Harold Bear Art

Jane and the Jewel of Solomon: Hanging Around

As Jock and Edward swung helplessly above the jungle floor, their faces contorted in fury, Jane smiled broadly and gathered up some more lengths of vine. “Well, gentlemen,” she said jauntily to her victims, “for now, jail will have to wait, but in the meantime, let’s get you tied up!” The humiliated hunters were swiftly bound, Jane completing their indignity by gagging them both too. “Now you two little soldiers just hang around here while I go and investigate the mine and its slaving operation you have been guarding so assiduously.” she mocked after she had finished. “I’ll tell your bosses you said “Hi”.”

With that the jungle woman took to trees again, swinging on vines in the direction of the mine, unsure what she would encounter there. Meanwhile the dizzied Jock and Edward continued to sway in the breeze, like captive flies caught in a female spider’s web. “Mmmpphhhh!” they cried out sadly to each other though their uncomfortable gags.

Jane and the Jewel of Solomon: “Going Up!”

As the two men came blundering after Jane, the jungle woman suddenly swerved to her left and leaned against a tree, apparently catching her breath. “We’ve got her now, Jock!” one of her pursuers called out. “She’s run out of puff!” His companion leered unpleasantly. “Good Lord, I’ll have some fun breaking in this wild young filly!” he chortled. On the two guards went, all eyes on the waiting Jane, a slight smile playing on her lips.

“You’ll be laughing on the other side of your face when I get you, you little slut!” raged the panting Jock, when suddenly he felt both his ankles suddenly encircled. He looked down to see them confined by a tightening vine rope just as the trap hurled him upside down by his feet. The same fate met his companion, Edward, similarly jerked aloft by another of the rope traps expertly set by Jane earlier. The woman’s smile broadened into a grin. “Going up!” she laughed mockingly. “Which storey do you require, gentlemen? How about jail?” The two men swung in undignified helplessness. “Let us down, you she-devil!” yelled Edward furiously at Jane. “How dare you??”

“How very rude.” smiled Jane in reply.

Jane and the Jewel of Solomon: “Don’t let her get away!”

While Thandie and Jamila were hauling their Boer captives to the nearby town for an overdue encounter with justice, Jane was indeed in trouble. The jungle woman had located the disused mine in question and realised that the slavers that she had rescued the Waziri girls from were just the tip of the iceberg. The entire slaving operation was currently centred on this mine, judging by the armed guards posted on the approach. Jane knew a frontal approach would likely end in disaster - these did not look like men open to persuasion. Yet, Tarzan’s wife reasoned, their misogyny and love of the hunt might lead them to make some basic errors.

Jane spent some time preparing her ground before appearing in the sight of the two guards and calling out to them: “Your Boers have confessed everything! I’m going to report you slavers to the District Commissioner!” The men’s heads turned, their faces grew dark with alarm and fury and they hurtled towards the woman. “Get her!” one cried. “Don’t let her get away!” His companion grinned. “Tally Ho!” he laughed. Jean flashed them a beaming smile in return and then she was off, leaping over felled trunks and brush that littered the jungle path leading to the mine. “Come and get me!” she taunted as the two guards thundered after her.

Jane and the Jewel of Solomon: Not Too Tight For Him?

Jamila and Thandie waste no time. They hurry to secure the muscular Boer before he recovers. As Botha’s stunned brain slowly regains its consciousness, Botha becomes aware that he is being uncomfortably bound and gagged and in a hogtie! As he desperately tries to move, to no avail, he also soon realises that he is being tied up by the two African meids that should already be in one of the secret slave markets he and de Beer ran. To make matters worse, one of the women is openly mocking him, calling him “bwana” and solicitously asking him if his bonds and gag were too tight. “Mmmpphhhh!” he replies angrily.

The two Waziri women laugh and high-five each other, once they had completed the furious and humiliated man’s bondage. They can scarcely believe it, but they have ended the feared Botha and de Beer’s foul trade. “Let’s load them into their own truck and take them to the authorities!” Thandie suggests. “Yes,” agrees Jamila, “but we must hurry. We need to return and help Jane in her search for the mine.”

Jane and the Jewel of Solomon: “Time for your bedtime, Bwana!”

