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trail.
At his side was the hunting knife of his unknown sire, and across his shoulders the coils of his own long
rope. In an hour he struck the trail again, and coming to earth examined the soil minutely.
In the soft mud on the bank of a tiny rivulet he found footprints such as he alone in all the jungle had ever
made, but much larger than his. His heart beat fast. Could it be that he was trailing aman --one of his own
race?
There were two sets of imprints pointing in opposite directions. So his quarry had already passed on his
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return along the trail. As he examined the newer spoor a tiny particle of earth toppled from the outer edge
of one of the footprints to the bottom of its shallow depression--ah, the trail was very fresh, his prey must
have but scarcely passed.
Tarzan swung himself to the trees once more, and with swift noiselessness sped along high above the
trail.
He had covered barely a mile when he came upon the black warrior standing in a little open space. In his
hand was his slender bow to which he had fitted one of his death dealing arrows.
Opposite him across the little clearing stood Horta, the boar, with lowered head and foam flecked tucks,
ready to charge.
Tarzan looked with wonder upon the strange creature beneath him--so like him in form and yet so
different in face and color. His books had portrayed thenegro , but how different had been the dull, dead
print to this sleek thing of ebony, pulsing with life.
As the man stood there with taut drawn bow Tarzan recognized him not so much thenegro as thearcher
of his picture book--
A stands for Archer
How wonderful! Tarzan almost betrayed his presence in the deep excitement of his discovery.
But things were commencing to happen below him. The sinewy black arm had drawn the shaft far back;
Horta, the boar, was charging, and then the black released the little poisoned arrow, and Tarzan saw it
fly with the quickness of thought and lodge in the bristling neck of the boar.
Scarcely had the shaft left his bow ere Kulonga had fitted another to it, but Horta, the boar, was upon
him so quickly that he had no time to discharge it. With a bound the black leaped entirely over the rushing
beast and turning with incredible swiftness planted a second arrow in Horta's back.
Then Kulonga sprang into a near-by tree.
Horta wheeled to charge his enemy once more; a dozen steps he took, then he staggered and fell upon
his side. For a moment his muscles stiffened and relaxed convulsively, then he lay still.
Kulonga came down from his tree.
With a knife that hung at his side he cut several large pieces from the boar's body, and in the center of
the trail he built a fire, cooking and eating as much as he wanted. The rest he left where it had fallen.
Tarzan was an interested spectator. His desire to kill burned fiercely in his wild breast, but his desire to
learn was even greater. He would follow this savage creature for a while and know from whence he
came. He could kill him at his leisure later, when the bow and deadly arrows were laid aside.
When Kulonga had finished his repast and disappeared beyond a near turning of the path, Tarzan
dropped quietly to the ground. With his knife he severed many strips of meat from Horta's carcass, but
he did not cook them.
He had seen fire, but only when Ara, the lightning, had destroyed some great tree. That any creature of
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the jungle could produce the red-and-yellow fangs which devoured wood and left nothing but fine dust
surprised Tarzan greatly, and why the black warrior had ruined his delicious repast by plunging it into the
blighting heat was quite beyond him. Possibly Ara was a friend with whom the Archer was sharing his
food.
But, be that as it may, Tarzan would not ruin good meat in any such foolish manner, so he gobbled down
a great quantity of the raw flesh, burying the balance of the carcass beside the trail where he could find it
upon his return.
And then Lord Greystoke wiped his greasy fingers upon his naked thighs and took up the trail of
Kulonga, the son of Mbonga, the king; while in far-off London another Lord Greystoke, the younger
brother of the real Lord Greystoke's father, sent back his chops to the club'schef because they were
underdone, and when he had finished his repast he dipped his finger-ends into a silver bowl of scented
water and dried them upon a piece of snowy damask.
All day Tarzan followed Kulonga, hovering above him in the trees like some malign spirit. Twice more he
saw him hurl his arrows of destruction--once at Dango, the hyena, and again at Manu, the monkey. In [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]