READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

Tarzan on Mars
This latter alternative appeared to be precarious, however,
since with the gorilla, he might have had, at least, the
shadow of a chance for survival should his bluff have been
called, whereas, any one these mammoth nightmares could
probably break him like a dried twig under foot, he reasoned.
Yet Tarzan's disconsolate mood and his own animal
hunger had placed him in no psychological condition for flight,
and for the moment, he forgot all about his new ability of
jumping. He was much more cognizant of his bristling neck
and the deep, rumbling growl of warning that emerged from
his own great chest.
"None is mightier than Tarzan!" he answered, stubbornly.
"Go in peace—or die!
The towering, ghostly white animals demonstrated a
higher degree of intelligence than he had anticipated, for
when he spoke to them, not only in their own vernacular, but,
in their very mannerism and mood, it gave them pause. Not
out of a sense of fear because of his threat, he reasoned, but
probably because he had done that which was least expected.
"What creature is this," asked the white ape standing
behind Kudg, "that looks like a man-thing, but speaks with the
mangani?"
"Let us catch it," said another, "and make it talk more."
"We can eat it later," said a third.
"No!" roared Kudg. "I kill!"
Tarzan remembered the gun too late, for kudg was
already upon him, and, as the apeman's lightning instinct was
not so much attuned to trigger pulling as it was to total
muscular response, he fell naturally and instantaneously into
a backward roll even as he grasped one of the ape's great
arms and utilized its own momentum to send it somersaulting
beyond him. Or, at least, this was the effect he had suspected.
Again, however, he had underestimated his strength in
relation to the lighter gravity of Mars. Instead of rolling over
in a heap, Kudg literally flew through the air a full twenty
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