Jamila emerges from hiding and strode into the clearing in full view. Before Botha has time to react the native woman sent her projectile, a rock attached to a strong vine rope, hurtling towards the Boer. Jamila never missed and she was able to proclaim in confident triumph, “Time for your bedtime, Bwana!” even as the missile struck Botha hard on his head. The man crumpled immediately landing on the jungle floor on his back, completely stunned. Astoundingly, both vicious Boers had now been overcome by Jane and the erstwhile female slaves.

Jane and the Jewel of Solomon: Thys Botha Appears!

“I will go ahead and scout the trail.” Jane said. “Can you two guard de Beer until I get back?” Jamila and Thandie nodded as the jungle woman took to the trees once more. Soon after her departure, the two alarmed Waziri women heard the unmistakable sound of someone approaching the clearing. De Beer’s hopes immediately rose. “Mmmmph! Mmmmmph! Mmmmmmppphhh!!” he sounded through his gag. Whoever the new arrival was, he immediately turned and moved purposefully towards where Jamila, Thandie and their prisoner were located. The women quickly hid: Jamila holding onto a makeshift projectile weapon, consisting of a rock attached to a length of rope and Thandie nervously clutching the rifle that had belonged to the bound and gagged de Beer. They held their breath.

Suddenly a man burst into the clearing. Jamila and Thandie recognised him almost immediately: to their horror, it was the even more ferocious Boer, Thys Botha! They pressed themselves against the trunk of a tree to avoid being spotted. Botha’a attention however was distracted by the sight of the struggling and mmmphing de Beer. Botha cursed loudly. “Where are the swartes, de Beer, you idiot?” he demanded scarcely able to believe what he saw. “Mmmmmph!!” repeated de Beer desperately in warning as the other man approached him. It was too late: Jamila and Thandie had already launched their attack…

Jane and the Jewel of Solomon: De Beer Bound and Gagged

Jane quickly freed her friends and between them, the three women then bound and gagged the hapless de Beer. Thandie explained what had happened while the fuming Boer was secured: “Jamila and I have found that a kindly elderly mine owner and his daughter have been kidnapped by two villains who are intending to steal their diamonds and to extract the jewels from the earth by using slave labour! We were on our way to let the District Commisioner know about this skulduggery when we were discovered by these evil men who ordered their Boer lackies to track us down capture us.” Jamila continued: “De Beer caught us and he was marching us back to the mine to be its first slaves! Apparently they are also seeking the fabled Jewel of Solomon which the mine owner is rumoured to have found…”

Jane was appalled at the Waziri girls’ tale of chicanery. “I must rescue the old man and his daughter and nip this deplorable scheme in the bud.” the jungle woman vowed. “Will you two brave ladies help me in this quest?”

Jane and the Jewel of Solomon: Jane Deals With a ‘Boering’ Man

Jane swung down from the branch which had served as her vantage point. De Beer was caught completely by surprise. Busy leering at his captives, he was quite unprepared for the jungle woman’s bare left foot to connect squarely with his jaw. SMACK! and the man was sent tumbling over onto his back, his vicious whip dropped to the jungle floor harmlessly. Jane landed on the ground athletically and looked with satisfaction at her defeated opponent, lying gasping and trying to catch his breath. Then she turned with a wide grin towards Thandie and Jamila. “Hello, girls.” Jane said to them warmly. “I’m sure you have no objection to being freed from the unwelcome attentions of this ‘Boering’ man!”

The young tribeswomen looked initially startled, then relieved and finally delighted at their friend’s easy victory over the prone Boer. “Tarzan’s wife comes to the rescue of Waziri women once again!” cried Jamila. “You are well met, white sister!”

Jane and the Jewel of Solomon: The Jungle Path

Jane was undertaking the jungle patrol usually carried out by her mate Tarzan, as her husband was away negotiating a trade route with the fabulous city of Opar on behalf of his Bedouin friends far to the north. The jungle woman was not anticipating trouble as Tarzan had driven away the last of the illegal trappers from their domain, and the tribes seemed happy enough. Therefore it was with shock and horror that Jane looked down from her vantage point atop a tall tree limb above a well-worn jungle path, to see a trio of people on the trail below - one man and two women. But it was a scene of degradation: the half-mad Boer, Vries de Beer was driving two captive native girls of the Waziri tribe, Jamila and Thandie, forward. Both young women were miserable and bound, stumbling along the path, urged forward by the occasional flick from the sjambok whip the bullying male clutched in his right hand.

