Captain America (1968 series) #359

Felled by curare-tipped blowdarts in the Incan temple, Captain America and Diamondback are strapped onto the Wheel of Death alongside their enemies, Baron Zemo, Batroc, Machete, and Zaran. As the victims contemplate their imminent end, Cap searches for a means of escape. The chieftain, in accord with the ancient prophecy that the Incans will gain the means to avenge the wrongs done to them by the white man, orders his warriors to cast their spears at the helpless prisoners. In the nick of time, Cap’s metabolism manages to overcome the paralyzing effect of the curare; he wrenches one hand loose from its shackle, and catches a spear just inches from Zemo’s face and uses it to bat the other flying spears out of the air. He then breaks his other shackles and hurls a spear backward to knock the chief unconscious and his ceremonial mask (bearing a Bloodstone fragment) falls into the pit. Cap leaps out and engages the warriors single-handedly. After defeating them in a tour de force of action, he returns to the Wheel to discover the villains have managed to escape. He frees Diamond and locates the hidden exit used by Zemo and company. He carries Diamond to safety and they make it safely to their jet ahead of the natives…as a mysterious figure watches from the jungle.

The Bloodstone detector sends Cap and company to the waters off Bermuda. Cap asks Diamond to search among the yachts in the area to find Zemo’s craft while he dives to look for the next fragment of the Bloodstone. Diamond swims to a nearby yacht and pretends to be just another rich vacationer who was separated from her party while scuba diving; she turns on the charm to persuade the ship owner to help her find her "friends." Meanwhile, the detector leads Cap to a sunken airliner and he arrives in time to see Batroc and his henchmen leaving with the Bloodstone fragment which had been aboard. Zaran and Machete hold Cap off while the Frenchman heads for the surface. Batroc encounters a shark and shoots it with his harpoon gun. Bad move, as the blood in the water attracts more sharks, and Batroc swims back toward the undersea melee with a more dangerous foe in pursuit….

---

Story #2

Death Calling: The Night of the Scourge! Part Two

Writer: Mark Gruenwald.Penciler: M. D. Bright. Inker: Don Hudson. Colorist: Bob Sharen.

Synopsis

U.S. Agent arrives by sky-cycle at the estate of Curtiss Jackson, the Power Broker, to rescue him from a deadly attack by the vigilante Scourge of the Underworld. The hero enters the house moving past the bodies of murdered servants, while the killer stalks his quarry upstairs. Jackson and Priscilla Lyons jump into bed (which happens to conceal an elevator; don’t feel bad, she gets the wrong idea at first too) and ride quickly down to the basement, as Scourge fires after them. Hearing the shots, U.S. Agent heads into the bedroom to see the hole made by the elevator with Scourge’s grappling hook. The Agent leaps into the hole—to be met by a hail of gunfire at the bottom….