Fearless Master of the Jungle (A Bunduki Jungle Adventure Read online

  Transported to the primitive planet of Zillikian by the mysterious ‘Suppliers’, Dawn Drummond-Clayton and James Allenvale Gunn – better known as Bunduki – found themselves far removed from the civilized life they had known on Earth. Not only did the jungles and plains abound with all kinds of danger, but the human population lived by raiding and warfare.

  Possessed of Herculean strength and an expert in the use of knife, bow, spear and shield, Bunduki proved himself to be a warrior second to none. For all that, when he was taken captive by the most implacable of their foes, only Dawn’s courage and ability stood between him and a very painful death …

  FEARLESS MASTER OF THE JUNGLE

  BUNDUKI 4

  By J. T. Edson

  First Published by Transworld Publishers in 1980

  Copyright © 1980, 2016 by J. T. Edson

  First Smashwords Edition: March 2016

  Names, characters and incidents in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information or storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law.

  Cover image © 2015 by Tony Masero

  This is a Piccadilly Publishing Book ~*~ Text © Piccadilly Publishing

  Series Editor: Ben Bridges

  Published by Arrangement with the Author’s Agent.

  For Mike Ward of March, Cambs,

  with apologies for the delay in getting the dedication included.

  Author’s Note

  As in the previous volumes of the Bunduki series, we are employing Earth’s and not Zillikian’s terms for distances, transport, measurements of time and animals, with the exception of the various types of domesticated zebras known as ‘gatahs’. We are also giving details of Dawn Drummond-Clayton’s and James Allenvale ‘Bunduki’ Gunn’s family background and upbringing in the form of appendices.

  I would like to thank Philip Jose Farmer for the permission he has granted allowing me to make use of his characters, Lady Hazel and Sir Armond John Drummond-Clayton.

  Fearless Master of the Jungle in Explanation

  The following is to help set the scene for new readers.

  When the Land Rover carrying them through the Ambagasali Wild Life Reserve in Africa had swerved and toppled over the edge of the Gambuti Gorge, it had appeared there was no escape for Dawn Drummond-Clayton and her adoptive cousin, James Allenvale Gunn; whose sobriquet ‘Bunduki’ was derived from the Swahili word meaning a hand-held firearm. Yet they had not been killed. Instead, Dawn had found herself alive and unharmed on open plains and Bunduki was in a jungle. Their original clothing had been changed for simple attire and certain weapons, which had not been on the vehicle, were now in their possession. Furthermore, while neither could imagine how the transfer had been made, each of them had a subconscious idea of where to find the other. In view of what had happened to them, it was fortunate that their family backgrounds and upbringings had been such as to equip them for survival under the conditions with which they found themselves faced. i

  While searching for Dawn, Bunduki had come into contact with two members of the peace-loving, jungle-dwelling, Telonga nation. He had also met a family group of a species of giant Australopithecus, a pre-hominid race known to the Telongas as the ‘Hairy People’ who, in addition to possessing a rudimentary form of speech, used branches and roots as clubs or spears. In the course of the meetings, he had discovered that he was able to converse with both humans and Australopithecus in their own languages and duplicate the latter’s various signaling calls. ii

  Before Dawn could locate Bunduki, she had fallen into the hands of the Mun-Gatahs; a warrior race who lived on the plains and rode various species of domesticated zebras known as gatahs iii During the time that Dawn was being held by the High Priest, Dryaka, Bunduki was captured by adherents of Charole, and the Protectress of the Quagga God. Taking advantage of the rivalry that had existed between their captors, the Earth couple had contrived to escape. Having done so, they had met one of the beings responsible for their rescue from the Land Rover, to be told where they were and why they had been saved. iv

  Dawn and Bunduki were rescued from what should have been certain death by the ultra sophisticated technology of a super-intelligent alien race that had turned Zillikian into a wild life preserve by transferring many kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes and insects from every continent on Earth. In addition, they had brought and settled various human and pre-hominid races. They continued to equip the people with homes, tools, weapons, other necessities and even some luxury items, and they were known to the recipients as the ‘Suppliers’. To ensure the survival of the various nations, they had also instilled cultural beliefs and customs to govern the people’s behavior and way of life. Dawn and Bunduki had been selected to act as game wardens on the planet, with the responsibility for the preservation of the human beings as well as the animals. Their appointment coincided with a threat to the existence of one nation.

