Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-07-07
'74RZAN THE TERRIBLE
BY EDGAK RILE BUhFUUUHo
~ the "Tarznn" Stories and the "Martian' Stories

Pan -at-lee set out upon her return to
| Kor- -ul- ia.
She knew the dangers and yet she
faced them with the stolid indifference
OF her race. When they directly con-
fronted and menaced her would be time
enough to experience fear or excitement
or confidence.
In the meantime It was unnecessary
to waste nerve energy by anticipating
them. She moved therefore through her
savage land with no greater show of
concern than might mark your saunter-
ing to a corner drugstore for q sundae.
But this Is your life and that is Pam
at-lee's, and even now as you read this
Pan lee may be sitting upon the
edge OF the recess of ON ats cave
while the ia and jato roar from the
gorge below and from the ridge above,
and the Kor- -lul threaten upon the
south and the Hodon from the Valley Of
Jad ben -Otho far below, for Pan at
OF jet beneath the tropical moonlight Of
Pal ul don.
But she was not to reach Kor- -ul- ia
this day, nor the next, nor for many
days after, though the danger that
threatened her was neither Waz- don
enemy nor savage beast.
She came without misadventure to
the Kor- al -lul and after descending its
rocky southern wall without catching
| the slightest glimpse of the hereditary
| enemies OF her people, she experienced
renewal Of confidence that was little
short Of practical assurance that she
would successfully terminate her ven-
ture and be restored once more to her
| own people and the lover she had not
seen for so many long and weary
moons.
She was almost across the gorge now
and moving with an extreme caution
| abated no wit by her confidence, for
wariness is an instructive trait Of the
primitive, something which cannot be
laid aside even momentarily if one would
survive. And so she came to the trail
that follows the windings of Kor- ul-
lul from its uppermost reaches down
into the broad and fertile Valley of Jad-
ben Ohio.
And as she stepped into the trail
there arose on either side Of her from
out of the bushes that border the path,
as though materialized from thin air,
a score of tall, white warriors of the
Ho-don. Like a frightened deer Pan at
lee cast a single startled look at these
menacers of her freedom and leaped
quickly toward the bushes in an effort
to escape; but the warriors were too
| close at hand. They closed upon her
from every side, and then. drawing her
knife, she turned at bay, mctamor-
| phosed by the fires of fear and hate
| from a.startled deer to raging tiger
cat. They did not try to kill her,
but only to subdue and capture her /;
and so it was that more than single
iio- don warrior felt the keen edge of her
blade in his flesh before they had sue
cecded in overpowering her by num-
bers. And still she fought and scratched
and bit after they had taken the
knife from her, until It was necessary
to tie her hands and fasten q piece Of
wood between her teeth by means of
thongs passed behind her head,
AT first she refused to walk when
they started off in the direction of the
valley, but after two of them had
seized hcf by the hair and dragged her
for number of yards she thought bet
ter OF her original decision and came
along with them, though still ss defiant
as her bound wrists and gagged mouth
would permit.
Near the entrance to Kor- ul- lul they
came upon another body Of their war
riors with which were several Waz-
don prisoners from the tribe of Kor-
ul-lul. 1t was raiding party come
up from n Ho- don city OF the valley
after slaves. This Pan at lee know,
for the occurrence was by no means un
usual. During her lifetime the tribe
to which she belonged had been sufT,-
ciently fortunate, or powerful, to with
stand successfully the majority of sucn
raids made upon them, but yet Pan
at-lce had known of friends and rea- =
tives who had been carried into slavery
by the Ho- don and she knew, too, an
other thing which gave hpr hope, as
doubtless it did to each Of the other
captiyes-that occasionally tho prison
ers escaped from tho cities OF the hair
less whites.
After they had Joined the other party
the entire band set forth into the val
ley, and presently, from the converse
tion of her captors, Pan at lee knew
that she was headed for A-lur, the City
of Light; while in the cave Of his an
ccstors, Om-at, chief of the Kor-ul ia. .
bemoaned the loss Of both his friend
and she that was to have been his
mate.