Tommy could hardly believe it. He and his parents were really going to Africa. He’d won a contest on the Animal Channel and the trip was his prize.

When they got to the airport in Johannesburg, South Africa, a real Jungle Ranger was there to meet them. His name was Jungle Jack. “I never met a real Jungle Ranger before” said Tommy. Jungle Jack gave Tommy a firm handshake.

“I never met a boy who knew so much about animals” said Jungle Jack. “You’re going to love it here.” The four of them raced out to the grasslands in Jack’s yellow jeep. Tommy could see real zebras, monkeys, and giraffes out the window. But the elephants were his favorites.

Suddenly, a big green helicopter with metal claws on the front swooped down over the elephants. Jungle Jack pulled off the road. “Who was that?” asked Tommy.

“Claw-Meister!” said Jungle Jack. “He steals wild animals and sells them to zoos!”

Jungle Jack pushed a button marked “H” on the jeep’s dashboard. “I’m sorry to do this to you folks,” he said “but this is an emergency!” The top of the jeep closed up and a huge propeller popped up. Before Tommy’s eyes, the yellow jeep transformed into a helicopter and took off!

Claw-Meister’s helicopter was closing in on a herd of elephants. The huge metal claws started scooping the elephants into the back of the helicopter. “No!” cried Tommy “You have to save them!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve tangled with Claw-Meister a few times before!” said Jungle Jack.

Jungle Jack pushed a button and a grappling hook shot out from the bottom of the yellow helicopter. It hooked onto Claw-Meister’s helicopter. The green helicopter tried to break free but Jungle Jack threw his helicopter into reverse. “I have to force him to land” said Jack.

But instead of landing, the helicopter reached one of its claws out towards Jack’s helicopter. It came right through the open window where Tommy was sitting! Tommy felt the claw close around him and pull him out the window! “Who-o-o-a!!” yelled Tommy. The other claw pulled off the grappling hook.

Before Tommy knew it he was aboard Claw-Meister’s helicopter, locked inside a cage, and staring down Claw-Meister himself! He had a dark green suit, dark glasses, and huge metal claws instead of hands. “Vell, vell, vell!” said Claw-Meister in his thick German accent “How nice of Jungle Jack to give me a hostage! As long as I have you, boy, the police and the Jungle Command won’t dare to interfere with me!”

Tommy was scared, but he wasn’t going to let Claw-Meister know that. The green helicopter sped off to the densest part of the jungle. In the yellow helicopter, Tommy’s parents were very upset. Jungle Jack was on the radio “Jungle Command, this is Jungle Jack! Claw-Meister has kidnapped our contest winner and I’m in pursuit!”

“Roger that, Jack! Let us know if you need help.” said Jungle Command.

Claw-Meister’s men landed the green helicopter near Elephant Canyon, where they herded the elephants out. Then they started moving the 10 elephants to the other side of the river with their green jeeps. Tommy had to sit next to Claw-Meister. “Just keep quiet and do as you’re told, boy, and we may let you go home to Mommy and Daddy!” said the villain with an evil laugh.

On the other side of the river was a big, flat stone circle. Claw-Meister’s men moved the elephants onto the stone circle. Slowly it started to sink into the ground like an elevator going down. Suddenly, Tommy knew what was going on. “This is Elephant Canyon where the treasure of the Tembo tribe is hidden” he thought. “I did book report on it. They’re trying to steal the treasure!”

After sinking for about 20 feet the stone circle stopped moving. They were all at the bottom of a huge circular pit. In the wall of the pit was a tunnel. “Move!” said one of Claw-Meister’s men, poking Tommy with the end of his gun.

Claw-Meister and two of his men turned on their flashlights and went with Tommy into the tunnel and the third stayed behind with the elephants. As long as the elephants stayed in place, the stone circle would stay down. Then Tommy’s heart sank. How would they be able to make the stone circle move back up unless…unless they forced all the elephants off and into the tunnel, trapping them?

