Fearless Master of the Jungle (A Bunduki Jungle Adventure (8 page)

Drawing his bowie knife,
Bunduki cut two lengths of about six foot six inches from the cord.
Then he removed two further portions, each around thirty-nine
inches long. Presenting one of each to At-Vee, he kept the others
for himself. Sitting on the ground, although the Hunter was still
unaware of exactly what they were producing, they set to work.
Opening out the strands, each of them started to splice his
short
er
piece of cord into the center of the longer segment. With this
completed, they punctured holes around the mouths of the
empty
fulsa
pouches and began to attach one to each tip of the
connected cords.

By the time the men had
performed that much of their task, the girls had dressed and
returned with four round boulders about the size of billiard balls
and two more, oval in shape, which were slightly smaller. Still
puzzled, but receiving no enlightenment in spite of hinting that he
would like information, At-Vee followed Bunduk
i’s example by placing a round
stone into the pouches on the ends of the longer piece of cord and
one that was egg-shaped into that at the tip of the shorter. The
pouches were then closed and held securely by having the stout
thread whipped around the neck and the cord.

When the work was finished,
Dawn and the blond giant each had in their possession a very
reasonable facsimile of an
Argentinean
boleadora,
otherwise known as a
bola.
As neither of the Telonga couple had ever
seen such a device, their interest was aroused and Joar-Fane
requested an explanation of its purpose.

‘
I’d
like to show you how they work on this pair,’ Dawn replied,
indicating the men with a derisive wave of her left hand. ‘But, as
we might need some heavy lifting done and they are
fairly
useful for that,
I’d better find something I can’t damage.’

‘
Now
I get the idea!’ At-Vee enthused, after the Earth couple
had given an exhibition of the
boleadoras
’
function. Then he frowned and went on, ‘Will you
be able to use them while you’re riding?’

‘
They’re meant to be thrown from the saddle as well as when
on foot,’ Bunduki answered. ‘And, as the
banar-gatahs
have been trained for roping—which is
why we chose them—teaching them to accept a
boleadora
instead of a lariat shouldn’t
be too difficult—’

‘
You’ve still got to get close enough to the quaggas to make
a throw,’ Joar-Fane pointed out, before the blond giant could
finish. ‘And, from what you’ve told us, they’re much finer animals
than your
banar-gatahs.
Can you get near enough to use those
things?’

‘
With
practice you can make a catch with a
boleadora
as far away as forty to fifty yards, even
from the saddle,’ Dawn explained. ‘That’s their advantage over a
lariat. And, all things being equal, a
gatah
carrying a rider can be persuaded to run
faster than one which isn’t.’ She raised a prohibitive hand to her
husband-to-be as he was on the verge of speaking and continued,
‘But, before
anybody
tells me, all things
aren
’
t
equal. Those two quaggas will be faster than our mounts,
although we might be able to get close enough to make a
throw.’

‘
Except for one thing,’ Bunduki put in, knowing that Dawn
was basing her judgment upon the behavior of horses and sharing her
belief that the same would apply where mounted and riderless
gatahs
were concerned. He
also guessed that she had spotted the flaw in employing such
tactics, but meant to beat her in delivering it. ‘We can’t use
the
boleadoras
while we’re riding after them.’

‘
But
you said—!’ Joar-Fane squealed indignantly and her husband also
displayed surprise, if not vocally.

‘
I
said we could teach the
banar-gatahs
to accept us throwing the
boleadoras
while we’re riding them,’ the blond
giant elaborated. ‘But doing that with the quaggas at a gallop,
which they would be with us chasing them, could bring them down
hard enough to cripple them.’

‘
Ooh!’
Joar-Fane ejaculated, glaring in a threatening fashion at the big
Earth man. ‘I hope for your sake that, after you’ve had Dawn and me
wading around in that cold water looking for the right kind of
stones, you’re not going to tell us you can’t use those
bolea—
whatever you call them—after all?’

‘
We
can use them all right,’ Bunduki assured the little Telonga girl,
amused by her truculence. ‘But I’m only willing to chance it if
there’s no danger of them hurting the quaggas.’

‘
How
do you intend to do that?’ At-Vee inquired.

‘
Well
now,’ Bunduki said absently. ‘It is something of a problem, I must
admit.’

‘
Isn’t
it?’ Dawn growled, studying the blond giant in a speculative
fashion. ‘And I hope for your sake that you can come up with the
answer.’

‘
I
think the best thing I can do is take a nap to help me consider the
matter,’ Bunduki suggested, turning away.

Which proved to be an error in
tactics.

Dropping her
boleadora,
Dawn dived forward
as if performing a tackle in a game of rugby football. She struck
and wrapped her arms around the blond giant’s knees to bring him
down. Taken completely unawares, although he managed to break his
fall with his hands, he could not save himself from her
continuation of the attack. Giving him no chance to recover, she
bent and crossed his legs. Sitting on the ankles, she leaned
forward to cup her hands around the front of his head and
pulled.

‘
All
right, you exasperating over-sized lump!’ Dawn hissed, retaining
her hold while Joar-Fane whooped in delighted approval. ‘There’s no
hurry as far as
I
’
m
concerned, I’m quite comfortable here. So, when
you
’
re
ready, tell us what you have in mind.’

‘
It’s
like you told me, brother,’ At-Vee grinned, moving to where Bunduki
could see him and thinking of how he too had been irritated by the
others reticence. ‘Everything comes to him who waits—and asks for
it.’

