READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

Tarzan on Mars
yourself of love, or the illusion of it."
"But I ask it!" she pleaded. "Just once, beloved!—and we
are done, you and I!"
He studied her in silence, his mind filled with distant
memories of a vine-grown ruin on another world and of all the
adventures he had experienced there—how he had first seen
this beautiful woman bending over him with the raised knife
of the sacrifice in her hand, and how he had later rescued her
and promised to protect her. And now—her strange, haunting
secret, her touching confidence in him, her frustration and
deep despair. For her to reduce herself to the condition of
pleading for love was to sacrifice a woman's most precious
possession, pride and dignity, without which the personality
would be boken forever. There was only one way to restore
it.
Slowly, Tarzan of the Apes enfolded the Goddess of the
Sun in his mighty arms and placed a kiss of compassion on
her trembling lips.
As he did so, the arras behind the throne parted. The
apeman turned, as did La, to look upon the impressive figure
of Kar Komak, who glared at Tarzan in murderous wrath.
This was such a consuming anger as to over-ride the warrior's
code of battle. When he drew his long-sword, all three were
aware that its single purpose was to slay...
257