Edgar Rice Burroughs

Jungle Tales of Tarzan Edgar Rice Burroughs

THE BLACK WARRIORS labored in the humid heat of the jungle's stifling shade. With warspears they loosened the thick, black loam and the deep layers of rotting vegetation. With heavynailed fingers they scooped away the disintegrated earth from the center of the age-old gametrail. Often they ceased their labors to squat, resting and gossiping, with much laughter, at theedge of the pit they were digging. Against the boles of near-by trees leaned their long, oval shields of thick buffalo hide, andthe spears of those who were doing the scooping. Sweat glistened upon their smooth, ebon skins, beneath which rolled rounded muscles, supple in the perfection of nature's uncontaminatedhealth. A reed buck, stepping warily along the trail toward water, halted as a burst of laughter brokeupon his startled ears. For a moment he stood statuesque but for his sensitively dilating nostrils;then he wheeled and fled noiselessly from the terrifying presence of man. A hundred yards away, deep in the tangle of impenetrable jungle, Numa, the lion, raised hismassive head. Numa had dined well until almost daybreak and it had required much noise toawaken him. Now he lifted his muzzle and sniffed the air, caught the acrid scent spoor of thereed buck and the heavy scent of man. But Numa was well filled. With a low, disgusted grunt herose and slunk away. Brilliantly plumaged birds with raucous voices darted from tree to tree. Little monkeys, chattering and scolding, swung through the swaying limbs above the black warriors. Yet theywere alone, for the teeming jungle with all its myriad life, like the swarming streets of a greatmetropolis, is one of the loneliest spots in God's great universe. But were they alone?Above them, lightly balanced upon a leafy tree limb, a gray-eyed youth watched with eagerintentness their every move. The fire of hate, restrained, smoldered beneath the lad's evidentdesire to know the purpose of the black men's labors. Such a one as these it was who had slainhis beloved Kala. For them there could be naught but enmity, yet he liked well to watch them, avid as he was for greater knowledge of the ways of m