ERB-apa No. 72 ~ Winter 2001/2002 ERBapa v02 n05 BILL HILLMAN  Aka JoN: Jeddak of the North  41 Kensington Crescent,  Brandon, MB  R7A 6M4  Canada  204.728.4673 ~ hillmans@westman.wave.ca  BILL & SUE-ON HILLMAN ECLECTIC STUDIO  http://home.westman.wave.ca/~hillmans

The ERBzin-e Comics Summaries Project
Wherein we attempt to summarize the many stories inspired by ERB
characters that are found in newspaper dailies, Sunday pages, trading
cards, comic books, premiums, graphic novels, TV animated series, etc. 
TARZAN SUNDAY SUMMARIES

SUNDAY TARZAN STRIPS TIMELINE
Rex Maxon #1 - March 15, 1931 to #28 - September 20, 1931
Hal Foster #29 - September 27, 1931 to #321 - May 2, 1937
Burne Hogarth #322 May 9, 1937 to #768 - November 25, 1945
Rubimore (Reuben Manning) #769 - Dec. 2, 1947 to #856 - Aug. 3, 1947
Burne Hogarth #857 - August 10, 1947 to #1015 - August 20, 1950
Bob Lubbers #1016 - August 27, 1950 to #1198 - February 21, 1954
John Celardo #1199 - February 28, 1954 to #1922 - January 7, 1968
Russ Manning #1923 - January 14, 1968 to 1979
Gil Kane 1979 - 1981
Mike Grell 1981 - 1983
Gray Morrow 1983 to 2001

Read the United Features Tarzan Sunday and Daily strips
http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/tarzan/

---

---

In 1927, Burroughs associate, Joseph H. Neebe, commissioned Foster to do an illustrated adaptation of Tarzan of the Apes. The result was 60 daily strips, each consisting of five captioned panels. Despite the high quality of this series, it was a bit of a hard sell. Eventually, however, it debuted on January 7, 1929 in about a dozen US and Canadian newspapers -- including the Halifax Chronicle. These strips were published in hardcover book for by Grosset and Dunlap in August of 1929. Reader response to the strips was overwhelming and distribution was taken over by United Features Syndicate. But, since Foster had returned to the advertising field, Metropolitan artist Rex Maxon was hired to take over the strip and in March 15, 1931, produced the debut Tarzan colour Sunday page as well. Burroughs was very unhappy with the quality of Maxon's work and eventually Foster was lured back to take over the Sunday series starting with the September 27, 1931 page. After an uninspired start, Foster soon adapted to this relatively new art form and his work became more inspired. In fact, his art improved so dramatically that the pages he created through the '30s are some of the best in the history of comics. In 1937 he moved on to create his own strip, Prince Valiant which he lovingly crafted until 1970. The art techniques and scripting skills he perfected in the Tarzan series served him well in this much-loved, critically acclaimed strip. Hal Foster died on July 25, 1982.

With a swift flash of recognition, D’Arnot recalls the night of terror when he was bound to the stake by savages, and Tarzan came crashing down form the trees to put the frightened  savages to flight. Tarzan fights gallantly, but the conclusion is foregone -- the odds are too great. D’Arnot leaps to the rescue of his friend, while his plane crashes near the apes, frightening most of them away. D’Arnot alights just in time to stop the charge of the remaining apes. So do two old friends meet once more in the jungle.

Cut off from rations, the soldiers are constantly asking, “When is it that we eat?”

Captain D’Arnot’s joy in rescuing Tarzan from the apes soon gives way to brooding sadness. “The crash of my plane means starvation for the garrison at Bek-El-Abir,” he tells the Ape-Man.

“It means we can’t delay a second,” says Tarzan when he hears D’Arnot’s story. “We’ll get the supplies through on foot.” In a moment, he is in the plane, hurling packages into D’Arnot’s hands.

Burt, after the attack of Bolat, the ape, is ill with wounds and fever. Pennock is nursing him.

“We’ll have to leave you two tenderfeet here, Pennock,” Tarzan explains sadly. “It’s a choice between staying with you or saving three hundred men. Good Luck! We’ll be back.”

Fiercely clattering their mess kits, the soldiers at the garrison keep up a constant cry for food.

Captain DuFours interrupts them, commanding silence. “You’re fighting men, not babies who cry for food.” He says, “Who will volunteer to fight through the enemy lines for supplies?”

