Savage Lands Read Online Free

leaving too many signs of passing, and Robbie was beginning to worry he had made a mistake until, after an hour, the trail opened up into the Dum-Dum.
    It was a wide clearing that was nothing more than a dust bowl, bordered on one side by a smooth curving cliff some thirty feet high. Several hollow logs lay in the dust, their trunks long devoured by insects, forming natural drums, which Tarzan had shown Jane how to beat to call him in times of danger. The pounding rhythm was amplified by the concave cliff and carried across the jungle for many miles.
    Jane sat glumly on one log, staring at the surrounding trees. She didn’t turn around when Robbie entered the clearing. He realized she’d heard his almost-silent approach and swore she had picked up on some of the incredible heightened skills Tarzan possessed.
    â€œHe’s not coming,” she said in almost a whisper.
    â€œCall again.”
    She shook her head and turned to him. She was worried. Her long blonde hair had hastily been tied into a ponytail, and her face was still smudged with dirt from the previous day.
    â€œThey will find the plane, but they won’t find him there,” she said.
    Robbie felt his cheek flush with guilt. It was his fault they knew where to look. “Jane, I’m sorry… .”
    â€œNo need. I know you thought differently then… . Thought you were doing the right thing.”
    Robbie nodded. When he had first met Tarzan, he hadn’t warmed to the ape-man. It wasn’t until he had joined Jane and Tarzan in their search for the kidnapped ape, Karnath, that he got to know the wild man. The many perils they faced had formed a bond as strong as a familial one. Robbie didn’t want to see any harm befall his friend any more than Jane did. He still felt slivers of guilt every time he thought back to how he had planned to betray Tarzan.
    â€œHow do you know he’s not there?” asked Robbie.
    â€œHe took me to a place he intended to take his family for food.”
    Robbie recalled Jane had mentioned something about a volcano; Clark had heard her say that too, but now didn’t feel like the time to bring it up.
    â€œSo what do we do?”
    Jane looked thoughtful, then smiled. “Perhaps we should let them find the airplane. Maybe that will be enough… .”
    â€œYou think we should go with them?” said Robbie in surprise.
    A smile broke Jane’s worried frown and she suddenly looked full of life again. “Better than that. We’re going to really help them.”

3
    T he rush of the wind was the only thing the ape-man could hear as he ran along a slender bough no wider than his foot. The hundred-foot drop below meant nothing to him. He didn’t stop his breakneck pace even as the branch drooped under his weight. He had run through the trees all his life and could read the steady pulse of the wood through the soles of his feet. As the branch bent even lower, Tarzan tensed his powerful thigh muscles and leaped.
    The branch acted like a springboard, catapulting him high into the air and out across the canopy of trees. His eyes were locked on to his landing area ahead—he knew with solid certainty where he would fall.
    His feet crashed through the leafy canopy, startling a small knot of manu . The monkeys screeched at him as they fled from his path. Tarzan only had to use one hand to reach for a branch to stabilize himself as he hopped from branch to branch and carouseled around the huge trunk of a tree. Almost as fast as a man sprinting on the ground below, he jumped into the branches of an interlocking tree where he brachiated almost as fast as he could run—before dropping several feet onto a limb.
    Ahead, through the dense leaves, he caught sight of a shock of coarse gray hair as the Targarni he was pursuing knuckled on all fours through the undergrowth, oblivious to his presence. Once again the Targarni had struck the Mangani, and their constant frays were