Adventure stories; Fantasy fiction; Tarzan (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
And then, suddenly he caught plainly the strong, sweet odor of Bara,
the deer. Were the belly vocal, Tarzan's would have given a little cry
of joy, for it loved the flesh of Bara. The ape-man moved rapidly, but
cautiously forward. The prey was not far distant and as the hunter
approached it, he took silently to the trees and still in his nostrils
was the faint reptilian odor that spoke of a great creature which he
had never yet seen except as a denser shadow among the dense shadows of
the night; but the odor was of such a faintness as suggests to the
jungle bred the distance of absolute safety.
And now, moving noiselessly, Tarzan came within sight of Bara drinking
at a pool where the stream that waters Kor-ul-GRYF crosses an open
place in the jungle. The deer was too far from the nearest tree to risk
a charge, so the ape-man must depend upon the accuracy and force of his
first arrow, which must drop the deer in its tracks or forfeit both
deer and shaft. Far back came the right hand and the bow, that you or I
might not move, bent easily beneath the muscles of the forest god.
There was a singing twang and Bara, leaping high in air, collapsed upon
the ground, an arrow through his heart. Tarzan dropped to earth and ran
to his kill, lest the animal might even yet rise and escape; but Bara
was safely dead. As Tarzan stooped to lift it to his shoulder there
fell upon his ears a thunderous bellow that seemed almost at his right
elbow, and as his eyes shot in the direction of the sound, there broke
upon his vision such a creature as paleontologists have dreamed as
having possibly existed in the dimmest vistas of Earth's infancy--a
gigantic creature, vibrant with mad rage, that charged, bellowing, upon
him.
When Pan-at-lee awoke she looked out upon the niche in search of
Tarzan. He was not there. She sprang to her feet and rushed out,
looking down into Kor-ul-GRYF guessing that he had gone down in search
of food and there she caught a glimpse of him disappearing into the
forest. For an instant she was panic-stricken. She knew that he was a
stranger in Pal-ul-don and that, so, he might not realize the dangers
that lay in that gorge of terror. Why did she not call to him to
return? You or I might have done so, but no Pal-ul-don, for they know
the ways of the GRYF--they know the weak eyes and the keen ears, and
that at the sound of a human voice they come. To have called to Tarzan,
then, would but have been to invite disaster and so she did not call.
Instead, afraid though she was, she descended into the gorge for the
purpose of overhauling Tarzan and warning him in whispers of his
danger. It was a brave act, since it was performed in the face of
countless ages of inherited fear of the creatures that she might be
called upon to face. Men have been decorated for less.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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