 African drums are talking. Over miles of velvet and jungle, the weird throbbing of the drums beats through the tropical night. Drums made of hollow logs with skin stretched tightly over one end. Sometimes, human skin. Village after village takes up the message to send it booming farther into the night. Searching for a lost tribe, spoken off by the natives as the golden race, Professor Anton Edwards, together with his daughter Lorna and his assistant Jack Martin, are in the wilds of French equatorial Africa. The professor has come into possession of a preserved human head that talks. He believes it to hold the secret of lost Atlantis. Lorna was found wandering in a trance a mile from camp. They suspect it is the work of a local witch doctor. The professor carrying the only gun is walking ahead with an guru, a native prince, while Jack carrying Lorna is straggling in the rear. Almost within reach of camp, two lions appear on the trail, cutting the girl and boy off from the others. The animals pause a moment, then charge. Run, Lorna! Run to that tree quickly! No, Jack, I won't leave you! Run for heaven's sake, though! Are you mad girl? Run! No, Jack, I won't! It's too late now. They're on us. Yes, sir. We're all right. At least I think so. What happened? I don't know exactly. Those shots. They were... they were from a heavy rifle. At least the first two were. You two children all right. Tell me what happened. I don't know rightly. But those lions, who shot them? I haven't the friendest idea. When I ran back, one of them was threshing about. Badly hit, so I finished him. The other was stretched out dead. Well, at all events, there's someone around here who doesn't want us killed. What do you make of it, sir? Oh, please take me back to camp. I feel rather shaky. Well, of course. I'll take her back, Jack. You can tell me what happened as we walk. Well, go to fetch the boys to skin the lions. I wanna... We'd better have the skins brought into camp. Are you all right, Lorna? Yes, Father. I'm all right. I've shaken up a bit in my nervous system, but that's all. What happened after I left you to follow me back to camp? Well, I guess we lagged behind a little. I'd forgotten all about those two lions being near. Then, suddenly, they came into a patch of moonlight and stood staring at us. Jack pointed out a tree and told me to run for it, Father, but I was so frightened I couldn't move. That's not right. The fact is Lorna wouldn't take the only tree within reach. There wasn't time for both of us to climb it. Nice timing. It's squeamish about to lighten, if I must say. I might have lost the both of you because of it. Well, then what? Well, then they charged and... They got mighty close. No rifle seemed to speak out of nowhere. The firing came from our right. I saw the flashes plain there. Yes, so did I, from a bunch of high scrub. But who in the name of... the native could shoot like that? When the borders here are this, they'll certainly think we're bewitched. Now that I can think more clearly, it sounded like a heavy automatic. Yes, and evidently, he must have had luminous sights. A white man all right. Well, we have a guard in Angel, anyhow. Oh, that campfire looks good. I'm frozen. I think you'd better take a dose of quinine, Lorna, and go to bed. Oh. Well, I'll take the quinine, but I don't want to go to bed. I wouldn't sleep anyhow. I see those awful lions coming at me all the time. Get my coat from the tent, will you, Jack? I want to stay by the fire for a while. All right. Can you dig down into your memory, my dear, and recall anything about the earlier happenings of the night? You mean, before you found me out there? Yes. No, Father, it's all a blank. But it might come back. That feeling of something mentally drawing me into the bush is completely gone now. Here you are, Lorna. Oh, thanks, Jack. Now you two go on into the tent. I know you want to talk sharp. I'll join you in a little while. Now, wait a minute, young lady. You didn't think you were getting out of that dose of quinine, did you? Oh. Here it is. Of course you would. Oh, I hate the awful cat. The necessary evil in Africa, my dear. It sort of keeps the moths and bugs away, you know? Well, here's to the man with the rifle. Oh. Red vote, Father. Now both of you run along. Come on, Jack. I want to compare notes with you. I've been wondering, sir, did you do right in having the lion's skins brought here? They really belonged to the other fellow, you know? Well, that's the reason I wanted them here. In the hope that he'd come and make a claim. Oh, I see. And Gero went out with the boys, didn't he? They ought to be back soon. Yes. You see, Jack, the man who shot those lions is the same fellow whose tracks we saw join Lorna's when she was walking in that trance. At least it looks like it. What? He made himself known to us. What's his game? He must have the natives under his thumb where he wouldn't be able to keep his presence around here a secret. Oh, that's true. I understand a little about drum talk, but I haven't heard one of them beat out the symbol for white man except in relation to us. It's got me worried. We'll have to break camp the