Sacrifice for the Quagga God (A Bunduki Jungle Adventure Book 3) Read online

  Dawn Drummond-Clayton and Bunduki were the adoptive great-granddaughter and adopted son of Lord Greystoke—better known as the legendary Tarzan of the Apes. Tarzan had taught Bunduki all his skills, and he and Dawn found they needed them all when, transported by the mysterious ‘Suppliers’ to the primitive planet of Zillikian, they had to defend themselves against wild animals and even fiercer human enemies.

  When Dawn was carried off by the servants of the Mun-Gatahs’ High Priest and promised as a sacrifice to the Quagga God, doubted if even he, fearless master of the jungle, could save her from such a fate. And could he also prevent the curse of the ‘Thunder Powder’ from descending upon the planet of Zillikian?

  SACRIFICE FOR THE QUAGGA GOD

  BUNDUKI 3

  By J. T. Edson

  First Published by Transworld Publishers in 1976

  Copyright © 1976, 2016 by J. T. Edson

  First Smashwords Edition: February 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.

  To Philip Jose Farmer the world’s foremost fictionist genealogist

  Author’s Acknowledgement

  I would like to extend my gratitude to Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. for all their kindness in allowing me to continue the adventures of Bunduki and Dawn Drummond-Clayton, adopted son and adoptive great-granddaughter of Lord Greystoke, Tarzan of the Apes.

  I also thank Philip Jose Farmer, whose biographical work, Tarzan Alive, has supplied me with many useful details of the Greystoke family lineage.

  Author’s Note

  To save readers of Bunduki and Dawn from repetition, I have given details of their histories and of the Mun-Gatahs’ culture in the form of Appendices. In addition, to avoid confusion I have used Earth’s and not Zillikian’s names for animals, except in the case of the various types of gatahs, distances and the measuring of time.

  Prologue – Sacrifice for the Quagga God

  The great plains of Zillikian rolled, green and fertile, in all directions as far as the eye could see. It was an environment ideally suited to supporting an inter-dependent plant and animal community.

  Forming the base of the ecological pyramid were the ‘producers’, being able by the process known as ‘photosynthesis’ to turn inorganic salts, water, carbon dioxide and other materials into organic matter. Grasses like Sorghum, Digitaria, Panicum and many more, combined with legumes, other herbaceous plants, bushes, shrubs and trees such as acacias or baobabs to supply sustenance for the next level of the pyramid.

  Being unable to make use of the nutriments in their inorganic form, except for water, the ‘phytophages’ obtained them by eating the ‘producers’. The plant-eaters, ranging in size from tiny lizards, small birds or animals up to the mighty bulk of the elephant or white rhinoceros, could turn their food into another form of energy. They also served to prevent the various plants from completely overgrowing and choking the terrain.

  Next came the ‘predators’. They could not survive on a diet of vegetable matter and were compelled to eat the creatures that were able to do so. Foxes, jackals, small felines, hawks, owls, eagles, cheetahs and Cape hunting dogs owed their existence to the ‘phytophages’, but also kept their numbers at such a level that they did not over graze and wipe out the ‘producers’.

  At the top of the pyramid, the ‘super-predators’ had the size and equipment to prey upon the smaller carnivores and the largest ‘phytophages’, helping to hold their populations at an acceptable level. These included the lions, occasionally tigers—although these were chiefly dwellers of the woodlands and jungles—the largest eagles and, where there was sufficient water for their needs, crocodiles. Beyond them came the scavengers, hyenas, vultures, marabou storks, feeding on the victims’ remains which eventually were returned to the soil and became food for the ‘producers’, thus completing the cycle.

  On Zillikian as well as on Earth, there was one super ‘super-predator’—man!

  James Allenvale Gunn, who was better known as ‘Bunduki’—the Swahili word for a firearm—was an exceptionally fine representative of that super ‘super-predator’ species. Six foot three inches in height, he had golden blond hair taken straight back and a tanned, strong and handsome set of features. There was a tremendous width to his shoulders, with massive biceps and forearms to match. His bronzed torso slimmed down at the waist, the stomach being ridged by cords of powerful muscles, then spread to long legs which were so well developed that they could carry his two hundred and twenty pounds’ weight with a light footed and effortless-seeming agility.

  For all his great size and enormous strength, Bunduki could have come close to world record class as a sprinter, long distance runner, swimmer or gymnast. Most of his education and upbringing had been a superb preparation for the desperate quest upon which he was involved. i

  Saved by the ultra-sophisticated technology of the super-intelligent alien beings who called themselves the ‘Suppliers’ from what had appeared to be certain death, Bunduki and his adoptive cousin—although he had ceased to think of her by such a relationship—had been transported from Earth to Zillikian. After adventures and dangers, they had met one of the mysterious rescuers who explained where they were and why they had been brought to the primitive planet. ii

  The ‘Suppliers’ had turned Zillikian into a kind of vast wild life reserve, transferring a great many kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, fishes and insects there from every continent on Earth. In addition, they had brought and settled several human and pre-hominid races. The beings’ name came from the way in which they had not only provided the people with homes, but supplied tools, clothing, weapons, other necessities and even a fair amount of luxury goods. To ensure the survival of the transplanted nations, they had also implanted various cultural beliefs and customs which molded the recipients’ ways of life.