There was no time to think about that. At the end of the tunnel were three elephant statues on a circular block of stone, two big ones and one small one. Behind the statues were three doors. “I don’t get it, Boss” said one of Claw-Meister’s men. “How do we open the door to get the treasure?”

“I don’t know.” said Claw-Meister “Dat part of de map vas missing. Just break down the doors. Hurry! This jungle is full of snakes and I hate snakes.”

“If you break down the doors, you’ll set off the traps!” said Tommy. “The Tembo tribe always put in traps to guard their treasure. Don’t you guys read books?”

“Oh really?” sneered Claw-Meister. “Vat’s your idea, you little smart aleck?”

“If you promise get me and the elephants out of here, I’ll tell you” Tommy said.

“Okay, agreed” said Claw-Meister. “Now how do we open the doors?”

Tommy put the two big elephant statues next to each other on the small circular block of stone and put the smaller elephant on top of them. The three statues fit together perfectly, like a puzzle. “The Tembo tribe believed in strong families” said Tommy. “See? Mommy and Daddy on the bottom and they support their kid.”

As soon as the third elephant statue was in place, the center of the stone block started to sink, just like the big stone circle had sunk before. The small circle sank about 6 inches and stopped. There was a loud ‘Click’ and the middle door in the room opened. Inside were dozens of solid gold elephant statues, gold pieces, diamonds, and precious stones. They were beautiful.

“Get that treasure and move it onto the big stone circle! The boat will be here soon!” barked Claw-Meister to his men. “Now move! Schnell! Schnell!” he said, which meant ‘Fast! Fast!’ in German.

The two men moved quickly to put the treasure in crates and load it onto the big stone circle. But then to Tommy’s dismay, they herded the elephants into the tunnel. Without the weight of the elephants holding it down, the stone circle started to move upwards, sealing off the tunnel.

“Hey, you promised you wouldn’t leave us down here!” yelled Tommy.

“Oh yes, I did” said Claw-Meister. “But the truth is…I was lying! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

And with that, the villain was gone. Tommy took his flashlight out of his pants pocket. The elephants were grunting and shuffling their feet, but Tommy could still hear another noise. The sound of flowing water!

“Of course,” he said, “an underground river. I don’t see any bones in here. That must be how the Tembo people got themselves and the elephants out after they built this place.”

Suddenly the elephants all turned and started walking in a single line down a staircase opposite the three doors and into a long tunnel. “They act like they know where they’re going” thought Tommy. “I better follow them. They could help me get out of here.”

The tunnel went down, deeper into the earth. Tommy walked with the elephants until they came to the underground river. One by one, the elephants walked into the river and started swimming. Tommy climbed on the back of the biggest elephant and let it carry him. Soon he could see a light at the end of the tunnel.

The elephants came out of the tunnel and into a pool. There was a waterfall coming down the cliff on the opposite side of the pool. There were chattering toucans and macaws, monkeys swinging from the trees, and jungle plants and flowers everywhere. It was the most beautiful place Tommy had ever seen.

The elephants climbed out of the pool and started heading for home. Their instincts told them where to go. As they walked along the road, Jungle Jack and Tommy’s parents swooped over in Jack’s yellow helicopter. When they saw Tommy they landed right away. All of them were so glad to see Tommy again.

Tommy told them all about Claw-Meister, Elephant Canyon, and the treasure of the Tembo tribe.

“This is terrible,” said Jack, “Claw-Meister is going to get away with that treasure. All the jungle rangers are looking for him.”

“No,” said Tommy, “I know where he is. He said a boat was coming.”

“Durban is the closest port” said Jack. “I hate to ask this of you folks again but if he gets away…”

“After what he did to my little boy, he’s not getting away!” said Tommy’s Mom.

“Let’s go, Jack” said Tommy’s Dad.

Durban was a big city by the ocean where lots of ships went in and out carrying different kinds of cargo. As Jungle Jack flew the yellow helicopter over the bay, they all saw a ship with Claw-Meister’s green helicopter parked on top. It was heading out to the ocean!

“He’s getting away!” said Tommy.

