An ancient trail,
well marked by countless generations of naked feet of man and beast,
leads down toward A-lur beside the river, and along this Tarzan
guided the gryf. Once clear of the forest which ran below the
mouth of the gorge, Tarzan caught occasional glimpses of the city
gleaming in the distance far below him.
The country through which he passed was resplendent with the riotous
beauties of tropical verdure. Thick, lush grasses grew waist high
upon either side of the trail and the way was broken now and again
by patches of open park-like forest, or perhaps a little patch of
dense jungle where the trees overarched the way and trailing creepers
depended in graceful loops from branch to branch.
At times the ape-man had difficulty in commanding obedience upon the
part of his unruly beast, but always in the end its fear of the
relatively puny goad urged it on to obedience. Late in the afternoon
as they approached the confluence of the stream they were skirting
and another which appeared to come from the direction of Kor-ul-ja
the ape-man, emerging from one of the jungle patches, discovered a
considerable party of Ho-don upon the opposite bank. Simultaneously
they saw him and the mighty creature he bestrode. For a moment they
stood in wide-eyed amazement and then, in answer to the command of
their leader, they turned and bolted for the shelter of the nearby
wood.
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