  As there were no harmful, disease-bearing insects, germs or bacteria on Zillikian, living conditions were so beneficial that some means of controlling the human population was essential. With one exception, warfare and raiding held the size of the various nations at an acceptable level. To prevent the numbers of the pacific Telongas increasing until their habitat could no longer support them, the ‘Suppliers’ had created a system of control between them and the Mun-Gatahs. Following a ritualized procedure, the former nation’s ‘People-Taker’ and his escort made the rounds of the Telonga villages twice a year and removed a carefully proscribed number of young men and women. Morally wrong as the concept might be by Earth’s standards, the system had worked successfully for generations. In return for their losses, the prolifically breeding Telongas had been granted protection from depredations by the other warrior races.

  However, on his latest round of visits, the People-Taker had removed double the allowable quota. Then, on orders from the High Priest, he had returned to carry out an additional levy by abducting almost the entire population of the Jey-Mat Telgonga village in which the Earth couple was residing.

  Circumstances had prevented Dawn and Bunduki from intervening. Every Telonga village had a small force of hunters to protect the otherwise unarmed and defenseless community from wild animals. To avoid the bloodshed which would have ensued if the hunters had tried to resist the levies, and to save such useful specialists from being claimed by the People-Taker, the ‘Suppliers’ had arranged that the hunters would always be absent during the collections. Such effective cultural barriers had been established that the Mun-Gatahs had never even heard of the hunters’ existence. Nor, despite realizing that some action must be taken to limit the People-Taker’s activities before the Telonga nation was depopulated, had the Earth couple been able to pierce the wall of silence which surrounded the ‘putting away’ of the hunters. Before they could gain sufficient of their hosts’ confidence to be admitted to the secret of the rite, they had discovered at firsthand what was entailed. Learning that the People-Taker was coming, the Elders of the village had removed Bunduki along with the hunters. On his return, he was told that Dawn had been drugged so that she could not attempt to interfere with the ‘putting away’ and subsequent collection.

  There had been even more terrible news for Bunduki!

  While the Earth couple had been held prisoner by the Mun-Gatahs, the superlative quality of
their weapons had aroused their respective captors’ envy. As the People-Taker had learned of their presence in the village and knew of Dryaka’s interest, he had had the Elders tortured in an attempt to find them. His victims had refused to disclose the secret of the ‘putting away’, but the wife of one of them had betrayed Dawn’s hiding place in the hope of saving her husband’s life. The unconscious girl had been carried off with the collected members of the community. Supported by the hunters, who were enraged by what they had found at the village, Bunduki had followed to wipe out the People-Taker’s escort and liberate their prisoners. Unfortunately, Dawn had already been dispatched to the Mun-Gatahs’ capital city, Bon Gatah. So, sending his companions back to Jey-Mat with orders that they make ready to defend themselves, he had set out alone to rescue her. v

  Since Dawn and Bunduki had arrived on Zillikian, their attitudes towards each other had changed radically. They had grown up together on Earth, being almost as close as a brother and sister, but their feelings had changed from warm affection to real love. On the night prior to him being ‘put away’, she had dressed as a Telonga girl and performed the ‘Dance Of The Maidens’ in front of him while they were attending the wedding of their friends, Joar-Fane, The Loving One’, and At-Vee the Hunter. By tradition, every Telonga spinster did this to signify she was willing to marry the man before whom she was dancing.

