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READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

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Tarzan on Mars<br />

Barsoomian lion was charging directly toward her. She could<br />

have jumped, perhaps, or run a pitiably short distance, but the<br />

shock of her emotions and her fascination for the deadly beast<br />

held her incapacitated for the moment and deafened her ears<br />

to the thundering shouts of alarm and astonishment of the<br />

spectators who had all risen to their feet in a body.<br />

Just as the banth was about to close upon her she saw the<br />

hurtling body of the apeman strike the tawny east under its<br />

right front shoulder with the force of a battering ram, and the<br />

two of them rolled past her to one side in a roaring, swirling<br />

blur of motion.<br />

Only for a single moment did Tarzan remain within range<br />

of those mighty jaws and myriad talons. Having momentarily<br />

knocked the wind and the wits out of the banth, he leaped<br />

aside, and it was such a leap as had never before been<br />

witnessed. Fully seventy feet he leaped, and then he turned<br />

swiftly about to face the giant animal again.<br />

The banth was on its feet almost as Tarzan landed, and<br />

now it turned it full attention upon him. But, in the same<br />

moment, La snatched up a great long-sword from the dead<br />

hand of a green warrior, and even as the creature charged the<br />

apeman, she hurled the weapon with all her earthly strength<br />

in the direction of her rescuer. Tarzan had just time enough<br />

to roll under the banth's hurtling body and to one side, but in<br />

the next moment he snatched up the huge sword from where<br />

it had fallen and when the banth whirled in a flurry of dust to<br />

charge again, he was ready for it.<br />

Not as any warrior of Barsoom did Tarzan wield a sword.<br />

When that mighty blade swung whistling through the air, it<br />

was driven by strength and ferocity which was without equal<br />

on two worlds. That day in the arena of Lothar, thousands of<br />

green men and red men alike saw a man strike a Barsoomian<br />

lion with a giant long-sword—so swiftly and powerfully that<br />

the blow drove the blade straight down its face and neck into<br />

its mighty shoulders. So suddenly did the beast die that its<br />

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