Every man in the garrison waves his hands on high and shouts, “Let’s go!”

That night a patrol under command of young Lieutenant Carnot leaves the fort to go out through the desert, where the savage tribesmen stand waiting.

The Clash!

Only Lieutenant Carnot breaks through the Cordon. But in a moment his mount is shot form under him. Wounded himself, he staggers on toward the forest road. There, two days later, he is found by Tarzan and D'Arnot, who have come carrying the supplies for the soldiers at the fort.

"It is war," says Tarzan.

"War to the death!" cries D'Arnot.

The soldiers of Fort Bek-El-Abir, desperate from hunger have mutinied. They are determined to escape from the fort, and Captain DuFours is equally determined that they shall not. He faces them, revolver in hand.

As one of the Moors plunges into the sand hole, Tarzan reaches for the horse's bridle. In a second, the Ape-Man is on the horse's back and away. The swiftness of his action gives him a  long lead in the race to the fort. Reaching the fort, Tarzan pounds on the massive gate. But there is no answer. There is not a living person on the parapets. The fort appears to be deserted.

"My men mutinied!" Captain Du Fours whispers through weak lips." After many years of service in the Legion, my men mutinied! And I... I drove my soldiers into the barracks and locked them in," Captain DuFours said. "Then I came back to the parapet, and a tribesman's bullet found me." His voice trailed off.

Aroused by the renewed firing the imprisoned Legionnaires strain like wild beasts to break the bars that keep them from liberty. Tarzan opens the doors that imprison the soldiers.

"Food! Food!. . ." the Legionnaires shout.

"I will take you to food," the Ape Man tells them. "It is on the desert and you will have to fight for it."

Back in the shell hole, Captain D'Arnot and Lieutenant Carnot realize that they won't be able to keep the Moors at bay much longer.

"Sound the call for attack!" Tarzan commands.

Realizing that he cannot much longer fight off the Moors, Captain D'Arnot buries the supply of good, young Lieutenant Carnot is unconscious, and Captain D'Arnot  himself almost exhausted.

The Moors attack the small French column. Weak from hunger and shaken by the force of the Moorish attack, the French soldiers waver. "It is a trap into which you have betrayed us!" shouts one of the leaders. But spurred by Tarzan's example, the desperate soldiers fight their way forward.

A stray bullet wounds Captain D'Arnot slightly, and a Moorish scout finds the two officers completely at his mercy. "Bind the infidels!" cries Abd-El-Krim, the Moorish leader, "They shall live to be slaves in the tent of the Hawk of the Desert."

Tarzan leads a ferocious charge. Daunted by the fierce attack of the French, the savage tribesmen retreat.

Reaching the place where he had left his companions, Tarzan is dismayed to find they have disappeared. The soldiers, furious because they have found no food, attack him. In the struggle Tarzan stumbles over the hidden food! The food satisfies the soldiers, but Tarzan is dismayed. What has happened to his companions?

"I am one of the men of Abd-El-Krim, called the Hawk of the Desert," the robber admits.

"Quick!" cries Tarzan, "Where can I find him?"

The robber hands him a map. The map contains the information the Ape-Man desires. It shows the location of Abd-El-Krim's stronghold, the oasis of Meeza.

Safe in his desert stronghold, Abd-El-Krim taunts his two prisoners. "Infidels!" He cries, "You are my slaves. Never again will you see men of your own race."

"Courage!" Captain D'Arnot whispers to h is young companion, "A fight's never lost while we breathe!"

Trusting to his disguise, the Ape-Man penetrates to Abd-El-Krim's tent. Tarzan attempts to make the Moorish leader believe that he is a native trader. But the shrewd eyes of the Hawk of the Desert penetrate his disguise. The Moor gives a signal with his hand and in response to his master's signal, the giant slave strikes Tarzan a stunning blow, and the Ape-Man is thrown into prison.

'"My friend," Captain D'Arnot says, "while Tarzan lives we all live!"

As Captain D'Arnot and Lieutenant Carnot are led away, Tarzan shouts, "Courage! It's not good-bye! We will meet again... soon!"

A witness to the sale of the Frenchmen is Ahema, the prettiest of the Hawk's dancing girls. Her eyes follow the young lieutenant.

The two Frenchmen, bound and helpless, are placed on camels and carried away.