  Bunduki’s love would have been sufficient inducement for him to go after Dawn, but he had discovered that there was another very important reason why she must be set free. By a series of accidents, one of Dryaka’s adherents had learned how to produce and make use of gunpowder. With this potent substance at his disposal, the High Priest had contracted an alliance with the Protectress of the Quagga God. Using ‘Terrifiers’ vi filled with the ‘Thunder Powder’, they had planned to gain control of their entire nation as a prelude to conquering every other race on Zillikian. However, before they could hope to achieve undisputed domination of the Mun-Gatahs, they had been committed to presenting one of the ‘Earths’ vii as a sacrifice for their nation’s deity, the Quagga God. With Dawn in their power, this had seemed possible. Helped by a party of Amazons—one of whom, Beryl Snowhill, viii was a friend from Earth who had also been transported to Zillikian by the ‘Suppliers’ ix — Bunduki had effected a rescue. x

  Reunited, Dawn and Bunduki had left the Mun-Gatahs engrossed in a civil war and, parting company with the Amazons, were returning across the plains to the jungle so that they could help the Telongas to prepare for a new and more rugged way of life.

  Chapter One – They’re Just What We Need

  Having carried out a successful approach through a clump of bushes, Dawn Drummond-Clayton and Bunduki came to a halt while still in concealment. Gazing at the animals which had caused them to break their journey, they decided that the delay and the trouble they had taken to reach their point of vantage was worthwhile. In fact, although there was plenty more for them to see, they had eyes for nothing else.

  Rolling away to the distant horizon in every direction, the plains of Zillikian were a nature lover’s paradise. The terrain was typical savannah of the kind which white settlers had jokingly and lovingly referred to as the M.M.B.A.A.; the Miles And Miles Of Bloody Awful Africa. Well watered, lush of vegetation, bespeckled at intervals by clumps of bushes and groves or individual trees, the area offered sustenance for a great variety of creatures. Some of them, such as nilgai or blackbuck from India, would not have been present in Africa; but they, along with whitetail deer and bison from America, mingled with zebra, gazelle and antelope of many kinds from various parts of that continent. They were preyed upon by carnivores other than those with which they would have had to contend in their native lands on Earth, but so carefully and wisely had the ‘Suppliers’ stocked the planet that the balance of nature was maintained.

  Being knowledgeable about such matters, the very diversity of animal life had warned Dawn and Bunduki from the beginning that they could not be on Earth. If they had had any doubts on the matter, the animals at which they were now looking with such rapt attention would have been convincing proof that they could not be in any part of Twentieth Century Africa. There was nowhere on that continent, or any other, in which one could find a band of quagga. That particular sub-species of zebra—the name being onomatopoeic and derived from the animal’s snort of alarm—had become extinct in the early 1870s.

  Even if, by some miracle, a small breeding nucleus of the species Equus Quagga Quagga had contrived to survive undetected, they would not have had the same appearance as the animals grazing close to the girl’s and the blond giant’s hiding place. The coloration was correct, variations of brown with the black and cream stripes confined to the head, neck and shoulders. However, the group of animals bore the same resemblance in conformation to wild zebras as a well-bred riding horse would to the tarpan and Przewalski’s horse which were the progenitors of the domestic breeds.

  Two of the band stood out and it was at them that Dawn and Bunduki devoted the majority of attention. Each was suggestive of careful selective breeding for some other purpose than survival in the wild.

  Standing a good seventeen hands, xi the stallion being examined by Bunduki had a chestnut ground color and its physical development showed that it was up to carrying a big rider.

  Large in the shoe, with the concave soles open at the heels and provided with a big, flexible frog, the hooves narrowed only slightly to the coronets. Such feet were perfectly adapted to withstand the strains thrown upon them when running while bearing a rider’s added weight. Above the coronets, the pasterns were at neither too straight nor too sloping an angle. Short in proportion to the forearms, the cannon bones had an almost razor-like flatness. Long, not too horizontal forearms joined the sloping and powerful shoulders so as to cause the withers to lie farther to the rear than the elbows.

