Read Online Fearless Master of the Jungle (A Bunduki Jungle Adventure by J.T. Edson - Free Book Online

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