To the accompaniment of the grating,
almost metallic sounding songs of the barbets heralding the dawn,
the sun was lifting slowly above the eastern horizon. Listening to
the birds, as they had so often done in Africa, Dawn
Drummond-Clayton and Bunduki were kneeling behind the same rock
which he and At-Vee the Hunter had used while watching the band of
quaggas slightly less than twenty-four hours earlier.

Having conceded defeat and
being released by his wife-to-be, the blond giant had told the
other three of how he hoped to catch the mare and stallion.
Agreeing that the idea had merit, Dawn had suggested that they
should spend some time in re-acquainting themselves with handling
the
boleadoras.
As had been the case with the various other types of
primitive weapons they had come across in the course of their
adoptive family’s extensive travels, they had been taught how to
use the devices by acknowledged experts and had attained
considerable skill. However, it was some time since either of them
had found the need to employ the techniques they had learned. While
they had not lost the knack of throwing a
boleadora,
each had felt it was advisable to
practice, and there had also been something else to be made in case
their efforts met with success.

In addition to refurbishing
their skill with the
boleadoras,
Dawn and Bunduki had spent a most enjoyable day.
While remaining alert in case her assessment of the situation at
Bon-Gatah should prove at fault, they and the Telonga couple had
taken the opportunity to study the vast variety of wild animals to
be found on the open plains. They had kept up the same kind of
happy banter which was the result of the pleasure they found in
each other’s company and the relief at their reunion. They had also
held a serious discussion on the part each of them would be called
upon to play in catching the quaggas.

During the late afternoon, having
considered it was inadvisable to attempt to make the capture that
day, the quartet had decided they might have a better chance in the
morning if they could keep the quaggas away from the stream that
evening. They had realized that doing so would not be easy if they
were to achieve the desired effect. Care would have to be taken if
the animals were merely to be prevented from quenching their
thirsts that night and not frightened from the vicinity. So they
had crossed the stream and made camp in plain view opposite the
place where the band generally drank.

From all appearances, Bunduki
concluded that the ploy had been successful. When the quaggas had
approached the stream for their evening drink, the scent and sounds
made by his party had combined with the glow of the camp fire—which
had been lit, disregarding the possibility of its being seen by
enemies—and brought them to a stop before they reached the water.
Although they had milled nervously around, they had not bolted.
Nor, even after night had fallen, had they advanced to drink nor
sought for another place at which to quench their
thirst.

Having spent an uneventful
night, the quartet had been ready to put the next stage of the
scheme into operation before sunrise. Working in the darkness, the
fire having been allowed to die out, they had saddled the
banar-gatahs.
Then Joar-Fane and At-Vee had led the animals
beyond a nearby ridge where they would be out of sight when the sun
came up. With them had gone the Earth couple’s bows and arrows.
Wading the stream, Dawn and Bunduki had carried their
boleadoras.
The lariats were
suspended across their shoulders. A set of Mun-Gatahs’ hobbles were
dangling over the hilt of each’s knife. Above them were hanging two
other devices which demonstrated the amount of thought that had
been devoted to preparing for the endeavor.

The girl and the blond giant
had appreciated that, in the event of the
boleadoras
justifying their confidence, some
further means of control would be necessary to restrain their
captives until the hobbles were fastened. Although they wanted to
win over the animals with kindness, they had realized that in the
early stages a certain amount of rough handling could not be
avoided. The problem confronting them had been how this might be
kept to a minimum.

After considering various
methods, Dawn and
Bunduki had concluded that there was only one satisfactory
solution to their dilemma. They would use what, on Earth—where such
implements were employed for influencing the behavior of
recalcitrant horses—was known as a ‘twitch’. Producing the devices
had entailed no greater effort than finding two straight and sturdy
sticks about twenty-four inches in length, then attaching to one
end of each a small loop of the cord from which the
boleadoras
had been made.
Applying a ‘twitch’ was going to inflict some pain upon the
recipients, but this would be less than by any other method the
couple could envisage.

By the time the first glow of the
breaking day was creeping into the sky, the girl and the blond
giant were already settled in the shelter offered by the rock.
While taking up their positions, they had neither seen nor heard
anything to suggest that their presence had been detected and their
quarry alarmed. So they had waited patiently and in silence to find
out whether their efforts would bear the required fruit. Not that
they had been kept in suspense for long. Daylight had come with the
speed that was always the case on Zillikian and, after a very short
period, the visibility was excellent.

‘
Here
they come!’ Dawn breathed, yet in tones redolent of anticipation.
‘They’ve no idea that we’re here and, provided our luck holds, they
won’t find out until it’s too late to do anything about
it.’

Glancing in the direction that
his wife-to-be was peering, the blond giant nodded his agreement.
As she had intimated, everything was going in their
favor so far. Not
only had their quarry remained in the vicinity and were coming to
drink at the usual place, but there was another piece of good
fortune. The angle at which the wind was blowing would carry their
scent away from the animals.

The band of quaggas, with the
big stallion and the isabelline mare in the lead, were making their
way towards the stream. Although they were moving slowly and
exercising a const
ant watchfulness, their behavior was no more cautious than
would ordinarily have been practiced and it did not suggest that
they suspected a trap. Their caution was only to be expected. No
creature could survive in the wild unless it was wary and
maintained great vigilance at all times.