Jane could scarcely believe such blatant slavery could be taking place before her very eyes and that moreover, the captives were friends of hers. This time de Beer had gone too far! She would put an end to the Boer’s brutal racism once and for all!

Tarzan’s Companion Jane in…

The Jewel of Solomon!

Jane comes to the rescue of an elderly archaeologist and his daughter threatened by two unscrupulous diamonds thieves! Follow this exciting jungle adventure and the exploits of Jane, fighting to keep Tarzan’s domain safe from the villainous and the dangerous….

Marian and her Merry Maids: The Tale Ends…

And so Marian, Edith, Rowena and Aelfwine rode happily back into the safety of Sherwood Forest, the liberated Robin Hood at Marian’s side. “We shall rouse the peasants and attack the castle,” proclaimed Robin to his Lincoln-clad rescuers, “and free the rest of the Merry Men, and the Merry Maids shall fight at our side!” Marian beamed back at her lover, delighted to see him strong and determined despite his ordeal. “But first, my love,” he continued, “you and I must be wed - with or without Friar Tuck!” Marian laughed with joy and her maids whooped their congratulations behind her. And so our tale ends, with the outlaw couple reunited in love and the dreams of English freedom still intact. However, it was not a happy night for de Rainault or Grenouille - both lay in the treasurer's sanctuary, blund, gagged and fuming. The women of Sherwood had reserved a particular humiliation for the Sheriff - stripping him to his breeches before leaving him uncomfortably tied to a rough chair. In amongst his inarticulate cries for vengeance and assistance, the shamed Sheriff could not help but worry about what Prince John would make of this extraordinary indignity heaped upon his royal name…

Maid Marian and her Merry Maids: “Wench… Prepare To Dieeeee!!!”

The enraged de Rainault redoubled his efforts and for all Marian’s sword skills and athleticism, the Frenchman’s superior strength and the heaviness of his blade began to tell. The Sherwood queen found herself forced backwards towards the wall by the Sheriff’s strokes until it seemed she must surely be forced to yield. But Sir Robert was arrogant, and eager to suppress this rebellious whore and make an example of her to disrespectful Saxon trollops everywhere. He raised his blade for a deathstroke. “Wench!” he spat. “Prepare to die!!” With that his two-handled sword swung down, aiming to cleave Marian’s shoulder from the rest of her…

But Marian was ready. Taking advantage of de Rainault’s over-confidence, the woman outlaw stepped lightly to one side as the Sheriff’s sword came swinging down viciously, only to carve thin air before meeting the stone flags with arm jarring crack! At that moment Marian brought the pommel of the hilt of her own sword up to neatly connect with the surprised man’s jaw. De Rainault collapsed to the ground, stunned. Marion looked over at the watching Edith. “Come milady,” she grinned, “let us make our lord the Sheriff is comfortable!” Edith laughed delightedly at that and flung a length of rope towards the female outlaw chief and then joined Marion crouching next to the prone form of the Frenchman in order to help tie him up.

Marian and her Merry Maids: the Combatants

De Rainault was a trained knight of the realm, well versed in the martial skills that defined the chivalric code that still held sway amongst the French-descended noble class of Old England. But Marian was herself of both Norman as well as Saxon stock, and had also been schooled in swordcraft by her indulgent father, and she supplanted her dexterity with a blade with an extraordinary agility, honed over her years fighting by Robin’s side in Sherwood Forest. The Sheriff soon learned this as he swung his two-handed sword in a vicious arc towards the woman’s legs only to find the outlaw springing into the air to vault over his attack and respond in kind by nicking Sir Robert’s cheek with her own blade, bringing forth blood!

Marian and her Merry Maids: “Shall We Dance?”