"And as for your fate," the Hawk cries to the Ape-Man, "I will put you to the torture for your attempt to kill me!"

Ahema, the dancing girl, frees Tarzan. "Quick!" she cries. "We have not a minute to spare. I have a fast camel waiting."

Thus starts the mad ride to . . .

"Arise, slave!" the chief commands.

"I am not a slave! I am a French officer! I will never be a slave!" says the boy proudly.

"You can choose slavery or death," says the chief.

"I choose death!" the boy replies quickly.

Meanwhile Tarzan races across the desert, urged on always to greater speed by Ahema, the dancing girl, who has confessed that, at sight, she has fallen in love with the young lieutenant.

Carnot, blindfolded and bound is placed in front of a firing squad.

Leaving the camel, Tarzan, followed by Ahema, dashes up the steep mountain pass.

"Ready! Aim! the chief commands. . .

At that moment Tarzan arrives with the slave girl. Ahema rushes to the young Frenchman and throws her arms about him.

"Fire!" the mountain chief commands.

Tarzan rushes to the little dancing girl and picks her up tenderly. . .  She lies lifeless in his arms!

"I challenge you to fight me!" the Ape-Man cries. "If I lose, my companions will be your willing slaves for life!"

Angered at Tarzan's words, and knowing himself to be an excellent swordsman, the mountain chief accepts Tarzan's challenge.

Learning of the escape of Tarzan and the dancing girl, Abd-El-Krim, Hawk of the Desert, rides in swift pursuit.

With a mighty stroke the Ape-Man disarms his opponent. "I have won!" Tarzan cries, "Command your men to release my companions!"

Treacherously, one of the mountain chief's guards springs at the victorious Ape-Man.

Abd-El-Krim and his followers reach the village.

With his back to the wall the Ape-Man fights off the fierce attack of the treacherous natives. For a moment, his betrayers have Tarzan down.

"I demand my prisoner!" the Hawk of the Desert cries.

"But he escaped from you," the mountain chief replies angrily. "He is now my prisoner."

Unable to reach an agreement, the two Moorish leaders decide to throw dice for the ownership of Tarzan.

A rescue column sets out from Fort Bek-El-Abir seeking trace of the two French officers and Tarzan.

With mingled emotions the three prisoners follow the dice. If Abd-El-Krim wins, it means they will be separated. They watch as the mountain chief throws the dice.

Almost exhausted from their hardships, the two French officers are forced to work as slaves. With Tarzan gone, they feel that their last hope has failed them.

When the desert tribesmen camp for the night Tarzan lies near the fire, apparently exhausted, but taking advantage of the inattention of his guards, he places his bound hands into a bowl of water, thus loosing the raw-hide with which he is tied. Tarzan is free! The startled guards fall before his sudden attack. Making his escape from the tribesmen under the cover of darkness, Tarzan finds himself at dawn in a strange country. Above him crouches a lion. Swift is the attack... but the Ape-Man is swifter. He side-steps, hurls the lion to the ground, and pins it there with his mighty hands. Gradually the struggle ceases. The lithe form relaxes.

Advancing across the desert is the column of French soldiers sent out from the fort to rescue Captain D'Arnot and Lieutenant Carnot.

"Quick! cries the Ape-Man as he greets the bearded sergeant. "We must hurry if we are to find our friends!"

After a forced march, Tarzan leads the soldiers to within sight of the mountain village. "Charge!" the Ape-Man cries, and with a shout the soldiers leap forward. The soldiers struggle in the village street!

Sensing defeat, the mountain chief attempts to kill his two prisoners. Just then Tarzan arrives. . .

Back at Fort Bel-El-Abir, the Ape-Man bids his French friends goodbye. They urge him to remain.

"No," he replies, "I have work to do in the jungle."

And in the meantime. . .

Pennock and Burt, the two Americans left by the Ape-Man in the jungle, are in danger. While they have awaited his return, hardships and privations have taken their toll, and Burt lies gravely ill of fever. Men of a fierce warrior tribe stalk the unfortunate and almost defenseless Americans.

Tarzan, worried about the fate of his friends, swings swiftly toward them through the forest trees.

Like black shadows, the warriors creep on Burt and Pennock. Surprised by the black warriors, the two Americans are easy captives. But Pennock, in his struggles sets the shelter afire.