  According to the ‘Supplier’ whom Dawn and Bunduki had met, they had been transported to Zillikian so that they could carry out the duties of what might be termed game wardens. However, they were responsible for the preservation of human beings as well as animals. They had already become involved in a threat to the existence of one nation.

  As there were no harmful, disease-bearing insects, germs or bacteria, and living conditions were so beneficial on Zillikian, some means of controlling the human population was considered necessary by the ‘Suppliers’. With one exception, raiding and warfare kept the various nations at an acceptable level.

  To prevent the pacific, jungle-dwelling Telongas from increasing in numbers until their habitat could no longer support them, the ‘Suppliers’ created a system known as the ‘People-Taker’ between them and the warlike Mun-Gatahs of the plains.

  Following a ritualized procedure, the Mun-Gatahs’ People-Taker and his escort visited each Telonga village twice a year and removed a carefully proscribed number of young women and men. Unpleasant and morally wrong as the concept might be by Earth’s standards, the system had worked in a satisfactory manner for generations. In repayment
for the losses, the remainder of the Telongas had lived pleasant and uncomplicated lives. They had also received a measure of protection from their predators against the other warrior nations.

  However, on the last round of visits, the People-Taker had abducted double the normal quota. What was more, on the orders of the High Priest of the Mun-Gatah nation, he had carried out an additional levy by removing almost the entire population of the Jey-Mat Telonga village in which the Earth couple was making their home.

  Circumstances had prevented Bunduki from intervening during the mass abduction. Every Telonga community had a small force of hunters who protected the otherwise unarmed and defenseless villagers against the depredations of wild animals. To avoid the bloodshed that would have ensued if the hunters had attempted to prevent the collections, and to save such indispensable specialists from being claimed by the People-Taker, the ‘Suppliers’ had arranged for them to be absent from their homes while the visits were taking place. So effective were the cultural barriers implanted by the ‘Suppliers’ that the Mun-Gatahs had never learned of the hunters’ existence. Nor, despite having realized that the increased levies must be halted before they depopulated the Telonga nation, had Dawn and Bunduki been able to pierce the barriers of secrecy surrounding the matter. Before they could gain the confidence of their hosts sufficiently to be admitted to the mystery, they had learned at firsthand what the ‘putting away’—as it was called—entailed. iii

  Bunduki had been treated in the same manner as the hunters. On his return to the village, he had discovered that Dawn had also been drugged to prevent her interfering with the ‘putting away’.

  There had been even worse news than that for the blond giant!

  Shortly after their arrival on Zillikian, Dawn and Bunduki had separately fallen into the hands of the Mun-Gatahs.: Before they had contrived to escape, the superlative quality of their weapons had attracted the considerable attention. As the People-Taker had learned of their presence in the village, he had had the Elders put to torture in an attempt to find them. Although the Elders had refused to disclose the secret of the ‘putting away’, the wife of one of them had betrayed Dawn’s hiding place in the hope of saving her husband’s life and Dawn had been taken, still unconscious, with the other victims.

  Supported by the hunters, who were enraged by what they had found at the village, the blond giant had located and wiped out the People-Taker’s escort and liberated the victims. As Dawn had already been dispatched to the Mun-Gatah’s capital city, Bunduki had left his companions to return to Jey-Mat in order to make ready to defend themselves. He had set off alone to try and rescue Dawn.

  There was far more than loyalty and chivalry behind the blond giant’s decision.

  Since their arrival on Zillikian, Dawn and Bunduki’s attitudes towards each other had undergone a radical change. Practically inseparable as children, they had always been more brother and sister than just unrelated youngsters growing up in each other’s company. In recent years, Dawn’s mother, grandmother and Lady Greystoke—her adoptive great-grandmother—had frequently pointed out that there was no blood link between herself and the blond giant. It had not been meant as a warning, but was a more subtle attempt at the frank and open matchmaking being practiced by Esmeralda Moreland. iv

  Thrown into each other’s company even more than on Earth, the young couple’s feelings had grown from warm affection to real love. Knowing that they would in all probability be spending the rest of their lives on Zillikian, they had discussed one problem and reached what they had considered to be an honorable compromise. Lacking the services of a minister of the Christian church to perform the rites, they had decided that the marriage customs of what was to be their new home would suffice for them to attain a legitimate marital status. Their cultural backgrounds and respect for the standards of decency instilled by their family—even though it was only by adoption in Bunduki’s case—had demanded that such a formality must be carried out.

  In fact, on the night that Bunduki was ‘put away’, Dawn had performed the ‘Dance of the Maidens’ before him dressed as a Telonga girl, as they were attending the wedding of their friends, Joar-Fane and At-Vee the Hunter. By tradition, every Telonga maiden did this to signify publicly that she was willing to marry the man of her choice.