first thing in the morning. Mm-hmm. Here's N'Goro. Buana. There's N'Goro. My son grows devil, devil, not bigger symbol. What's that? He says it was the white man, good devil that killed the lions. Well, that's a good idea. You tell Chenzi boys N'Goro, eh? Mm-hmm. Supporters think we as such a proficient good devil working for us, we'll probably have a little less trouble with them. That's a relief. I hope that thought takes root. All right, N'Goro. Get some sleep, why? Aye, Buana. Here, Jack. Take a look at this map. I want to go over some details with you. At present, we're over here about 20 miles from the Bakari River. Oh, by the way, perhaps, perhaps you're too tired to go over this now, eh? You had a pretty bad scare tonight. Oh, I'm all right, sir. I've been charged by lions before. Well, then it was I who was holding the rifle and not someone else. Oh, hello, Lorna. How do you feel now? Oh, fine. Thanks, Jack. I think that scare shook my brain up a bit. Well, did you manage to remember anything? Anything that could help us? Not a thing, Father. There's only one thought in my head now, and that's to start traveling and keep going. Hmm. Well, you're likely to get your wish. We're going to start it. Daybreak. Listen. The drums have started. There's nothing important. What are they staying for? Well, if you'll only be quiet for a minute, I'll tell you. Great, Scott. Something wrong, sir? No. No, there's nothing wrong. Except that they know we're going on safari in the morning. What? They say, how do they know that? We've only just this moment spoken of it. Are you sure that's the message, sir? Listen. Listen to what they say. White, take wing, fly, nor white hawks take wing and fly off at sunrise, eh? And they even know the direction we're going. I don't like that white hawk part of it. Oh, that's nothing unusual. It's the way they have always designated the white man. It's just a drum name. They stopped. Hmm. Yes. Now we'll be expected all along the line of march. The drums to the north have probably taken it up and are relaying it. There's something very mysterious about all this. Yes, I know. If I didn't have that convincing proof of what I'm after, I'd be tempted to get back to the coast. But I can't, Jack. The talking head has practically given me my line of march. Oh, that ghastly thing again. Which way are we going, Father? Just a little west of due north. And we have to pass over some bad country. The ground's all new to me. Will we touch Lake Chad? No, we'll pass to the east of it. And from then on, we can expect no protection, whatever. Oh, why is that? Well, I have permission to trek around these parts as far as Chad. But north of that, we'll be going into a tour-leg country. And the French won't guarantee anything. In fact, they won't give me permission to go in there. So we'll have to sneak in. Then there'll be no need to touch any place where they're likely to question us? No, no, we have supplies for an indefinite period. That is, providing we can shoot meat for the porters. Yes, they won't work without meat. And when we get past Lake Chad, we can send the porters back and use camels. They're surly beats, but as long as you keep them hobbled, you know you've got them. Run to the start again. Yeah, sure they have. Laura, I think you better get dressed for traveling. It'll be a daylight soon. And there are heaps of things I want you to attend to before then. So hurry there, will you? Oh, of course I will. That's what I want. Something definite. All right, off you go then. Jack, we've got to move fast. The drum that's talking is a snake drum. Well, what does that mean? We killed a sacred python tonight, didn't we? Yes, worst luck. Well, I didn't think there were any snake worshippers so far up country. Evidently, I was wrong. The snake may be very small, but they're after us. By daylight, they'll be howling madly around here because we killed one of their gods. Thank you, Nguro. I wanna Nguro come have a snake juju drum. Him which Dr. Plenty mad Palava, huh? Break camp and make trail as fast as you can, Nguro. We don't want a fight on our hands. Nguro knew you, snake woman, Palava. No, no, your blood thirsty old ruffian. Don't get out of here. Look for the shunzy boys, Plenty Kazi. Aye, poor guy. You'll attend to the poor Jack. But I do believe I saw him grin at the thought of a fight. Nguro would rather fight than run any time. Well, I hope it doesn't come to a fight for bonus sake. My stuff hasn't been unpacked. So I'm ready to move at the moment's notice. That's good. We've got to put some ground between us and those birds before they can organize or we'll have a mob of yelling blood thirsty savages right on our heels. Well, how long before they can get together, do you think? Well, according to how far the sect is spread out, they'll gather around the priests and witch doctors for some instructions first. Then they'll hold a few rites to work themselves up into a fighting movement. But, good heaven. Listen to that thing going. The talking head, Jack. Listen. Warning us against some impending danger. Go and stand by law in case something happens. I'm going to help Nguro. Hey!