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Volume 0807

ERB C.H.A.S.E.R. ENCYCLOPEDIA  A Collector's  Hypertexted and Annotated Storehouse  of Encyclopedic Resources

present
The ERBzine Comics Summaries Project

ERB SUNDAY SUMMARIES

HAROLD FOSTER'S  SUNDAY TARZAN STRIP
August 7 - September 18, 1932
VON HARBEN AND THE ELEPHANTS' GRAVEYARD

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THE FORBIDDEN PLACE ~ 32.08.07

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Tarzan's friend, young Erich von Harben, the explorer, was off on another expedition. With him he had Tarzan's monkey, Nkima. The blacks from the safari returned in panic, telling of blood-chilling danger in a forbidden place. But another moon had risen before Nkima returned. . . alone. Tied to the monkey, Muviro found a piece of shirt upon which von Harben had written in blood his desperate plea for help. Upon learning the contents of the note, Tarzan set forth at once to seek his friend in unknown danger at the elephant's graveyard. A long march brought him in sight of the great canyons. At the river side, Tarzan greeted his old friend, Duro the hippopotamus and was ferried across. Then he began the almost perpendicular ascent of the towering cliff. As he reached for the summit, a stone gave way beneath his foot. Nkima shrieked in terror and leaped from his shoulder. Then Tarzan fell!

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THE APES OF TARZAN'S TRIBE ~ 32.08.14

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As Tarzan fell from the cliff, his ape instinct made him reach for a protruding branch. He grasped a sturdy little scrub tree. He swung himself to safety, but in doing so he wrenched one arm. . . and he saw it was useless for climbing. When the frightened Nkima scrambled to him down the cliff, the ape-man gave directions. Going over the great cliff and down into the luxuriant valley, Nkima found the great apes of Tarzan's tribe. After listening to Nkima tell of Tarzan's plan the apes went to the great cliff. One of them clambered down to him. The others took their posts in the crevices in the rock. Then the first ape lifted Tarzan and passed  him on up to another. And so he was carried up  until he was safe on the summit. . .  back once more with his own tribe.

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AT THE GRAVEYARD OF THE ELEPHANTS ~ 32.08.21

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When Tarzan's friend, von Harben, reached the place where the great elephants of Africa have gone for centuries to die his men refused to follow. The graveyard of the elephants was sacred. For man to enter into it was forbidden. In panic von Harben's men fled headlong. Von Harben went on, a lone brave figure. . . and entered into the fabled region where the greatest of the world's wealth in ivory lay untouched by human hands.

He was startled by a voice crying in French, "Who's there?" He turned to find himself covered by a rifle. "The ivory is mine! All of it's mine! Nobody else shall touch it! I am rich! I am the richest man in the world!" cried the stranger. Then, with a shout of wild hatred, he fired.

Von Harben returned the shot as he fell. Then he tore a strip from his shirt and wrote in blood from his wound, "Help! At the elephant's graveyard. Erich." He tied the message tight to little Nkima, hoping Tarzan would get it, then he fainted. WILL TARZAN REACH  HIM IN TIME?

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THE UNKNOWN TERROR ~ 32.08.28

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[Last of the over-the-shoulder part of his "loin cloth".
Tarzan uses the upper part of his leopard skin outfit as a sling for his injured arm.] When Tarzan came to the graveyard of the elephants, little Nkima went nearly mad with excitement. But at the entrance to the canyon Tarzan paused; and the apes hesitated , looking to one another in inquiry. A strange animal scent had come to them down wind. Only hair-brained little Nkima ventured through the passageway, but in a few moments the monkey was back screeching in wildest terror. When Nkima told of a dread animal larger than any in the world, Tarzan ordered the great ape, Akut, to go back to retrieve the weapons that he had lost in his fall. Akut found them at the food of the cliff. Then he scrambled up the walls of the great canyon. When Tarzan received his weapons back one of the more venturesome apes went warily into the passageway. But, like Nkima, he returned in a moment, shrieking in terror, calling to everyone to flee. Tarzan was not ape enough to join in the panic flight, and as a man he had to carry through his plan to rescue von Harben. Nkima clung to his legs screeching wildly for him not to go, but Tarzan shook  him off and entered the graveyard. What he saw made his heart stand still. WHAT DREAD THING WAS IT THAT PUT THE BRAVEST OF BEASTS TO FLIGHT AND STOPPED THE LORD OF THE JUNGLE IN HIS TRACKS?

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THE MYSTERY OF THE ELEPHANTS' GRAVEYARD ~ 32.09.04

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As Tarzan entered the elephants' graveyard he saw a beast of incredible size bending over the prostrate form of Erich von Harben. The explorer lay as if dead. The air was filled with great flying reptiles. One of them, hissing loudly, swept close to the ape-man. As Tarzan gazed in wonder at these strange creatures the monster turned its neck and Tarzan found himself looking into great reptilian eyes. Then, the great creature turned and lumbered off. Tarzan hastened to the side of the young explorer.

"Did you see it too or am I mad?" cried Erich without wasting a word in greeting.

"What was it?" Tarzan asked.

"A dinosaur! The largest of them all! The Gigantosaurus!" cried Erich. "I pretended to be asleep. . .  come! We'll follow it." "Here's its cave!" von Harben announced as he led the way to a great cavern. "If you hadn't come, I would not have entered. No man but you would dare to enter that cavern alone."

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THE ATTACK OF THE PTERODACTYLS ~ 32.09.11

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"We'll trail the dinosaur when we're better prepared said Tarzan, indicating his fractured arm. "And how about your own wound? Was it in dinosaur's blood you wrote to me for help?"

"No, my own," said von Harben, showing his scar. He led the ape-man back to the spot where he had fought the strange maniac. "This man shot me before I killed him," von Harben explained. "If I thought  the wound would have healed itself I would not have sent Nkima for you."

Tarzan knelt and looked into the face of  his old enemy, Lieutenant von Werper, who had gone mad in the jungle in his quest for wealth and who having found it, perished. "Let us go," said Tarzan. But at that moment von Harben fell, swept by the wing of one of the great pterodactyls. Lying on the ground, he fired at the flying reptile. The sound of the shot was followed by wild h hissing cries. The pterodactyls flew high and circled about in the air. Then swept down swiftly to the attack. A long neck shot out and a fierce beak made a thrust at von Harben. Tarzan leaped high and met the pterodactyl. Then the ape-man pushed the explorer to the protection of an elephant's skeleton. Here for a moment they were safe.

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THE KING OF THE APES ~ 32.09.18

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Baffled in their attack upon Tarzan and von Harben the pterodactyls flew high with wild hissing cries preparing to attack afresh. Then the ape-man and the explorer made a dash for the entrance to the elephant's graveyard. As they reached the entrance they paused in amazement, for the pterodactyls stopping their attack as if held back by some power that forbade them to venture beyond the graveyard limits. At the other end of the passageway, little Nkima greeted them with shrieks of delight. In response to the monkey's cries, the great apes came leaping through the trees and rushing through the underbrush to hail the Lord of the Jungle on his return from the unknown terrors of the elephants' graveyard. That night when Tarzan and von Harben made their plans to trail the gigantosaurus the beating of a tattoo upon the great earth drum summoned the whole tribe to a victory dance to celebrate the return of the King of the Apes. And Tarzan, flinging off the last remnant of civilization, was again one of the leaping horde in the mad dance of the dum-dum.