The gagged Grenouille looked on in horror as Edith too shed her disguise, and panic filled his heart as the Sheriff’s tax collector realised he was at the mercy of the vengeful wives of the imprisoned Robin Hood’s ruffians. Edith advanced on the quailing Frenchman, her eyes dark with menace. “Mesdames…” the man bleated as best he could through the cloth tied around his mouth, “ayez pitié…”. The women laughed scornfully and Edith then forced the cowering Grenouille to his knees, produced a length of rope and then, with her victim held still by her thighs pressing on either side of the helpless man’s head, the formidable female outlaw swiftly bound her captive’s hands behind his back. Meanwhile Marian delightedly opened the strong room door, her eyes widening at the sight of sack after sack of gold, presumably destined for King John’s Treasury (minus some deductions of course). “So kind of you, Grenouille,” Marian mocked, “to allow us simple womenfolk to make such a large withdrawal on behalf of our clients, the good English peasants of Sherwood!” With that Robin Hood’s lady began filing her own sack with as much of the plundered wealth she could carry.

At that moment, the door to Grenouille’s lair swung open with a crash. Suddenly there stood the enraged Sheriff of Nottingham, in all his fur-lined finery, his eyes blazing with fury at the sight of the humiliation of his lackey and the theft of his treasure by these impudent Saxon whores. De Rainault drew his sword angrily. “Pourquoi diable?! Female robbers!” he exclaimed. “I shall cut you to pieces!” Marian dropped her sack, and whirled, her hands already at her own swordhilt. “Why, Sir Robert!” she countered in a voice laden with irony. “Allons-nous danser?”

Marian and her Merry Maids: Maurice de Grenouille

Meanwhile the disguised Marian and Edith swept into the castle treasury. The two Englishwomen knew whom they would encounter there, and the Sheriff’s chief tax collector, the grasping, corrupt and sycophantic Maurice de Grenouille was indeed in the counting house as usual, drawing up his latest estimates of the income that could be extracted from the peasantry after that summer’s harvest. The Frenchman looked up from his scrolls as the female outlaws entered his lair with a rustling of fabulously patterned silk, and he leapt down down from his stool to bow unctuously and low to greet whom he took to be Baroness de Mandeville and the Duchess of Lincoln.

“Ladies!” Maurice said with a wide flattering grin, “to what do I owe the honour of a visit by the wives of my master’s most honoured guests?” Marian looked the little man up and down with a contemptuous sneer. “Our business is with the Sheriff, Grenouille, not his underling,” she told him haughtily, “is he hither?” The tax collector straightened, his grovelling smile still in place. “My lord is due to join me here in just a few moments, milady,” he replied with oily assurance, “would you and the duchess like to inspect my archives while you wait? They are the most complete in the kingdom!” “That won’t be necessary, Grenouille,” replied Marian. “No indeed.” added Edith darkly and the tax collector suddenly felt a knife at his throat. “We will have the wealth you have plundered from good English yeomen!” Grenoulle’s eyes widened, but before he could raise the alarm, Edith had pushed a cloth gag into the man’s open mouth. Marian grinned as Grenouille was tightly gagged by the young woman. “We wish to make a withdrawal, sir,” she laughed and then pulled off her fleur-de-lys gown in one smooth movement, standing once again in martial splendour as the lincoln green-clad Maid Marian of Locksley.

Marian and her Merry Maids: “It’s Time To Set Robin Free!”

The two female outlaws stripped the unconscious men of their mail shirts, swords, javelins and undershirts, so they could offer no danger to the women should they stir before Rowena and Aelfwine had completed their mission. “They no longer look like conquering warriors in just their britches!” giggled Aelfwine as she retrieved a set of dungeon keys from one of the prone men. Rowena smiled indulgently and proceeded to crouch in order to bind both Frenchmen tightly, securely gagging them in the process. Once this was completed, the formidable flaxen-haired Englishwoman stood with a sweeping rustle of her purloined aristocratic gown and joined her friend. Aelfwine jangled the keys with a triumphant grin. “I think it’s time to set Robin free, m’Lady!” she said excitedly. Rowena nodded. “Lead on, duchess!” she laughed. Looking back at the two captive soldiers, who were beginning to groan into their gags as they slowly came to, Rowena added: “Let’s hope good fortune greets Marian’s quest also!”

With that, the two disguised outlaws made their way into the recesses of the dank Norman prison.