READ THE NOVEL- Chapters 1-31 - ERBzine

Tarzan on Mars
supply and water and concentrated food.
Tarzan naturally insisted on taking the risk, and after
certain clinical experiments had been concluded, using the
Ras Thavas method of suspended animation, all of the
foundation's scientific advisers agreed that Tarzan's chances
of reaching Mars lay well within the range of probability. And
so it was concluded that the departure should be scheduled as
soon as possible.
The site chosen for take-off by the computer, as being
the optimum approximation of the ballistics specifications,
was the norther Beni region of Bolivia..
Like a transplanted Eiffel Tower, the gigantic four-stage
rocket towered incongruously above the wide sweeping green
mat of Bolivian jungle, ready to deluge that slumbering tropic
world in a devastating blast of energy that would launch the
first terrestrial human being into true interplanetary flight,
out into the eternal gulf of dark and utter coldness that was
the void of ethereal space.
As Gridley and the others waited through those long
tropical nights in their little encampment there for the red
planet to reach the exact position designated by the computer,
each hour that loomed swiftly upon them out of the future and
hurtled impenitently by into the past seemed increasingly
more miraculous and utterly precious. For there were
correspondingly fewer hours remaining for one among them
who would leave Earth forever. All of them felt this strongly,
with the single exception of him on whom their thoughts and
emotions were concentrated. Or so it seemed.
During the last few weeks of their preparations and
waiting, Tarzan had fallen in an uncommunicative mood and
displayed an increasing predilection for the solitude of the
jungle. He was often gone a day at a time on long hunting
forays, in spite of warnings from the native guides that the
ferocious Potorero and Yanaigua savages were wont to wander
through these parts.
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