With unerring sense of direction, the Ape-Man hastens to his friends. The burning shelter is a signal to h im that there is danger ahead. Fiercely Tarzan charges the black warriors. The Ape Man's swift and deadly attack routs the tribesmen. Those who escape dive into the river and swim to safety under water.

"I am afraid you have come too late, Tarzan," Pennock tells the Ape-Man sadly. "Our companion is dying with the dread black fever."

When Pennock had told Tarzan that Burt was hopelessly ill with black fever, Tarzan replied, "He still lives, doesn't he? And there's a serum that will save him."

Like Bara, the deer, Tarzan sped to a seashore settlement on the West coast. There he dictated an urgent message to the radio operator. The radio message was delivered to the head of the French Bacteriological Laboratory at the African medical center. Within half an hour, a young doctor took off with a pilot in a seaplane, marking a compass course to the spot Tarzan's radiogram had indicated. Even before the fleet Tarzan could return from the seacoast, the seaplane had traversed eight hundred miles to bring serum to the fever-stricken Burt. Carefully, efficiently, the young doctor attended the sick man. The day came when Burt was well again, but on that day there was no sign of Tarzan at the camp. There was only the note he had written to the doctor. It said. . .

Congratulations, doctor for saving Burt's life. Airplanes, serums, radio and motors have brought civilization to the jungles; and with civilization whole armies of man hunters, animal hunters and treasure hunters have invaded my old domain. They are destroying the Africa I love, but there is some of it left and I am returning to it. Tell Burt and Pennock to take the treasure and to reward you handsomely. I need no funds where I go. ~~ Tarzan of the Apes

As the great seaplane carried Burt and Pennock back to civilization, Tarzan was deep in the jungle where no white man had ever penetrated. Again he was one of the leaping horde of apes in the mad dance of the Dum-Dum.

"Merry Christmas!" cried Lady Greystoke, swinging her boy into the air. "God bless us every one!"

"Look! He swings like a monkey!" said Lord Greystoke.

"And walks like a man!" said his mother, as the baby toddled toward her, taking his first steps.

Unmindful of the menace of Numa, the lion, who was stalking prey outside of the hut. . .
...or of the great ape Kerchak, who had approached even to the window. . .  Tarzan's parents forgot all other Christmases in the joy and pride of this one when their baby boy, who was to grow up with the apes, had taken his first step.

"You look marvelous, John!" said Lady Greystoke when her husband finally appeared in the hunting clothes that she had persuaded him to buy.

"I feel silly," he said. "To think that I, Tarzan of the apes. . ."

"You are Tarzan no longer," she reminded him. "You have come into your birthright as Lord Greystoke. For my sake, John. . . " And she stopped his protest with a kiss.

For the sake of the wife he loved, Tarzan had been trying to adapt himself to the life of an English country gentleman, but, now that he was off on the hunt, something of the exhilaration of his jungle days swept through him. Even at their own sports Tarzan excelled the products of an effete civilization. Leading the field, Tarzan at last sighted the fox on the distant horizon with the pack of hounds in full cry after him. The little animal was at bay when Tarzan galloped up. But Tarzan was no "sportsman." He killed in the jungle for meat or to save a life. When he saw the little hunted fox, he felt closer to him than to the hunters with whom he had gone hunting. To the fox he talked, using the language of the apes. The fox did not understand the words; but he understood that Tarzan was his friend, and gradually the little, frightened, hunted thing sought the shelter of the Ape-Man's arms. As other hunters arrived, Tarzan turned on them fiercely, growling like a beast himself.

"The hunt is off!" he said. "The fox is my little brother."

It was incidents like this that made Lady Greystoke realize that Tarzan belonged in Africa. . .  Free once more to indulge the wild joy of life with his brothers, the apes.

"Our cages are full." Tarzan hears the men of the crew say. "Soon we will sail for Ishkib and the slave market."

The blocks rattle, the sails go up, the ship moves, and a cargo of helpless humanity is being borne away. As the ship leaves the coast, Tarzan creeps below deck on his errand of mercy. Swiftly he overpowers the guard. He takes the keys and . . . liberates the jungle men! They swarm behind the ape man as he leads them towards the deck and freedom. The blacks attack the crew and dive overboard.

"Get up!" says Tarzan, "You are free again to roam the jungle!"

"Here, Mala," he tells the ape mother, "In the future guard over it well, as Kala, my ape mother, guarded over me."

