Adventure stories; Fantasy fiction; Tarzan (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
Tarzan’s curiosity was aroused and also his inherent jungle caution. One
must know his jungle well to survive long the jungle, and if one would
know it well he must let no unusual occurrence or circumstance go
unexplained. And so it was that Tarzan set out upon the back track of
Bara for the purpose of ascertaining, if possible, the nature of Bara’s
slayer. The bloody spoor was easily followed and the ape-man wondered
why it was that the hunter had not tracked and overtaken his quarry,
which had evidently been dead since the previous day. He found that Bara
had traveled far, and the sun was already low in the west before Tarzan
came upon the first indications of the slayer of the animal. These were
in the nature of footprints that filled him with quite as much surprise
as had the arrow. He examined them carefully, and, stooping low, even
sniffed at them with his sensitive nostrils. Improbable, nay impossible
though it seemed, the naked footprints were those of _a white man_—a
large man, probably as large as Tarzan himself. As the foster-son of
Kala stood gazing upon the spoor of the mysterious stranger he ran the
fingers of one hand through his thick, black hair in a characteristic
gesture indicative of deep puzzlement.
What naked white man could there be in Tarzan’s jungle who slew Tarzan’s
game with the pretty arrow of an archery club? It was incredible that
there should be such a one, and yet there recurred to the ape-man’s mind
the vague rumors that he had heard weeks before. Determined to solve the
mystery he set out now upon the trail of the stranger—an erratic trail
which wound about through the jungle, apparently aimlessly, prompted,
Tarzan guessed, by the ignorance of an inexperienced hunter. But night
fell before he had arrived at a solution of the riddle, and it was pitch
dark as the ape-man turned his steps toward camp.
He knew that his Waziri would be expecting meat and it was not Tarzan’s
intention to disappoint them, though he then discovered that he was not
the only carnivore hunting the district that night. The coughing grunt
of a lion close by apprised him of it first, and then, from the
distance, the deep roar of another. But of what moment was it to the
ape-man that others hunted? It would not be the first time that he had
pitted his cunning, his strength, and his agility against the other
hunters of his savage world—both man and beast.
And so it was that Tarzan made his kill at last, snatching it almost
from under the nose of a disappointed and infuriated lion—a fat
antelope that the latter had marked as his own. Throwing his kill to his
shoulder almost in the path of the charging Numa, the ape-man swung
lightly to the lower terraces and with a taunting laugh for the
infuriated cat, vanished noiselessly into the night.
He found the camp and his hungry Waziri without trouble, and so great
was their faith in him that they not for a moment doubted but that he
would return with meat for them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account