  With the rib cage well sprung and offering plenty of room for the development of the vital organs, the short and sturdy back carried smoothly to long and slightly slipping hips. Being the most important portions of the animal’s propulsive apparatus, the stifles had a muscular excellence indicative of tremendous power. Set high on the body, the long tail arched proudly as the stallion moved.

  Of perfect proportions, the neck made a graceful curve, being fine and flexible at the junction with the head. Slightly large, but not donkey-like, the ears were carried upright upon a skull of an almost faultless diamond configuration that gave ample room for plenty of brain. Set well out on the sides of the head, the eyes glinted brightly and commanded a wide range of vision. Despite the face narrowing at the muzzle, the jaws were wide at the junction of the neck, giving ample space for the windpipe. The lips closed firmly over the teeth. Fine at the edges, the nostrils flared open for easy respiration. One major difference between the quagga and a horse showed in the forelock and mane. The latter rose in a crest instead of falling alongside the neck.

  Perhaps four inches smaller than the stallion, the animal at which Dawn was looking was an equally fine isabelline colored mare. Just as the pair stood out as magnificent examples of their kind, the watchers were superlative specimens of the genus Homo Sapien.

  Kept cut short for convenience, Dawn’s curly tawny hair formed a halo for a classically beautiful face which denoted breeding, strength of will, and intelligence above average in its lines. Tanned to a golden bronze, her five foot eight height was graced by a figure that would have turned many a ‘sex symbol’ movie actress on Earth green with envy. Its thirty-eight inch bust, twenty-inch waist and thirty-six inch hips supplied contours which had no need of artificial aids. Her body was encased in a short, sleeveless, one piece dress made from the soft hide of a cow eland. Connected by leather thongs, the extremely low cut neckline left no doubt that what lay beneath was just as nature had formed it. Enhancing rather than detracting from her femininity, power packed muscles rippled under her smooth skin. Everything about her suggested that she could move with the fluid speed, grace and precision of
a highly trained gymnast, or athlete, and she was both.

  The simple garment, a pair of leopard skin briefs and a brown leather archer’s armguard around her left wrist comprised the girl’s entire raiment. About her waist was a belt on the left side of which hung a sheathed Randall Model 1 ‘All Purpose’ fighting knife with an eight inches long blade and a ‘finger grip’ hilt made from the horn of a sambur xii stag. Nor did her armament end there. In her left hand, she grasped a recurved xiii Ben Pearson Marauder Take-Down hunting bow. It drew seventy pounds and there were eight fiberglass Micro-Flite arrows armed with Bear 4-Blade Razorhead points in the quiver attached to its right side. She had several more of the arrows in a shoulder quiver, but had left it with the banar-gatahs upon which she and Bunduki had been travelling since their departure from the Mun-Gatahs’ capital city. When taken with their surroundings and the primitive attire she was wearing, none of the weapons seemed out of place and she was highly skilled in their use.

  In every detail, Bunduki’s appearance was complimentary to that of the beautiful young woman at his side. However, while she conveyed the impression of a lioness’s lithe and deadly grace, his was the imposing bulk and majesty of a lion.

  Six foot three from his bare feet to the top of his head a curly golden blond hair, Bunduki’s only garment-apart from his archer’s armguard—was a leopard skin loincloth which left little to be imagined about his magnificent physical development. Exceptionally handsome, his face denoted similar qualities to those of the girl. He had a tremendous spread to his shoulders, with massive biceps and forearms to augment the strength they could put out when it was needed. Bronzed by long exposure to the elements, his torso slimmed down to a lean waist and a flat stomach ridged by cords of powerful muscles. His hips sat on legs so perfectly proportioned and puissant that they could carry his two hundred and twenty pounds’ weight with effortless speed and agility. For all their bulk and quantity, due to the high tone and quality of his muscles, there was nothing slow, clumsy or awkward about him.