Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs for June 27, 2023

The “Tusky Turnpike”.

Fresh poop on the elephant trail to step in, oh goody! Can Demura and Betty be close by? At least no one was eaten by those poor, starving Unga-Bungas. The plot marches on….watch out, don’t step in “it”!

“…And to traps them elephants we needs to dig some pits …”

I think he means he’s left a Jumbo sized one. Now that will put you off your breakfast…

At June 3 the Chiram story-line dropped and June 5 we’re suddenly with the remains of another exhausted mini-expedition stumbling around, lost. I thought it was bad editing at GoGomics leaving out the strips with a resolution to the Father of Diamonds story. So I went and squinted at the original publication date. Nope, readers in 1948 surely found the shift as confusing. And now Tarzan and Co. have been on the trail for “many days” but will arrive to find Betty either uneaten, or with her virtue yet intact, but she will be in peril as soon as T & C show up.

This is what we schooled in jungle lore call an extraordinary elephant track.

It’s a long and winding road that leads to a small and winding river.

Funny how it’s well traveled but they never ran into anyone using it.

“Why, I would say that this is a simply MARVELOUS elephant track, bordering on REMARKABLE even! Why, just look at the shape, consistency and (dare I say it? YES!) FRESHNESS of that LOVELY elephant spoor! What magnificent attention to detail, superb!”

“The spoor is fresh,” Tarzan observed, as he looked down to find said spoor oozing up between his bare toes. “And warm, too!”

The jungle is treacherous.

Clearly, it isn’t just an ordinary elephant track. Ordinary elephant tracks are lightly traveled, haven’t been used for a long time, and don’t have fresh spoor.

Hi kids ! For those who think “spoor” means dung – wrong . It’s actually a term for any sign or tracks that have been left . Now back to our story .

“There’s nothing like fresh spoor,” said Tarzan. “It’s one of my favorite things.”

The only way a winding track could always point north is if they started at the South Pole. An old logic problem goes something like this: An explorer walks out of camp for 2 miles then turns east for 2 miles where he shoots a bear. He then returns to camp by walking north for 2 miles. What color was the bear? Answer: white, because he started from the North Pole. And yes, I know what the writer meant.