Latest / The Eternal Savage / Chapter 13: Into the Jungle

Transcript

Chapter 13: Into the Jungle · The Eternal Savage

• 0:00
  Section thirteen of The Eternal Savage by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This LibriVox recording is
• 0:08
  in the public domain. Chapter thirteen Into the Jungle, the searching party from
• 0:17
  the Greystoke ranch had come upon iben Aswad so unexpectedly that not a shot had
• 0:22
  been exchanged between the two parties. The Arabs, pressed from behind by the
• 0:27
  savage Womboli warriors, had literally run into the arms of the Whites and the
• 0:31
  Wazirri. When Greystoke demanded that the white girl he turned over to him at
• 0:36
  once, iben Aswad smote his breast and swore that there had been no white
• 0:42
  girl with them, But one of the slave told a different story to a
• 0:45
  Waziri, and when the Whites found that Victoria had been stolen from iben Aswad
• 0:51
  by one of the sheikhs lieutenants only a few hours before, they hastened to
• 0:55
  scour the jungle in search of her. To facilitate their movements and ensure covering
• 1:00
  as wide a territory as possible, each of the Whites took a few waziri,
• 1:04
  and, spreading out in a far flung skirmish line, beat the jungle
• 1:08
  in the direction toward which the slave had told them Abul Macarum had ridden to
• 1:14
  comb the jungle. Finally, each white spread his waziri upon either side of
• 1:19
  him, and thus they advanced, seldom in side of one another, but
• 1:23
  always within haaling distance. And so it happened that chance brought William Curtis,
• 1:29
  unseen to the edge of the jungle, beside the parklike forest, beneath the
• 1:33
  giant trees of which he saw a tableau that brought him to a sudden halt.
• 1:38
  There was the girl he loved and sought, apparently unharmed, and two
• 1:42
  donkeys, and the dead body of an Arab, and the great wolfhound,
• 1:48
  looking toward his hiding place and growling menacingly. And before the girl, the
• 1:53
  savage white man stood. Curtis was about to spring forward when he saw the
• 1:59
  man place the butt of his spear upon the ground and the point against his
• 2:01
  heart. The act and the expression upon the man's face proclaimed his intention,
• 2:08
  and so Curtis drew back again, waiting for the perpetration of the deed that
• 2:13
  he knew was coming. A smile of anticipation played about the American's lips.
• 2:20
  Victoria cussed her to guessed the thing that Knew contemplated. It was in accordance
• 2:24
  with her own reasoning, the only logical thing for the man to do.
• 2:29
  But love is not logical, and when love saw and realized the imminence of
• 2:34
  its bereavement, it cast logic to the winds, and with a little scream
• 2:38
  of terror, the girl threw herself upon Knew of the Niocene, striking the
• 2:43
  spear from its goal. No, no, she cried, you must not
• 2:47
  do it. I cannot let you go. I love you, new,
• 2:52
  Oh how I love you. And as the strong arms enfolded her once more,
• 2:58
  she gave a happy sigh of contentment and let her head drop again upon
• 3:01
  the breast of him, who had come back out of the ages to claim
• 3:05
  her. The man put an arm about her waist, and together the two
• 3:09
  turned toward the west, in the direction that Abu Macarum had been fleeing.
• 3:15
  Nor did either see the white faced, scowling man who leaped from the jungle
• 3:20
  behind them, and, with leveled rifle, took deliberate aim at the back
• 3:23
  of the black haired giant. Nor did they see the swift spring of the
• 3:28
  wolfhound, nor the thing that followed there beneath the brooding silence of the savage
• 3:32
  jungle. Ten minutes later, Barney Custer broke through the tangled wall of Verdure
• 3:38
  upon a sight that took his breath away. There stood the two patient donkeys,
• 3:44
  switching their tails and flapping their long ears. Beside them laid the corpse
• 3:49
  of Abul Macarum, and upon the edge of the jungle. At his feet
• 3:53
  was stretched the dead body of William Curtis, his breast and throat torn by
• 3:58
  savage fangs. Across the clearing, a great gaunt wolfhound halted in its retreat.
• 4:03
  At the sound of Barney's approach. It bared its bloody fangs in an
• 4:08
  ominous growl of warning, and then turned and disappeared into the jungle. Barney
• 4:14
  advanced and examined the soft ground about the donkeys and the body of the Arab.
• 4:18
  He saw the imprints of a man's naked feet and the smaller impress of
• 4:24
  a woman's riding boot. He looked toward the jungle where Turkas had disappeared.
• 4:30
  What had his sister gone to within the somber savage depths beyond? What would
• 4:34
  he bring her back to were he to follow after? He doubted that she
• 4:39
  would come without her dream man. Where would she be happier with him in
• 4:43
  the pitiless jungle which was the only world he knew, or in the still
• 4:46
  more pitiless haunts of civilized men. End of Section thirteen.