“If he gets out to the open ocean, we’re sunk. We can’t match that boat’s speed” said Jack.

“Sand!” said Tommy. “I’ve seen boats get stuck on sand bars before. We need a big pile of sand to close off the harbor!”

“Good idea!” said Jungle Jack. He pushed button marked “S” on his dashboard. From the bottom of the yellow helicopter came a huge scoop at the end of a metal arm. Jack flew down over an empty part of the beach and scooped up the biggest pile of sand Tommy had ever seen.

The yellow helicopter zoomed over to the entrance of the port and poured the sand from one side to the other. No ships could get in or out. Claw-Meister was trapped!

Jack grabbed his radio. “Durban Police, this is Jungle Jack Harrigan of the Jungle Command. I need you to send a police boat to intercept the Pretoria Star on the far side of the bay. They’re transporting stolen treasure!” He landed the helicopter on the deck of Claw-Meister’s ship.

Claw-Meister’s men tried to attack them but Jungle Jack drew a strange looking gun from his belt. Instead of bullets it shot sticky cocoons that wrapped up the bad guys so they couldn’t move. Then, Tommy felt a cold metal claw on the back of his neck!

Claw-Meister had snuck up behind them and now he’d grabbed Tommy! “Stay right where you are, Jungle Jack, or the boy is doomed! You’re coming with me, kid” said Claw-Meister.

“Fine, I’ll go. Just don’t step on that snake” said Tommy.

“Snakes!” screamed Claw-Meister, “Vat snakes, where?” The villain let go of Tommy and started to jump up and down because he was so scared of snakes. Jungle Jack wasted no time and fired his cocoon gun, trapping Claw-Meister in a sticky, icky, cocoon.

The police arrived and took Claw-Meister and his men to jail. As he was leaving he glared at Tommy. “You – we’ll meet again some day, boy. Mark my words!”

Jungle Jack looked at Tommy. “You were very brave and smart, Tommy. You remembered that he hates snakes and used it to get the upper hand with him. Well done!”

Tommy shook Jack’s hand. “This has been the most amazing day of my life, Jungle Jack. Thanks for helping us. I bet you’ll have lots more adventures like this.”

Jack got a sad look in his eye. “I’m afraid not” he said. “This is my last case as a Jungle Ranger. I’ve been doing this for a long time. I want to have a quiet life with my wife now.”

“But who’s going to take over for you?” asked Tommy’s Dad.

“I don’t know” said Jungle Jack. “Real jungle rangers are hard to find. They have to be brave, smart, and love animals. Of course I do know one person like that.”

“Who is it?” asked Tommy.

“You, Tommy” said Jungle Jack. “Would you take my place as a Jungle Ranger?”

Now Tommy’s Mom and Dad did not like the idea of their son living in the jungle. But Jungle Jack showed them his special tree house, which would now be Tommy’s. All jungle rangers had them. It was safe from predators because it was in a tree and it had all sorts of security devices.

The tree house had a telephone, computer, TV, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom, and the middle of the tree was hollow and had a secret elevator. Jack explained that his helicopter had a turbo thruster, which meant Tommy could fly home to visit. Tommy’s Mom and Dad said okay, as long as Tommy promised to be careful and write home.

The next day, Tommy went to Jungle Ranger headquarters and met Commander Schmidlap, the head of the Jungle Command. “Well done, young man!” said the commander. “Glad to have you aboard.”

Tommy got a jungle ranger uniform, a radio watch, and his own cocoon gun, sonic gun, and grappling hook gun. Jack gave him the keys to the yellow helicopter. “Why don’t you go put on your uniform?” said Jack. “There’s only one thing left to do.”

In front of a room full of people, Tommy took the Jungle Ranger Oath: “I promise to uphold the rules of the Jungle Command, to protect people and animals, and to conduct myself with courage, character, and confidence, so help me God.”

Everyone clapped and cheered. Tommy’s Mom and Dad were very proud. He wasn’t just Tommy anymore. He was now…

Jungle Tommy of the Jungle Command!