"Death!" cry the Older Men, and the ape man quivers as he watches the dance which proclaims the savages to be cannibals.  A short distance from where the savages dance their dance sits Hulvia, a strange woman form an unknown tribe, whom the Al-Alba tribe have selected as their High Priestess. She thinks of the day when her father's vessel was wrecked on the African coast. She believes that everyone aboard the ship perished except herself. Bound and helpless, the ape man is prepared to meet his death. The warriors advance to give the death blows when with fierce suddenness the blonde woman goes to Tarzan's aid. She frees the ape man. In a language Tarzan could not understand, the blonde woman issues sharp commands. The blacks cower before her. Mystified at her presence, Tarzan follows her.

"Prove yourself a hero first," she told him. "None but a hero may marry Hulvia."

When his first chance came in a sailor's brawl, the young suitor failed miserably. Hulvia developed a great contempt for men. After her father's ship was wrecked on the African coast, her proud fearlessness made even the cruel Al-Alba savages pause. But that night, the witch doctor of the tribe called for her death.

"You little rat!" cried Hulvia as he touched her. And she tossed him over the tribal fire into the midst of his savage tribesmen.

"And so they turned to me and hailed me as a goddess," Hulvia explained as she told Tarzan her story. "But I am just an ordinary woman. And at last," she said, "I have found a hero worthy of my love."

As Tarzan sped through the jungle, a little steamer tugged slowly up to the farthest trading post on the Gumwi River. Michael Barry, a veteran trader, had brought his nephew, Tom, across the Atlantic on adventure bent. But now they were three months out and not even a storm had marred the calm of the trip.

"I'd find more excitement any night on Broadway," Tom said.

"Wait until you meet Tarzan," Michael Barry advised.

The meeting place was the last outpost of the trading company. But Tarzan had not appeared a full day after the Barrys had arrived. "I doubt if there is a Tarzan," said Tom.

But at that moment, the ape-man swung down from the trees above them. At dinner Michael Barry told of his nephew's disappointment in Africa. "After being a football hero," said Michael, "Tom finds nothing exciting."

"Adventure is to the adventurous," said Tarzan. Just then the black Mumkimvro arrived, bearing the letter and amulet that Hulvia has given him to deliver. After Tarzan had read the letter, he looked appraisingly at young Tom Barry.

In the night the young man awoke in terror to find himself staring into the bloodshot eyes of  Gumba, the great mad ape. They fought all over the cabin, the blood-curdling battle cries of the beast arousing the whole ship. Tarzan was the first to arrive, but Tom had already conquered the mad ape.

The next morning Tarzan handed Tom a letter to read. It said: To Tarzan of the Apes, greetings. If you ever find a man who is a man, a fit mate for Hulvia, High Priestess of the Al-Alba, send him to her with this amulet.

"You may have the amulet if you want it, Tom," said Tarzan.

In spite of warnings, Tom Barry set off alone, bearing the amulet that Tarzan had given him in proof that he was a hero worthy of Hulvia, high priestess of Al-Alba. But Tarzan had no mind to let the young adventurer brave the perils of the jungle alone. As Tom Barry, holding to a compass course, penetrated the unknown wilderness, Tarzan followed through the branches of the trees above. At night, after Tom had pitched his lone  camp, green eyes gleamed through the jungle darkness. At last sleep came to Tom, and as he slept, the moon rose. In the moonlight, Sheeta, the panther, advanced close to him, stretching out a tentative paw. But as Sheeta prepared to spring, Tarzan, watching above, drew his bow. The next morning, Tom Barry awoke to find to his horror a panther by his side. When he saw the arrows in the beast's body, he thought his life had been saved by a miracle, and he uttered a prayer of thanks. Three days and three nights he journeyed before he came to the outposts of the Al-Albas. And there a black warrior waited. As the black threw the noose, young Barry ducked and caught the fibre rope in his free hand. He swung the black down from the trees.

"I am the bearer of the amulet of the High Priestess, Hulvia," said Barry. "Conduct me to her." Of this the black understood no word but he bowed low before the amulet of the high priestess.

Tarzan watched from the trees, as Tom was led to the door of the temple, there to face the test of love or death.

"Put  him under guard," she at length commanded. "I shall consult the oracles."