  Every one of the hunters had wanted to accompany Bunduki, being aware of the circumstances, but he had insisted upon travelling alone. Not only were they more urgently needed at the village, but a single man could traverse the open plains quicker and with a greater chance of avoiding being seen than if he was a member of a party.

  Although the blond giant was clad only in the leopard skin loincloth, the brown leather armguard which protected his left wrist from the slap of his bow’s string, and the ventilated pigskin archer’s glove with which the ‘Suppliers’ had replaced the clothes he had been wearing on his last day on Earth, he felt that he was adequately equipped to carry out his mission. Hanging in its sheath at the left side of his belt was the Randall Model 12 ‘Smithsonian’ bowie knife which had been a birthday present from his adoptive parents, Lord and Lady Greystoke—the former being better known as Tarzan of the Apes. Sixteen and a half inches from the scalloped brass cap of its concave ivory butt to the tip of its clip point, v weighing forty-three ounces, made from the finest Swedish high carbon tool steel, its blade was eleven inches long, two and a quarter inches wide and had a thickness of three-eighths of an inch at the stock. All in all, it was an exceptionally efficient weapon when wielded by a man of his ability and strength.

  Nor did Bunduki’s armament end there. Slung across his back, so as to be easily accessible when his gloved hand reached over his right shoulder, was a quiver holding fourteen buff-colored fiberglass Micro-Flite arrows tipped with Bear 4-Blade Razor-head points. A further eight rode in the second quiver, which was attached to the right side of the custom-built, one hundred pounds’ draw weight Fred Bear Super Kodiak recurved vi hunting bow in his left hand. In addition, he had a shield of the elongated oval shape favored by the Masai in Kenya; except that under the smoothed-out shoulder hide from a bull buffalo that covered the convex outer surface, was the lightweight fiberglass used in the manufactured bulletproof shields for police riot control work. It was hanging from the left side of the low horn of a saddle which resembled the double-girthed rig used by Texas cowhands on Earth. vii

  As Dawn’s escort had at least forty-eight hours start on him, the blond giant was using one of the mounts which had fallen into his hands after the defeat of the main body. It was, in fact, the domesticated quagga gelding belonging to the People-Taker. viii Handling it was no different to riding a horse, which posed no problem as he was accomplished in equestrian matters.

  Having learned how Dawn was being transported to the Mun-Gatahs’ capital city, Bunduki had found the trail of the party and was following it. Once beyond the woodlands, he had been too anxious to complete his task to take more than a passing interest in the vast quantity of wild life which made its home upon the plains. Not only were most species from Africa represented, but there were blackbuck, nilgai and other Asian open country animals as well as creatures from similar terrain in North and South America mingling with them.

  Travelling at a good speed, his capability as a light rider taking less out of his mount than a smaller and not so efficient man would have, the blond giant had made swifter progress than his quarry. Night had seen the distance separating him from Dawn’s captors considerably reduced. He had slept with the ground for a mattress and the sky as his roof, his weapons close at hand. Once he had been wakened when a pride of lions had come near enough to disturb the hobbled quagga. Rising and holding the animal’s headstall to restrain it, he had thundered out the awesome challenge of a bull-Mangani, such as raised his adoptive father from a baby to young manhood after the deaths of the sixth Lord and Lady Greystoke. ix Frightened by the terrible sound, the carnivores had withdrawn and left him to resume his interrupted sleep.

  Sunrise
had found Bunduki on the move once more. He held his borrowed mount to an easy two-beat gait, first the off fore and near hind hooves meeting the ground then the near fore and off hind, producing a mile-consuming yet energy-conserving trot. By riding in the system known as ‘posting the trot’, x he was travelling faster than Dawn and her captors. However, they were still far ahead and he estimated that he would be unlikely to catch up with them that day.

  The route being traversed by the blond giant was not the same that he had followed when trailing Dawn and the first party of Mun-Gatahs to have taken her prisoner. In addition to watching the tracks, which were not difficult to read despite their age, he had to remain constantly on the alert. Not only were there predatory and other kinds of dangerous animals to contend with, but he wanted to avoid being seen by human beings. Even if they were not Mun-Gatahs, the warlike nature of their lives would make them potentially hostile to anybody who did not belong to their nation.

  Towards noon, ascending a slope, Bunduki drew rein so that he could check upon what lay beyond it before allowing himself to cross the skyline. What he saw as he peered cautiously over the top of the slope gave him a shock.

  The blond giant knew that Dawn was being transported in a cage on a cart. About half a mile away, on the banks of a small stream, such a vehicle was standing. Nearby, hyenas, vultures and marabou storks were devouring several human bodies.

  And the cage, with four of its bars hanging downwards to leave a gap, was empty!

  Ignoring the possibility of being seen as he crossed the skyline, such was his deep concern over Dawn’s welfare, Bunduki guided the quagga gelding down the slope at a faster pace. As he rode, he scanned the scene before him with growing alarm. Never, not even when he had regained consciousness after he had been ‘put away’ and realized that his bride-to-be might once more have fallen into the hands of the Mun-Gatahs, had he known such a grave sense of anxiety.