02.03.2013 Views

READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

Tarzan on Mars<br />

anima, itself, would prevent him from overshooting his goal.<br />

With an irrepressible growl, Tarzan sprang. He hurtled<br />

through the air, and even as his arm locked about the thoat's<br />

long neck it was already in startled flight. The forward<br />

momentum, however, served to swing the apeman onto its<br />

back.<br />

The thoat raced headlong down the valley, while Tarzan<br />

clung to its back and plunged his hunting knife again and again<br />

into it bleeding chest.<br />

Soon it faltered, tripped, and fell. Not so defenseless as<br />

Bara, however, it raised its head to snap at him with its<br />

formidable teeth, and Tarzan barely missed being defaced. In<br />

automatic defensive response to the creature's maneuver, he<br />

struck back at the flashing head with his fist.<br />

Again, he felt and heard the snapping of bone, and the<br />

thoat died with a broken skull. Tarzan sat there a moment and<br />

surveyed his amazing kill. Then, slowly, an old familiar elixir<br />

crept into his blood, and he rose silently to his feet.<br />

He raised his head to the lowering, single moon. Standing<br />

on the body of the dead thoat, he opened his lips and<br />

broke the vast stillness of the Barsoomian night with the farechoing<br />

victory cry of the bull ape.<br />

It was the exultant dawn cry of the primordial, the<br />

subconscious, yearning cry of all created things, wresting<br />

single identity from the wilderness of the undefined, asserting<br />

itself against all the unknown forces of nature in one long,<br />

soul-born outpouring of mortal challenge.<br />

Startled Cluros paused on the horizon, then fled incontinently<br />

in pursuit of his distant sister, Thuria.<br />

That weird, ringing cry carried afar in the thin, crisp air<br />

of Barsoom, even as Tarzan crouched over his kill and tore<br />

loose a great, red, dripping steak of savor flesh. And there<br />

were two, in particular, who heard it.<br />

One there was who gasped, listening, wondering—not<br />

daring to hope that there was something terribly familiar<br />

203

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!