At night, dismissing the guards, she visited him to tell him that the amulet meant the love it promised. Long they talked, and as they talked, Wambo the witch doctor listened. He understood no words, but ever anxious for revenge upon Hulvia, he waited. At dawn he saw her in young Barry's arms. Then he called the elder warriors together and told what he had seen. "Death to the stranger!" they voted.

Hulvia had always imperiously braved the threats of the tribe. But now, sitting in high council, when she vetoed the order of death for Tom Barry they rose against her. The attack was so sudden that neither Hulvia nor Tom was prepared to meet it.

"I have come to the end of the world to die happy, now that I have found love," said Tom.

Then came Tarzan!

"Follow me!" cried Tarzan, and he led the way to the jungle.

"Hold on! Hulvia's wounded!" Barry shouted.

Tarzan took her and swung with her high into a tree. Barry clambered up after them.

"We're followed," said Tarzan. "Hold her and bind her wounds while I fight them off."

But the savages refused to attack. Time was on their side. They were content to wait for darkness. And then . . .

It was now after sunset. Tom Barry was murmuring to Hulvia, "Don't you think Mrs. Barry sounds like a grand old name?" When Usha, the wind brought a familiar scent to the keen nostrils of Tarzan.

As the cry of a bull ape rang through the forest even the black savages shuddered. But the moment had come for their night attack. "Kill!" cried the witch doctor.

Then, in response to Tarzan's call, through the trees came the great apes!

"Go, Mumkimvro," the chief elder commanded. "Find the high priestess. The gods are angry with us for turning against her. Return to her her sceptre and give her the magic balm for her wounds.

But Hulvia had given up hope of life. "I have only one wish before I die," she told Tarzan, "and that is to see once more the sea  to which I belong."

In a litter they bore her through the jungle until at length they came to the last outpost of the old trading company at the head of the Gumwi River. At the sight of the habitations of man, the apes grew restless and afraid, and Tarzan sent them back into the wilds form which they had come.

And there Mumkimvro found the high priestess, abed at the company shack. She accepted the magic balm but rejected the sceptre. "Return to your people," she commanded. "They shall see me no more."

Down the river toward the sea, Tarzan and Tom Barry took Hulvia, who had been high priestess of the Al-Alba tribe. As they reached the seashore Hulvia rose and walked over the sands, exultant. Whether it was the sea air or the magic of the balm, the daughter of the Vikings was well again. Tarzan conducted her and Barry to an old French mission. And there, in the little chapel, they were made man and wife.

Meanwhile, the misfortunes of the Al-Alba tribe had convinced them they could not survive without their "White Priestess." And the warriors with spear on high, swore an oath that, though every warrior died, Hulvia must be captured and returned to the tribe.

It was dawn as Tarzan's boat came within hail of the fast canoes, and then, in the language of the Al-Albas, he cried, "Arise, Goddess!"

As Hulvia stood up, the rays of the rising sun made an aureole about her. The blacks knelt in involuntary worship. "What is your wish, All Highest?" they demanded.

"My wish," she said, "is that you bring me my husband, whom you shall make your king."

"Again you have saved my life," the woman said. And Tarzan recalled the scene in the French provincial circus, when the great red lion had attacked his tamer, La Belle Lenida. . .  and when Tarzan, himself, had sprung from the audience to rescue her and to kill numa in a desperate fight.

"My face was destroyed," Lenida said, "so I swore no living person would ever look upon it again. It was a judgment upon me for imprisoning wild beasts and I made a vow to return my lions to the jungles."

So, when the boat reached the last outpost on the Gumwi River, the caged beasts were carried ashore. Deep into the jungle Tarzan led the little procession and then the blacks were dismissed. When the blacks had gone afar off, Lenida opened the cage to give jungle freedom to her beloved beasts. But as the lions wandered forth, Tarzan swung into the trees to trail them. He wanted to see how these beasts, raised in captivity, would face the unknown perils of their native wilds.

"They'll want their food soon," said Lenida.

"Then I will hunt for them," said Tarzan.

Swinging through the trees, Tarzan trailed horta the boar. He had hurled his unerring noose. . .  and had the boar halfway up to him when he suddenly dropped the noose and his prey with it. Through the jungle had come to him the wild scream of a frightened woman.

"Release that woman and bow before her," Tarzan commanded. "She is a new high priestess the gods have sent to you."

"She is not a goddess, brave like the other; she is a mere woman who screams," said the blacks.

