Story of the Phantom by Lee Falk Page A

giant.

    "Now," said the chief of the Rope People, "if you are the Phantom as you pretend to be, you will recognize that these are the feats you performed when you came here before. In the first picture, you are seen capturing an elephant with your bare hands. In the second, you are shown moving a great boulder. In the third, you avoided capture by our armed hunters for a full day. And in the last, you 32

    defeated the champion of the jungle in a battle to the death."

    The Twentieth was baffled and puzzled for he had never before seen these Rope People, nor had he performed these feats. But he realized the truth.

    ("Yes," broke in the Twentieth as he listened to Old Man Moze. "I realized they were talking about my father, not me. He had done all these things. From what I had read and heard of my ancestors, I believe it is true to say that my father was the strongest man of all the Phantom line. As a child, I saw him lift a horse as big as Thunder and carry him across a brook. But he never told me about these Rope People or the feats he performed there." Kit glanced at Guran, who nodded. The Phantom men did not talk about their accomplishments. They entered the facts in the Chronicles and left the talk to their descendants).

    "Thus he realized that his father had been there and done these amazing things," continued Old Man Moze, as though there had been no interruption.

    "Then," said the chief of the Rope People, "we cannot believe you are the Phantom, for that was many years ago and he would be an old man by now, but you are a strong young man. After he performed those deeds we made a pact of friendship with him. But we have no pact with you because you cannot be the Phantom."

    "But I am the Phantom," said the masked man.

    "Then, to save your life and the lives of the man and the girl, you must prove you are the Phantom. If you cannot prove it, you will all be thrown to the ground, to your deaths." And it was a long way to the ground, as from a cloud in the sky.

    "What must I do to prove this to you?" he asked. And the chief said, "You must do again these feats you did then." And there was nothing else for him to do, or the girl and the old man would die. And he would die. So he - agreed.

    ("How could you capture an elephant with no weapons, and all those other things?" cried Kit, anxious and worried as though the events had not yet happened. "I worried about that myself, Kit.
    These things seemed difficult or impossible. But there was no way out," replied his father.) And so he was lowered on a rope to the ground far below. The girl and her father remained in the village in the treetops. And his first task, to capture an elephant with no weapons, had to be accomplished by sundown, or the prisoners would be dashed to the earth, as from a cloud. So he thought and thought and an idea came to him. And he searched among the trees and bushes until he found what he needed, a special kind of tough jungle vine called Banga. And he found a sharp stone-for he had no other tool-and he pounded this vine until he had cut it, for it was the toughest and hardest of all jungle vines. (The listening pygmies nodded at the name, for they knew this vine.) And then he searched until he found the trail that the elephants make to their waterhole. And he found it.
    And he climb a tree that grew by the elephants' trail, and he waited. Time passed. The Rope People watched from their village high above. And the girl and the old man watched because it was a long way to the ground, and they would die if he failed.

    Now a large male elephant moved slowly through the bushes on the trail, now and then grasping a bunch of sweet grass and stuffing it into his red mouth. The Phantom waited, with the long vine in his hand. And as the elephant moved below him, he leaped upon its back. The great beast reared on his hind legs and trumpeted his rage and searched his back with his long trunk. But the Phantom moved quickly on the broad back and avoided the