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Chapter XX - Came Tarzan

Just before dark that evening, an almost exhausted flier entered the headquarters

of Colonel Capell of the Second Rhodesians and saluted.

Well, Thompson," asked the superior, "what luck? The others have all returned.

Never saw a thing of Oldwick or his plane. I guess we shall have to give it up

unless you were more successful."

I was," replied the young officer. "I found the plane."

No!" ejaculated Colonel Capell. "Where was it? Any sign of Oldwick?"

It is in the rottenest hole in the ground you ever saw, quite a bit inland. Narrow

gorge. Saw the plane all right but can't reach it. There was a regular devil of a lion

wandering around it. I landed near the edge of the cliff and was going to climb

down and take a look at the plane. But this fellow hung around for an hour or

more and I finally had to give it up."

Do you think the lions got Oldwick?" asked the colonel.

"I doubt it," replied Lieutenant Thompson, "from the fact that there was no

indication that the lion had fed anywhere about the plane. I arose after I found it

was impossible to get down around the plane and reconnoitered up and down the

gorge. Several miles to the south I found a small, wooded valley in the center of

which--please don't think me crazy, sir--is a regular city--streets, buildings, a

central plaza with a lagoon, good-sized buildings with domes and minarets and

all that sort of stuff."

The elder officer looked at the younger compassionately. "You're all wrought up,

Thompson," he said. "Go and take a good sleep. You have been on this job now

for a long while and it must have gotten on your nerves."

The young man shook his head a bit irritably. "Pardon me, sir," he said, "but I am

telling you the truth. I am not mistaken. I circled over the place several times. It

may be that Oldwick has found his way there--or has been captured by these

people."

Were there people in the city?" asked the colonel.

Yes, I saw them in the streets."

199

Tarzan the Untamed