls,
as it was issued to give a warning of territorial rights—might
reach her. If she heard it, she would be able to identify his voice
and would know that he was looking for her.
    Filling his lungs, Bunduki flung back
his head and thundered out the awesome, roaring call. Twice more,
with an unabated volume, he sent the challenge echoing through the
jungle. Then he listened hopefully. A small flock of greater
curassows which were feeding at the foot of the tree took off and
flapped hurriedly away. Nearby, a black rhinoceros lurched up from
where it had been sleeping and, with an explosive snort, crashed
away through the undergrowth. Not far away, in another direction,
what could only be a tiger gave its throaty roar in answer to the
challenge. At a greater distance, elephants began to trumpet their
defiance.
    And then, from a long way off in the
north-west, rose a cry similar to that which Bunduki had
given.
    For a moment, the blond giant
wondered if his ears were playing tricks upon him. Then, as the
distant call was repeated, he had the brief hope that it might be
originating from a male member of his adoptive family. Certainly it
had not been made by Dawn. She would have used the cry of a
female Mangani. Nor was it likely to have come from Tarzan, Sir Paul, Korak
the Killer, xi or Armand. When Kenya had been
granted its independence, they had known that there was no future
for them if they had stayed there. So they had accepted David
Innes’ offer to join him and make a new life for themselves and
their families in Pellucidar xii Dawn and Bunduki had been included in
the invitation. Being employed under contract by the Ambagasali
Government, they had honored the agreements by staying on until
suitable replacements could be hired.
    So, with the rest of the
Greystoke family already settled in their new homes at the Earth’s
core, the response to his challenge could not have been made by one
of them. Yet Tarzan’s exhaustive investigations during the
mid-1960s had led him to believe that the Mangani were extinct.
    That was, Bunduki concluded, just one
more mystery to add to those which had already come to his
attention since he awoke. It certainly did nothing to help him
locate Dawn, unless she too had heard the distant call and was
making her way towards it. So he decided that he would not allow
the speculation to distract him any longer from his
search.
    Having reached his decision, the blond
giant picked up his bow and climbed nimbly to the ground. On his
arrival, still conscious of the feeling that his every move was
being scrutinized, his right hand reached up and slid an arrow from
the quiver on his back. Without the need for him to look at what he
was doing, he rested its shaft on the arrow-shelf of the bow’s
handle and slipped the groove of the nock over the
string.
    Once again, failing to locate the
watcher, Bunduki put the matter from his thoughts. However, he
remained alert and his eyes were constantly on the move as he
started to walk in a northwesterly direction. As he did so, he
became aware of the pangs of a deep hunger. It was as if he had
nothing in his stomach and intestines. Identifying a number of
plants, bushes and trees, although some were unfamiliar, he
selected such fruit and berries as he knew to be edible and ate
them while on the move. There was, however, a more urgent need in
the food line. From what he saw, filling it should not be difficult
for a man with his skill as a hunter.
    The variety of animals which Bunduki
came across proved to be an unending source of amazement and
conjecture. Once a troop of black and white Colobus monkeys, like
those in the Abedare Forest of Kenya, hurled abuse at him from the
trees. At the same time, a small herd of white-spotted Axis deer
fled as he had seen their kind do during an