"She will prove she is a goddess." Tarzan replied. And he ordered Lenida to bring her lions forth. "You will behold white magic," Tarzan promised . "Wait and see."

"Next you will see her put her head into numa's mouth," said Tarzan.

A shudder went through the lion tamer as she was called upon to perform this action, for it was when she had put her head in the red lion's mouth at the circus that the great beast had struck. But now numa was as gentle with her as a puppy.

"You say this woman is not brave!" Tarzan exclaimed. "Is there one of you who dares like her to put his head between numa's gaping jaws?"

"I am brave, braver than all women!" cried the warrior Mumkivro. "I will dare what she will dare."

But as the fearless warrior knelt. . .  numa struck!

And so Tarzan made the savages recognize Lenida as braver than their bravest. They had seen the power of her magic as she saved the great warrior Mumkivro from the lion's jaws. They had seen her make numa and sabor obey like children. And now they hailed her as a new goddess and knelt before her to pay her homage.

All that day he hunted until he came to a cliff of jutting rock and then he fore off a sharp sliver to make the rudiments of a knife. In the blaze the thrust his stone knife, starting the tedious operation of superheating and moistening it until there might be a keep edge to the blade. As he worked, fierce bloodshot eyes glared from beneath shaggy overhanging brows at him. And only the flames held back sheeta the panther from leaping at the ape-man. Danger stalked him in the jungle, but Tarzan preferred it to the ease of his home in London, where, as Lord Greystoke, everything was done for his comfort. Now as his weapon was ready, he shouted in triumph through the jungle silences, as if in challenge to unseen enemies. Then from the treetops flashed one of Tarzan's own arrows and plunged into the ground at his feet. . .  Who was it that dared to steal his weapons from the Lord of the Jungle as he slept -- and then to attack him in the night?

He was startled by a voice crying in French, "Who's there?" He turned to find himself covered by a rifle. "The ivory is mine! All of it's mine! Nobody else shall touch it! I am rich! I am the richest man in the world!" cried the stranger. Then, with a shout of wild hatred, he fired.

Von Harben returned the shot as he fell. Then he tore a strip from his shirt and wrote in blood from his wound, "Help! At the elephant's graveyard. Erich." He tied the message tight to little Nkima, hoping Tarzan would get it, then he fainted. WILL TARZAN REACH  HIM IN TIME?

"Did you see it too or am I mad?" cried Erich without wasting a word in greeting.

"What was it?" Tarzan asked.

"A dinosaur! The largest of them all! The Gigantosaurus!" cried Erich. "I pretended to be asleep. . .  come! We'll follow it." "Here's its cave!" von Harben announced as he led the way to a great cavern. "If you hadn't come, I would not have entered. No man but you would dare to enter that cavern alone."

"No, my own," said von Harben, showing his scar. He led the ape-man back to the spot where he had fought the strange maniac. "This man shot me before I killed him," von Harben explained. "If I thought  the wound would have healed itself I would not have sent Nkima for you."

Tarzan knelt and looked into the face of  his old enemy, Lieutenant von Werper, who had gone mad in the jungle in his quest for wealth and who having found it, perished. "Let us go," said Tarzan. But at that moment von Harben fell, swept by the wing of one of the great pterodactyls. Lying on the ground, he fired at the flying reptile. The sound of the shot was followed by wild h hissing cries. The pterodactyls flew high and circled about in the air. Then swept down swiftly to the attack. A long neck shot out and a fierce beak made a thrust at von Harben. Tarzan leaped high and met the pterodactyl. Then the ape-man pushed the explorer to the protection of an elephant's skeleton. Here for a moment they were safe.

"This looks like a bad omen," said Von Harben.
"But we shall go on!" said Tarzan

At the entrance to the cave of the Gigantosaurus, they were attacked by two pterodactyls that issued from it uttering weird hissing cries. A short distance within the blackness of the cavern, Von Harben fired in panic at one of the flying reptiles, but Tarzan warned him to save his shot for bigger game. For more than three miles they made their way on a steep slimy slope that led downward through the darkness until at last. . . they reached a subterranean grotto of breathless beauty. Over the jagged arches of rock they clambered.

"Look!" cried Tarzan.

From the slimy depths rose the Gigantosaurus. . .  and reached its great neck out toward them.

Tarzan© Copyright ERB, Inc.- All Rights Reserved.
No part of this web site may be reproduced without permission from the respective owners.