READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

Tarzan on Mars
This statement was followed by a long silence on
Gridley's part. He stared at Tarzan, then sat down heavily in
his chair. "You don't mean—"
Tarzan did not smile. Very levelly, he asked, "How
much, Gridley? How much will it cost to translate the
equation?"
Gridley at last pulled himself together. "Now look here,"
he said, determinedly. I am going to have to deal with you in
terms of cold and pitiless fact! It would cost many millions of
dollars even to arrive at an estimate of how much! What can
I say?—one billion,—two?"
Tarzan's lips curved grimly. "not a space island, Gridley.
Just a one-man rocket...”
Gridley stared back, grim and emphatic. "A one man
rocket, without benefit of space island, eh? Give it four
stages, and you have a projectile approximately twenty-four
stories high, weighing hundreds of thousands of tons!"
"Wait a minute, Jason," said Tarzan, stubbornly. "Again
you forget Harbenite, and that this isn't a government project.
It can be a smaller undertaking, more efficient—and likely
revamp your cost estimates relative to a metal like Harbenite.
That mine, you know, won't cost anything except the labor
and some new equipment."
Gridley struggled a moment with his thoughts, then
shook his head again, negatively. "Even so, Tarzan," he
insisted, "you're still way up in astronomical figures of dollars
and cents. Reduce it even to a few hundred millions, and
still—"
"Ah!" Tarzan exclaimed. "A price begins to emerge! I
assure you I would not be facetious in a matter which concerns
me so deeply. I want to know if the thing is possible at
all."
Gridley slumped once more. "All right, Tarzan," he
sighed. "For the sake of argument—two hundred million
dollars—maybe! Now—where do we go from there?"
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