ERBList - Tarzan and the Jungle Murders, Summarized

EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS'
TARZAN AND THE JUNGLE MURDERS

Summarized by
David (Nkima) Adams
Copyright © 2000

CHARACTERS NAMED IN THE SUMMARY:
Tarzan Lieutenant Cecil
   Giles-Burton
Horace Brown
Mary Graham
Joseph Campbell
   (alias, Smith,
   alias, Joe the Pooch)
Nikolai Zubanev
   (alias, Peterson)
the Great Man
   (Benito Mussolini)
Buiroo cannibals
Tantor
Lord John Ramsgate
Lady Barbara Ramsgate
Romanoff
Duncan Trent

Introduction
    This story was written by ERB in January of 1939. It was originally entitled “Murders in the Jungle.” It appeared complete in one issue of Thrilling Adventures, June 1940. It can be found as the third story in the trilogy published as Tarzan and the Castaways.
Colorized by Tangor, 2000 I. The Hyena’s Voice
    As Tarzan walks along a forest trail, a note in Dango, the hyena’s, voice causes him to investigate. He finds a crashed Italian airplane surrounded by hyenas. Tarzan quickly disperses the beasts and finds the pilot dead in the cockpit, killed by a bullet through the throat.
    Footprints around the plane reveal that passengers have left the scene. Further investigations show that the pilot was shot from above, so Tarzan concludes that he was shot by someone in another plane.
    Tarzan smells a glove and gets another clue. Footprints tell of two men who left two days ago.
    Tarzan follows the two men and finds a second plane wreck, this one shot down by a machine gun. A used parachute tell him that the pilot in plane #2 has survived. He is an Englishman, Lieutenant Cecil Giles-Burton. Tarzan decides to follow him.
II. The Thread of Fate
    Horace Brown has invented a device designed to disrupt the ignition system of any internal combustion engine. Mary Graham tells the secret to Joseph Campbell, who along with Nikolai Zubanev, murders Brown and steals the plans. They sell the plans to the Great Man in Italy (obviously Benito Mussolini*) but are themselves robbed by Giles-Burton before the plans can be delivered. They follow him to Capetown by air.
    (* Mussolini, “Il Duce” is also mentioned on page 203 of The Lad and the Lion.”)
III. Broken Wings
    The villains shoot down the Englishman, but he walks into lion country with the secret plans.
IV. Jungle Call
    Burton gets through the country of the savage Buiroo cannibals, but Tarzan is wounded and captured. Tied up in the village, he pretends to pray and chant, but he is really calling the elephants to his rescue. Tantor is called by Tarzan’s sixth sense and chanting cries. The elephants completely level the village and rescue Tarzan.
V. The Safari
    Burton wanders in the jungle for weeks, starving, eating insects, until he finds the safari of Lord and Lady Ramsgate (brother and sister) former acquaintances. This safari has been linked with a Russian Romanoff safari by chance. Two derelicts, Smith and Peterson are also there.
    Burton fights Duncan Trent over Lady Barbara Ramsgate. He also argues and fights with two Russians.
VI. The Coming of Tarzan
    Tarzan comes into the safari camp early in the morning to warm himself by the fire. He tells them he can smell a dead man in the camp. Ramsgate thinks he is a crazy wild man.
    Burton has been murdered. They decide that Tarzan is the guilty party. Trent tries to capture him with a pistol, but Tarzan escapes into the jungle.
    Around midnight Smith says that the crazy giant came back into camp and has stabbed Peterson to death.
VII. Murder Will Out
    At Bangali Tarzan tells Col. Gerald Giles-Burton of his son’s death and the suspicions about himself as the murderer. He learns about the secret papers.
    Ramsgate and Romanoff arrive in Bangali and the home of Col. Burton with his son’s body. Tarzan investigates and finds that Smith and Peterson are really Campbell and Zubanev. He uses clues of finger bruises on the dead man’s throat, a left-handed stab wound, and a limp in footprints for evidence of the real murderer.
    Tarzan takes the plans from Campbell, alias Smith, alias Joe the Pooch. He tells everyone that he really knew everything by scent without the other clues, then returns to the jungle.

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