nveniences too
seriously. Dan always brought a laugh with him.

All went well until Jess Slythe, an unscrupulous adventurer, managed to
attach himself to the expedition, foreseeing an opportunity to get a
large sum of money from the wealthy Rex Carter. After helping to
establish the camp at the Pomegranate Oasis, Jess Slythe found that
Dick Oakwood was watching his movements with suspicion. The boy was
alert to everything that went on in the camp.

The treacherous Slythe, aided by Suli, his Arab servant, persuaded Dick
to take them in his plane, the _Meteorite_, on a trip of exploration
into a mountainous country said to be rich in gold. Dick was pleased
at this plan, the desert seemed to call to him with a promise of
thrilling adventures. But when they were far away from the Pomegranate
Oasis, Slythe started a fight with Dick, who was forced to take a
parachute jump in order to save his life. He landed in a mountainous
district among a white tribe of savages, known as the Taharans. By a
clever trick the boy made these savages believe that he was Tahara,
their god of the sun.

Only Cimbula, the witch-doctor, refused to accept him as a god, and
continued to stir up suspicion against him, urging his followers to
kill the boy. It took courage, quick thinking and prompt action to
save Dick from the dangers in which he found himself, for the tribe
would worship him one moment and in the next would be preparing a
ceremony of execution in which Dick was to be the chief sacrifice.

He won the respect of the Taharans by helping them conquer their
enemies, the Gorols, a black, hairy tribe of savages not much above the
apes. In ancient times the two tribes, the Gorols and Taharans had
been under one ruler, but that was long ago, before the golden crown of
the king had been stolen. Since then, frequent attacks and raids from
both sides kept the district in a constant state of war.

Dick Oakwood showed the Stone-Age men how to make and use bows and
arrows and once in a battle with the Gorols when defeat and death for
his warriors seemed certain, the boy arranged a catapult to shoot rocks
to the top of a cliff. Then his warriors hailed him as "Tahara, hal!"
only to turn against him when Jess Slythe took a hand in the battle by
throwing hand grenades from the _Meteorite_ among the Taharan warriors.
The Stone-Age men had scattered quickly to find any refuge from this
deadly fire from the sky, and Dick was taken prisoner